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On tour/ the non-rugby bits

Yesterday was a full on day of visiting the Hama-rikyu Gardens and a Sumo demonstration in the morning and taking the bullet train to Kyoto in the afternoon. The gardens exemplify a paradox of Japanese culture: they are an oasis of tranquillity amongst the sky scrapers of Tokyo reflecting how old [...]

October 29, 2019 // 0 Comments

Five days and counting …

Hot on the back of the unexpected – I’m not going to say unintended – news that the Rust’s contingent of correspondents in Japan for the final ten days of the Rugby World Cup have been nominated for a special Pullitzer Prize for Best Foreign Coverage of a Global Event, today I thought I’d [...]

October 29, 2019 // 0 Comments

A la Colthard/Kobe beef and Sumo

Yesterday I sampled one of Japan’s greatest delicacies Kobe Beef. Only the best cows are selected and then fed a special diet of milk and grass. It certainly is not cheap but you will never taste anything like it. Like most things in Japan there is ritual. A solemnly dressed cook in his Steak [...]

October 28, 2019 // 0 Comments

One game at a time, of course …

As this morning it builds towards the next turn of the screw – its second semi-final between South Africa and Wales this morning – this momentous 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan with its infectious, joyous, festival atmosphere is proceeding towards its climax a week hence accompanied by a growing [...]

October 27, 2019 // 0 Comments

Rediscovering the past at home

I’m currently staying for the weekend at my father’s place on the south coast of England where over the past six months there have been a few changes, not least the departure of a long-serving part-time housekeeper and her replacement by another who is several notches more dynamic and diligent. [...]

October 26, 2019 // 0 Comments

The land of the rising sun .. and heated loo seat

One aspect of Japan on which the Rust party is unanimous is the delight of the heated loo seat. We first encountered this today on the bullet train from Kobe to Tokyo. The bullet train is super fast but inside not that much different from any train ‘though of course superior to Southern [...]

October 25, 2019 // 0 Comments

A la Colthard

I can only agree with Bob about the Japanese toilet. I am sure that the control console sadly in Japanese would reveal yet more sensory pleasures of hot jets “where the sun don’t shine”!!! Last night the group went out for a meal in a local restaurant. For many they had just arrived and into [...]

October 25, 2019 // 0 Comments

Upon leaving for the Land of the Rising Sun

This will be my first-ever visit to Japan – a veritable treat sprung upon me only ten days ago – and I have barely had time to leave Himself adequately set-up to run the family in my absence as I now look forward with barely-concealed excitement to seeing something of the beguiling nation that [...]

October 24, 2019 // 0 Comments

Japan -here we come

I am much looking forward to the next 10 days in Japan. The Rust party comprises Sandra, Derek and Tom to report on matters rugby and Nancy, Daffers and myself on everything else. My rugby playing experience was at my London school where I alongside other myopic, fatties and non-athletes were [...]

October 23, 2019 // 0 Comments

Not so much Murphy’s Law as a Murphy no more …

Yesterday I had a poignant brush with the past – my own, and possibly also that of others of a similar age and state of mind. Eons ago, well approximately 52 years ago when I was being educated in a boarding school far away in the country, in one circumstance or another – probably a deal for a [...]

October 22, 2019 // 0 Comments

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