Frame of my Mind

I’m not sure if Japan trip, university project and exams are an adequate enough excuse for not blogging the past few weeks. So, I’m sorry! First of all, I’d like to say a rather belated congratulations to Jemjabella on her future spawn.

So, my trip to Japan was quite strange. In all I had a fun time, but I’ve decided not to apply for the JET programme any more! As an upstanding British citizen, I found the Japanese out on the streets quite rude. Cycling on the pavements and not slowing down around pedestrians, instead resorting to frantically ringing your bell is simply not acceptable behaviour. Neither is ignoring the cycle lane on crossings and running straight into people coming from the other side. Seriously. Also, slurping your noodles is disgusting. I don’t think I would have survived.

There were a few things I did like. Cheap clothes, for instance. Though, logistically speaking, Japan is better positioned for cheap imports than the UK is. Ha ha! I appreciated the fact that there was a shop, Tutuanna, dedicated to socks and tights (and underwear). I’ve never come across anything like it in the UK. They had a huge selection in all different styles and colours. Though I was not pleased with one of the shopkeepers who abruptly yelled “NO!” at me before I had even finished asking “excuse me, but do you have these in white?”

As for Japanese food, we didn’t eat too much of it. There really is no such thing as ‘vegetarian’ in Japan. Most, if not all, of the dishes on every menu at every Japanese restaurant contains at least some fish. We opted for Italian most of the time but we did find a little vegetarian restaurant, Hale, in downtown Kyoto that served us a delicious 5 course meal that we shared. I tried a few regional specialties including sushi at Tsukiji fish market, yakitori, mitarashi dango, okonomiyaki, black boiled eggs and of course the famous Japanese breakfast. I can say without a doubt, however, that the Japanese do presentation extremely well, even if their cakes aren’t as sweet as ours.

Because I know you’re all dying to hear it; yes, I did use a squat toilet on multiple occasions, and they’re right when they say there’s not always toilet paper available. I did, however, also use some amazing bidet toilets with heated seats and built-in ass dryers. There are also vending machines around every street corner, and even up mountains – though the prices get higher the further you climb. Strangely, these vending machines only seemed to serve drinks (hot and cold) and the occasional ice cream. No food. :(

I will blog again in the not quite so near future with a full account of the entire trip, I promise. For now, enjoy the above tidbits, and the 2,132 photos I have uploaded to Flickr (sorry not all of them have descriptions).