Laser Zone, lunch on the beach and football...

For our last day in Brighton we took the boys to Laser Zone, the boys went in for the first game then me and Di joined them! I haven't played for years but it was great fun, I'm not sure if they have it in Japan but if they do I can see it in our future!

Then we headed down to the beach to meet Rob and we had lunch at the Lucky Beach Cafe which was delicious.

Ebi-kun decided to keep his tiger face on overnight, Ry wanted to keep his on too but he had gotten sweaty and most of it had rubbed off, he looked like he had a badly bruised face!

Birthday lunch and drinks on the beach, it never feels like you are on holiday until you have a fancy drink!

After lunch the boys went off to the Brighton Vs Atletico Madrid, even though Brighton lost they had a great time!

Di photobombing, makes a change from small boys doing it!

Ebi-kun loved it and had to give me a blow by blow account of the whole match *yawn* I'm really not that excited about football!

GOAL !!!

And whilst all that was going on, us moms had a nice mooch around the shops, stopped for fancy hipster coffee served in a milk bottle!

And the G&T on the deck whilst we waited for the boys to arrive home - bliss!

We finished off we a feast of fine food on the deck, great company and great weather! Can't wait to see these guys in a few months when they come to Japan.

Awashima shrine - enough to give you nightmares

The day we went to Tomogashima shrine, we also went to Awashima shrine. We had to wait to buy tickets for the boat so we wandered down to the shrine then hung out until the tickets went on sale.

I'll show you the nice photos first...

Ebi-kun looking very grown up! Where did my little boy go?

I think he is looking more like daddy these days too (daddy has been watching America's Next Top Model and picking up modelling tips, can you tell? lol)

Lots of these birds around too, I think they are kites but don't quote me on that! It was fun just watching them hunt.

OK, now down to the shrine, Awashima-jinja is apparently famous for it's girls day ritual of floating dolls on the seas for the girls day festival (March 3rd). Just outside the shrine there are some little store selling fresh fish and seafood, if you are into that, I will give it a pass...

The shrine is full of dolls and they are all grouped together, it is pretty darn spooky and would be a great setting for a horror movie.

On one side were these dolls and the other side had geisha dolls... I can imagine them all coming to life...

There was an area where all the Japanese gods were hanging out, some of these are happy looking fellas so not quite as spooky.

My mom, who hates cats, would be freaking at this little lot...

The tanuki I found quite amusing, I think because they have such a fun expression. In Japanese mythology, tanuki (raccoon dogs) are shape shifters and they have large testicles, I'm not sure if the two ideas are linked! There is a great Studio Ghibli film called Pom Poko which I highly recommend, all about the tanuki fighting against the humans who are destroying their habitat.

The shrine is also for 'women's troubles' so women who have fertility or other internal issues go to pray there. It's a 10 minute walk from the port where you catch the boat for Tomogashima and there is a bit more info about it Awashima-jinja here.