Chateaux en Irlande

I went home for Golden Week (the week-long string of Japanese public holidays in April/May), and it ended up being just the tonic. I completely relaxed, despite a hectic social schedule, and came back to Japan refreshed and over the anxiety that the quake and constant aftershocks had created in me. We've had about 10 significant aftershocks since GW and none of them has ruffled my feathers, not even the one where the early-warning alarm went off in the middle of the night: I didn't open my eyes!

I had so much fun back in Ireland. The weather was amazing and the long days made me feel energized and eager to fit as much in to my flying visit as possible. In the end, the holiday took on an unintentional castle /stately home theme; certainly something you don't get much of over here in Tokyo.

We celebrated my Mam's 70th birthday at Clontarf Castle. It was a great meal with even better company. It was one of the best family events in recent memory for me and just thinking back to it now brings a smile to my face.










I also walked down memory lane with my friend and took of a tour of Dublin Castle in the city centre, a place where we had both been tour guide many moons before. It was weird going back and the old place looked a little rough around the edges, but it holds many precious memories.







On one of the really fine late-spring days I took a spin into Wicklow with my sister to visit Avondale House and take a seemingly never ending trek - it got a little Blair Witch Project at one point - around the forest and river running through the grounds.











It's a cliche, but I do forget how unbelievably green the little island is.





Ireland had it's Sunday best on that day, so we even managed a late-afternoon stroll along Brittas Bay. It was great to see the sea, and our beaches really aren't all that bad on the days when you're not being attacked by driving wind and horizontal sheets of grey rain.





One final little fun photo from my trip: so we have this infamous childhood photo of me and my two siblings dressed in matching onesies from some time in the mid-80s.


We had great notions of recreating the photo in the present day, but it all went a bit pear-shaped because we never got round to buying the adult-sized onesies and had to unceremoniously snap a shot on my last night in the country. We got the positioning all arseways on the first attempt, and I was so tired from all the parties and travelling and whatnot that I could barely keep my head up. But the spirit is there, even if I am doing a convincing impression of the brown Jamie Lee Curtis.




Like I said, fun, fun times.