Ikkyuu Hot Spring

Tomomi, Seiji, and darling Mana-chan took us to a new hot spring complex close to Kyoto International Chapel for "chabu-chabu" and a delicious meal. Tomomi and I lived together for nearly four years, so it was wonderful to catch up with special friends and introduce them to Wayne xx

Geisha

Each night, while walking through the back alley-ways of Gion, we were lucky enough to come across Geisha!

Okuda Ryokan

We booked into a traditional inn for our first two nights in the Gion District of Kyoto. It was great fun sleeping on tatami and drinking green tea in our yukata :)

Kansai Rendez-vous

Wayne and I were blessed with the most incredible timing of our respective business trips overlapping in Asia so that we could rendez-vous in Kansai for a few days!!! Our second honeymoon was another dream xx These are photos of Nishiki, the local fish markets, which we wandered through three times!

Japanese Cuisine

Karen found a superb restaurant for us to celebrate the success of the Lifestyle Weekend. One review describes it as "Japanese country-style dining raised to an artform." The robatayaki (grilled seafood and vegetables) restaurant in Roppongi was delicious and great fun with the waiters dressed in traditional costumes shouting out each order in unison.

New Zealand Paradise Week 2007

I loved having Aki, a friend from my uni days in Kyoto, pop by Roppongi Hills Arena while in Tokyo over the weekend! It was encouraging to have her appear amongst the crowd of 17,000 people to help me relax and enjoy the event :)

Roppongi Hills Arena

New Zealand Paradise Week 2007, the largest New Zealand promotional event yet to be staged in Japan, was predominantly funded by the Ministry of Culture and Heritage’s Cultural Diplomacy International Programme (CDIP). The festival was made up of three elements; the VIP Gala Dinner to launch New Zealand Paradise Week 2007 on 16 November, a two-day outdoor event at Roppongi Hills Arena over the weekend of 17-18 November, and a week of ancillary activities organized by NZ Inc agencies and businesses from 19-25 November.

The highlight of New Zealand Paradise Week 2007 was undoubtedly the two-day outdoor event held in the up-market area of Roppongi Hills Arena. The venue was transformed into a New Zealand themed environment with a forest, waterfall and suspension bridge via which visitors accessed the arena. Tourism Minister Damien O'Connor officially opened the weekend with New Zealand Ambassador to Japan Ian Kennedy, Japanese Ambassador to New Zealand Toshihiro Takahashi, and popular Japanese actor and singer Katsunori Takahashi. Takahashi’s appearance and talk show regarding his holidaying experiences to New Zealand insured good media coverage and an excellent turn out for the opening ceremony on Saturday morning. Throughout the weekend visitors were entertained by a line-up of cultural stage performances complemented by catwalk shows as they enjoyed New Zealand beef, lamb, cheese, honey, wine, beer and ice cream. The performers included Hayley Westenra, Strike, Hinewehi Mohi, Rangimarie, Rhombus, Nesian Mystik, Kat McDowell and Japan-based kapa haka Nga Hau E Wha.

The weekend broke Roppongi Hills Arena’s attendance record with 17,000 visitors, greatly exceeding expectations and the original target of 10,000 visitors. Attendance on Saturday alone exceeded 10,000 people setting a new record for numbers visiting the arena in one day. The response from the public was much more than many of the New Zealand companies had bargained for, such that food and beer ran out at various times. Nippon Beer reported to the New Zealand Embassy that "they had used up their entire stock of Tui and Montheiths beer for the whole of the Kanto region in just one weekend and had had to place a special order to get stock shipped up from the Kansai region to be able to stock the New Zealand Travel Café for the rest of Paradise Week."

For more photos of New Zealand Paradise Week 2007 please access http://www.flickr.com/. Click “sign in” on the top right hand corner of the screen. Then log in as Username: purenzjapan@yahoo.com with Password: nzparadise07