A day of sightseing and prep for the conference!

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Well another good day but not as long as yesterday - just returned to the hotel at 9.30pm. Today has been a mixed one - being our day off before a full weekend of lectures we spent the bulk of the day sightseeing with a lovely man called Pepi who first took us to the fish market - some interesting buys to be had ranging from dehydrated squid to wasabi ice cream to the ever controversial whale meat ("Comes from scientific programmes" - I was told). Needless to say I declined even after being told "it tastes just like beef!" After this we headed for the amazing Shensoji (largest Buddhist temple in Tokyo) before having some "tempura" for lunch (deep fried seafood served on sticky rice) and then finished the day by going up the "Skytree" which at one time at 600m was the largest building in the world (before being eclipsed by the building in Dubai). Still impressive stuff at 450m in the viewing gallery with amazing views! We had one alarming moment when we asked Pepi if we could take the "bus boat" to the Buddhist temple and he rang to check for departure times and relayed back to us (calm as you like) "There are no boat sailings today as there has been an earthquake in Chile and a Tsunami is expected any time soon!" Apparently a Tsunami hit but was very small!!! This certainly made us take note of the evacuation signs on each street which until this time had been blending into the normal street signs in the area!

Tonight we have been rehearsing our presentations for the weekend as we have 2 full days of presentations now so an early start with a meeting with our translator Sami and then straight into day 1! Wish us well and I will update you all tomorrow evening!

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