Our first pregnancy ultrasound...

...before you run out to buy cute outfits and grab your knitting needles, we have to explain.

So, having purchased a bottle of Australian Bundaberg Rum as a gift for Jo and Nate, we got to the station. "She looks a bit porky" we thought of our normally slim friend. No, Jo is actually 5 months pregnant! This means she now has slowed down to have the energy of a normal person rather than 2...

This morning part of our culture exchange was to visit a hospital. Exciting things about the hospital were:
- you get a little plastic sleeve when you enter to put your umbrella in
- instead of buying tea and coffee from a kindly old lady in a canteen, you buy a hot can or hot bottle of tea from a cabinet
- the toilets have a full control panel of options including: warm; flushing noise; spray; wash; strong deodorising. Kara was too scared to try the washing options so opted for a warm seat that made a flushing noise to cover untoward sounds and then she hit the deodorise button to see what happened.

Of course, the most exciting about being in hospital was being allowed to see Jo and Nate's little baby on the ultrasound screen. Very very cute.

Family mission
Before we came to Japan, Martin's dad asked us if we would mind looking into something...his grandfather had been an engineer with Armstrongs in the late 1800s. He had been involved in building battleships that were commissioned by the Japanese Navy. Family belief was that he had actually served in the Japanese Navy for a bit and also that there was a memorial to British involvement in the 1904 Russo-Japanese war.

So, using our recently activated Japanese Rail Passes, we got on a couple of trains to Yokosuka, to visit the Mikasa Battleship, which is now a museum.

A series of fortunate things happened. First, we asked questions in the ticket shop. Their English wasn't good enough to understand us but... then a gentleman walked in. Who spoke fluent English. And obviously knew A LOT about Japanese naval history. He told us he'd give us a guided tour of the ship.

These are some of the things we learnt:
- that a Japanese characteristic is to learn from the best. So when they realised they needed a navy they went to the best to learn - the British
- this means that Japanese naval terminology is full of un-Japanese words eg "oshpot" which is "washpot"
- the Japanese commissioned 6 battleships from the UK, all of which were used in the 1904 war
- the British and Japanese were allies then, and the British helped a lot (eg not letting the Russian fleet dock in British colonies on their way to Japan etc)
- the 2 ships built by Armstrongs were called "Yashima" "Hutsuse"
- unfortunately the only 2 ships lost in this war were the ones made by Armstrong
- the Mikasa was the ship of Admiral Togo, whose tactics helped win the war
- we found a shield dedicated to the help of the British engineers in building the ship.

Lots of unanswered questions still, but our guide said Martin's dad could get in touch with him.

The man showing us round was a retired submarine captain who had been involved in setting up the Mikasa as a museum. His name was Greg and he told us that throughout his career he had worked in the US and as a US liaison because "I don't speak the Queen's English!". But how did he learn US English? He explained, "After World War 2 and during the American occupation, we had nothing, nothing. I was 5 years old and wanted to have toys. The American kids out here had toys. I learnt English so I could play with them!"

A day round Tokyo
Yesterday was spent in Tokyo again. In the rain. Boo!

However, we did lots of cool stuff:
- went to the electronic district, Akihabara. Wow. Martin's 12 year old self was in geek heaven. Kara didn't appreciate it so much, which led Martin to grump "I should have come here with Dave".
- we went to a museum. Kara liked it. Lots of interactive stuff about the history of Tokyo.
- we went shopping. Kind of. We picked up some snacks in a supermarket. When we got home, Jo said "Why have you bought sea urchin flavoured crisps?"
- the supermarket was soooo cool. We don't even know what half the stuff in there was.
- Jo took us out to dinner at a place where you pick your food from the 3d models, then go to a machine with photos of your meal on. Then you press the button for your food, pay and get a ticket. You then sit down at the table and your meal is bought to you.

Today has begun well, despite the SNOW last night and soon we are off out for our next adventure with Jo... discursive English class with fluent English speakers. The subjects: articles from Time magazine. Fingers crossed they don't hone in on that one about EU economic policy...