So it looks like summer has arrived in Japan which means two things...English style picnics accompanied by bemused Japanese onlookers and gardening.

Maybe I should explain the latter; since coming to Japan I've really noticed, and missed the lack of green open spaces. There is no garden of any description at my apartment, unless you count a concrete forecourt but I am surrounded by other people's vegestable patches and in a true 5-year old "I want what they've got" mentality I have decided to try and grow tomato plants...in a window box. (I figure these can't be that different from those grow bags.) So, on Thursday, off I trotted to Japan's answer to Homebase to pick up what have already become a very important part of my life. Sad, sad, sad. I'll keep you posted on their progress. The current situation being that I fear for their potential sweetness having being flooded by 24 hours of torrential rain. I suppose I should have bought them inside but it meant carrying a muddy, and now sodden, box over my tatami mats which would then inevitably need cleaning. Really wasn't worth the hassle. So much for summer and those green fingers!