Hamstring Update

For those following along at home, or that are merely curious, I thought I’d provide a brief update on the hamstring situation.

So after running the city to bay and travelling a fair bit I finally managed to go to see a physio last week. His advice was that given I wasn’t attempting to play elite level sports that there was no point going in for surgery. He believes that with a regime of strengthening and stretching I should be back on the park for next year and probably even better off than I was this year.  We shall see.

I asked if I was allowed to run, because without that, well let’s just say that there would likely be a lot more of me come the start of next year. Thankfully he said yes, though I’m not allowed to run faster that 5:30kms. Fortunately with my current level of fitness following the poor run at the end of the year, that’s not really a problem after the first 2 or 3 kms.

For now, its stretching, rollers and weights with some dry needling thrown in for fun.

At least I’m not completely laid up though!

Well That's Torn It

For anyone that has had anything to do with my sporting endeavours over the last 25 years or so would be well accustomed to the high rate of failure that I’ve had in the hamstring department.  Over the last couple of years I seemed to have reached something of a compromise with the troublesome muscles where they might have niggled a little here and there, but in the main they’ve held up to what they’ve needed to without me missing too much, particularly in the way of soccer.

Retiring from touch football and recognizing that I was just too competitive not to try and chase down someone that I should certainly seemed to help with not getting up to a full sprint and losing a decent amount of weight helped too.

This year I’ve kept up the running despite the seemingly endless travel for work and managed to play most of the soccer season without incident. I only missed one game during the season (at least until recently) which gave me time to recover and then I played consistently again until there were about 5-6 weeks to go.

Something started nagging me through the back of the knee.  It wasn’t enough to stop me at first and certainly didn’t feel like any hamstring problem that I’d had before, so I played on. A couple of weeks ago it was bad enough that I didn’t finish a game (and trust me, there’s nothing I hate more than not finishing a game) but by the end of the night it was feeling substantially better than I’d hoped. I probably shouldn’t have played and taken the week off instead, but I was trying to do the right thing and help out given how short we were for players at the time. I managed to run a half marathon the following day at a reasonable time given I thought I was likely to pull out after about 2kms.

The week after that I again didn’t finish a soccer game, this time because of a slight problem with the other hamstring. I really didn’t expect to be playing the week after that effort. At least at that point we’d stitched up the league win!

Fast forward to the Friday though and Emily asked me to go and play tennis with her around at the local courts. I was feeling better than I’d expected to but let her know that I might not be as active as she’d like. As it turned out things went a hell of a lot better than I’d thought they would. By the end of the time that we spent there I was running down the ball, jumping and move more freely than I had in weeks. I decided that I’d be able to play the following day after all.

On the day of the game I was bouncing around with what seemed like a new-found lease on life, enjoying the warm up rather than tentatively working my way through it and eager for the game to begin.

I lasted about 5 minutes. The first time I went near the ball I had no problems, laying a lovely long ball over the top for the winger to run onto. Not long after that though, I tried to clear one across my body and something didn’t feel right at all. My leg was what I can only describe as ‘wobbly’. The weird thing was though that I could still run and it wasn’t an intense pain like I associated with a hamstring failure. I kept playing.

Moments later I stretched for a ball going past me and it caught the end of foot, twisting it laterally away from me. Good lord did that hurt. There was definitely no playing on from that one.  I came off and started with the ice.

That was two weeks ago. In the mean time I’ve tried not to do too much, only going for a couple of very light runs to test the limits a bit. It hasn’t felt like past tears and I’ve managed to run up to 5kms, though there’s been that constant threat that something could go wrong at any moment. It nagged me enough and was different enough that I decided that I needed to get someone to have a look at it and let me know what was going on. After all, this weekend is the city-bay run and I didn’t want to embark on a 12km run if there was something potentially structural wrong.

I managed to have it scanned today. I honestly expected them to come back and tell me that it was just soft tissue, that I’d be fine and I was worried about nothing. Instead they let me know that I’d pulled it off the bone.WTF?

Yep one of the three connections has pulled off the bone and retracted about 11cms. I guess ice and rest isn’t going to fix that little beauty.

I don’t know what my path forward is from here. The doctor said that the options are to basically carry on and just have the two bits that remain compensate (along with some scar tissue that will develop) or to have expensive surgery and a long recovery (like potentially 5 months).

I’m torn. Literally and figuratively. I need some more expert advice before I make a decision. And that is where I am at; a whole lot frustrated,  a little bit depressed and somewhat broken.

If it does turn out to be my last soccer game at least we won the league!

How to kind of see Japan

The last thing that I have to say about our trip to Japan (really, this is the last of it) is to comment on how two members of the family spent most of their time as we saw it. There’s a lot of reading material online these days and for Michael and Emily it apparently proved to be far more interesting than anything that was going on around us. 

It annoyed the shit out of Caroline and to be honest, myself as well on more than one occasion. There’s nothing like trying to navigate a crowded Japanese footpath or subway when someone has their head down and is too absorbed in their screen to take note of what is going on around them.

I’m not saying that they needed to or should have spent the entirety of the trip watching what was going on about them, but there was certainly an opportunity to see a bit more of Japan than they managed. The fact that any stop of longer than approximately 2.3 seconds saw a phone/iPod produced and its owner engaged in reading was a little grating.

Michael will tell you that once you’ve seen one tall building you’ve seen them all, but the reality is it wasn’t just in the city that he did it. Part way through the trip I decided that rather than get angry about it, I’d just start taking photos of them when they were doing it. I think the most ridiculous time had to be the one where Michael went to the effort of pulling out his phone so that he could read while he rode the ski lift to the top of the mountain. 

So having said that, here’s the evidence:

Just walking the streets ...

Before or after food ... (Heaven forbid you talk to your family!)

Waiting just about anywhere ...

What temple?

At the top of the world ... What view?

And yes, as promised ... Even on a ski lift (Michael is on the right, Thomas is just looking at the ground).

There's something I've forgotten ...

So over the last few years I've been doing a lot of travel for work. That means that I am consistently packing a bag full of the stuff that I need and jumping on a plane to get where I need to be. 

Mostly I have it down to a pretty good routine, but no one's perfect and every now and then I forget something. Mostly it's fine because I'm usually in a city, have transport and can pretty much buy whatever it is that I've forgotten.

Every now and then go it doesn't quite work out that way. I've managed to leave a computer on a plane (which actually showed up a month later) I've left behind any number of toiletries items and occasionally I've forgotten that the weather isn't the same all around the country and been caught without some winter warmth (even that's not the end of the world given most of my work is inside offices. 

A couple of trips ago I managed to outdo myself though. I arrived at my destination, deposited my bag on the luggage rack and opened it up. I pulled out my running shoes, my shirt, my shorts and couldn't help but notice that the bag didn't seem to contain quite as much as I'd thought it would. There was a distinct lack of socks and underwear. There were those that I was wearing and one pair of running socks. That was it. 

I was going for a run, that was a given. I had three days to survive too. 

That left me the following options:

1. Go and buy stuff

2. Do the old, inside out, back to front trick

3. Just keep wearing it

4. Go commando

I'm not about to tell you which option I went for, but over the three days I ran 20kms and no-one around me complained about Amy untoward smells, so which ever it was it worked.

Belatedly Japan ... final days

A couple of last things from Japan. 

Yeah, I know, it’s May (and likely June by the time I post this)  and it’s just a tiny little while since we were on holidays in Japan (and already waaaay too long until our next overseas trip. Now that sounds like we’re actually planning, one, but other than the fact that Thomas finished year 12 in about 18 months time we really haven’t. There are all those loyalty points that we earned with Air Canada to consider though. Apparently there’s enough of them for six of us to end up on a tropical island somewhere. What do you reckon Jason and Bel?

But I digress. I have for sometime been meaning to write about the last couple of days that we spent in Japan. 

It’s so long now that I struggle to remember the specifics of what and when we did a couple of things that are worth talking about, but that’s no reason not to preserve the memory.

Our flight out of Tokyo was late in the day which meant that we had sufficient time to do something around Tokyo and still manage our train out to Narita. In our travels through Akihabara over our two trips to Japan, one of the things that you couldn’t miss being advertised was the maid cafés. Now if you’re not familiar with the concept, check THIS out. 

During our first trip there were a couple of jokes about going to a maid café. We never did it though. During our second trip there were even more jokes. The fact that some of the kids seemed a little more interested meant that they persisted longer than they had the first time around. And because we spent more time than perhaps we should have around Akihabara there were more and more reminders. When Caroline, Michael and Emily wen to the cat café, Sam, Thomas and I talked about how we should go back and tell them that we’d decided to go to a maid café instead. We didn’t of course, we perused shops full of weird anime memorabilia instead. Anyway, after much discussion and decisions not to, we eventually decided that we would add maid café to the list of things we’d done whilst visiting Tokyo.

To say it was odd would be an understatement. I mean, there’s a big part of me that thinks these things are set up to appeal to dirty old men, but then again, Japan is so different that perhaps that’s more of an outsider’s perception than it’s meant to be. And most of the customers that we saw were either tourists or younger rather than what I might have guessed. 

We caught the lift up to the appropriate floor of the building where the café was and entered something of another world. It was very Japanese in a way that screamed of anime and weird TV shows. The menu of course was somewhat over-priced and items such as photos with the waitresses weren’t even considered. We were there for the experience though, so we each ordered a drink or ice cream or in Sam’s case, a small bowl of nuts. An odd choice, but it was the cheapest thing on the menu and I think that was really his only consideration. 

It was as interesting to watch the people that came through as customers as any of the rest of it, particularly in relation to how they chose to embrace (or not) the experience. After all, you have to go along with the fun in order to cross over into the magical land that is the maid café – I’m not quite sure we all managed to quite hit the expected level of enthusiasm, but we got our food, so we couldn’t have been too far off. 

You’re not supposed to take photos in there, but I did manage to snap these before the kids pointed out that fact to me. 

For the last couple of days that we were in Tokyo, I was on a hunt for some Japanese Whiskey. Well, when I say hunt, I wasn’t really going out of my way, I was more keeping an eye out for a decent bottle shop (or even a not so decent one) where I could buy some. Expecting perhaps something like Australia, I was thinking that there would likely be a store that we’d walk past in our travels. The only place that we saw any though had been at a discount store – Don Quixote and they didn’t really have was I was looking for because I wanted something a little higher end that what they had on offer. Mind you, the vodka that they had for $9 a bottle wasn’t a bad deal at all! In the end I resigned myself to perhaps picking something up duty free and suffering the price so that I could take a nice bottle of Japanese Whiskey home. 

We left in plenty of time to catch the train to Narita and had a bit of time to spare. That was the first trap, because there’s all sorts of shops around the Tokyo metro station. It's a virtual labyrinth of opportunity. There was sure to be a bottle shop. I googled and found that there was indeed supposed to be one not far away. So Michael and I set off on a time-restrained quest to find a bottle shop. First we went up above ground to where there was a large department store only to find that it wasn’t there. Then we descended back below ground and after a bit of hunting, found one only to discover that they didn’t sell Whisky, Plenty of sake of course, but, no whiskey. We tried one more time before the pressure of time became unbearable. Trying to fast-walk through the crowds of the Tokyo metro station is no easy feat but we eventually made it back to the rest of the family with just enough time to relax everyone’s nerves before boarding the train. Whiskey-less though damnit. 

The train ride was as uneventful and painless as most of our trips and we arrived at the airport. We found the right check-in line and joined it. It was strangely short given that we weren’t really that early. We were about half way to the front when Caroline pointed out that it said that the flight had been cancelled. That was a bit of a shock, let me tell you. I’d received an email from Qantas confirm got our itinerary the day before, but hadn’t checked it because well, I get those all the time. I assumed it was confirming what I already knew. We didn’t have roaming on our phones and were a bit surprised that there didn’t seem to have been any attempt to contact us. There was free wi-fi in the airport though, so I was able to re-check my email and sure enough, the itinerary confirmation that we’d been sent wasn’t for our Jetstar flight that day, but for a Qantas flight 24 hours later! That caused some mixed emotions. On the one hand it was pretty bloody inconvenient and I wanted to vehemently protest the fact that we’d made it all the way to the airport before we found out .

On the other hand, the reason we hadn’t found out was because we didn’t have international roaming on any of our phones and because I hadn’t checked the email that Qantas had sent me. Also, despite the hassles, it gave us an extra 24 hours in Japan and suddenly we were flying Qantas which meant lounge access and not having to pay for everything over and above the supplied air like we would have had to on the Jetstar flight.

So we patiently waited to find out what was in store for us and wondered if we were going to have to navigate the joys of claiming on travel insurance. When we eventually reached the front of the line we were advised that we’d be bussed to a local hotel in Narita, put up for the night and fed.  Given how much worse it could have been we went along with it. The worst of it was probably the fact that we’d picked up our skis ready to board the plane and so had to lug them around with us again. 

Arrangements at the hotel seemed good enough, three room. Three rooms meant less cramped conditions than we’d had for any other part f our travels, though there was still something of a hissy fit over who was sharing with who amongst the younger members of the family.

As things had been explained to us at check-in, we would each receive a voucher for dinner and breakfast, so that seemed perfectly reasonable, especially given that there was a buffet arrangement. Unfortunately when we went down to eat said dinner, the offerings were a little different to what had been promised. Sure there was a buffet, but that was going to cost us two of our vouchers each. There were some less appetising options for one voucher (only three of them) so we were left with a dilemma. We could have the dinner we wanted and go without breakfast, we could pay for the dinner we wanted and have breakfast, or some combination of those options. In the end. The fact that there was beef steak and queen crab on the buffet kind of loaned itself to the more favourable option, at least for some of us. WE ended up with four of us going with the buffet and two with an a-la-carte option. That meant that some of us were going to go without breakfast. I personally planned on eating enough dinner that it wouldn’t matter, especially with steak on offer, something that had been too expensive most nights of the journey to warrant ending up on my plate.

There seemed to be an endless supply of crab, which was great, but apparently even a steak buffet is somewhat limited in Japan. The would slice about 5 little pieces onto a plate and put it out for you to take. At any given time early in the meal there were perhaps 3 plates available. Needless to say they didn't go far. Then the steak station was seemingly abandoned, the steak tantalisingly close to touch behind a servers screen, but un-carved. The temptation to slip behind and carve it for myself, or to simply take the whole piece of beef was large, but well, I wasn’t quite that desperate. Eventually I gave up on. Server reappearing and asked for more. Barely sated, eventually I gave up and settled for what I’d managed to scrounge from them. 

We had a good night’s sleep and sent those with breakfast vouchers down to eat while we worked out what we might do for a day in Narita. There were a couple of shuttle busses that left from the hotel and took you into town either to see the local temple complex or shops. We opted to go to the temple. 

From where we were dropped off we walked down a street full of old shop houses, mostly selling the sort of food stuffs that would qualify as a cultural experience, or possibly even a life challenge. We smiled, looked and passed on by. When we reached the temple, we were surprised to find that it was a lot larger than we had expected, and quite spectacular to boot. We took our time, walked around and then decided to head for the local shopping centre by which there was a local Don Quixote. If nothing else it was an opportunity to stock up on some Japanese candy for the trip home and some cheap grog to boot. 

As we’d strolled around Narita, I once again I kept an eye out for a liquor store selling Japanese Whiskey, but everything we saw was all about the sake. And when it’s all written in Japanese, there’s no way for me to tell good sake from bad sake, so I wasn’t about to invest. 

Stock up was exactly what we did and then grog and snacks in hand, we made our way through the local shops toward where the bus would take us back to the hotel so that we could catch our belated flight home. With bathroom room breaks thrown in things were a bit tight getting on the bus, but in the end we all found something to eat and managed to get back on the bus in time to make it to the airport. 

We made it to the airport, managed to get Thomas’ souvenir katana through security and checked all our luggage in. We headed straight for the lounge where for the first time on our travels no leniency was shown and I was only allowed to take one adult and two children into the lounge with me.  Michael and Sam were good enough to agree to wait outside while the rest of us enjoyed the privilege of free food and drinks and somewhere comfortable to sit. 

I did manage to wander through the duty free and buy a bottle of better (as well as ‘dearer than Japan but cheaper than Australia’) Japanese whiskey to complement those that I bought at Don Quixote. 

While we were sitting in the lounge Caroline tapped me on the shoulder to alert me to the fact that my name had just been called and that they wanted me at the service desk. I assumed that Michael or Sam must have wanted something, but when I got there it turned out that something in one of our bags had leaked. Not quite the call I’d been hoping for. All they told me to do though was to see the staff at the gate when we checked in. There was a very good chance it was some of the alcohol that we’d packed at the last minute. 

When we did eventually get the call to board and reached the gate, it was indeed a bottle of alcohol. The only good thing that could be said about it was that it was only one bottle and that it was the cheapest bottle that we’d bought. The clothes in the bag were of course drenched, but would wash out and fortunately the game that we’d bought hadn’t been doused and so we considered ourselves lucky. 

With the bag wrapped in plastic, it was sent back to the hold and we boarded the plane. 

It may seem like a simple thing, but the differences between board an international al Jetstar flight and the Qantas flight were immediately apparent. There was a blanket and pillow on each seat and we didn’t have to pay for them! Even better than that there was a menu and a drinks list! I set about taking full advantage at the first opportunity and throughly enjoyed the flight home. 

And that was Japan ... Well, apart from one small thing that I was going to mention ... which I'll write about shortly.

Fourteen

Today Emily turns fourteen (well when I started this a couple of weeks ago it was today). The obvious place to start is 'Holy crap I can't believe my little girl is turning fourteen!' So there, that's that bit of it out of the way. 

Last year Emily, because she was being driven to school by Sam, embarked on what seemed like a quest to get involved in as many sporting and other extra curricular activities as she could. It was partly a case of 'if I'm going to be at school early/late then I may as well be doing something' but I think there was also an aspect of just enjoying getting to do a myriad of different things.

This year there was a fair bit of debate over the summer about just which activities she was going take on. Fortunately it seems to have been pared back somewhat from the initial list. Summer saw her join the Sturt Softball club which has given us something to do on a Saturday afternoon. She's done reasonably well, though seems to have a penchant for pulling up a bit lame. It's always a tough call as a parent when you can't really tell exactly how much pain is involved. Is it a 'toughen up princess' moment, or one where there's actually a genuine injury concern. I bit my tongue on the toughen up line and she managed to get through the season. The team ended up winning their grand final, so that was a great start to her club softball career. Now there's talk of club netball which will prove interesting at a time when we're finally seeing the back of multiple school sport commitments on a Saturday morning. 

Emily has maintained an interest in anime and it was never so apparent as when we were traipsing around Japan. It was almost a concern as to how much she knew about the characters that were on display in the large number of shops selling anime memorabilia. Combine that with her love of fan-fiction and she's pretty self-sufficient when it comes to entertainment, even if it means that she spends a significant amount of time on the couch.

Emily is certainly never short of an opinion and isn't shy about letting you know what it is. At least we can be sure that when she wants to be heard she isn't about to back away from letting people know what's going on, especially when it comes to what she likes to eat. That particular list isn't quite as long (or healthy) as we might like, but at least we can be sure that when she doesn't like something we're not going to die wondering. 

We're very proud of the young woman that Emily is becoming, even if with her being the last of the kids, we might be a little happier if it took her a little longer to get there. I think Emily lives in hope of another growth spurt, even if it's just enough to reach a height that exceeds her mother. We're looking forward to another year of celebrating achievements with her and watching her grow (and just maybe, providing a bit of well-timed guidance here and there).

The Tembys Take Japan - Day 12

Day 12

Some of us decided on an early start for day 12. Some of us being Caroline, Thomas and myself. One of the things that Caroline had put on the agenda was a visit to the Tsukiji Fish Market, the biggest wholesale fish and seafood market in the world.

Before I get right into that though, here's a shot from the hotel at night:

One of the highlights is apparently the auctions which kick off at about 5:20 in the morning after the market opens at 3am. Now when I say we had a early start, we decided that we didn’t want to have to get there at 4am to line up for a chance at one of the limited spots available to view the auction. I’m pretty sure once you’ve seen one fish auctioned that there wouldn’t be a whole lot of difference in the next thousand or so.

We opted for a much more pleasant version of an early start at 8:30am. We left the other three (staunchly objecting to any suggestion that they go somewhere that had even the possibility of the smell of fish) tucked up in their beds sleeping .We walked down to the subway and when the first train pulled up, we realised what we’d done. 

It was a weekday. It was 8:30am. It was peak hour. We’d gone to the subway in peak hour! There weren’t that many people waiting to get on the train, so it wasn’t immediately apparent that it would be any different to any of the other trips that we’d taken. Then the train pulled in to the station.

There was something about the way that bodies and faces were smooshed up against pretty much every glass surface of the train that suggested that getting on wasn’t going to be a simple exercise. Maybe 6 people got off the train at the door we were waiting to get on at. There were at least 10 ahead of us waiting to replace them. We stood politely and watched, wondering how it was going to work. People stepped onto the train and crushed their way in. Then more people stepped on. And more people. The train was due to leave and the last person that stepped up was really only half way in with no way the door could close. 

That’s when the legendary pushers did their job. The nice polite gentleman in white gloves placed his hands upon the last person and pushed. The doors slowly started to close. He kept pushing. At the last instant he withdrew his hands so that doors could close completely. They were all on. And with what I imagined to be a collective relaxation and exhalation of breath from those on board, they again smooshed up against the glass and the train left the station.

“Right, we know what to do now,” we agreed and stepped up to make sure that we were first in line for the next train. As it pulled in we readied ourselves for the challenge. A couple of people spilled out and we stepped onto the train, forcing our way inwards. More people stepped on behind us. Steps were limited to tiny motions forward as we were crushed against the wall of humanity in front of us. It was quite amazing how far into the carriage we had made it when the doors closed. We were probably close to half way in. Of course, being packed as tight as sardines, there wasn’t actually anyway to reach up to grab hold of the overhead straps dangling there for that purpose. I had worked my way in holding my camera bag in front of me with both hands. The back of those hands were suddenly thrust quite firmly against the buttocks of the woman in front of me. I kind of wanted to move them, but was afraid that if I did it might be misinterpreted as a deliberate act. The train left the station before I over thought it. As the train took off, the mass of humanity lurched toward the rear of the train. There was nowhere to step and nothing to hold onto, but fortunately being stuck in what had become a single mass, there was also no way to fall over! So we lurched with the crowd and the stood straight as we achieved the desired speed. When the train pulled into the next station we all lurched the other way. A few people spilled off and a few more crammed in. 

I did wonder as we lurched back and forth with the train’s comings and goings about the people that were actually seated in the middle of the carriage. Either they must have been due to get off at a point where most people had already disembarked or they must have to start working their way toward the entrance five stops before they were due to get off. Needless to say, I didn't even think to try and get a photo!

Anyway, with that adventure over, we struck out in search of the fish market. The first thing we found out was that tourists aren’t allowed into the central part of the market until after 10am so we commenced with an exploration of the outer market. The outer market was full of food stalls, knife vendors and a range of other market stalls. 

I was pretty keen on picking up a super sharp Japanese knife until I read something on one of the stalls about managing the corrosion due to the high carbon content. Suddenly it sounded like something that was unlikely to be well managed in our house so I opted for not spending the money.

The best thing that we saw in the outer market was an enormous live octopus stuck in a styrofoam crate. 

Come 10am we were able to enter the fish market itself and so headed in, excited about what we might see. We saw a lot of Tuna. The size of some of the cuts were astounding. I think we were both hoping and expecting to see the weird and wonderful that had been extracted from our oceans and while there were certainly some interesting specimens, the variety wasn’t quite what we’d hoped. Having said that we only walked through about 5% of the market because we didn’t feel the need to devote the entire day to the exercise, especially as we had the other three back in the hotel.

We sampled a couple of things, though we didn’t get over;y adventurous. I would have liked to have had some sashimi, but the price tags scared me off. One thing we did observe was that considering we’d just been through such an extensive fish market, we hadn’t particularly noticed the smell. Possibly going there in the cold of January was a good idea.

When your fish doesn't quite fit the box

A photo of a photo of the market ... back in the day

In the end it was time to return to the hotel and get the rest of the family moving. Given so long as passed since we were actually there, I'm not exactly sure what we spent the rest of the day doing. There is a fair chance that shopping was involved though. I'm pretty sure that given it was our last night in the hotel that it was the night that Michael, Thomas, Caroline and I went up to the 21st floor of the hotel for a cocktail (or soda water for Thomas). It would have been much nicer had it not been filled with cigarette smoke!

The Tembys Take Japan - Day 11

Surprisingly, Day 10 was not the end of our trip to Japan. Even more surprisingly, now that I am back in Australia, I’m not even going to abandon my updates (though they will be slow). Hey, I’m getting old and one day in my dotage (i.e. next week) I may want to look back and actually remember what it is that we did when we spent all that money to go to Japan.

Day 11 was another travel day. Our final trip on the Shinkasen to get back to Tokyo. Of course to get to the Shinkasen there was the small matter of an hour and a half bus ride first. We said goodbye to our hosts at the hotel and looked out wistfully at the mountains that were saturated in brilliant sunshine.

There were a couple of Canadians on the bus and as we drove past they mountains on our way out they were reminiscing about the different treks down the mountains that they’d made. They seemed to be at something of a different level to us. There was discussion about sticking to safe ridge lines as they descended off-piste with their avalanche gear. I glanced out the window at the insanity that they were talking about and was quite happy with my 88km/hr effort and my really piss weak jump.

We made it all the way into Tokyo and our next hotel and the kids were at least happy with the fact that although one of the beds was a fold out couch and another a portable that had been added to the room, they at least all had a bed. We arrived in Tokyo in mid afternoon which gave a bit of time for us to tick something of the list of things we wanted to do. We went looking for a stationary shop. Not just any stationary shop though, we went to Ito-yain Ginza; one of the oldest stationary shops in Japan. We’re talking about 2 buildings full of paper, pens, gadgets and all sorts of things. Michael opted to stay in the hotel. Ginza itself was eye opening as it has been described as the 5th Avenue of Tokyo. Louis Vuitton, Prada, Tiffany’s … there was an endless array of shops that I didn’t even feel that I could afford to walk into, let alone buy something at. 

Ito-ya was nestled amongst them and whilst it was possible to spend thousands of dollars on a single pen, it was all possible to spend a single dollar on a pen.

I didn’t take a lot of photos, but these give an indication of the variety and selection of paper that was available. If you were included and were sufficiently cashed up you could have your own personal note book assembled for you. Choose your cover material, paper quality, colours, binding option … the list goes on. Fortunately for my wallet (and less so for the kids) we didn’t have time to wait around long enough to go through the process and then have it assembled for us. As it was we managed to spend a couple of hours there perusing and wishing and negotiating the fact that certain members of the family really didn’t need $30 notebooks for school. There were some tense and sulky moments, let me tell you!

The other thing that became apparent through the tour of the two stores over which the collection was spread was that Sam knows a surprising amount about his pens. Apparently he’s quietly acquired a bit of a collection via internet purchase over the the last couple of years. He was able to let us know which ones were well priced and which were only available in Japan for instance. It meant that we walked away with a few select purchases that didn’t break the bank. 

Then it was time to try and find some food. Given that we were in Ginza, the expectations that we’d find something reasonably priced weren’t high. We had pretty much decided that our best bet was to head back to the hotel and find something close to where we were staying. It turned out that we found a soup place in one of the underground approaches to the subway and ended up having a really good feed. 

Oh and just for the fun of it, here's origami Sam:

And that was Day 11.