Kettle bell and medicine ball

12 kg kettle bell in free-flight while switching hands!

Press-ups on a medicine ball.

o-Matsuri at Higashinakano

Young Japanese children performing o-Matsuri, carrying a portable shrine. A traditional way of celebrating a festival.

What is it? (3)

A Sanyo washer-drier and two driers in local launderette. I like the pastel colour highlights. Not just "white goods"

Someone lives in a shoe?

Spot the door in the Nike? Acually this was a painting on some boarding at a building site in Omotesando. Wait till you see the building! I love the book title: There's many dog shit in your house.

What is it? (2)

It's an ice-cream vending machine on a station platform. You can usually find drinks machines, but not as many snack machines as in the UK!

What is it?

An old-style pachinko parlour. This one is in Okayama. Usually they are noisy, crowded places, and on the weekend you'll see people queuing up for them to open.

Mitsui Nihonbashi Tower

An office building with the Mandarin Oriental hotel on top and looks like it has a helipad on top of that!
www.mitsuitower.jp/en/access/index.html
The Mitsui Memorial Museum in the main building is worth a visit and is usually open 10-4:30 except Mondays (open if a National holiday) entry 800-1000 Yen. It includes collections from the Mitsui Bunko Museum and Japanese and Asian art.

http://www.mitsui-museum.jp/english.html Mitsukoshimae or a short walk from Nihonbashi.
The free Metro Link Nihonbashi bus stops right outside :) From near Yaesu exit of Tokyo station 10 - 8 pm at about 10 min intervals. http://www.hinomaru.co.jp/metrolink/nihonbashi/

Straight leg RDLs

4 sets of 10 straight leg RDL's, here with 90kg in the fourth set. 100kg next time, on the way to 140kg by the end of the year... I'm most greatful to have Mike Yamaguchi training me even though he's got a cold and has been up late several nights running to be with some friends who were leaving. Thanks Mike.

BBQ steak

A small BBQ steak goes well with a few friends! Salad, hot dogs and beer. All good stuff - once in a while. It was great fun, and we definitely have to thank our new chef "ALEX"...

Ah, the heat!

Why a photo of a Chuo line train? Well it's a very pleasant 21゜C with a light breeze. So naturally JR has to make life unpleasant for commuters.

How? By turning up the heating so that passengers are hot, sweaty and lethargic before getting to work. Thanks guys.

We know autumn is coming because the heating is on in trains! Sad to see your customers wiping sweat off their forehead because you heat the carriages almost to the melting point of lead.

Circuit training at Gold's Gym, Higashinakano

Ryo Pettas, Mitsuru Yamaguchi and Korematsu-san.

We haven't had team training for a while and it was fun! Ryo is gradually recovering from his fracture but still has swollen hand and probably needs a further operation.

Improbability drive escalator?

A typical 3-storey Kone escalator at T5, Heathrow.
Not for the faint hearted! Let's hope the brakes work.
If they hadn't designed half the place as a shopping mall rather than an airport, passengers wouldn't have to go up and down so far all the time!

On the way back

At London's Heathrow T5 (the shack out the back?) waiting to board flight BA5 named "Chatham Historic Dockyard".
Who would name a 747 after a dockyard!
It was a smooth, fast flight - thanks to all the flight deck and cabin crew for a relaxed and stress-free flight.