Just over a week ago, I set off from Heathrow Airport bound for adventure again. Stopping off in Dubai, I whiled away some hours people watching, chuckling at the man who got on the travellator the wrong way and so on. Best not to try that one unless you want to do an amusing little dance and collapse on top of your luggage. After what seemed like an age, I arrived at Nagoya Airport to be met by my friend Rosie and her American boyfriend Brian. We drove straight out to their local sushi restaurant, where we scoffed our faces with the best sushi I've ever had - tuna, salmon, eels, crab soup, yum. UK alternatives are never gonna live up to it.
So far, I've sampled sushi, udon, ramen, soba, tempura and a host of other Japanese delights (though steering clear of the blowfish - the one that can kill you if you eat the wrong bit). I've marvelled at the weird and wacky food on offer in the supermarkets, from whale meat - unfortunately they really do hunt and eat it here - octopus legs and a host of unidentifiable but alarmingly coloured substances to the most expensive fruit I've ever seen. Still no square melons, sadly. I've tasted bizarre marbled beef (we think) from a cow that's had a special massage to make it extra fatty... though someone later suggested to me maybe it had been kept in a small cage and not allowed to move. I much prefer the romantic idea of cows being pampered, getting manicures, watching daytime TV and enjoying the good life. Rosie and Brian have taken me to a crazy local venue down a long and dark alleyway, frequented by actors and the airline industry, where the owner collected phallus shaped objects.
I've travelled alone on the speedy shinkansen to Kyoto, and had an impromptu night out with some random but lovely English guys I met in possibly the most bizarre hostel I've ever stayed in - ramshackle and perhaps insane are two ways to describe it. We went to 80s night at Metro, a club where you enter through the station and it's all kitted out like a subway. There was an enthusiastic MC in an Elvis wig and lots of Japanese dancing badly, excellent fun. I've visited historic temples, rock gardens and shrines, got on wrong buses in the city, looked unsuccessfully for geisha, fantasised about being as skinny as a Japanese person, slept in a traditional ryokan on a futon and gawped at a massive fat golden guy (a revered 16m statue of Buddha in Nara, the country's first capital). I've laughed at a show featuring the 'golden bat' in the International Manga Museum, had discussions on superhero qualities and got frustrated when my camera battery ran out visiting some amazing sites - I was left with a picture of me and a deer rather than the incredible things I had gone to see!
I've also pondered about the Japanese... Laying awake in the middle of the night, I thought I was experiencing an earthquake as my top bunk in the dorm started shaking. I looked on the lower bunk and the Japanese girl I was sharing with was juddering and gyrating on the bed and pumping her arm up and down. Not necessarily in a sexual way, but I have to say it was extremely odd. On the train to Nara, I wondered about the intentions of the chubby Japanese man next to me, who seemed to be sliding his hand under me and wriggling his podgy fingers - unfortunately I was sitting by a window and couldn't make myself any smaller. But generally, the people have been nice, helpful and super-polite.
Yesterday Rosie and Brian took me out of Nagoya to Tsumago and Magome, two towns in the country. We sampled saki and other delights, and went swimming in the cold and refreshing river - awesome. Rosie of course is dotty anyway, so it makes sense that I am visiting her in Japan, a country that so far seems to be full of weird and wonderful things to see and experience. I'm off to get myself into a zen-like state before heading to Tokyo this evening...
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