Not too much Jap stuff this week. I have been rediscovering my Gaijin (=foreigner) self after a visit to a Gaijin bar in Roppongi - the Gaijin area of Tokyo – where I found the people so loud and obnoxious that I felt like I was Japanese (actually they really were loud and obnoxious) As a backlash I have been eating kippers and scrambled eggs for breakfast, watching foreign TV and just working on the book without going out much. Last night we went to an English fiction reading night and I was surprised to find that these Gaijin were actually quite a civilized, friendly and clean bunch so I’m back to normal now.

Three Japo-facts today. You can take your pick.

H's workmate is "Su ta ba ma ni ya" (Starbucks maniac) because he has visited every Starbucks in Tokyo (it's a lot)

At the recent dog expo there were stalls for: dog yoga - it's called doga, using your pet as dumbells workout and most amazingly a service for getting your deceased pet's ashes compressed into a diamond for you to wear.

Edison's first lightbulb was made from bamboo from Japan.

Also a quote submitted by "GordonsGoneToJapan"'s photographer, Mr Nick Clark of Kensal Rise,

"The Japanese seem to have a great sense of beauty but no sense of
ugliness."

Went to see the Sumo last week at the home of Sumo. At the Sumo school, we got to eat Sumo food which is a kind of soup with everything in it. They eat buckets of this stuff and then have a nap. It's not easy though. They are often beaten by their trainers and that "dohyo" floor is hard when they hit it.

These days foreigners are some of the best wrestlers and one guy in the audience was upset by this and was shouting out that "Japanese must win". We got to see the superstars. The number two - a dashing tall Bulgarian - caught H's fancy and she rather envied the tiny lady in the second row who he landed on after winning his fight and following through. The Yokozuna (top dog) Mongolian Asashoryu just pushed his opponent out without too much effort. I liked the guy who instead of charging forward just took a step back and his opponent landed flat on his face but apparently this is frowned upon as "Bad Sumo".

Had a weekend away with H’s family in an ancient capital, Kamakura. Highlights include: doll museum, beautiful temples in bamboo groves, the millions of new year temple visitors, ocean view at the hotel, aquarium and dolphin show with futuristic singy swimmy girls and Fuji as a backdrop, the writer’s museum and of course the big
Buddha who, if he were to try, could walk the 40 kilometres back to Tokyo in an hour.



The big serene different coloured one at the back is me.

Train update: I’ve now learnt that it’s quite common to do bits of cosmetic maintenance on the trains. I’ve seen nail clipping and eyelid clipping. H says she saw eye drops being used and a disastrous application of lipstick. She also says she heard of someone getting their ear stuck in the doors.

There’s a festival every month here. In December we were meant eat pumpkin and have a bath with some sort of lemon. Last Friday the seventh we had to eat rice with seven different types of leaf. Next month I will be required to eat a long roll of sushi all at once, without taking it out of my mouth.

Here are some proper photos from my travel companion Nick Clark. Highlights include: capsule hotel in Osaka, the Big Buddha at Nara, one of those robot arm game machines for live lobsters, old style pachinko parlours with brass band music, chanting in the temples in Kyoto, glimpsing a proper Geisha through a restaurant window, Christmas log and sake in a traditional inn, riding the bullet train past Fuji while eating a delicious bento box, friendly people in the youth hostel, seeing a live volcano covered in snow, traditional inn food in the spa town of Kurogawa, bathing in caves and near rivers in the hot springs and being surrounded by snow, chatting with locals at the municipal bath at Beppu.



Capsule hotel



Elderly pachinko parlour



Christmas dinner



Man with shadow like a giant squid man. If you look carefully you can see my new christmas jacket.



Dinner at traditional Japanese inn

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Here we are with our new years breakfast. Most of the foods have a meaning such as long things for long life or foods that sound like "yippee" or "prosperity" or something (I wasn't really listening) Also lots of fortune. If you look carefully you can see there is gold leaf in the sake!

Kumpai and happy new year!