Neko bukuro - the cat house

Today it rained and really rained all day. But the rain never stops things happening in Japan. Everyone has a sturdy brolly and every shop has an umbrella bag stand so you can place a clear plastic bag around your wet umbrella as you walk around the shop.

After meeting a couple of Jase's colleagues briefly this morning we went to have breakfast in a coffee shop near Tokyo station. I had a huge donut & Jase had a huge cinnamon bun.

We then went to ikebukuro where we went shopping or browsing in Bic Camera which sells just about every electrical or tech type gadgets and appliances you could want. I like the hair driers, straighteners, curling tongues and hot brushes in every shade you could want!

We then went to Tokyu Hands store to look at the DIY and craft goods. On the top floor of Tokyu Hands is the nekobukuro or "cat house" you pay about £5 to spend as much time as you like in a room with about 20 cats. Jase didn't come in with me in case he was allergic.

Below are some photos of the cats I stroked. Most of the cats were sleeping but there were a few playing and one lazy cat who just lay on a table having his tummy rubbed. There are staff there who feed the cats and get them to play. They also make sure that the cats are rested and rotated between being in the room with people or in the glass walled cabins.

I had a lovely time with the cats.

We then looked around the Sunshine City shops ( not the most appropriate name considering the weather. ) We then had ton katsu for lunch which was delicious.

Our final shopping mission was to find some antihistamine cream for my mosquito bites. (I have 8 huge mosquito bites on my legs and one on my hand. ) We picked some up close to the hotel which was good.

Happy Salmon's photostream

Happy Salmon's photostream on Flickr.

Here is the link to my Flickr photo stream I mentioned in my last entry.

Tokyo

We arrived safely in Tokyo on Thursday morning. Our hotel room is on the 25th of 40 floors of the garden tower. We have an excellent view of the garden, summer palace and Shinjuku sky scrapers. You can see a photo of the night time view from our window below.

Jase had to work Friday afternoon so I spent the day exploring around the hotel including going to a local peace garden.

Today we went to Tokyo Game Show. It was incredibly busy with long queues and a real crush around popular exhibits like the Sony one.

My favourite thing was seeing the cosplayers, who are young Japanese people who dress up as their favourite game & anime characters and pose for photos. I felt like a paparazzi snapping them although I did say thank you to them and they'd bow. You can see a couple of pictures below. Jase took a photo of me with a power ranger type character but he hasn't uploaded his photos yet. You can find all of mine on my usual Flickr page.

I've been bitten by some nasty insect & have huge bites on my legs and one on my hand! I suspect it was when we went out for a stroll last night at about 9pm. Maybe like Scotland Tokyo has midges!

Having a lovely time and I'll update the blog in a couple of days. Tomorrow we hope to go to a huge DIY, craft, electronics shop which also has a room full of cats, in it. It's not quite a cat cafe but you pay about £5 and can hang out with the cats for a bit. Proper retail therapy!

Garden produce and holidays

Tonight we had pasta or tea and I used up some of the last of the tomatoes and chillies.  I've not had a lot of fruit and veg this year, partly because I didn't grow as much this year but also because of the bad summer. What I have managed to grow has tasted delicious so less is definitely more this year!

My chillies are looking great right now but it won't be long until the cold kills them off, unless we have a heat wave at the end of September like we had last year. Below is a photo of some of the tomatoes and chillies I harvested last weekend.

We are off to Japan later this week for a holiday in Tokyo (although Jase has some work obligations for a couple of days.)  I can't wait to go back to Japan. Watch this space for updates on our holiday!

Recommended: Cavalla Art: Beach Boat

My friend Nicola has started a blog. She is an awesome artist and I just wanted to share with you all her blog, it's well worth checking out.

Cavalla Art: Beach Boat: Beach Boat watercolour Thought I would attempt something different and paint a beach scene. I was quite pleased with the feel of this p...

Ivel River through the year

Earlier this year I decided to take photos of the Ivel river, which runs through Biggleswade, once a month at least. I've been taking photos of it since the end of April this year. We had bad storms and heavy rain which lead to flooding and a tree coming down in the river. It was after taking my new camera down there to photograph the flooding that I decided to keep a photographic journal of the year by the river.

Most of the photos had just been sitting on flickr so today I had the bright idea of putting my favourite photos on to a Pinterest board. You can have a look at the photos so far here

I hope they capture the river through our very wet spring and summer. I'll be back down there later this week taking some sunny photos of the river bank. flora and fauna.

My new tattoo

Six years ago I got a tattoo of a butterfly on my right shoulder. It was done at a studio called Sims Tattoos in Croydon by an artist called Carrie. I got that tattoo to represent rebirth and renewal. Since then I've wanted another tattoo but I just haven't found the right reason or time to get one done. For the last couple of years I thought about getting a salmon tat on my arm but just didn't ever get round to pursuing it further.

Earlier this month I was in Hitchin photographing the churchyard, see below:

While I was there I noticed a new tattoo studio called Churchyard Tattoos I had a look at their work and read up on some reviews and thought I'd go in and see them. The staff were really friendly even though I felt a bit of a middle aged woman compared to the lad who chatted to me. He said Tom could do my tattoo and we looked at different images of salmon and Japanese themes so Tom the artist could get an idea of what I wanted. Later I emailed Tom explaining why I wanted the tattoo as well as explaining that I'm partially sighted so I didn't want anything to fussy or complicated. I needed a nice colourful image.

I wanted the salmon for some obvious reasons, that it was my maiden name but also because salmon represent determination, over coming obstacles and wisdom. I liked the Japanese theme even though its more traditional to have a Koi with the Japanese waves and cherry blossom. The cherry blossoms represent new beginnings, love and happiness.

Tom sent me a photo of the design he had done which was ace so I went in to get it done. They estimated that it would take 4 hours maybe 5! Gulp.

I actually had had enough of the pain and was feeling quite light headed after 3 hours so Tom persuaded me to come back in 2 weeks to have it finished. I went back on Thursday and it took an and a half to complete it. Here's a photo of it the morning after which Jase took for me.

The colours are fab and will actually get brighter after it has healed properly. I'll post another photo in 6 weeks time when it will be looking its best!

Catch up and photos of the garden

Garden 26 Aug 2012, a set on Flickr.

I'm still enjoying my time off work recovering form my eye surgery. I seem to be controlling the pain and light sensitivity with my eye drops ok so hopefully will be able to get back to doing some work in September.

I'm going to add a couple of entries in a moment on here about my nieces and also about my new tattoo.

With it being the bank holiday weekend we are forecast heavy rain tomorrow so I went out this morning and mowed the lawn and tidied up the garden a bit then took some photos which you can look at if you click on any of the pictures or the link above.

As well as gardening this weekend I've been cooking. A curry yesterday, trout with almonds today and roast chicken stuffed with apple tomorrow. No puddings though next weekend I may make a crumble for a treat :-)