I've been feeling inspired and working hard at the piano and my pupils are all coming back from their holidays so it's starting to feel like summer is ending.

It's still EXTREMELY hot here in Japan though and I felt like I needed to do something that would be fun and also cool me down before the holidays were over. I wanted to do something called hydro-speeding which is like body surfing down a river but apparently there weren't enough people to do the tour so I ended up going "canyoning".

Basically it's trekking down a stream in the mountains which means going (sliding or jumping!) down water falls. It's interesting what the tour company puts on their website. NO one on the tour knew what they were in for - including me!! At one point we had to go down a cliff with a harness - the cliff being 20m high!I think there would be even fewer people coming if they knew what the tour was about!

Also no one realized that we would have to trek up the mountain first in wet suits. Can you imagine having to trek up quite a steep mountain in wetsuits in temperatures well over 30 degrees!!!? Anyway, once we arrived at the first waterfall,everyone was happy. It was SOOOOO beautiful and the water was so refreshing. There were so many times when we were all saying "you've got to be joking!!" as there were many unexpected and scary moments but in the end it was great great fun.

I am feeling refreshed and am now ready to go back to work!