The joy of Toyota. No really.

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Thursday started out well enough with a relatively normal visit to the Tokugawa Art Museum and gardens in Nagoya. Took lots of pictures of us posing with umbrellas next to waterfalls, admired ancient swords and tea caddies. That sort of thing. Took a long walk through Nagoya and ate some fish and chips at The Hub, Nagoya's British theme pub. Food actually very good, if a bit on the small size, beer also good but very expensive at 900 yen a pint (nearly 5 pounds). We had noticed the rain coming down but still decided to venture out and meet some friends for a few drinks. In an attempt to out do each other on who came from the most racially tolerant society (such witty sophisticated remarks as my 'I suppose you are whoever you say you are' surely the high point of the increasingly booze fuelled garbage) no one paid too much attention to the monsoon worthy rain pounding outside. By the time they kicked us out the rain was torrential and we were soaked through by the time we reached the station. No matter we thought as we boarded the JR home. We waited. We sat. The train did not move. The lady of the group (not mentioning names poor girl) threw up several times. We waited some more. An hour passed. The Japanese man on the tanoy was apparently saying that the weather was too bad to go anywhere. 1 o clock was creeping around and no one wanted to sit in wet clothes on a stationary train all night so we somehow managed to hail a taxi and drove, slowly, cautiously in to the floods. Apart from our young lady friend vomitting in to an umbrella this was going quite well until the taxi driver casually drove straight throw a police tape clearly indicating 'Do not cross'. As we amused ourselves with the fact that the police tape was now wrapped around the car like bunting at a wedding it became apparent that the little Toyota was indeed afloat and drifting off at a crazy angle. Rememberig the 'Top Gear' advice (nothing will stop a Toyota engine from working) we carry on and, unbelievably, we make it through the flood water without damaging either ourselves or anyone else. There is much clapping and the Taxi driver is chuffed to bits. Exclamations such as 'Japanese cars number 1!' and 'Toyota car best in the world!' follow us all the way back to the flat which is, fortunatley, still dry. Due to a combination of wetness, exhaustion and booze I am ill for the next three days but it did make me laugh a great deal. Photos coming soon.

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