Mondays...

 I've had a really busy weekend, and been unable to be with Claire much, except for our morning walks, breakfast and hanging out the washing...so this morning Claire is extra smoochy, telling me she's missed me. She seldom offers me her belly to rub, but this morning things are different: she's draped across the floor in alluring poses and seducing me with loving looks. Meanwhile the backload of washing up, hoovering, water for the salamanders, taking out the trash and all the other chores that have piled up in my absence are waiting to be tackled, not to mention preparing for my Wednesday courses, so I skipped radio calisthenics, shortened our usual run, and now Claire is going to have to spend a morning sleeping on the carpet, I'm afraid.

Morning treats

It's lovely autumn weather and the pigeons are out happily searching for seeds in the autumn leaves...after Claire's stalked them for a while they sit up in the branches waiting for us to leave. For the first time she started yipping and barking with impatience, telling them to come down and play, and kept it up for quite a while. The morning doggie friends were quite surprised to hear her voice for the first time. On the way home we stopped off at a friend's house for a chat and for Claire to be petted and spoilt rotten- she loves it, and every walk she sits down in front of the gate with her tail wagging hoping my friend will be home and come on out to say hello. 

Hungry Claire

The only really satisfying thing about this video is the satisfying crunchy noises as Claire munches her salmon fish4dogs with gusto. We had a great day: a morning walk from 5:30 as usual, followed by jumping around with excitement at some fat pigeons in the garden, and an obedience class in the park-we worked on sit/down/up/stay/matte/here/heel and then went for a short walk to relax. Claire's definitely mastered down, and we're trying to get her to sit and down when I ask her to from afar, rather than just when I'm right next to her with a short leash. All that work has made her hungry - good girl!

A walk on the wild side

Just when I'm gearing up for my university courses, loading files in the moodle, scanning and editing, in a word BUSY, Claire decides to get in her element on our evening walk...mud, yippee. I had to get her straight into the shower, and then after washing out the mud with water, lather her up with Luminosa shampoo. She's not too keen on the process and sometimes jumps up on the bath lids and it takes me some time before i can coax her down again, meanwhile she's dripping soapsuds in the bath, so I have to clean that too! Fortunately not every time... i dry her off with two bathtowels, and now she's soft as thistledown, white as arctic snow, sweet as cherry-pie - our Claire.

Uda2 Dogcafe

After the outing yesterday we had a lazy Sunday and decided to check out another local dog cafe, Uda2cafe. We parked the car near Byoubugaura station and walked down to the corner of route 16. That's the only problem with the location: there's no parking really close by... I ensconced myself on the sofa and we settled in to enjoy a great spaghetti lunch with coffee-their aubergine bacon spaghetti had real pizzazz with lots of chili, and the noodles were al dente, just the way i like it.

The owner has his own band, Loozer, and we asked him to play his CD while we were having lunch. The music was heartfelt without being invasive or overpowering, reminding me of my own son who plays guitar, and I felt privileged to be given unguarded access to these young peoples' artistic space. Live music there too, apparently. Good stuff.

The cafe doubles as an art gallery, and there were lots of cool pictures on the walls: a sort of European Petit Prince aquarelle style meets manga taste, and I bought a Yuka Hamano postcard.

We got talking about the manga in the bookshelf, there were some quite rare gems including the full set of Moyashimon, plus Bakuman which features in  Shonen Jump now. I can see myself popping down with Claire to read Moyashimon, I did enjoy the first volume but it's really hard to find copies. We also chatted with the owner about games, and how we had enjoyed the Super Famicon era with Zelda, Final Fantasy 4 and 5 and Seikendensetsu. This cafe is unpretentious, arsty, comfy and fun-way to go!

Dog Cafe Marin and Cape Kannon

Tosh was looking for a fun excursion not too far from home and found Dog Cafe Marin. We left the Yokoyoko Expressway at the Yokosuka exit and drove for a short while to get there, really easy to find. It had a nice woody feel, spacious with generous room between tables and ample chairs. The fresh seafood on rice we had was so tempting neither of us could hold back to take pictures, going, going, gone! And very good it was, thank you. Apparently the winter menu is also great, and we met a couple celebrating their dog Ai's fourth birthday there- they come from Tokyo once a month, they said. There were free One Brand dog magazines, so we sat for a while reading, relaxing and enjoying the view of the surrounding hills. Inside the restaurant there was pretty hand made pottery on sale too, great use of blue, turquoise and whites.

We then drove on to Cape Kannon (Kannonzaki) for a refreshing sea walk- a quick run on the beach, followed by jumping over rocks, and then a longer walk round the Cape through a tunnel and up the hill, before we got back on to the newly made extension of the Yokoyoko to zap home in half an hour...just the right mix of easy distance and novelty experience we had hoped for. The pictures say it all: 

Claire jumping over the rocks with glee

Walking through the tunnel

A wooden replica of a cannon

Madame Butterfly

Kimono Magic

Claire and I walked down the hill to drop in at my favorite kimono store, Kurumaya. The store is named after the waterwheel, and I go there quite a bit to chat and check out their exquisite and reasonably priced wares. They're ever so friendly and gave me tea and biscuits, Claire a bowl of water - Claire herself just went to sleep on the floor waiting for me. I'm looking forward to autumn when I can go out somewhere in a kimono...not with Claire though, maybe, her doggie hairs would get all over the fabric and she'd probably drag me through cobwebs!
The picture below is taken in spring in Bairin, the local plum blossom park where Claire and I go walkies every morning. I'm wearing a Kurumaya original: a cherry bark dyed tsumugi kimono created especially by the store from famous local Ooka River cherry trees. http://www.kurumaya.tv/