Monkey Magic, ooh Monkey Magic

Well, the week didn't end with me sat alone at home weeping into a pillow with the curtains closed as I'd feared. Instead I had lots of company! Yay! Amy came up on Friday night and we caught up, ate and prepared the music for the Hallowe'en party on Friday night. She stayed over and on Saturday I picked up WhyVon and Fiona from the station and we had a lovely day out and about in Katsuyama. We started with lunch at Te-a (thinkMel and Kim's "Respectable"- it's pronounced tay-a) and went on to Kanba waterfall, (where I'd taken Jessica and Madeleine the week before). Fortunately this time it was still daylight, and we were all delighted when Fiona spotted the first monkey. But we walked a further 10 paces and you couldn't miss them. Hundreds of the things. And of course, seeing as we live in the sunshine prefecture and I had visitors, it started to rain. So we took shelter under a small gazebo (I'm never quite sure what one of those is and maybe this wasn't one) only to realise monkeys were in the frame above our heads, sliding down the support poles etc. And they seemed to be all moving towards us. Making more and more noise. As soon as the rain eased we quickly edged out and headed for the waterfall where the trees were showing signs of autumnal effort. A nice smattering of read set off the suddenly blue sky and the pink chill in out cheeks beautifully. So we took pictures and headed back towards the car, but we had to go slowly as the monkeys seemed to be going a bit wild and were jumping through the trees, growling, and looking like they were going to land on us. So we scarpered and headed back for the safety of Katsuyama's old street where we went to Ken-I, the lightmaker's shop (beautiful glass lamp shades and ceramic tablewares) and then to Kano-san's shop, the lady who makes noren and kimono (and was kind enough to open her shop on her day off for Jessica and Madaleine- thanks!). From there we went for coffee and hot chocolate at Uenodan, the cafe in Katsuyama's new international plaza and finally headed to Kuse to laugh at the bad English on the bargain t-shirts in Casual Spot. When I return to England I shall start making t-shirts with similarly bad Japanese so that Japanese tourists will have something to laugh at.

Amy left in the evening, and the remaining three of us ate dinner and then headed off to karaoke with Nao-chan where Yvonne and I caused Freddy Mercury to do headspins in his grave by positively murdering "Bohemian Rhapsody" (although that song is pure evil, so murdering it is fair justice).

On Sunday Yvonne headed home while Fiona stayed to get the last bus, so we watched films, went to the legendary second hand shop in Tsuyama (which only proved that some legends are fake) and then had early tea before I took Fiona to the bus station. And then turned round again because the last bus on a weekend has now been cancelled. So, we headed to the video shop and rented Dangerous Beauty 2 (not a porno, just the Japanese name for Miss Congeniality 2) and Closer (I was quite keen to see if this was as bad as everyone said. It was.) And as I headed to schiik in Monday, Fiona headed off home. And I did nothing all day thanks to the National Sports Festival which all the school kids went to watch. Just as they did today. Thank God for weekends...