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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

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

Reflections

The questions is why did the All Blacks fail to perform? Was it that England were better on the day or errors of selection and bad calls on the pitch. A bit of everything really. There seems a zest about England even when they warmed up and – when they formed the crescent against the Haka, [...]

October 27, 2019 // 0 Comments

What an experience!

As no doubt our readers are saturated by the coverage of England’s formidable victory I thought I would today give my report on the match experience. The game was played in Yokahama, a city a 30 minute drive without Tokyo’s constricting traffic. The stadium is a modern bowl and we were [...]

October 27, 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

The countdown commences

All week we read of historic victories over the All Blacks and how to beat them from the wiseacres. For me this is the wrong approach and only highlighting their aura of invincibility. That great producer of results Brian Clough would get the team totally drunk, tell them to play their natural game [...]

October 25, 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

Elisir D’Amore/ Glyndebourne on tour

After the road crash that was Rigoletto my faith in Glyndebourne was restored last night by its production of Donizetti’s comic opera Elisir d’Amore. It was respectful of the text of the story, had a good set and the singing was excellent, especially the South Korean tenor Sehoon Moon as [...]

October 23, 2019 // 0 Comments

Daphne Du Maurier

Recently I was speaking at a plenary session of a literary festival on Great Authors of the Twentieth Century. My co-speaker, a literary academic from Corpus Christi College Cambridge, advocated James Joyce’s Ulysses as the game changer of the century and rather pooh-poohed my choice of Daphne du [...]

October 22, 2019 // 0 Comments

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