GW in 10 photos

The first two days of Golden Week I had a horrible cold and didn't want to do anything, but rather than waste the sunshine, we took a walk around Numakunai. I visited Numakunai castle, which I didn't know existed, and we got to play on the playground.

On the Wednesday night we went up to Kunohe for a meal out with Hazel`s parents who are visiting from Scotland. I felt quite bad as I was all drugged up on cold medicine, so less than entertaining, but they seemed very nice people.

On the Thursday we took a picnic lunch to the park at Takizawa and ate lunch, played football, badminton and catch, and climbed some trees. It is a long time since I last climbed a tree and although going up was like old hat, coming down was more of a problem. This photo was taken before I realised this.

Friday night I went to my headmaster`s house for dinner to meet his family. His daughter is very sweet and loves speaking English, so we had a chat and looked at some photos of England while we ate yummy curry and rice. I was a bit apprehensive about it, but it was actually really good fun.

On Saturday I went Iwate park in Morioka for a cherry blossom picnic. There were about 20 people in our group and the park was swarming with drunk viewers. It was a pot luck lunch and someone brought the most delicious French toast. I made shortbread and sushi. The shortbread in particular went down very well.

But nothing can beat beans on toast, which is what we ate on Sunday. You have no idea how good they taste after 5 months of deprivation!