Awesome Asian adventures!

Hello everyone how is your week going? 

All is good here in Thailand and I am thankful for it.
Happy Friendship Friday!

. Our newspapers announced that winter had officially started.

Not so you'd officially know it, but thinking about it, I've been less of a sweaty mess!

And last weekend I had to jump in the pool quickly as it was quite chilly.

We've not long been back from Japan where we had an amazing holiday.

We got caught up in Typhoon Hagibis
which caused widespread devastation and loss of life across Japan.
Here's my tribute to the staff at the Imperial, Tokyo,
we are grateful for their care and attention during Japan's worse storm in living memory: 

Impeccable, Imperial Hotel 

Imperial Hotel, Tokyo

We had been in Japan to watch the World Cup Rugby.

Our match England v France was cancelled because of the storm

However, by Sunday, everything was calm and beautiful in Tokyo.

Imperial Palace gardens and surrounds, Tokyo

We really enjoyed our wander around the city and even found a rugby shine. 

Here fans were encouraged to go and pray that their team won. 

Our English friends did that earlier in the week, so we thought we had it covered. 

Of course, we said to them later they said the wrong prayer. ..

They should have prayed that England played their match. 

A loss to France would have been better than coming all that way and not to see them play at all!

World Cup Rugby Shrine, Tokyo

All eyes were on the news to see whether the Sunday matches would be able to be played
and in particular the Japan v Scotland match.

That evening we wandered out to the bars and restaurants in Ginza
to find that every restaurant with a TV screen was fully booked.

We were just about to dejectedly traipse back to our hotel room
when a Japanese family invited us to squeeze onto their table.

It was an exciting match and when Japan won, we all hugged as if we'd known each other forever.
They told us we were their good luck and insisted on buying our dinner
Wasn't that amazing?

A lot has been said about how this World Cup Rugby tournament as a test for
 the upcoming 2020 Olympic games.
I'm excited for Japan 2020, it all points to a wonderful Olympics.

Back in Thailand now we had the pleasure of being invited to the British Club, Bangkok
for the next match of interest England v Australia.
That was always going to be a win-win for me having both passports!

British Club, Bangkok

It's been a busy week for me as the Tourism Authority of Thailand, free guidebook
Me, Myself & Thailand for solo female travel in Thailand has been published.

I had previously been invited to join a product testing trip for Nan Province,
one of the destinations featured and I have been excited to finally write about this.
Also a subsequent solo travel trip, I undertook with the Ban Laem Community of Suphanburi.
You can read more about it here and in my upcoming posts.

Photo credit: Richard Barrow

Other than this I was happy to spend a lovely afternoon
watching a full dress rehearsal for the upcoming Royal Barge Procession.
This is the final event of the Coronation of King Rama X to be held on December 12.

There will be over 2000 oarsmen and over 50 barges.
I had expected the barges to be simply stunning in their elegance and beauty but it was the intensity of the rhythmic barge rowing songs that will stay with me forever.
You can view my video of this event and listen in on my Instagram page here

Happy wanderings!

Thank you to Angie at Mosaic Monday and Michelle for hosting Thankful Thursday

Linking with Our World Tuesday thanks to Lady Fi and all the hosts.