This weekend was the Aizuwakamatsu Samurai festival (the Aizu Aki Matsuri). I went up first thing Saturday morning (unfortunately after a heavy night drinking with Kane the night before) and met my friend Yui, his wife and kids (Kanon and Taikey), and two friends from Niigata city who we met at the last Aizuwakamatsu festival (the one with the hot water). We had a great time (despite my hangover) and got to see the parade set off from Tsurugu-jo (the castle). There were battles at the castle before the many Samurai mounted their horses and rode through the town. After we'd been to watch them perform down the main street, Shimadori, we went for some lunch. It was a lovely day as it's still very sunny but much cooler than before. I opted out of an evening of festivities and settled for some spicey miso-ramen and an early train ride home. The reason being that Sunday morning my Town Hall staged an earthquake emergency drill...at 7am. Very Japanese of them, surely most people would prefer to have that kind of thing on a Friday afternoon! Anyway, the town alarm went off and I got up and went to work like the trusty servant I am!

This is Chiba Shin Ichi, he's a famous Japanese actor. He was in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill films!

This is my friend Padraic (from Ireland) taking part in the parade with his concubine!

Our friend from Niigata city and Kanon, Yui's 9-year old daughter.

The Red Samurai.

One of the nicest things about Saturday was spending more time with Yui's children, they're really nice kids and a lot of fun to be around. This is Taikey who is 6. He just has so much energy and never ceases to make me smile! We spent a lot of time playing with insects as all Japanese boys love to do! I think Yui is a very lucky guy to have such a nice family.

Matto no ichiban tomodachi...

Harvest Time...

Here are the rice fields that are ready for harvesting. People have started working really hard near my house harvesting the many fields. They do look very pretty right now though.

And the leaves that are green...

...turn to red.

Autumn is coming and the leaves are starting to change colour in some places. This is back at "Kanon Pond" near my house. It already looks very different from a couple of weeks ago. Soon, everything that is green will be the same shade of red.

My house...

...is a very very very nice house!

Tokyo...this weekend was a national holiday (respect for the aged day!) so I went to Tokyo with my friend Paul to see one of my favourite jazz bands, the Brad Mehldau Trio. I was thrilled when I heard they were playing. Bands love to play in Tokyo because people take the music REALLY seriously. And when I got to the concert hall I wasn't disappointed. There were lots of very cool people and loads of funky spectacles! The concert hall was the most amazing I've been to (sorry Sage).

Afterwards we went for the tastiest (and most expensive) Sushi in the world. It had the best Unagi (eel) that I've ever tasted! It was a pretty swish place, but the taste was worth the money! Then we headed to Shinjuku to find ourselves a capsule hotel. These are large hotels in the city centre that literally give you a capsule to sleep in for 4000 yen (about £2o). You have a TV, alarm clock and all mod-cons inside. It was great to stay in because it felt like the Tokyo I'd imagined!

Shinjuku

Enjoying the capsule TV...

Cell No.6068






So after a night of Jazz and sushi we went to bed to wake up early and cruise the Akihabara electronics district - a mad area filled with huge electronics stores. It's far too easy to spend money in Tokyo! I'm looking forward to going back in a couple of weeks (after next payday).

I went back to School today. It's going very well, the students are fun, hard working and lively. An absolute joy to spend time with. I've been hanging out with the school band who are absolutely fantastic. They have a competition coming up that I'd like to support them at and I'm also thinking of setting up a saxophone quartet once I buy a Soprano (hopefully November).

Anyway, I'll update you all soon. Thanks to Paul for supplying the photos above, I forgot my camera!

Just been for a bit of a drive in Shimogo to enjoy the last of the summer greenery before everything goes Autumnal and red. I went back to a lake and shrine near my house that I'd been shown a few weeks ago. I'm really going to enjoy seeing this place change colour over the next few weeks!