Onsen (spa) Visit Bullet points required: lEnter exclusive looking bath, remove flipflops and deposit in a locker, pay for your visit using yet another vending machine, then enter into the female changing rooms through red curtains. lNo Tattoos! A sign of the mafia - you may well be thrown out lOnly westerner in all-women Japanese city onsen (hot spring bath), stripping naked in the changing rooms I discovered I was far more self-conscious amongst all these t...

Saturday Shenanigans: A rather pleasant morning spent hanging out with Yumi and Mai once again (we are now quite the alternative nuclear family - mummy, baby, and grown English baby no.2).First stop was to see a tea ceremony which a friend of Yumi`s had very kindly asked me if I wanted to see. Tea ceremony Feeling like the great white foreigner that I unfortunately am here, we all squeezed into Miho`s tiny shop, where I sat and watched as she took me throug...

Fashion Antics: Harajuku Sunday Today was a Tokyo Fashion Forum as I headed to Harajuku park to see the city`s youngsters out in all their finery.It is a little like being beamed into one of those AmericanHigh School movies, as everyone moves within their own cliques, with dress and behaviour code to suit. First stop were the cosplay-zoku (costume play gang) who can be dressed in anything from frilly dolls to sado-masochistic Goths to cartoon characters to ma...

Following my Fish Market antics, which merited a whole entry in itself, I`m going to do my usual attempt of `long stories short` (which always end up longer than shorter) as I whiz through a quick update of my general activities.The day took a decidedly chilled turn, as I played it Japanese, heading out with Yumi and Mai, first to Yumi`s friend`s store, and then to a \100 place for some shopping, followed by ramen/gyoza for lunch.I have quickly learnt that my hap...

Curiouser & Curiouser: Japan Observations: lToilet Humour: let`s get this out of the way first shall we?Japan toilets are a whole university degree unto themselves.Provided you mange to actually get to the toilet, having taken off your shoes and backed into the provided slippers, you will then find yourself faced with a loo of astronomically technological proportions….first thing`s first, make sure you start one of the selection of `noise-maskers`.Take y...