Being beautiful
4th December – A sign in the Japanese Metro:
Enjoy beautiful life. Smile is best makeup.
Very good.
Happiness is … sharing yummy food
December 3rd – At last! A Japanese meal! After another day of the same fare we found where all the Japanese restaurants are that serve Japanese food. Spoilt for choice. So we are now just back from a lovely meal where we cook our food in a delicious boiling soup mix – two separate flavours of soup boiling away together side by side. We had plates of thinly sliced meat and a huge variety of vegetables and we dropped them in the boiling soup mix and fished them out when we thought they would be done. The restaurant is 5 minutes walk down the road down a side road from our hotel. Check it out if you are in this area some time http://www.hinabe.net Ask for the menu in English, they have a copy out the back somewhere. Incidentally, the first restaurant we went to was full. The hostess there saw we were getting wet and gave us an umbrella each with profuse apologies that she couldn’t accommodate us in the restaurant. This is just one example of the hospitality of the Japanese people. We have found them to be extremely courteous and helpful at all times and will go out of their way to help strangers.
Today we planned to see the Imperial Palace and Electric Street. Electric Street is a child (or geek’s) paradise. Eight floors of a large warehouse-sized building selling electrical goods – a whole floor of mobile phones and laptops, and two floors of children’s toys many of which we had no idea what they were or what they did.
The rain was pretty steady by this time so instead of the Palace we decided to take a train out into the country-side. We failed miserably at the task as the country side was nowhere to be found with city and industrial areas giving way to residential areas with a peek of the sea and we think a very brief peek of Mt Fuji at one point but cannot be sure. After an hour and a half of travelling we hoped off the train at a town called Odawara which is near the east coast of Japan. A very Japanese-looking town, and just the perfect place for a look at Japan away from the hotels and tourist spots. I will put some pics up tomorrow.
Yes, Odawara did have Japanese restaurants but we didn’t get there until mid-afternoon after we had eaten.
Tomorrow we fly to London.
Day 2 in Tokyo
December 2nd 
A day spent sight-seeing around Tokyo using a all-day pass for the Metro. Went to the Sensoji Temple, the oldest temple in Tokyo built in A.D. 628. The Temple is a collection of structures or buildings. I was fascinated by a process whereby people would approach an area where there was a wall of little tiny drawers, each one marked with something. They would put money down a grill then shake a metal container around, we could hear it rattling. They would then shake one thin bamboo-looking stick out of a tiny hole at one end. They would read the end of it then go to one of the drawers that presumably matched what was written on the end of the stick. From the drawer they would take a small sheet of paper which they would read. Even though the paper was only notebook size they would often read or ponder the contents for a long time. They would then fold the paper into a strip and tie it onto wires provided for the purpose, then leave, looking quite sombre, even sad. As the temple is a Buddhist temple this is obviously a Buddhist practice – I must find out more. There were many of these walls of drawers within the grounds of the Temple.
We went up to the 45th floor of the Southern tower of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building. There is also a northern tower. The tower offers a view over Tokyo. Despite the day looking clear from the ground, from the top of the tower the view was hampered by smog.
Lunch turned out to be a German sausage in a bun – what is this? Haven’t seen a bit of sushi anywhere. Brings an awareness of how every city in the world is made up of restaurants offering food from other cultures. We did however spot the definition of a long lunch, it’s a long luunch!
Dinner was another such experience. We decided to dine at the hotel restaurant to be sure to get a Japanese meal. We got Italian. I chose Buffalo Mozzarella because I had heard it as divine. I found I had a small selection (4 slices) of cold sliced cheese as a mains. It was pleasant, as a pre-dinner nibble. Didn’t cut the mustard as a mains however. Hanging out for breakfast in the morning.
Flying Away
December 1st
Flight up from Auckland to Tokyo (Air NZ) was brilliant. Just great service. Our perception was not in any way influenced by the fact that we were given two bottles of wine to take with us when they found out it was our wedding anniversary.
We arrived in Tokyo where there was a misunderstanding over bus tickets so by the time that was sorted it was dark. You can see us in the photo waiting at platform 16 for the airport bus. 
It’s the first day of winter here, only 3 weeks off the shortest day. A 2-hour bus trip from the airport to Tokyo – kind of like having Auckland airport in Hamilton, but a chance to see parts of Tokyo lit up – you could say like a Christmas tree because the Christmas decorations were lit up and the Tokyo Tower was a blaze of gold.
We were travelling on a highway about 10 stories up in the air with a mishmash of other highways beneath us, and possibly over us I really couldn’t see that. Gives a whole new meaning the term “Spaghetti Junction” – our Auckland motorway system is more like a couple of sheets of lasagne in comparison. Found the first restaurant we could find that seemed to offer both food and a beer, it turned out to be a Spanish restaurant. I had paella, Ernie had chorizo sausage, and we each sampled both. Ernie got the better end of the deal on this occasion.
Beautiful minds
This was sent to me by a friend with the comment …. For the artist in you.
We are capable of so much more than we think. Check this video out and remember next time you are about to place limitations on someone because of what they appear to be capable.
The longest silence
I have started re-reading Brandon Bays’ book The Journey. Last night I read how a teacher encouraged Brandon to be still, be silent and to allow whatever emotion that came to come fully, to allow herself to be one with that emotion, not run or hide from it. What then the story out today of the man who, after a car accident, was thought to be in a coma when actually he was not. For 23 years this man was fully conscious and fully present, but unable to move, communicate or in anyway indicate that we was conscious. He used meditation to pass the time. I am curious about just what his experience was (but not enough to experience it for myself, thanks). http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/europe/3092174/Coma-patient-conscious-for-23-years What understandings does a person come to when they spend 23 years not only in silence but also not communicating in any way.
In NLP we say that a person cannot NOT communicate. What this means is that even when we are silent we express ourselves, or ‘communicate’ by our facial expressions, our clothes and other possessions, our mannersisms and a host of other ways. But here was a man who was not able to communicate. After a time people stopped trying to communicate with him. One can only imagine the depth of thought that this man must have had.
True love
Christchurch today and I had the opportunity to visit the Paua shell house at the Canterbury Museum.
Fred and Myrtle Flutey were the remarkable couple from Bluff at the bottom of the South Island New Zealand who became famous for their unusual living room when they decorated it with Kiwiana. Most notably they decorated their living room with paua shells that Fred had collected and polished to bring out their beautiful colours. (Paua is a species of abalone found only in New Zealand) In 1961 Myrtle started putting them on the walls. Over the years around one million visitors came to their Bluff home to see the paua shells. The shells are on loan to the Museum for 5 years.
But the remarkable thing about Fred and Myrtle was not their paua shell collection. It’s the love that leads to a couple being happily married for over 70 years, working on a project together for more than 45 years, loving what they do so much that they shared it with so many other people, and without ever charging a single penny for people to see it. That is love.
Childhood pathways
A long weekend in Christchurch and the chance to spend time with family. The chance to note how a child has grown into a beautiful young woman and a boy has grown into an impressive young man. And its only months since I last saw them, and only a few years since they were little kids - it happens so quickly. It reminds us as a family that two little family members on the weekend, two pre-school boys, will grow, then grow up. The characteristics of men they will become are already shining through.
And so we hope that their pathway stays true and they become the men they are capable of becoming.
In every life things happen, things go wrong. It happens to us all. It can make us what we become. The difficulties and adversities we face can be the very things that strengthen us and become the springboard to us achieving special things in our lives. But when it happens when children are too young, or when it happens over and over and over so that a child is beaten down it can all be too much to endure. Sometimes the source of the pain is a teacher who shouldn’t be teaching. Sometimes it can be other children such as the 11-year old I read about today http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/christchurch/3086780/Bullying-claim-as-girl-quits-school in the Christchurch newspaper The Press. The girl felt persecuted by her entire class. They called her “the ugly bitch” and an email had suggested she kill herself. 
We all grow up with negative “stuff” in our lives. If it’s a problem then something can be done. The tangles can be untangled and we can tread the pathways we were originally intended to tread. Pain from the past can be erased in the present and negative emotions can be released. But it would be nice, wouldn’t it, if our children didn’t have to go through this in the first place? If all children could feel loved and respected and valued by their peers and the adults in their lives.
Something to be happy about
This afternoon I was travelling behind a vehicle with the number plate VRY HPY. And well (s)he might be. It was a very nice dark green Mercedes convertible. Now as long as your basic needs are met, money can’t buy you happiness, but it sure can buy you a nice car. And a really good car can give a great sense of satisfaction to those who enjoy the the thrill. I remember following a low smoky-grey Lamborghini up the road, twice. Probably the same one. It reminded me of a stealth bomber. Sitting at the lights behind it, even my car vibrated with the raw power of this magnificient beast. Then the lights turned green and it was gone in a whoosh. It would be so much fun to go for a ride, but would I choose to own one? Assuming that I could, would I choose a car such as this? OK so its never going to be a car like this, its just not that important to me. But a really nice new car? The price may be too high.
If the price of a car or any other luxury purchase is financial stress because you have overstretched the budget, or missing out on time with loved ones because you are working crazy hours then you have a choice. What is the most important thing. And hey! If you can love your life, keep balance and have the car then why not. Why not indeed!
The beginning
I am delighted. At last I feel that my web pages are looking good because at last I engaged an expert to make sure it did. And what a beautiful job he has done! The content is scant in places and still needs a lot of work in others but that’s cool, we will work on that over the coming days, weeks, months. I guess it will be a never-ending process of tweaking and refining – as a friend pointed out, a website is not a fixed thing like a book, its like a living thing. So to anyone reading this, my very first blog ever, I hope you will continue to read and watch the developments.