Heatwave

This weekend we had a sudden bout of sunshine and the temperatures soared above zero for the first time in three weeks. So taking advantage of this freak weather, we decided to have a culture and generally wholesome day out. First we headed to the art museum and had a spot of lunch. I had a Guinness and beef stew which tasted really, really English. I was very impressed. Strangely though, it also tasted a lot of soy sauce. Hmmm. After that we had a look round the "European Eyes on Japan" exhibit. This is a project that started in 1999 which invites European photographers to come to Japan for a couple of months and take photos of daily life. It is now on volume 7 of the project, which includes photos of our prefecture, Iwate-ken. There is more info about the project at this link:
http://www.eu-japanfest.org/english/program/13/japan/photo_07.html
Well, I was fairly impressed by it, and even went as far as buying the book from the gift shop, something I have never done before. This was because they have so many pictures that encapsulate Japan perfectly, but are scenes I would never get a chance to photograph, such as inside peoples houses.

After that we then went for a bit of exercise at the ice arena. I was a bit worried that as I hadn't skated for about 2 years I may have forgotten completely, but I didn't fall over once! It was really busy though, and the mix of old men with speed skates and small children who spent more time on their bottoms than skating, made it quite perilous, so we only stayed for about an hour.

Then we headed to Aeon shopping centre to buy a new electronic dictionary and do a bit of window shopping, before heading home for pizza and a video.

The only problem I can find with having a sunny weekend is that today all the snow that had melted, then froze and covered all the pavements on the way to school in sheet ice. All I can say is that it is a very good job I had practiced skating the day before.