Aww - it's nice the cats came over to be affectionate with you all!

That's wonderful so many there are in good shape and good health! The key is to eat properly, exercise and have an active life!

Climb every staircase! :) It's always worth it and good exercise! :)

Wow - - that spider is huge! And scary!

Have you seen any wild boar?

That's a fantastic view! Wow.

I bet that cherry tree grove is BEAUTIFUL when in bloom!

How funny that you ran into the guy Tan again! Prety wild! :)

Orb weaver spiders are so interesting!

This one might be some species of giant wood spider.

https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/49758-Nephila/browse_photos?place_id=13082

What an extraordinary way to start the year!

Indeed. It was pretty stressful. Barry had gone to the store and I was in our hotel room. Suddenly from the TV there were very loud alarm sounds with a Japanese voice speaking fast and urgently. The screen showed a map and there were highlighted warnings. I couldn’t figure out where or what the problem was. Used google translate to read the warning signs….RUN! EVACUATE!! Every channel had coverage…all regular programming was preempted. At first I thought the danger was where we are, but I finally figured it out.
Like the rest of Japan, we were glued to the tv watching it happen. For us, it really hit home as we had cycled in much of this area on our previous trip in the spring. Hearing the names of villages and cities we had spent time in really made us feel sad for what they were facing.
The next day, there was much relief that the tsunami did not reach the level feared, but saw much devastation. The relatively low number of loss of life is a testament to Japan’s building codes and their earthquake preparedness. We, in BC, could learn from them.
And then, the plane in flames at Haneda airport in Tokyo. A full on couple of days here in Japan.

Hey as laid back islanders have you nevertheless been following the coverage of the earthquake and the airport collision and fire?

Definitely a unique museum! :)

A happy cat! :)

Birds!