It`s official: sake hangovers are not good. And it only takes 1.5 glasses! So, sake-sozzled evening with hosts = very slow Lex the next morning. Finally getting my act together, Yumi took me to the local Post Office, and then to a tiny weeny teahouse, where we had a very proper tea with sweet (rather disgusting sweets though I might add...). My first encounter wtih a proper tatami mat, taking my shoes off as I entered a room in the teahouse where there was b...

Today Tokyo and I fell out, and then made up in spectacular style. Food Fiend aficionados, this is for you - refer to end of blog. It started with a mission, a.k.a. wild goose chase. I woke to briefly meet Yumi (my homestay `mum`)`s husband, Yosuke, who had returned from touring Japan. He works as a stage manager for a Japanese band. I then commenced my mission: to alter my plane tickets. A train to Ginza, the area of Tokyo which is the equivalent of Knigh...

Only two days in and I am head over heels in luuuurve with this crazy, kooky place. In many ways it feels like it should make sense, but in so many others it just doesn`t! It will take me far longer than the 3.5 weeks I have here to come to grips with it to the extent I would like. I have, however, quickly settled into the Japanese way of eating. No surprise there then. Breakfast is a tiny bit of rice, some miso soup, some pickles and a bit of protein (salmo...

Oho, this is too good to be true - my host family have internet!　Too good because I have a sneaking suspicion Japan, as my most `unknown` destination, is looking likely to yield 1001 interesting stories... Even before I left England I started as I obviously mean to go on, as, James Bond-esque, I became the first person ever to have run the entirety of Heathrow Terminal 5 from security to plane in less than 7 minutes. Arriving with impeccable time at the new, i...

One last brief entry before I head for the airport tomorrow morning. Some of you may be scratching your head saying 'but I thought we'd got rid of her WEEKS ago'...well...the moment has finally come, you can all breathe a sigh of relief, as I am FINALLY leaving to Japan! Thanks go to Elspeth who charitably went through the painful process of helping me fit 4 months' and 8 (very different) destinations' worth of 'required apparel' into one rucksack. I never kn...