Mothers Day.

After sending an e-card to Mum, Kaoru and I left for Clematis no Oka.  This was our day planned to spend with Hiro and Yasuko.  I didn’t know where exactly it was, but I did notice that after quite a bit of travelling, we were considerably closer to Mount Fuji.  In fact, we passed one of the Shinkansen stops for going to the mountain!  There were some amazing views of it, but I hadn’t gotten my camera out yet, so thought I’d save that for the return trip.  To have the mountains on one side, and the water on the other, was just beautiful.

 

 

After an early lunch, we walked around the grounds to admire the lovely flowers, and interesting sculptures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve got to say, I’m pretty happy with the quality of the photos that come out of my camera.  A worthwhile investment indeed!

After a wander around the gardens, we were treated to a performance by a guitar and a harp.  I had never seen a harp played before, and it was quite interesting to see the technique.  The music was very relaxing, and the four of us had trouble staying awake.  I could see other people in the audience drifting off too!  Maybe I should get a CD for when I can’t get to sleep at night!

After the performance the weather had turned cloudy.  For the last week, the mornings have started with beautiful blue skies, and in the afternoon it has turned cloudy and cooled off a bit.  This is apparently quite uncommon for Japan in May.  So it meant the photos I had hoped to get of Mount Fuji on the way home weren’t to be :(.  This is the closest I’ve made it so far, and I won’t be back for a while, but oh well – shit happens.

I got a photo of Hiro and Yasuko, and we started the long trip home.  The book we were given when we entered the grounds had a lot of Kanji in it, but it had Hiragana translations, so I spent much of the ride practicing my reading.  It certainly made the trip seem quicker for me – not sure about for Kaoru though, who spent the whole time correcting my (many) errors!

Back at the house I got on Skype to Dad.  It was just after 7.00 Melbourne Time, and Mum was busy with cleaning up after dinner, so I checked they would be available in the evening for me to Skype them.  Kaoru and I went out to dinner in Fujisawa, as we were hungry and didn’t want to worry about cooking after such a nice day out.  Once we got back, we were able to wish Mum a Happy Mothers Day and have a chat with them.

And once again, we are at the end of an enjoyable weekend.