A few mishaps, cake and a bear.

Feeling suitably serene after our Temple night and 6am devotions, we left the enchanting village of Koyasan towards Lake Biwas, our next destination. 

A lovely mornings driving took us to the outstanding and beautifully conceived Miho museum. The whole thing was mesmerising; the approach, the building itself to the collection, all perfect. If you are ever in Japan do not miss it. I was particularly captivated by two carved figures: one 4,000 years old and the other, a woman with a leopard on her back, a mere 3,000.

The afternoon was uneventful. Pinking, but nothing more.

The karaoke kings, Walker and Evans snr, and the queen, me, crashed a group of Japanese having a party. We bonded and a great time was had is all I'm saying. The secrets of the karaoke room stay there.  Our new found friends were high fiving  us at breakfast. 

Yesterday morning took us into the Alps - an exquisitely beautiful area. All was going well. We stopped at a small theme parky village for lunch and set off in fine form. The very narrow roads were all steep climbs, sharp bends and dramatic descents.  Hard work for the driver in an old heavy vehicle. Pretty hard work for the 80 year old car, too. It needed all the nourishment it could get and obviously hadn't had enough breakfast and we ran out of petrol. The shame of it. It did happen in a very pretty place though and the only witnesses were car 14  who obviously had a good laugh about it. 

A few miles up the road it stopped again, for no apparent reason. We'd just realised that we had missed a turn somewhere and were feeling perplexed when along came Dean and Kendall in their Rolls - they were lost too.  Adrian noticed that they were leaking petrol. Whilst we were trying to work out where we were, car 1 came along as they too were confused. They set off whilst Dean ad Kendall stayed to help.  The Rolls needed gas and set off for some and re-filled our jerry can too., before returning. Some other rally cars came along and said we were on a tulip that we were sure we had passed some miles back. 

Car 1 came around again, and again and again  - 4 circles and with an increasingly agitated crew. I felt for them but things always get sorted out, eventually and it was a lovely sunny day. Adrian had changed the filter, which was actually clean, and  generally tinkered when, some unknown reason, we started again and off we set. We did end up retracing our steps but soon got back on track. 

A few miles later on a particularly narrow steep bit in the woods we conked out yet again. We could not have been in a more difficult spot as we were blocking the road. The lovely chaps in the Stag helped to push us to a spot where cars could just squeeze past and we waited for Simon and Gary, the mechanics who we knew were behind us. We were in bear country and felt the only thing to do was eat some of Treacy's cake and wait in the dank wood, where all was silent, hoping for some bear spotting. Later, car 14 claimed to have seen one, Jack told them it was probably Adrian. Lucky them though. 

Simon and Gary duly arrived, had some cake, which cheered them up no end had a little fiddle with the engine and we started. 

All was well. We drove on to our hotel, through a gorgeous and  perfectly preserved old village with no eventuality. A quick onsen bath for me, a great dinner and a wiff waff competition. A marvellous couple of days.  

Have I mentioned that I have to hold second gear in for engine breaking on the too many to mention steep descents?  Aged brakes do not like being used too much as they fade alarmingly - it happened on one very long descent yesterday and by the bottom our brakes had all but failed. Not entirely what you want. Adrian needs both hands for steering around the hairpins so it falls to me, who's arms are not quite long enough, to hold second gear in as it jumps out otherwise. I need an arm extension in order for it not to be uncomfortable. But then again, we're in Japan, it's FABULOUS, we are having a great time, so what's a little discomfort?