Lights, Camera, Action!

Alright, so my third (and final, for a while) visitor arrived on Saturday. My dearest sister Liz flew complication free into Nagoya airport for a nice two and a half week vacation.

She was pretty fried from the trip over, so we grabbed a quick bite to eat at Yoshinoya and then toured a bit of Sakae really quickly. Exhaustion rapidly set in though, so I dropped her off at the hotel and then went to the pub with Jared and Andy to watch the first half of a big, big football game, Liverpool vs Westham United. Or something like that. The pub was absolutly jammed with every pasty faced British ex-pat in Nagoya, or so it seemed. They were certainly doing a landmark business in rather pricy pints. For the record, Liverpool (Red Team!) won.



Mostly refreshed the next morning we took advantage of the wonderful weather and went to check out Inuyama castle and the environs. Liz got a kick out of the tour of the oldest original castle in Japan, but was a bit worried about the combo of steep stairs, slippery wood flooring, and slick one size fits all slippers. It sure seems like a recipe for disaster, but we made it without mishap. Phew! We also caught sight of the worlds largest bull frog. You could have used him for a barge anchor, as long as he didn't swim away!



Back in Kanazawa today we (of course) went to... *drum roll please*... Kenroku-en! I can't even count how many times I have been there now, but honestly I seem to find something new and interesting each time. The changing seasons, and even changing weeks in the same season, offer a new view each time. The Iris were just starting to poke there heads up, and there are some really dense fields of them, I may have to go back later this week when they are really in full bloom.


Notice the wise old Samurai, talking on his cell phone!

In addition to flowers and trees and such, we also caught sight of a film production. Yup, the famous bridge and lantern was taken over by a shooting crew with actors all dressed up in Edo period finery. I have no idea what the movie is, but I want to see it when it comes out! We were not the only ones interested in the shoot, the usual horde of people looking at the lantern became a slightly larger horde looking at the film crew and actors. Certainly a pretty unique experience, I have seen lots of DVD documentaries, but this is the first time I've ever seen a period piece shoot. The girls were cute in their costumes too. ;-)