A visitor

In a surprise visit my friend Ray came to see us here in Muroran. Ray and myself first met exactly 20 years ago on the steps of a BMW wohnheim in Munich. Subsequently we went to Australian together and after that lived a couple of months dangerously in Indonesia. And while I eventually washed up here in Japan, Ray kept travelling. And travelling. And travelling some more. To the point where he has now visited 81 countries all told.
To which I thought, "there but for the grace of my wife, went I".
Japan was the 82nd stamp in his passport and in a climatic show of welcome to such an august visitor,  Muroran rolled out the blue skies and sunshine for him.

After being so cynically robbed at the sport's day the previous weekend, Cian showed his disgust by willfully absenting himself from the nursery school for a couple of days. He wanted to go on hunger strike to draw attention to his campaign for 'clean sports', but then he got hungry and gave it up just before breakfast. Instead he joined Ray and myself for our grand tour of western Iburi.

Ray was impressed.
Ray should be here in the dark, wind blown depths of a frozen February, but even I, grudgingly, very grudgingly, could see that Muroran, on a day like today, might just faintly brush up against the distant reaches of the word 'scenic'.
Next up a pit stop for some damn fine sushi - ahh Muroran, you gastronomical tease.

Then off to Uzu-san, our local, semi-active volcano for a bit of that old 'Japan - land of disasters' experience.

And finally onto Lake Toya because (a) it has its serene moments and we were lucky enough to capture one of them; and (b) it also has its delicious, home-made ice-cream.