Gerry in Japan - Mount Fuji

The main reason that we chose to go to Japan with Gerry is because of the Fuji-Q Highland theme park. It sits pretty much at the base of Mt. Fuji and is a pretty big themepark, the main highlight of which (for Gerry at any rate) is the Thomasland mini-theme park inside it.


Here we are at the base of Mt Fuji which, for those of you who aren't aware, is an active volcano.


This is Percy. I wouldn't have known that 3 years ago.


One of the cool things about Thomasland is that it has mini versions of popular adult rides. Here you can see Gerry after a brief plunge down a water coaster!


And here is Gerry on a roller coaster. Its worth mentioning that I am suffering from hat hair and that the ride isn't actually that fast.


The theme park also had a lake which had frozen over. This was Gerry's first time to go ice skating and, despite a couple of falls, he really enjoyed himself.

Gerry in Japan

Some more pics from our recent trip to Japan.

On the second day that we were there, we headed out to a small island with a theme park. I can't remember the name of the place in English but cest la vie!


This is him at the entrance posing with the theme park mascot. This picture is actually proof of how friendly Japanese people are. The customer service lady spotted us taking a picture of Gerry and grabbed the plushie so that he could take a picture with their mascot. How cool is that!


One of the many rides at the theme park there. These rides seem to be quite popular in Japanese theme parks and are kind of like mini dodgem's but without any crashing.


One of the more fun activities at the theme park was this giant needle which you could ride up in. Once it got to the top, it would come slowly down, spinning in a circle, so that you got a pretty good view of the entire island. You can probably imagine how difficult it was to get Gerry to look at the camera instead of looking outside.


And of course, how could any trip to an island be complete without a small boat ride.


The theme parks version of the Mad Hatters Tea Cup - this one themed to the Power Puff Girls (don't ask me how I know that).

Gerry in Japan - Mother Farm

The Meister is back!

At last, my internet connection has been restored to me and I can finally start uploading photos of our "recent" trip to Japan. I say Japan because, although we stayed in Tokyo, we didn't actually spend all that much time there. Most of our time was spent on the road going to various remote locations with activities for kids.


The first place we went to was a farm called Mother Farm. I say farm but the reality is that the place is so clean, it really doesn't feel like a farm. I would say it was cleaner than my own home but I'm afraid of upsetting the maid...


One of the animals at the animal farm. This picture was taken when Gerry still liked that particular animal. At some later point in time, when Gerry was getting close for another picture, the thing sneezed and blew snot all over Gerry. After he had gotten over the shock (and was done crying), he firmly declared that this animal was naughty and that he wouldn't play with it anymore.


This was taken right after one of the fun activities at the farm. Basically, this was a pig race and each child was assigned to one pig and was responsible for driving the pig across the field and into the paddock. Gerry didn't win but he had a great time slapping the pigs backside and telling it to hurry up!

Aww - a cute widdle wabbit!

One of the shows the farm had was a sheep shearing show. This was actually really well done and the guy doing the show had a lot of charisma and was a good entertainer. Shame that the entire thing was in Japanese...

An observation on Japanese people

Woo - back from a long holiday in Japan (and boy oh boy, is Tokyo expensive!). I'll post some pics of my trip next week but first, I wanted to share an observation I had while I was there. Japanese people have a reputation for being very well mannered and from what I could see in Tokyo, this reputation is very well deserved.

One of my pet peeves in Hong Kong is the lack of even basic manners which you regularly see on trains. One thing which I noticed while in Tokyo was that on the platform, everybody waited until passengers had gotten off the train before they got on the train. I have NEVER seen that in HK (there have been plenty of times where people in one particular section have been willing to wait but even when that happens, you will see people in another section try and push their way onto the train past people trying to get off). Granted, we were never on the trains during rush hour (I have heard enough about Tokyo rush hour to know to avoid it) so I don't know how things will change during rush hour but still - wow!

The amazing thing is that this level of manners seems to extend to other areas of their life as well. While we stayed in Tokyo, we actually spent most of our time in the countryside surrounding Tokyo and as such, we hired a car to make things more convenient. I have spent many years complaining about the lack of manners which HK people show on the road. However, this has always been based on a comparison with Glasgow which is a bit unfair to HK in that Glasgow is a relatively small city in comparison.

Tokyo, on the other hand, is a city which gets gridlocked during rush hour and is a much fairer target for comparison purposes. Unfortunately for HK, this comparison doesn't favour HK either. While driving around in Japan, it was amazing to see that people actually had good road etiquette even while we were stuck in a traffic jam.

I'm not going to comment on any other aspect of Japanese society, but when it comes to basic manners and regard for other people, Japan seems so far ahead of HK that its embarrassing.

Nike are dicks

Wow - two of my favourite ranty topics in one post!

This latest news out of Blighty not only shows that some UK laws are absurb, but that Nike are also dicks. In summary, a guy buys a pair of Nike shoes off the internet. It turns out that those shoes are counterfeit shoes and are seized at the border. Nike is notified of these counterfeit shoes and decides to sue the customer. The customer says that he wasn't aware that the shoes were counterfeit but this doesn't matter as the law says that the customers intention is not relevant.

First off, I'm operating on the good faith assumption that the buyer really didn't know the shoes were fake. With that said - wow, its like the UK is trying to kill off sales of physical goods over the internet!

Granted, this is hyperbole but this case is a pretty clear warning to anyone buying something over the internet in the UK that they need to be careful. Regardless of what you thought you were buying, if it turns out to be fake, you are liable. Particularly if you were thinking of buying Nike shoes because Nike have proven that they are willing to take you to court even if you thought the shoes that you were buying were real.

Secondly. Nike - what are you doing? On face value, this is someone who was willing to pay money for your shoes and was likely to have paid more money for your shoes at a later date. By suing him, you have pretty much guaranteed that neither he nor his friends and family will ever buy Nike shoes again (as well as any people who read this news and sympathises with they guy).

Also, how does this help Nike sell more shoes? The thing is, I actually accept their argument that they can't fight the supply side. What I don't understand is how reducing demand for your goods will help you sell more of those goods. Bear in mind, this guy thought he was buying genuine Nike shoes.

And even if you go on the assumption that this guy knew he was buying a fake pair of Nike shoes, studies show that 46% of people buying fake goods will go on to buy the real thing within 2.5 years. Of course, that number is going to be a lot lower for Nike if they sue people left, right and centre! And even if people don't buy the fake goods, studies show that this doesn't mean that they will buy the genuine article either.

All in all, I only see this kind of action as having a negative consequence for Nike.

Full disclosure - all of my sports shoes are Nike brand. Genuine too (at least, I think they're genuine).

Gerry and Gordon down the local playground

Time for some more picture updates of the kids! In particular, I'm going to Japan next week and I need to get some of the older pictures out of the way before I start posting holiday pics!


What do you think we are doing in this picture? Despite appearances to the contrary, we are not waiting for a taxi. Gordon just wanted to look at the cars and all I'm doing is making sure he doesn't jump out into the street.

In hindsight, that sounds really boring. Next time, I'll make up a story!


Gordon is now at the age where he is fascinated by the camera. Ah, this brings back memories of giant close-ups of Gerry...


A rare family photo where Gordon is actually looking at the camera. You would be surprised how difficult it is to get kids to actually look at the camera and smile. Unless you have kids of course in which case you are probably wondering when I learnt to use Photoshop.


I don't know why but this picture makes me think of a movie poster.



Mummy and baby with a cheesy grin - tons of photos like this but its still good to see Gordon with a smile.

Newcastle United FC

By now, you will probably have heard that Hughton got the sack. This is despite him having managed to get Newcastle promoted to the Premiership at first go while also managing to get Newcastle in mid-table in the Prem. Granted, they aren't that many points clear of the relegation zone but considering that Liverpool, who have had a dreadful start to the season, are only 7 points off the CL palces (which amounts to just 3 games), its not a surprise that Newcastle are close to the bottom.

It's worth mentioning that he has achieved this with what is arguably a sub-standard group of players considering that a lot of pundits were predicting that Newcastle would struggle this season (with some people predicting relegation). Despite this, they have managed to pull off some impressive wins when they had a fully fit squad. But even more than this, the most incredible thing that Hughton had managed to do was bring stability to a club which seemed to careen from crisis to crisis (and have done so again now that Hughton has been removed).

With Hughton's removal, this means that, according to wikipedia, Newcastle will have changed managers 7 times over the course of a 3 year period. That's an average of just over 2 sacking's per year. Is it any wonder that this club struggles to do anything? Or that Mike Ashley is possibly the most hated man in Newcastle?

In a way, its a shame that this club is once more plunged into turmoil (although I'm sure that the owners would disagree, from the player and forum comments, it certainly seems that this is a club in crisis). Having said that, for such a ridiculous sacking, I hope NUFC get relegated.