With the wedding fast approaching, we needed to get over to Kushiro (where Mayu's parents live) on the north island of Japan, Hokkaido. Mum and Howard had left first thing on the day before, taking the train in order to see more the Japanese countryside. For me, with the limited time I was in Japan, and being the city dweller I am, I preferred to spend more time in Tokyo. That combined the mammoth flight over, did not make me much inclined to spend 12 hours on 4 different trains (albeit split over 2 days, and in the luxury of the Shinkansen - bullet trains). By all accounts theirs was a really interesting journey, through enormous amounts of snow, that really did show what Japan is like outside of the cities.

The flight was pretty uneventful, as they usually are, although the Japanese service mentality did show through with the stewardesses bowing before and after serving as the left and returned to their seats. Such a tiny thing, but one that because you don't see it in the west does really make an impression.

Kushiro was cold. Freezing cold - with piles of snow everywhere (making the landing potentially, though not actually, very dubious). We were met by Masanori (Mayu‘s father) and Mayu’s Aunt, niece and grandmother, and whisked off to our hotel; though having said that perhaps whisked is not quite the word, Kushiro itself being maybe 45 minutes drive from Kushiro airport.

A pleasant enough hotel with a relatively big room (by Tokyo standards at least) and a origami crane - a winner for me (Japan … Blade Runner … hmmm).

Having settled in, we were due to go and see some Taiko drummers. I had assumed that there was a show on somewhere that we had got tickets for; as it turned out, it was at Masanori‘s friend’s house! So we were treated to a private performance - utterly awesome! I was even persuaded to have a go at hitting one of the small drums (tsukeshime-daiko: often just known as shime-daiko). The drum itself is hugely taut - there is incredible bounce off it - which is just as well as the sticks are so thick and heavy in comparison to what I‘m used to. Finishing off with a cream tea and then back to Mayu’s parents house for a feast of Sushi!