The owl cafe.

The UK seems far away but we wake to find there's a couple of dozen e-mails this morning about the local election results in England. The far right has done well.  This is what happens when an economy slows and the cost of living goes up. The government according to the post mortems is in danger of satisfying no one but trying to placate everyone.

Many things in Japan are different. What for example is an owl cafe ? Is it a C-A-T cafe but with owls ? Do they have insurance in case customers are pecked ? I'm not sure I'm happy with this concept. I'd like to know whether the owls are happy with this. We had owls in a barn in Scotland and I can attest to the fact they smell.

Breakfast in the hotel starts at six thirty. We share the lift down to the lobby with two ladies in kimonos. I've never been this close to someone in a kimono before and I'm guessing they started getting ready a good couple of hours ago. They are soon joined in the breakfast room by two gentlemen in tails.

We have a table to ourselves outside. For those brought up in the north of Europe  the temperature seems warm but the other hotel guests peer at us through the plate glass wondering what sort of idiots would want to have breakfast sitting out in the cold. A swan regally paddles backwards and forwards on the water outside. Moorhens and cormorants also provide entertainment. 

A nearby shopping mall has a feline space theme.

By ten the wedding crowds are building up. Passers by stop to take photos. The hotel has its own Shinto shrine which is located on the third floor and is connected to the lobby by a extraordinarily long and narrow escalator. Brides and grooms are carefully positioned on this by photographers determined to secure that 'perfect' shot. Escalators and bridal trains raise fears in my mind about potential 'incidents' but I seem to be alone in this concern.

For us today is a day for lazing around and trying to forget the strange sensation in our inner ears that tells us we're still lurching around at sea.

Soap : https://theconversation.com/how-does-soap-keep-you-clean-a-chemist-explains-the-science-of-soap-247559

Well I never :https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-science/did-the-ancient-egyptians-paint-the-milky-way-on-their-coffins/

The Mediterranean :https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/zanclean-mega-flood-mediterranean-animated-video

Found in the inbox this morning :https://www.highlandcoasthotels.com/