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Japan Day 8 - Read This Or The Dog Gets It!

On the third day of Starbucks Christmas, my good bruv gave to me: one sugar doughnut and a nice cup of hot chai tea.

Today was our final day in Nagano and it started off with some sensible reflection on what I have discovered so far. There is much to admire and be impressed with about Japanese society. There is hardly any crime. Over the last week I have only seen one police car. This is because, by committing crime, they would be bringing shame upon their family. Consequently, you feel safe where-ever you go and you can safely leave your bag on a seat and go up and order coffee. Everyone takes pride in their appearance and their work. Unemployment is low and there is no 'benefit culture' here - if someone loses their job they feel ashamed, so they go straight out to find another one.

To continue this subject further - one thing that bugs me when walking around back home, in Bexhill town centre, is the amount of rubbish bins overflowing with litter. Here in Japan, there are no litter bins. Does that mean that the streets are full of litter? No - completely the opposite. People take pride in their towns and take their rubbish home. Consequently, when you walk around the main shopping streets there isn't a piece of litter to be seen anywhere.

Ok, lets move on to the diary of the day, which mainly revolves around, yes, you guessed it, food. For lunch we met up with Esdras and ate ramen, a traditional Japanese noodle soup with a soft-boiled egg in the middle. This is one of Mark's favourite dishes and it was delicious (photograph 1). After enjoying our ramen, we headed to Starbucks, once again, to do a few hours of work to the background music of "I'm dreaming of a White Christmas". Photograph 2 shows the sugar doughnut and chai tea that I consumed.

After an afternoon of work, we went out to dinner with Sayaka's Mum and Dad for a final goodbye meal. It was great fun and we had a lot of laughs. It also gave me the opportunity to practice some Japanese, Ally style:

"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh?" is "eh?" (they use that a lot, and I've been singing it in multiple voices, including suprano)
"Toki Doki, Ichy Nichy" is "sometimes….. 1 day" (yes, the English doesn't make sense - I've combined two separate phrases into one for the purposes of 'super-catchy-coolness'. Doesn't the Japanese version sound great!

Sayaka's parents also told me, in Japanese, that my souvenir, for coming to Japan, is my cold. So, I'd just like to put your minds at rest - don't worry, I will be bringing souvenirs home for all of you...

For this evening's meal, we went out to a Korean restaurant. I know what you're thinking at this point, and you're wrong. Lassie was not on the menu. However, there were a few unusual options. Before I begin on that, I must just tell you about my trip to the toilet (ok, stay with me on this one). After opening the door and walking into the closet (I can't read Japanese), I opened the door to the toilet and went inside. There I was greeted with what can only be described as a urinal for midgets with very long necks. I couldn't resist taking a photograph (photograph 3).

Right, now, back to our gastronomic festival of cow. As well as the regular cuts of beef, we ate tongue and organs such as the heart and intestines. All of this was brought to our table for us to cook on a small fire-heated grate in the middle of the table, and was washed down with a nice cold beer.

Whilst chewing on my intestine (that's the first time I've ever been able to say that!), I found myself picturing cows wandering the fields of Japan holding organ donor cards with the restaurant's name at the top. Incidentally, if you're wondering what it's like to eat cow intestine, go and pull the inner-tube out of your bicycle tyre, cut a bit off, dip it in barbecue sauce and stick it in your mouth. Quick tip - make sure you've got a puncture repair kit handy to put it all back together afterwards.

Now, I've mentioned before that Japanese people seem able to eat about 4 times their own body weight at every evening meal. Well, tonight was no exception. I haven't seen so much meat consumed since Takanohana, the Sumo Wrestler, visited an Atkins restaurant for an all-you-can-eat buffet (after a month of religious fasting).

Ok, lets go through the food and drink. Photograph 4 shows Sayaka's Dad with two pints of beer - one small one (mine) and one larger one (his). Photograph 5 is of him drinking his (larger) beer. Photograph 6 is of cow tongue, which is thin and slightly chewy. Photograph 7 is one of the normal cuts of beef - delicious. Photograph 8 shows the meat cooking in the middle of the table. Photograph 9 is of the raw meat dish that we ate WITHOUT cooking it. It was mixed with tomato and a small amount of chilli - delicious. Bicycle tyre at the ready, it's the intestine in photograph 10 (the yellow one).

As a break from the food, photographs 11 and 12 are of Mark and me and of Mark, me, Sayaka's Mum and Sayaka's Dad.

After we had stuffed ourselves stupid (seems to be a continuing theme of this trip), Sayaka's Mum and Dad decided that they hadn't quite had enough of my company. So, they suggested that we drive to another local place that served a more comprehensive menu of delicious desserts. How could we refuse? So, off we went.

After arriving at Coco's - the dessert restaurant owned by a clown (I made that bit up) - I ordered a banana pancake (photograph 13), Sayaka's Dad ordered a chocolate sundae (photo 14), Sayaka's Mum ordered a "green tea chocolate fondant" (photo 15) and Mark ordered a chocolate fondant (photo 16). I tried all of their desserts and they were delicious (I didn't let them try mine though - HAHAHAHA!!!!!) Oh, I forgot to say, photograph 13 also shows the origami rose and swan that I made out of the paper napkins and gave to Sayaka's Mum.

Right, that's about it from me for today. Tomorrow we head south on a road trip. Before I go, though, I must reveal that I tried a Japanese toilet properly for the first time today (no, I haven't been shitting on the bathroom floor all week). I thought I owed it to myself and my… handful… of followers to give it a go. At the start, it's quite strange and un-natural as the water is sprayed into your derriere. You find yourself chuckling slightly - firstly out of slight embarrassment at the thought of what is going on and secondly at the slight tickling sensation. Get your garden hose out and try it yourself - just make sure the neighbours are away and, for goodness sake, don't get frostbite!

To conclude - if you ever find yourself walking past a toilet door in Japan and you hear someone chuckling, they're either having their bottom sprayed or... they're reading my blog (or both… hmm, that's a weird thought!)

Good night.

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