Karuizawa

To continue, Dad cooked risotto on Friday night - he is a bit upset he couldn’t get arborio rice- so he pops into every grocery store we pass -even Lawson’s- to see whether they stock it!

We went to visit Jun at his school and he gave us a lovely tour. It is set in a fabulous forest - great buildings. We met lots of people who were all very friendly. It is quite near a volcano which is depicted on the signs with smoke coming out of its top - bit disconcerting!

Jun had a rehearsal for the school play. He is Roosevelt in “Annie”. We went to this hotel which was very old and was a favourite of John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Lots of photos of them and in their little museum there was a piano on which he played!  We had afternoon tea then went back to pick up Jun. Dinner was at a restaurant in town- very interesting. They brought the different meats on a board and you chose what you would like.

By the way, we stayed in a beautiful hotel outside of town. It was in the forest surrounded by these magnificent houses which were the summer houses of Tokyo people. They were set on large blocks but none of them had gardens, just grass (sort of) and very tall trees dotted all over their grounds.  They don’t seem to have to worry about fires here.

Sunday was another lovely day starting with Dad and I going for a walk - and visiting a delicious bakery - and then going back to the hotel for proper breakfast!  I meant to mention that we walked in falling snow! We picked Jun up again and did a bit of sightseeing. First we went to a semi circular waterfall. So cold that water was dripping in stalactites!  Then we drove off to see a stone church. Very Beautiful!  We couldn’t go inside as there was a wedding. There was a man in a suit sweeping leaves from the path outside the church  - no wind thank goodness!

Off to lunch at a super noodle and tempura cafe. Jun had to go back to school and we caught the train to Takayama where we are now.

That’s it for now. I am going to attach photos and hope you make sense of them. Some of them are from Tokyo.