Cleaning:

My student just told me that Japanese people are taught that cleaning is of primary importance. My other student, who works long hours every day except Sunday when she cleans, was recently forced to take her first day off this year. What did she do? 'Clean more thoroughly.' The nation is obsessed with bathing. The word for beautiful is also the word for clean - kirei. I saw a man vacuum cleaning the station steps in Tokyo. The first part of a Geisha's training is cleaning and, of course, Mr Miyagi in the Karate Kid starts the eponymous hero's education with a car cleaning task.

We shouldn't be surprised. Cleaning has deep roots in the Shinto religion where you may become impure through you actions and need to be cleansed for your own peace of mind and good fortune. Rituals include bathing in waterfalls and washing hands and mouth before visiting a shrine.

Had a few days away in Hokkaido which is the least populated area of Japan. With it's cooler temperatures and open spaces it was the perfect antidote to Tokyo and a great place to let off steam.



This was atop of the highest point on the isalnd and, at 5 degrees C, the coolest place in Japan - some trees going autumnal already. We had a great time.

Food was special since it's really fresh up there. The best was the "Genghis Khan" restaurant. It was a tiny little place around a bar packed full of people half of them eating and half waiting for a spot. The staff were a miracle of ergonomics: one on veg one on the huge kettle one on the left side of the bar and the head chef who was continuously chopping up bits of icelandic lamb and monitoring our Genghis-Khan-helmet-shaped grill onto which he put lumps of lamb fat so we could fry effectively. It was more or less silent while we all focused on cooking and eating the lamb. I have no evidence but I imagine that Genghis would have been proud of them.

I got engaged to H!

It was worryingly easy. We went over to Saitama and I had to ask Mr S,
‘OJOUSAN O KUDASAI,’
which is literally
‘CAN I HAVE YOUR DAUGHTER PLEASE’
I could easily have said this by mistake in one of my Japanese rants. In fact, later, when we were eating our sashimi, I asked
‘WASABI O KUDASAI’ = ‘CAN I HAVE THE WASABI, PLEASE’
I got that too. Now I think about it, I could have asked for all sorts of stuff.

Probably best not to though. Just in case the 30% return gift law applies. I haven’t dared ask if this is so, because if it is then I reckon I owe him a pair of legs.

Also, spare a thought for the poor foreigner who got just one syllable wrong when he went to his future father-in-law and asked,
‘OJISAN O KUDASAI’ = ‘CAN I HAVE YOUR GRANDFATHER, PLEASE.’