Well welcome to my blog guys. I'm keeping a diary of what I'm doing week by week to keep family friends updated, where I am and what i'm up too. I'm not quite sure if this is a Gap Year Take Two (or Three) or if this is an extended summer vacation. I decided to come to Japan after Soran's visa ran out and decided if I come half way across the world to see Soran I may as well keep on going till the other side. Break on through to the other side. I also decided to do the classic Gap Year trip that all 18 year olds seem to do, Asia-Australia-US route which never interested me as would rather travel in Africa or South America again. However now I have Soran in Japan, my sister in China and friends living in Australia, both grandparents in California now this seems like a really great opportunity to take at this time. Carpe Momento - if an opportunity hits you, grab it by the horns. Also why pay £600 for a ticket to Japan when you could pay £1052 and circumnavigate the globe! So here is my itinerary according to Jarvis my wonderful travel agent who booked my last RTW fights with.

27th May London - Tokyo - Soran

11th June Tokyo - Beijing -Sarah

19th June Beijing - Tokyo - back to Tokyo

2nd July Tokyo - Auckland - Brisbane

10th July Brisbane - Auckland

19th July Auckland - Los Angeles

8th August Miami - Cartagena

5th September Cartagena - Miami

8th September Miami - London

I love writing down these itineraries and looking back at what actually happens. The last few weeks before I left were so stressful and now I'm finally relaxing and enjoying myself. After finishing my first year of university and studying for exams I just had 6 days to do my last shifts at Camino, pack my life into boxes then store them at my sister's house and spend every moment in between enjoying the summer sun in Brick Lane. I left Yuko, Loz and Mom behind at Heathrow with tears in my eyes which has happened way too many times now, and I boarded the flight for Japan and as I took off I felt a sudden sense of euphoria that I'm doing it all again. Screw you SOAS library, f*** you customers at Camino and sorry Saf, but up yours stupid guitar that woke me up too many times! And 5 movies later I was in Japan. The amount of hours I must have spent gazing at my world map thinking wow Japan literally on the other side of the world and now in here in round the same time it would take to drive from London to Edinburgh.

I arrived quickly into Narita and was reunited with Soran which was such a relief after being so busy and hardly being able to speak to each other we could be together again. I met his mom, Ineko and his dad, Tetsuya who drove me round Tokyo in the Friday afternoon and had a picnic in Yoyogi Park, it was hot, humid and sunny, and really felt like I was away from it all. I arrived at his house in Toshima to be greeted by his two cats, Flick and Jojo, the minute I walked in the door I felt at home; cats running up the stairs, VHS videos piled high, old play stations and general junk from a family who likes to hoard things! After being awake for 30 hours I had a disco nap, ate my first home cooked meal by Ineko and took a bus to the bar his parents own. It was a Friday night so all of the regular customers were there who I got to meet as well as his brother Lami and Iro who I heard so much about.

The bar was really cute and reminded me of the ale pub I worked at in Bovey Tracey with the landlords Stewart and Lorraine, every night running their small bar with one serving and one sitting on the other side chatting to customers, both getting steadily drunk as the night went on. The mom was constantly making us snacks while drinking beer, while the dad was drinking whisky with the regulars. Iro, Soran and I were chatting about everything that's happened in London since Iro left. We stayed till I could just about keep my eyes open after several beers and some four roses (the drink which is responsible for why I am actually in Japan!).

I woke up at 4am with 3 hours sleep. Jet lag. I thought what the hell is happening here, while I have done so much travel I have not experienced jet lag since I was 10 and visited family on the West Coast of America. A week later I'm still recovering. At 9am we went to Niji (Soran's nephew) sports day at Shinamchi Primary School. Wow the Japanese get so into it, very competitive and slightly violent! UK health and safety would not approve. It was incredible though, a massive court filled with families all around the outside, camera and video cameras galore. All sitting down on picnic blankets with picnic blankets probably the most notable difference was that there were all the families there not just the moms which are mostly present at English sports days.

We hopped on a train later to Yotsuya and saw Yuko's uni, which looked like any other normal uni, kind of reminded me of SOAS though because it's a liberal arts school. We went to the church both brothers got married in and they were having their evening mass which was very strange to see a Japanese catholic service. Next stop was Ebsu where we met Michi and spent the evening in an Izakaya, a traditional Japanese "pub", it was awesome, big long tables, really smoky and cosy. We had a ten strong group of mostly Brick Lane Japanese people who have come back to Japan. We had so much seafood, they brought out our own cooker to cook scallops and our fish and lots of sushi and sashimi and shell fish, it was all delicious, many drinks later we headed to shibuya to a bar and I stupidly initated tequila shots which killed me the next day. We ceremonially ran for the last train and stopped at a combini (convenience store) on the way home for more beer and food.

These convenience stores in Japan are amazing, they literally had everything. My first experience I was bombarded with shouts of suimasan (literally sorry) as a welcome and thought what the hell was that. And it is literally what they do everywhere, bowing, saying sorry and welcome. Sunday morning was greeted with the hangover to end all hangovers after a heavy night and about 10 hours sleep over 3 days. I found the same shouting welcoming experience in the supermarkets where shop workers while stacking shelves would be shouting suimasan like a broken record.

We spent Sunday at his brother Rami's house with Shikishi his wife and Niji Sorans nephew. We had shabu shabu basically a ever boiling pot on the table that starts with stock and then we add vegetables, meat and keep adding all night while chatting and drinking until everything runs out, then they add more water, stock and soba noodles. And all the time adding more noodles to that. His parents came back drunk from a day at a sake distillery so went to the store to buy more booze and kept on going. This family seems pretty crazy for a Japanese family, especially the women as women are usually very modest about alcohol or are meant to be anyway. And despite not much English we were all getting on like a house on fire, I'm sure only about 20% of communication is words.

As the parents staggered home arm in arm we walked ahead, I was quite worried about them but Soran just said, there fine they'll get home eventually, and im sure people have said the same thing about me too. Tokyo is so clean I found apart from at around 2am when the salary men start coming home, the streets were lined with sick and we walked past 2 men vomited in 10 minutes, oh dear. I think it's actually proven that Asians lack some sort of enzyme that makes it hard for them to digest alcohol.

Monday I finally got some rest and woke up so happy I had more than 6 hours sleep. We went to Takes***a Street in Herajuku which was filled with people and lots of cheap shops, a teenagers mecca. It looked like Camden on a Saturday but with more Asians. A place where kids dress up just to go and hang out and be seen, a teenybopper Shoreditch. That was really hard for Soran, too many Japanese everywhere and silly girls tottering about. Oh my, the girls! Absolutely stunning but they seem to insist on wearing high heels and walk pigeon toed while clutching a bag that's larger then themselves. Everythings kuwaai kuwaai kuwaai! The Japanese obsession with cuteness. Hello Kitty, Miffy, the streets just look and smell like candy.

Soran took me to a store called Chicago where I could actually get something that would probably fit me! It was just like Rokit but way more organised and a lot cooler. We grabbed some lunch and headed to Shibuya. I finally saw the damn Shibuya crossing which HAS to be in every foreign film set in Tokyo! Try to find me one film set in Tokyo in the last twenty years without a scene of that crossing and you'll be hard pressed. The crowds very crazy but not as I anticipated, it was like Picadilly Circus times 6 or I think Times Square times 2. Whatever, it was big.

I met Tiffany (Yuko's friend) at the station and she took me across town to Chianti, this awesome Italian restaurant that Yuko had been raving about all year. I met few of her friends and Tiff's Taiwanese boyfriend, after the dinner he brought his little dachshund along and walked all along the back streets together. She was just like a Japanese version of Cassie. After finally finding Soran after work which was very difficult in the massive Ikebukuro station without a phone we spent Monday night drinking with his dad. All sat on the floor round the low table in his living room jabbering away in English and Japanese, it really didn't matter if we didn't understand each other but I was thankful for his hospitality and he thankful for my visit as its as interesting for him as it is for me.

I tried to top up my phone with turned into an hour of hoo-ha and confusion involving me, the mom, the dad and the convenience store staff. Soran went to work so it was the first time I was on my own, it absolutely hilarious. I bought a phone card and was entitled to a prize for some reason so then had to stick my hand into a box to pull out a card for a lucky dip. I ended up winning 4 lagers, so I went back to the house to ask the parents to top up the phone and came back with all these beers at 11am. And being old themselves they had no idea how to use these phone cards so had to march all the way back to the seven eleven and get the staff to do it for me. Never in my life have I felt like such a baby, incapable of doing anything myself!

I took my first trip into the city by myself which was fine. I think if you can use the subway in New York, tube in London and metro in Europe you'll be fine in Tokyo. I made my way to Sofia to meet Chiri, another of Yuko's friend and had lunch with all of her friends at her university. All throughout the year I've lived together Yuko has put up hoards of her Japanese friends visiting London, making our place Casa Yuko. So I've met all these Japanese girls from this university so now im meeting them in Tokyo. I went with Chiri to one of her classes which was pretty similar to what im doing at SOAS and all the lessons are in English. It just felt like being at a US university with 90% of the students Japanese or mixed who have grown up in America or the UK. I had a great time; we did a group exercise which didn't involve doing much and could just chat to a bunch of other students.

After the class, we met up with a bunch of other people, friends of friends and the uni, Yuko's sister Asako spotted me and had a great reunion after meeting her over the Christmas holidays so I'm feeling like Yuko's replacement at her university while she's in London.

Tiff and I went to Shibuya to grab some Chinese food at a really cheap little café, business men chain smoking chatting away, being crammed like sardines into a little shared table. The food was really tasty, my Dad would love it. We met Mal, another Bincho/ London/ Brick Lane Japan team crew of this massive circle of Japanese expats in London. We met up with Michi in Nakemeguro and walked to Frames Sorans new bar/café. I anticipated seeing him in a totally different manner then when I used to go see him at All Stars, he would come and hug me and give me a kiss, go round the bar get the beer and shots out before making myself and all of my friends cocktails. Nope. Were in Japan now. There was lots of bowing and the welcomes and few sorrys thrown in there! It wasn't as bad as I thought, he could be serving salary men and gossiping grandmas all day but it was actually really cool. Reminded me of the Book Club off Great Eastern Street.

The service industry is so different, hell no could you throw a customer out if they're rude or too drunk. No casual chatting to other staff and especially no DANCING!! Nor running away from customers to take a shot. Here the customer is God. In an extreme way. Im sat on the roof of the fancy department store in flipflops and a beach dress, I look like I should be in Greece. If I were to wander round Cartier in Bond Street im sure I would look out of place and the staff would be preatty snobby but here I think I could walk round in anything in a fancy store, 1 because im in gaijin (foreigner) and 2 because staff are there to treat the customers in the most polite way possible.

I went to East Imperial Gardens Wednesday with Ineko and Tetsuya while Soran was working. It was incredibly beautiful and so lovely of his parents to take me. They drove me there and we spent the time wandering around these immaculate gardens which were huge. Its like the equivalent of Central Park in New York as the park is located right in the middle the city and stretches about 3 miles. After, we went for lunch in a really chic restaurant in the Museum of Modern Art over looking the park. We sat ate, drank and chatted and had an amazing lunch for about £7.50 a main meal. All steaks, salmon and cat fish fillets for £7.50 a dish. Im sure it would have cost at least £20 in the Tate restaurant. The place was really fashionable, everything from chairs to flowers in pure white, reminded me of a lunch I had at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles with Grampa a few years a go.

We got on really well despite the language barrier which is amazing. It was the first time I spent any amount of time together without someone translating and I had a great time. It is really really unusual in Japan for a girlfriend or boyfriend to be able to stay over at the house. It's even really weird if you bring a friend home and want them to stay because the home is a very sacred place. I guess because it's so crowded it's the only place people can really relax. So these parents are very liberal. Also parents rarely meet their son/daughters girlfriend anyway unless they're engaged. So I'm allowed to stay at the house for a month and I don't speak Japanese, so these parents are really unusually friendly and open to foreigners for older Japanese people from a completely different generation. His parents married in 1972 and seemed like real hippies, the dad was an artist and a famous Tokyo DJ in the 70s, while the mom was a musician and brought Soran up watching Yellow Submarine.

I walked round Ginza and the Matsuya, the equivalent of Knightsbridge and went to the equivalent of Harrods. The food halls were to die for, and there were so many free samples and meal size portions of the free samples and because no one spoke English they didn't push me to buy anything! I walked past a store full of pumping music and beautiful dancing models and wandered inside then I see a shirtless ripped American dude posing for pictures with a group of Japanese girls and then I'm whisked up an elevator to the top floor then it dawned on me….I'm in Abercrombie and Fitch! God no. Heaven forbid it was awful but hilarious at the same time; all these really very pretty Japanese boys dancing to bad house music and that's what they do all day. Lets just say it was an experience, I haven't even been to the one in London and I'm ok with that.

I met Soran at Shibuya crossing at half 7, just in the thick of rush hour. I feels like I'm in a movie every time I go there and reminds me of the little miniature size version of Tokyo in the model village in Babbacombe. We headed to the Pink Cow a place Corrine recommended, we wandered into the basement and it was just full of foreigners it was so weird. It's in the lonely planet guide so that has something to do with it I'm sure. We walked into the tiny bar area and sat down with a bunch of Japanese regulars, with the bar area being dominated with Japanese smokers while the gaijin sat in the non-smoking area. After quite a few hours getting steadily drunk we had had the best burritos outside America, made friends with the bartender who gave us tequila shots, made friends with the regulars who bought us drinks, spent all of our money between us, got given more free drinks from the bartender as mistakes and felt very much at home in this very weird little bar.

We caught the last train home and made our way back to Shinamachi, and bought some beer on the way home and I won another prize and got myself an ice-cream! Apparently I'm really lucky. We stayed up drinking with his parents and I was so tired, nearly falling asleep and fairly drunk but I realised I'm actually beginning to respond in Japanese. Maybe it was a combination of the drink relaxing me and being here a week already. Soran couldn't believe it, he keeps reminding me of the time when I was adamant I didn't want to learn Japanese or come to Japan because I didn't care for Asian culture and much preferred the vibrant, freedom of Latin culture. And now look at me, loving Japan and enjoying learning Japanese. How things have changed.