A man came to visit...

It has been a while since I posted anything, time, state of mind and all that played there part. So firstly, I shall tell you what I did the weekend before last, when a friend of mine from home came to visit me in Osaka. John Lee (see photo below), genius scupltor, and all round good man, was on a visa run from Soeul, South Korea, and was staying in Osaka for the weekend. I met up with John on the Friday night. We went for a bite to eat in a ramen shop, a rather plush one at that, and then went for a couple of beers. It was great to see someone from home, to hear a familiar accent and to talk about places, people and experiences we had in common. I had not seen John in probably close to 2 years, as I did not see him much when he returned from a trip around Asia (Tibet, Nepal, Thailand, and other places) a couple of years ago. He is now in Korea teaching English trying to save money to go travelling again. I had a great laugh that night and made me realize how much I miss my friends back home, the banter, the craic agus ceol (John played a bit of tin whistle for me on Saturday).

The following day a group of us, Pads, Paul, Gavin, John and I, went to Kyoto for the day. It was the first time that John and Gavin had been in Kyoto so we took them to Gion and the temples in that area, particularly to see the impressive Koyizumi Temple (not sure of the spelling for the moment). I think the boys had a good time, and we visited the war memorial for all the unknown soldiers that died during WWII. We sat around there for a while and then just went wandering around Gion.

On our wanderings, we met up with some wannabe-geisha, who gladly posed for a photograph and John was delighted. They looked pretty cool. However, as we wandered down this side street, we stumbled upon the real deal...a genuine Geisha, ready to go to some party or a private audience. The cab driver got out of the car, received instructions from the house mother, he then removed his hat and bowed. That was impressive. Cabbies never do that. Much to our delight, the Geisha posed for a couple of photos for us before being whisked away in the cab. You can see pictures of her on my flikr homepage, the link is on the left. The difference between the wannabe-geishas (see below) and the real thing was so obvious. The quality of the make-up, the ukata, the poise and general aura surrounding the genuine Geisha was amazing.

After that fantastic surprise, we headed to a bar to watch the All Blacks beat Australia and then we headed back to Kyobashi for some food and a couple of beers before heading home. John stayed with me and we had to get up at 6am to get him to the airport on time. It was good to see a familiar face and to chat about home. It felt good to do that. I was sorry that John was only here for a couple of days, but it was a good couple of days.

Now, it is back to normality and the routine of work. However, a brilliant morning spent walking around a park and looking for dragonflies on Saturday made up for what was a routine week at work. But more on that later....(I bet you can`t wait for those photographs!!)

Carmo`s Diet: This week, I have mostly been eating soba, chicken, tomato, and greenage
Carmo`s Birds: not alot, just the usual residents
Carmo`s Birds for Byrdy: Liv Tyler