Hawking around

Howdy all
Just checking in with everyone to say hi! It's the first day of Autumn in Japan but it's been hot again. C'est La Vie I gues! Nevertheless I think we'll be seeing a cooling down over the next few weeks. School is about to go into exams, and I have started working on a new book, so more info on that soon. I will be revisiting my time in Ethiopia in the first of a new series called 'Short Journeys'.

Amazing birds

Yesterday I journeyed down to Ishinomaki to go and see a movie (Star Trek: Into Darkness) which I very much enjoyed. I'd heard bad things but I was happily surprised. I ventured down with a friend, Kevin, and we met my wife at the station (she had been in Sendai). It looks like a really nice interesting place, it was devastated by the tsunami in 2011 but we didn't head to the coast.

A hawk in flight!

The road we took to get there though was quite treacherous, on the top of a cliff high above a river on a road that was broken in parts and sloping down towards the river in others. We were lucky that on that stretch of road we didn't pass a single vehicle. Actually, the condition of the road was probably why no-one was using it.
A bit further on and we saw a bunch of hawks swooping around beautifully in the sky. It was quite a sight. Big, beautiful birds.

Ishinomaki harbour.

At Ishinomaki we had dinner at 'Big Boy', an American chain I have never visited although there is one here in Ichinoseki too. Their salad and soup bar was good value, as it was all you can eat. We also briefly visited the harbour for a quick snap! Took in the movie and went back via a different route. The heavens opened and kaboom! We were well and truly dumped on! The rain was so heavy it became very dangerous, and yet people in this part of the world don't seem to think they should stop tail-gating or turn the high beams off! Well, that's driving in Japan for you!

Bog boys at Big Boy!

Next week I hope to return, because the place looks interesting and there is a Manga Museum there I am keen to see. So stay tuned.
AND if you have any interests in my travel writing, don't forget the website now up and running.
The writings detail the journey I undertook from Dhaka to Dakar (Bangladesh to Senegal)  and you can buy the twenty chapters individually for Kindle via Amazon, or it's also compiled into three volumes -Asia, Europe and Africa. If you like the blog, please consider!
Thanks!

Dhaka to Dakar the website