Nutz: Chasing a Noodle

I used to be indecisive... now I'm not so sure. 

Japan

Welcome to the Japan blog archive, containing all of my recent blogs about this subject.


 

Japan Day 7 (Part 1) - Ninjas Wielding Tissues

I have once again separated my daily blog off into two parts. So, lets get the half-sensible bit over with first before I go into my mode of silliness and stupidity (otherwise known as "Alastair's normality time") in part 2 (below this).

Today we visited Togakushi, up in the mountains of Nagano. This involved a 45 minute journey up the mountain roads, including one particular bit of road that I likened to driving through a greenhouse (photograph 1), but without the opportunity to stick your arm out of the window to grab a handful of tasty tomatoes. That particular roof structure was built to stop the snow settling on the road, which would make the road implausible… err, no, sorry, I mean impassable.

Once we arrived at Togakushi, we queued up to have lunch at the Togakushi Soba Restaurant - "the home of soba in Japan". Soba is a type of thin Japanese noodle made from buckwheat flour. To quote from the menu, "it is said that soba was first brought to Togakushi by apprentice monks at the close of the Heian Era about 800 years ago". Photograph 2 shows Mark and Sayaka keeping warm infront of the heater at the front of the restaurant. Photograph 3 shows the food that we ordered - soba noodles, together with broth. Their instructions for eating say that you should "pick up four or five noodles, dip the bottom 1/3 of the noodles in the broth and then eat them with a hearty slurp". Yes, that's right, you have to make a slurping sound in order to eat them properly (whooohooo!). To go with this dish, we also had a plate of tempura (what I would describe as "battered stuff" - see photograph 4). This included shrimps, sweet potato, mushrooms, asparagus and runner bean - all battered.

After devouring our soba lunch, we had a little walk around the nearby area. The first thing we came across was a little well, where I was able to 'cleanse' my hands (photograph 5). We then climbed the steps up to the Togakushi Shrine (photograph 6) where Mark and I engaged in what can only be described as a "very small and pathetic snowball fight" (there wasn't much snow and we both missed each other). Opposite the temple was a 700 year old tree (photograph 7).

After walking back down the steep steps, we got back into the car and headed further up the road towards a little Ninja Village - it was surprisingly easy to spot!! Within this little village area was an old ninja temple, which housed original historical items from the era of the ninjas. There was also a little workshop to the side, with all sorts of useful items brilliantly carved and constructed out of wood. It really made me think about how everything is given to us on a plate these days.

After looking around this area, Mark and I headed towards the Ninja House, taking a photograph of ourselves as Ninjas on the way (photograph 8). The Ninja Fun House is a building that is essentially a maze, with hidden walls, compartments, passageways, stairs, etc - all very nicely and cleverly built. A few of the hidden doors were especially difficult to find. Photograph 9 is of my backside as I tried to clamber up the sloped floor to the door at the top, in a 'sneaky ninja way' (that failed badly). Damn, I've got a great bottom though, haven't I!

Photograph 10 shows the Ninja Fun House on the right, with a weird tower building on the left (you go into it and it starts shaking as if you're in an earthquake). Having enjoyed the delights of the ninja village, we headed back down the mountain roads.

That's it for part 1 of today's blog. Read on (below the photographs) for part 2… Let the stupidity begin...

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Japan Day 7 (Part 2) - Spinach and Bras

Remember, remember the 5th of November. Well, actually, no, don't remember that date at all, you fools! Here in Japan it's 'remember, remember, the 30th of November'. It obviously took Guy Fawkes a bit longer to get to Japan... Incidentally, that was Mark's joke - I borrowed it - thanks Mark! (crap joke, wasn't it!)

Today, I noticed an interesting similarity between South Africa and Japan. That is to say that their road workers work in similar ways. How many Japanese road workers does it take to repair a road? Three - one to repair the road and two to stand on either side of the coned-off area, waving flags. Photograph 1 of this section shows what I mean. I noticed the same thing in South Africa. Mark explained that this happens in Japan because they like to give jobs to people, to get them working rather than being unemployed. Some of them have even evolved their abilities - they can beckon you on with one hand, whilst waving the flag with the other (multi-talented)!

After our earlier trip to Togakushi (detailed in part 1 of today's blog - if you haven't read it, WHY NOT!?!?!?). We headed to Starbucks for a while to do some work and listen to more Christmas music (and gawp at more women). I felt festive today from the very start, so I ordered my first piece of Christmas Cake of this new, and soon-to-be over-long and annoying, Christmas season. Photograph 2 shows my Raspberry Christmas Cake, which tasted... nothing at all like Christmas cake. It was like a raspberry sponge cake - very nice, but not festive. ARE YOU LISTENING STARBUCKS?? Your Christmas Cake is NOT Christmassy! In fact, it's about as Christmassy as the Easter Bunny dressed as a pumpkin with 3.14 written on the side (pumpkin pi)… clever one that, eh!

Ok, on to our evening meal, before I get back to more stupidity. We went to Poco-a-Poco (so good, they named it twice). There we ate pizza (photograph 3) and a creation called OmRice (photograph 4). The Japanese are very clever people - who would have thought of the idea of getting cooked rice in a bowl…. and placing an omelette on the top. Then, not content with sitting back in glee at their cleverness, they went that extra step further and named it OmRice. Genius. Very tasty, too. After those two courses, I felt as stuffed as a taxidermist's workshop. Mark, however, was still going (the greedy b*stard) and he ordered an egg custard dessert. Photograph 5 shows his dessert (together with Sayaka eating in the background). HA - I did it - another photo in my blog of someone eating!

As we were leaving Poco-a-Poco (so good, they named it twice), we spotted some weird fruit shaped halloween ornaments sitting in a bowl on a table (photograph 6). The owner of Poco-a-Poco (so good, they named it twice) (ok, that's getting annoying now!) told us that they had grown these large pear-shaped fruits (calabash) for over a year until they had become huge. They then cut the insides out and made halloween faces out of them. Superb!

My final photograph of the day was taken on the way home, when we stopped at a 24 hour convenience store (how convenient!). Photograph 7 is therefore of…. no, go on, you guess…. yes, that's right - they're Christmas Spinach Doughnuts!! Ok, so they're not actually Christmas ones (though they easily could be, as they are about as Christmassy as the Starbucks cake), but they are spinach doughnuts. Amazing… and probably quite disgusting. I might have to try one before I leave Japan.

Ok, I'm going to end tonight's blog post with another bizarre idea that I thought of, with some help from Mark, tonight (and following a mis-communication with Sayaka). Yes, I'd like to introduce to you: bras with brail - "because, even people with sight problems need to feel some titillation" . Ok, it needs some more work.

Right, I'm off. I need a lie down… and serious medication too, by the looks of it…

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Japan Day 6 (Part 1) - Chasing a Noodle

Today, I was feeling well enough to go out and show my ugly mug in public again. So, after lunch (photograph 1) I put on my face mask (photograph 2)... took it off again and we headed out of the door.

We visited Zenkoji, a famous temple where it was said that people should visit at least once in their lives. Today was my day. Photograph 3 shows Sayaka infront of one of the houses surrounding the temple area.

Photograph 4 shows a tree with fortune telling paper on it. In the main temple there is an area selling fortune telling paper for about 200-300 yen (about 2 pounds). If it is a good fortune, you take it home and display it proudly on your wall, alongside your cycling proficiency certificate. If you open it and find that it is a bad fortune, you don't take it back, bash the woman around the head with your umbrella and demand a refund. Instead, you tie it one of these trees and leave it there.

Photograph 5 shows a view through the main archway towards the temple… with a girl with a rather nice bottom wiggle (who I/we followed closely for quite some time).

Photograph 6 shows Mark and me, looking cool, stood to the left of the temple. Photograph 7 is of me ushering smoke towards me whilst standing on a step. The idea of this is that if you let the smoke go over your head, you will gain intelligence. I stood there for about a minute… and felt a bit stupid, if I'm honest. But hey, lets see what happens.

At this point, we entered the main temple, where we took our shoes off and walked in. The floor was very cold on our feet. But we walked to the middle and knelt down to say a prayer infront of the statues on the altar - taking two pinches of incense and putting them to our head before adding them on to a small burning pile infront of us and then making a wish (I resisted the temptation to wish for underfloor heating). After this, we headed to a series of steps to the side of the altar.

To quote from the board outside the temple (photograph 8), "under the main altar is a tunnel called Okaidan. Touching the "Key to Pure-Land" while passing through the tunnel will bless a strong tie with the main image (Nyorai) and promise to Pure-Land." So, we went down the steps towards the tunnel. Once you get a few steps along the passage it literally goes pitch black. This leaves you to fumble your way along, touching the right hand wall (and the arse of the person infront) whilst searching for the 'key' on the right hand side. We found it, and felt it, and then walked around until we found the steps back up to the light.

Having experienced the temple, we headed out of the right door to check out some of the other surrounding buildings, including a war memorial (photo 8), some cows (photo 9) and the bell tower (photos 10 and 11). Mark then took a photograph (photo 12) of the Roko Jizo buddhas. The reason they have bibs is apparently because they saved children. They are "the protectors of six realms." Each Jizo protects one of the six realms: Hell, Hungry Ghosts, Animals, Asura, Humans and Heavenly Beings.

After this, we headed back out of the main gate, where they were busy taking down the lanterns (photo 12).

That's it for part 1 of today's blog. Part 2 follows on below the photographs (it's worth reading... go on, you know you want to...)

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Japan Day 6 (Part 2) - Bah Humbug!

"Hello, good evening and welcome" is the phrase that Sir David Frost used to begin his evening quiz show with. That phrase used to come shortly before he would send his posh hobo friend (with the strange accent) in to have a 'good root around' in the homes of the rich and famous. "What is my point," I hear you ask. "I'm not sure, I've forgotten now," is my response. Anyway, today's blog is a blog of two halves. Think football, but without the spitting and play acting. So, without further ado, here is the second half of today's nonsense from me. If you haven't read part 1, please read that one first (above this one).

Having visited Zenkoji (detailed in part 1), Mark and I headed off to Starbucks (otherwise known as Mark's office) whilst Sayaka went to a local sauna. The first thing I noticed when we walked into Starbucks was the Christmas music. The second thing I noticed was that the place was full of young Japanese women. Not only that, but if you sat there looking out of the window, you would observe a continuous stream of young ladies in short skirts walking past. There's no other way of putting it; Starbucks in Nagano is a pervert's paradise. I felt quite at home working there.

Whilst sitting with my Chai tea; a delicious blend that tastes a lot like Christmas (no, it's not full of pine needles and tinsel), I spotted a very cute girl (in a very short skirt) sitting to my right and attempted to subtly take a photo of her on my phone. It worked - only Mark and everyone else in Starbucks, apart from the girl herself, noticed. Excuse the blurry nature of photograph 1, but you get the idea.

At first the Christmas music was annoying. I found myself having thoughts like "Santa Claus is coming to town... Yeah in about 2 months! As is swine flu, but you won't find me singing about that!". But, after a while I began to get into it and started to feel quite festive, making the Facebook comment "anyone fancy a mince pie and a quick snog under the mistletoe (women only) ? Happy Christmas everyone!" No-one has yet taken me up on the offer... so I've still got a large stock of mince pies.

After spending a few hours working in Starbucks, our laptop batteries ran low and we realised it was time to leave. So we met up with Sayaka again and headed off to find somewhere to eat. We settled at an Italian restaurant, where we ordered courses from prawn salad and pizza to a chocolate truffle (photographs 3 and 4). Whilst waiting for our food to arrive, it seemed like an opportune moment to try on Sayaka's hat (photograph 2).

After finishing dinner, we called in at a DVD rental store on the way home. As we walked in, I couldn't believe my ears. They were playing Auld Lang Syne on their music system. That's Christmas and New Year in one day! It turns out that they play that song during the last 15 minutes of the day, so that people know that they are closing and head for the doors. I can think of better music to play to get everyone to leave the store… anything by Britney Spears, for example.

Ok, that's enough from me for today. TTFN.

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Japan Day 5 - Weetabix and Cuddling Sheep

So, what have I got in store for you today, you lovely people? Three bags of snotty tissues and an important revelation - that's what. We'll start off with the discovery that will shock the world: In Japan, they play music (muzak) with their weather forecasts. I think they should do that in the UK - I love the thought of relaxing to music whilst the female presenters tell us all about their warm fronts.

Day 5 started off with me laying in bed until quite late in the morning. I had no energy whatsoever, but didn't feel particularly sleepy. So, I just lay there. It's amazing how your mind wanders on to bizarre thoughts when you do that. For example, I found myself wondering what famous world structures I could replicate using Mark's over-large collection of Weetabix (see photograph 1).

Shortly after that, I came up with a great new idea to help people get up in the morning. It simply involves wiring your alarm clock snooze button to the mains. Think russian roulette. The alarm clock goes off in the morning and you want to snooze… however, there's a 50/50 chance resting on it. Either the snooze button will work, and you can go back to sleep, or you'll get a blast of several thousand volts and be woken up nicely to get on with your day (or be dead; but without risk there's no adventure!).

Having come up with my brilliant ideas, I finally prised myself out of bed and we ate lunch. Photograph 2 shows Sayaka cooking and photographs 3 shows her creation - delicious vegetable soup. Following that, we ate the raspberry cheesecake that I had been given by Sayaka and Mark at their party (photos 4 and 5).

Though it was very cold here today (4 days ago it was 22 degrees and we were wearing t-shirts), the sun was out and there was a clear view out into the distance. So, I took a couple of photographs of the mountains. Check out photographs 6 and 7. If you look very closely, you will see snow on the mountains. If you look really, really closely you will see a snow leopard sitting on the mountain, picking his nose and drinking Sake…

With it being so cold outside, and my lack of energy, I spent the entire day inside. I've watched seven episodes of Heroes, one of FlashForward and none of Last Of The Summer Wine. I'm hoping that I will be feeling well enough to get out of the house tomorrow, before I get square eyes.

Ok - on to the final set of photographs. Photograph 8 shows some cuddling sheep (attached to a heart balloon) - a present given to Mark and Sayaka. Photograph 9 shows my place card from their dinner party, with my name in Japanese. Photograph 10 is of a flower arrangement made entirely of cardboard. Notice, if you will, the spinning flower on the right. Genius!

Right, I'm off for a snooze… how shocking!

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Japan Day 4 - Tofu and Antibiotics

Konichiwa. Well, there isn't a great deal to tell you about yesterday, so I may have to pad the blog post out with a gradual increase in font size. I was ill for much of yesterday.

Having taken three days to get over the jet lag, to get ill on the fourth day was unfortunate, to say the least.

The day started off well enough - breakfast in the hotel was lovely; a mixture of English and Japanese cuisine. Photograph 1 shows Sayaka eating hers (why is that I keep taking photos of people eating?). Nonchan didn't join us for breakfast as she was still snoozing. Yes, that's right, the potential delight of a hard boiled egg and a glass of grapefruit juice wasn't enough to prize her from her bed.

Before leaving the hotel, I took a photograph out of my hotel room window. To pinpoint a few things in the photograph (photo 2); Nagano station is over to the right, the main centre is over to the left and Starbucks is straight ahead (it wouldn't seem right not to point it out). As you can see, there is no shortage of choice for taxis outside the station.

We headed home from the hotel and I began to feel a bit ill. It started off as a bit of a sniffle, so I thought that getting some fresh air might be a good plan. We went out for lunch and ate a Tofu lunch. Photograph 3 shows the soup, fried tofu, tofu with egg (top middle) and tofu cheesecake (top right). It was all delicious.

Sadly my cold started getting worse and, after a lie down, it developed into a very swollen throat. As a precaution, we went to the local hospital and saw a Doctor. I was half-expecting him to tell me I had swine flu and half-hoping for some kind of Japanese super-miracle "here, try this and you'll be better in no time... oh, and you'll develop a super ability to see through walls and juggle & eat doughnuts without licking your lips". But, he just stared down my throat and said, in Japanese, "it's a bit swollen" - yeah, no kidding mate, thanks. He then filled out a form for antibiotics. It seems that it doesn't matter where you are in the world these days, a Doctor will prescribe you antibiotics for anything from a sore toe to a missing limb. I'm pleased to report that I haven't taken the antibiotics - I'm recovering with use of rest, night nurse and Nurofen Cold and Flu (and Sayaka's great cooking).

So, that was day 4.

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Japan Day 3 - Kirei Desu Ne

Well, poke me in the eye with a chopstick and call me Long John Silver. I think that most of day 4 will actually be spent blogging about day 3. Yesterday was a long, long day. So, get yourself a sleeping bag and a mug of cocoa - this could be a looooong read. It was the day of Mark and Sayaka's celebration meal. Forty of Sayaka's relatives and friends were invited, with the dinner being held in the posh function suite of the Metropole Hotel in Nagano. Mark and Sayaka wore traditional Japanese dress - Furisode (Sayaka) and Montsuki (Mark). Sayaka looked very pretty (kirei desu ne = "you're beautiful").

Unfortunately, Mark has told me that I'm not allowed to post any photos of them on my blog, so you will have to look forward to seeing photographs of the outfits at a later date.

It was rather an anxious day all round, with appointments to be met for Mark and Sayaka (hair and outfits), speeches to be memorised (Mark had two speeches to do, which were made difficult by the fact that they used old Japanese phrases) and with the evening dinner itself. I had the job of official photographer, which proved to be tricky (but fun) because I wasn't used to the format of the occasion.

Before the evening began, Mark and I started off having lunch at a little restaurant called Ichibun (not to be mistaken with a rash on your bottom - "itchy bum"). The guy had built his little restaurant on the side of his house; a quaint little place. Photographs 1, 2 and 3 show Mark and me eating our lunch - Mark had Ramen and I had a dish made of chicken, egg and rice. Notice my use of chopsticks - I'm getting better at this. It was a light lunch - thank goodness for that. When it comes to evening meals, the Japanese manage to eat several times their own body weight... well, that's the way it seemed last night anyway.

With lunch out of the way, and having picked up my new suit, it was time to make our way to the hotel to prepare for the evening.

The evening was in two parts. Firstly, the official dinner. Secondly, a small party with a group of close friends at Mario's restaurant; about 10 minutes walk from the hotel.

Official Dinner

Sayaka and Mark welcomed all forty guests into the room - I was with them taking group photographs and attempted to use some of my Japanese phrases. I quickly learned the policy of 'if in doubt, just nod enthusiastically' as some of the guests spoke to me. They were all really friendly and were genuinely pleased to meet me. Then began two hours of eating food, presentations, eating more food, more presentations, more food… It really was an amazing evening. We had about 8 courses of food in the end - from sushi to soup to cottage pie. Esdras, who was on my table, was kind enough to point out to me, each time a dish arrived, that it wasn't yet the main course. I thought he was joking… until the main course finally did arrive after the 6 previous dishes had been consumed.

The MC of the evening introduced presentations about Mark and Sayaka and kept things ticking along. There were speeches, singing, games (Mark was blindfolded at one point and had to guess which hand was Sayaka's from a group of women holding out their hands). Mark did incredibly well with his speech - he had a lot to learn and was understandably nervous speaking traditional Japanese to so many of Sayaka's relatives. Meanwhile, I was running around like a blue-arsed-fly trying to take photographs from every conceivable angle - not knowing what was coming next.

Right, on to photos:
Photographs 4 and 5 are of Nonchan looking "kirei" (beautiful) whilst elegantly stuffing her face with food.
Photograph 6 is of me eating food with my chopsticks, photograph 7 is of me taking photos of the food (Mark asked me to do it, honest!).

Photograph 8 is the sushi dish.
Photograph 9 is of the waiter dishing out cottage pie (course number 6).

It is traditional, at this type of occasion, for members of the family to come up and pour you a drink. So, lots of member's of Sayaka's family poured me drinks. This resulted in a build-up of drinks around me. Photograph 10 shows this - two drinks of Sake, one of champagne, one white wine, one red wine, one water and one tea.

Photograph 11 is of the dessert. I was absolutely stuffed at this point, but still managed to eat some of the delicious strawberry and yoghurt and the little apple flan.

Photograph 12 is of Esdras, Nonchan and me at the end of the evening.

Unofficial Party

After the official dinner, we had a quick change of clothes and headed out to Mario's restaurant. There we ate (more food!? Surely not!), drank, had laughs and played silly games. It was great fun. Photograph 13 is of Mark and Sayaka playing a game - Sayaka was blindfolded and had to guess which 'derriere' was Mark's. Photographs 14 and 15 are of Mark, me and Sayaka making fools of ourselves. Photograph 16 is of the whole group of us.

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Japan Day 2 Eve - Sukiyaki

Ok, this is my second blog of the day. It's gone midnight here and we have just returned from our evening with Sayaka's family. Present at the meal along with Sayaka, Mark and myself were Sayaka's Mum, Dad, Brother, Sister-in-Law, Nephew (3 1/2) and Niece (< 1 year):

The evening was very pleasant and lots of laughs were had - I did my best to remember my five Japanese phrases. Mark was kept busy doing his excellent translation between Japanese and English. Our meal was Sukayiki (see photos 1 and 2). To quote from Wikipedia, "It consists of thinly sliced beef and/or tofu slowly cooked or simmered at the table, alongside vegetables and other ingredients, in a shallow iron pot in a mixture of soy sauce, sugar and mirin. Before being eaten, the ingredients are usually dipped in a small bowl of raw, beaten eggs". Photo 3 shows Masaki adding the thinly sliced beef to the pot.

To wash it down, we drank beer and sake (see photo 4 of Sayaka's Dad with sake bottles). Photograph 5 shows Mark giving a cuddle to Sayaka's little niece (Hana). Sayaka's Dad spent much of the evening walking backwards and forwards cuddling Hana and trying to get her to drop off to sleep. However, at one point I found myself wondering whether it would be Hana or Sayaka's Dad himself that would fall asleep first (he has a reputation for drinking and dozing and his eyes were drooping). Photograph 6 shows Sayaka's little nephew (3 year old, who speaks Japanese AND English, by the way) opening the box of desserts - waffles filled with various flavours from chocolate coffee through to strawberries and cream and mango and orange with cream. Very delicious indeed.

After stuffing our faces (gee, I put that so eloquently) , Mark received an invite from two of his English speaking friends, Esdras and Yuzo, who invited us out for a quick drink. It was nice to meet them both, as they will be on my table for tomorrow's party.

Ok, holy crap, I've just been shown a photo of a large black spider on Nonchan's phone... I recognised the carpet immediately - it is the same carpet that is underneath my futon (mattress on the floor). Apparently it was there earlier and she took a photo before putting it outside - Sayaka and Mark have just said that it is the first spider that they've EVER found inside the house. What a way to start your count - I hope it doesn't have a twin brother!

Right, that's it from me. Tomorrow evening is Mark's big day where he has to stand up and give his speech to 40 people, in old Japanese, at their big celebration party. He is rather nervous, to say the least. I will be sitting on a table near the front, with Nonchan, Esdras and Yuzo and one other Japanese girl. I will be taking lots of photographs and will endeavour to post a few on here.

As usual, feel free to leave your comments below...
NN

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Japan Day 2 - The Loos Of Nagano

Hajimemashite, ("pleased to meet you" in Japanese. And no, the 'shite' bit doesn't sound like you think it does; you rude person!)

Well, I've awoken from my afternoon nap. I just opened the double doors into the lounge and sent Sayaka's best friend, Nonchan, flying 15 feet into the air with surprise. She was obviously asleep on the couch. Not any more, she isn't.

I'm doing this blog now as I am unlikely to have time to do it later on this evening. This is due to the fact that we will shortly be heading over for dinner with Sayaka's family - dinner and alcohol. I'm told that there will be 8 of us there, including me, so I'm feeling quite nervous. I only know about 4 Japanese phrases and none of them is "no thanks, I'm not really a big drinker".

This morning we left our accommodation in Tokyo and jumped on the bullet train (blurred photo 1) to Nagano; a journey which took us about an hour and a half. We were met at the station by Nonchan who drove us back to Sayaka and Mark's place. Whilst Sayaka was busy preparing a delicious spaghetti lunch, I had a quick inspection of their flat and found the toilet to be most interesting (stay with me on this one!) See photo 2. The toilet seat is pre-warmed and it has lots of cool buttons down the side, which Mark told me are especially nice for your botty if you've consumed a troublesome curry the night before. I might have to test some of the buttons out at some point, but am slightly fearful that one of them might suck me down the toilet, never to be seen again! So, if you don't see a 'day 3' on this blog, you'll know what has happened.

After lunch, we went into Nagano's main retail area so that I could get a new suit ("ooh, suits you!") for Mark and Sayaka's party tomorrow. I've chosen one and paid for it and they are altering the trousers ready for pickup tomorrow morning.

Mark is feeling nervous about his speech tomorrow - he's having to learn and recite a whole load of words in old-japanese. I know how nerve-wracking it can be to deliver a speech in a language that I understand (fairly well), let alone doing one in a language that I don't.

Oh, and I've been introduced to Fred; think 'common garden spider' but about four times the size. He is sitting in a web just above the front door steps (see photo 3) and I hope he remains there for the entire duration of my trip. If he's tempted inside the house to say hello, then I may have to stand on the chair and scream like a girl!

Au revoir (sorry, I don't know the Japanese for 'goodbye' yet, so this'll have to do!). I'm off to peel Nonchan off the ceiling.

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Japan Day 1 - Tokyo

Day 1 began at Tokyo Narita airport. The 12 hour flight went ok and I actually managed to grab about four hours sleep. More importantly, though, the raspberry and white chocolate cupcakes that Mo had given me to take for Mark were still intact (and I hadn't eaten any)!

I met up with Mark and we took an hour's train to central Tokyo, where we then found our accommodation for the night. Our first stop after that was for lunch (see photo 1). We ate Tonkatsu - breaded pork with cabbage, miso soup, rice and mayonnaise dip. Very tasty indeed.

We wandered around for a while after that, before I had to go for a nap as I was feeling really quite jet lagged. After a couple of hours rest, we went back out. First stop - the largest electrical store in Tokyo (see photo 2). Nine floors of electrical goods as far as the eye can see - very impressive. If you need a computer mouse, this is the place to come - check out photo 3: an entire aisle dedicated to the little (non-fluffy) hand-held vermin device.

Last stop of the day was for food at a 24 hour Sushi restaurant at Sushizanmai. As we walked in, all the staff gave a big cheerful Japanese welcome from behind the huge bar - I felt like some kind of movie star - someone must have told them I was coming. My feeling of self-importance lasted only a minute, however, as it became obvious that they gave the same greeting to everyone who came in to eat. For dinner we consumed various types of tuna (photo 4), red snapper, flounder's fin, scallop, eel and tamagoyaki (a kind of sweetened egg roll). Part way through the meal, the staff all stopped what they were doing and one of them held up a huge crab (still moving). He announced that they were going to sell the legs for 1000 yen (about £6.50) each (yes, the crab quickly became legless). We didn't partake but I did get a photo (see photo 5).

I will finish on a final thought. Whilst walking around Tokyo today, I have noticed that a lot of the Japanese ladies seem very bow legged. I had an idea - if they were to strap coconut shells to their knees and pin a couple of maracas to their arms, they could provide percussion entertainment as they walk along.

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