Day 2 of the conference

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And day 2 has been completed! Another good session with Tricia delivering the work that really gets her excited - governance - don't judge her too harshly as several of the audience seemed as animated as she was...and I talked about the inequalities that exist in palliative care and used the session to offer dozens of challenges but again managed to name drop a few DH staff and quoted our boss several times when talking about innovation and pioneering attitudes. Overall a good day and we are hoping that the applause and thanks were genuine and not just Japanese etiquette! Certainly we exchanged several more business cards and received a couple of generous gifts too (did no one read my blog about the lack of space in my suitcase?). The plan now is to have supper and then tomorrow we catch the bullet train to Nagoya (southern Honshu island and about 250km from here) to visit 2 more centres, spend the night in the city there (it is very close to Toyota - I couldn't remember how to spell Toyota so just name checked it by looking out the hotel window at their head office a mile or so away!) before taking the train to Kamakura (a seaside town of temples and wooded hills which was the administrative capital of Japan from 1185-1333) for a morning of sight seeing and trying to find some inner calm in one of the 65 Zen Buddhist temples before a speedy return to Tokyo (phew who said that this was jolly!). I hope to update you all tomorrow evening and hope you all had good weekends - not long until we are back Ruth!

Regards - Wayne and Tricia



PS Other things that I will miss from Japan - enormous frogs on the paths in the park at night when walking in the dark (and I mean enormous), high tech toilets which deodorise, run tinkling water to hide the sound of your ablutions, offer a choice of 2 bidet options and several power jet settings, warm the seat and automatically raise and lower the seat and warning not to sit too long due to the risk of scalding - I kid you not, bento boxes - lunch will never be the same again and we need to branch out with a Bento Box DH shop!

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