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.