Settling back at home

Today begins five and a half weeks of the rest of the school holidays. The stay-at-home part of the holidays. We did the vast majority of our unpacking and putting away of camping stuff yesterday afternoon, after arriving here at 4pm. Living in a small house without spare, covered outdoor space means that it's best if we don't just leave things lying around. Our habit is to unpack as soon as possible after arriving home. David's been washing clothes and sleeping bags and other stuff all day, it's good drying weather.

I've been playing catch-up at my desk. Catching up with many magazine and mission things that need to be done early this week. Getting my head back in the game. Which isn't as hard as it usually is because I've been checking email and tracking with at least part of the magazine over the time we were away. I usually guard my time-off better than that, but this time it was unavoidable as we tried to get the Spring issue of the magazine out before the end of July (summer)! However it's had the effect of meaning that it hasn't been so hard to get back into work today. I'll just have to remember to get some rest at other times (not having to get people to school and work by 8/8.30 will help, though).

Putting this here as a reminder of all the green we saw.
These are rice plants and I've never seen so many in Japan
before. I guess I've not travelled so much in the country at
this time ever before. I never get tired of looking at this
amazing green!

For breaks between work today I've been downloading and editing photos from our trip. Some really nice photos and memories! Though it's a pity I was still learning how to use the camera as I went, because some photos would have been a lot better if I'd had the right settings on the camera.

It's a bit quieter here than usual this week as our eldest has gone to a high school summer camp, he left early this morning and won't be back till Saturday evening. I'll have to remember not to cook so much food!

I'm not particularly enjoying Tokyo's humidity, though it's not so hot today (only around 30C), it feels oppressively humid (70/80%). Probably, though, by the end of the summer I will have acclimatised and won't be bothered so much. Last night it barely cooled at all, sticking around the high 20s all night, so I was up much early than I would have preferred.

Some people were concerned that we'd be too hot camping, but we really weren't. There were a couple of hot nights, but mostly we were up on mountains or next to water with a breeze. Plus there was lots of rain, which tends to hold the heat in check. Kyoto had been hot, but the day we were there it was rainy and pleasantly cool. There was only one night that I didn't pull the sleeping bag up a little over me at some point in the night (we slept on sheets and used the sleeping bag as a blanket).