Quiet Day

After all the frantic travelling we've been doing, we decided that we should have a quiet day.  We had a very lazy morning and then asked Tom what he would like to do.

Super Hitachi

His answer was to go for a short ride on an express train.  Matt looked up the options, showed him pictures of various ones and he decided.  So today we went for a ride on the Super Hitachi which goes from Ueno in Central Tokyo to Iwaki somewhere on the coast near Fukushima.

We got off at the first stop: Mito which is famous for its wonderful gardens.  However, today the temperature has plummeted to 20 degrees and it is raining hard.  Certainly not weather for exploring gardens, so we did what we do best: searched for somewhere nice to eat lunch and then went shopping.

Fairy Tale Cake which I loved

I by luck noticed a poster advertising a cake show, which happened to be free entry, so we headed to that shopping mall, had lunch and then went to the cake show.  It was quite a small show, but interesting none the less.  The cakes on show were much smaller than any you would see in the UK - maybe 8 inch at the base, but then tapering in to 6 inch at the top.  The models were absolutely miniature and pretty good.  (I don't have the skill to produce them so small!)  I was a bit curious to what medium they use for their sugar models, as the colours didn't look quite right on them.  Luckily as I was pondering this, Matt and Tom turned up so Matt asked, they don't use sugarpaste here (maybe to do with availability or the humidity and heat??) they use marzipan instead which explains why the colours weren't quite true.  All the tools they used were British though - FMM cutters and PME tools, so I guess the art has crossed from UK to here.  Anyway it was good to see and very lucky.

We carried on searching through the shops, we came across a Muji where Matt got excited as he found some lovely soft jimbei (Japanese style pyjamas in the same style as the ones Tom has), he couldn't resist, so bought them along with a tatami cushion for his office back home.  This really has become a massive shopping trip!

We then bought some good looking buns from a bakery for breakfast tomorrow and then headed back to Tokyo on the train.  Tom did about half an hour's scrapbooking and then collapsed in my arms.  He was fast asleep when we arrived back at Ueno, took both of us to wake him up - I guess he has been playing hard recently!

Oh, and do you know how I judge a good relaxing holiday...if I manage to read a book, then it's a good one and today I finished a book - hurray!  First book in absolutely ages.  Now I wish I had bought 2 with me as I still have the best part of a week to go.  It's these lazy mornings, I LOVE lying in bed reading and not feeling guilty that I should be doing something.  Tom will pop into bed with us, but amuse himself with an ipad and therefore let me carry on reading.  Didn't manage it in Australia, but seem to remember doing ok last time we were here.