I seem to have played bridge almost every day this week. Has made it difficult to get out into the garden and do some work (I haven't been very upset about not getting out there though and I don't think the jobs will go away, so I can do them later).
Yesterday though we also went to a talk about Japanese gardens. It was a little disappointing. He hadn't been to many interesting gardens (he didn't even cover the main gardens of Japan) and didn't have anything much to say about them anyway.
The trouble with visiting places like Japan is that you end end up being side-tracked and fascinated by irrelevant things. So we had a 10 minute explanation about the bullet train (with pics) and how lovely it was to travel on it, followed by another 10 min section about the ferry to Miyajima, with pics of that too! Then some pics of meals and shop windows, several pics of Mount Fuji, umpteen pics of a temple gate ('this is a very famous gate and I expect you've all seen pics of it before'. 'Yes!! So why are you showing us more??'). He even gave us a guided tour of the temples at Nikko.
One lady complained that the talk was all statistics. Actually it sounded a bit like a Japan Travel Bureau guided tour for foreigners (they don't like you to leave without seeing all the 'sights' whatever you're supposed to be there for, and they always tell you about areas and heights, etc, so maybe that's what he was given and that's where he got his speech from). So I don't know any more about the whys and wherefores of Japanese gardens. But I can tell you that they are nice.
Tomorrow we are off to Teignmouth again for the annual Jazz Festival. I'll no doubt have some pics and videos for you when I return. Til then, be good.
Perhaps when you return from the Teignmouth Jazz Festival you can give us a lecture on Japanese jazz?? :-))
ReplyDeleteThere's a challenge, Mitch!
DeleteIt almost sounds like one of those "come-ons" for condo time shares in the Caribbean.
ReplyDelete