Some people my wife knows remove rubbish from the river once a month so I went along to experience something new again.

Here is the Asagawa River in Kanazawa with the snowy mountains in the distance. The land is quite flat until you hit the mountains.

I had wellington boots but my wife had waders to go out into the river. I felt a bit humiliated walking around the edge collecting small pieces of litter. But a couple of passers by showed appreciation of my work.

After around 1.5 hours it seemed like we had gathered most of the rubbish and we had recovered some interesting stuff including brand new Walkmans, remotes and cables.

We left the stuff in bags for collection by the refuse people the next morning. Strangely, the people I was with didn’t keep any of the items even though the video cables were better than the ones I later saw in their appartment and one of the remotes was new and priced at 3,000 yen which is around $18 (£15) ??? I thought they seemed ok being in sealed packaging.

In Japan people have to take certain items to a special reclamation area and cannot leave outside with the usual junk. So, some throw these items into the river.

Later on the process was to light lanterns across the river side. Here, the girls are pouring rape seed oil into the burners for the lanterns. And here are the lanterns glowing in the night:

I wondered how long we had to stay with the lanterns but thankfully, it started to rain and we had to pack up and go for a party of food and drinks

The people were artistic types into dance, meditation and stuff so I didn’t understand much about what went on that day but I enjoyed some weird food and some laughs in the apartment. I made a big mistake in letting a red hot chilli pepper into my mouth which made my lips and tongue burn for a while though.

Anyway, I will need to back to the river people since they have got a contact that can help me become “an agent from God” in wedding ceremonies and earn some extra income.

Here’s their website: River Cleaning - they don’t get many visitors so if you have time, please check it out.

We went to a cultural experience with people that like to mix with foreigners where we were taught how to make Japanese sweets.

These sweets are not particularly sweet but made to look nice for use as gifts. You can find lots on display in gift shops and department stores.

The chef showed us how to mould the paste and fashion it into sytlish sweets. Here is the result:

Armed with my International Driving Permit obtained in the UK, I am able to drive.

In Japan everyone drives automatics on the left side of the road. The roads in the city look very similar so it seems hard to learn where you are based on landmarks. Also people drive slowly in fear of being booked for speeding. The narrow side streets make micro cars very popular since they are narrow and have cheap insurance. Since you can’t make much use of high performance, it seems best to have a practical car that’s good for shopping.

We have a Suzuki Wagon R micro car which has a 660cc petrol engine, 4WD and automatic gearbox. The gear shift is American style using a level near the steering wheel and the parking brake is via a push pedal rather than a hand brake lever.

For me, this car is very slow, easy to drive and very practical since it is a boxy design with a large amount of headroom and the seats fold flat to give a large rear boot space.

Driving on the road is straightforward as long as you look out for the traffic lights which are high up in the air on the far side of a crossing. When you turn at traffic signals, there is often a green light for people to cross the road so you have to watch out for them and wait.

On the side roads, solid lines across the road mean you need to give priority to vehicles coming from the side roads.

In contrast to the UK, cyclists must use the pavement. But they use shopping bikes with bells rather than racers and mountain bikes.

Filling up with fuel is interesting since the attendants shout greetings and offer great cusomer service, wiping down your windows etc.

Last time I went to Nagano where they held the previous winter Olympics. Unfortunately, as a beginner, this was a bit tough for me and I managed to break my collar bone and end up in hospital. But this time, I requested a more beginner-friendly area which turned out to be near Nagano but much less scarey slopes. So I stared by tumbling out of the chair lift but after that the confidence grew very quickly. In the end me and my son Carlos were doing some great runs down challenging terrain but our legs definately needed a rest. Lessons of the past taught me to quit while I was enjoying and tired to avoid getting injured again. So we then, enjoyed a hot spring bath surrounded by snow and a nice meal before the long drive back home.

I made the mistake of coming to Japan and learning Japanese when I landed. Unfortunately, you must learn the ancient symbols first and like a dummy, I packed my “how to do business in Japan” book and left my conversational Japanese book at home. So everyday, I have to say whether I love the food (”Oishi desu) I am given or mumble something to try and explain that it is a bit unusual and I don’t really want extra helpings the next day delivered by well-meaning neighbours