As I was saying....that first day we walked and walked and walked. The weather was perfect, I happily snapped pictures left and right, chirping to Matthew that having had a good night's sleep I apparently wasn't going to have any jet lag at ALL, and isn't life grand?

He gave me a pitying look which I only came to fully understand later in the afternoon, by which time I found myself to be churlishly resentful of anyone who didn't look at least as miserable as I felt. Yech, I don't know how he does it, going back and forth to ridiculous time zones all the time.

Then when we got back to the hotel my computer appeared to be in the throes of its final moments on this earth, emitting a sustained and strangled kind of gargle when I tried to import my photos, deleting them as fast as they got imported, and not allowing me even to type to my good and knowledgable friend Google to ask what the...?

Me throwing myself onto the bed in tears inspired Matthew to leap to his feet, practically shouting, "It's ok honey, we'll go to the Apple Store in the Ginza and get you a new computer right now." Spoken with the zealous naivete of the one of us who is not in charge of our family budget. Also spoken by a man who must have been feeling rather rummy himself because his words as we returned to our room had been along the lines of him not being able to walk another step even for a million dollars.
Maybe not a million dollars, but apparently a crying wife imbued him with super powers. Possibly it was a cumulative response--the previous evening I had thought I had lost my camera and both my pairs of glasses, all major disasters given the sightseeing and picture taking aspects of a trip such as this. (Matthew found them tucked away where I had put them in the safest of safe places so they couldn't get lost...you know how it is.)


At this point I should mention that the difficulty with writing for a broad audience is that I am going to bore some people to tears if they do indeed feel compelled for some reason to continue reading beyond their tolerance for minutiae. To those of you who fit into this category I say "Skim on, my friends! Have a gander at the photos and call it good, because I have a mother whose enthusiasm for the details of my life is unsurpassed, and it is to that level of curiosity that I address this blog." You won't hurt my feelings, honest. I MYSELF am not even as interested in my goings-on as my Mum....

As I left you with a cliff-hanger, however, you might be still reading grudgingly on. The rest of the story: Thanks to my own tootsies feeling like the feet on one of those balloon animals that clowns twist together with that really off-putting squeaking sound, I declined Matthew's offer of a substantial hike to the Apple Store. Not to mention it takes more than a few minutes for me to get my head around spending that kind of money, however necessary it may be. Long story short....it transpired that my wireless keyboard was turned on and in the travel bag under the desk, where my feet were hitting various keys, most notably the delete button, causing my computer to go all Exorcist on me.

I wonder if Matthew is fondly thinking of his solo excursions to Japan....