Weather antics

We have been through this quite a few times now, haven’t we? Warm winters, typhoon gales and showers followed by scorching spells of hot, humid weather. Almost nothing can surprise you about the weather in Tokyo anymore.

Occasionally though, you come across something that gives you a pause or a moment of amusement, like flower blossoms in the middle of cold winter or... snow in June.

Birdworld! (a.k.a., my trip to the UK - part 2)

One of the things that I often took for granted in my hometown was the local bird park, Birdworld. It turns out that it is actually the largest bird park in the UK.

Birdworld houses around 180 species of birds, 40 of which are listed as vulnerable, threatened, or endangered. It even has a Terry Pratchett themed 'Owl Parliament'!

Below are just a few of the birds that I found while walking around. I've named them as best as I could remember!

This is a Tragopan, a kind of pheasant, which is found in China, and Vietnam I think.

A colourful Red and Green Macaw, which is from Central America I think. After losing a squabble with another Macaw, this one climbed up the wire fence before hopping into his food dish.

This is a kind of Cockatoo. There are many different kinds of these birds spread throughout the Australasian region. This particular one was quite chatty, and had even mastered saying , "hello"!

Some sun-bathing Flamingoes.

A colony of South African Penguins. I managed to get quite close to these birds and got some good pictures of them.

Finally, I came across this Toucan, from Mexico. It took me a long time to capture it's photo as it kept flying around it's enclosure. Eventually it stopped and I caught the sun highlighting it's brilliantly coloured beak.

Of course, inbetween all of the bird watching, I managed to find time to drink some Costa Coffee and eat some fish and chips at the park's cafe.

I'd already spent quite a lot of money by this point, and the weak yen hadn't helped my wallet much, but I had to buy some gifts and souvenirs before leaving.

If you ever find yourself in the South of England (in particular around Hampshire) then why not give Birdworld a visit? It's great way to spend half a day while spending some time outdoors and learning a little about the amazing variety of birds that live on our planet.

Pizza evening

Pizzas, potato chips, desserts. Can they be any good for you, except satisfying your cravings? Occasionally, I make a trip to Mothers restaurant in Kichijoji to have a gratifying meal of what is usually considered to be junk food. However, nothing could be further from the truth in this place. The treat you’re getting is first class Italian cuisine served in a pleasant, relaxing, wooden interior with an open kitchen and discrete spotlights. If you’re ever in Kichijoji and feel like having a taste of Italian home cooking, try it out!

My first experience with 'glamping'

Glamping, a portmanteau of 'glamorous' and 'camping', was something I was always curious about. I was never a fan of camping much, but throw in a few amenities and it did sound appealing. And over the Golden Week, I had the oppurtunity to try it out for the first time.

I'm always reluctant to travel anywhere during Golden Week after several bad experiences with traffic jams, but this time the journey was smoother than I expected. On our way through the Chiba peninsula, we stopped for lunch and I had what was probably the biggest plate of taco rice that I've had in Japan.

In fact all of the dishes were huge (along with the price tag) and also delicious.

After arriving at the campsite parking we off-loaded our food for the barbeque and other bags onto a rope lift. You can just see the little yellow bunch of pixels (indicated by the arrow) that was our luggage on its way through the trees from the car park to the campsite.

After we sent our luggage on its way we took a short trek to the campsite down some steps to the river.

Nice views and the weather was great. And walking through the campsite I saw some pretty nice lodgings. Was I actually going to enjoy glamping? By this point I was pretty impressed and content with the journey so far. But that didn't last long.

Now, I wasn't expecting royal treatment, or red carpets, or anything of the sort, but I was a little disheartened to discover that our hut was a little smaller, and less glamorous than the others.

It looked like something from the 80's, and was full of spiders, other insects, and tattered tatami. Common English expressions such as, "First come, first served", and "You get what you pay for" sprang to mind. Next time we'll have to make a reservation sooner. Still, the surrounding nature was really nice. So after leaving our bags inside we took a trek back to the river for some exploring.

We ended up catching some bait for a fisherman we befriended, and as it started to get dark we headed back 'home' to start our BBQ. This was actually the first time lighting and cooking a BBQ by ourselves, so it took a few attempts to get the fire going, but before long our steaks, hotdogs, and vegetables were done. Food always tastes more satisfying at a BBQ doesn't it?

Here is the last cook of the night as the fire slowly died out just before the first few drops of rain fell.

We left the site early next morning during what was probably one of the worst rain storms of my life. Arriving back at the car completely soaked we skipped plans for lunch and headed straight home to change clothes. Again successfully avoiding any heavy traffic, we arrived home with plenty of time to unpack, wash, and finally relax with steaming cups of coffee.

Overall, it was a nice trip and an interesting first experience with glamping. Although next time I'll come better prepared with waterproof clothing and boots.