Japan the Second

[sarah_orange]

in hommage to the write up of my last visit to japan I shall yet again utilise the power of bullet points.

Notes from my Hols

• yet again with the rain on the first night and umbrella-fear. we all bought them this time as they were only£2.50. how can an industry survive producing £2.50 umbrellas? by making them a little shonky - both mine and Neal's were broken by the end of the first night - but in a truly british stylee we carried them for days rather than throw them away


• it's really shocking to see whale on the menu


• not all things on sticks are tasty - at least one of the bits of yakitori we ordered on the first night was chicken skin


• the glutinous balls are surprisingly tasty and possibly nutritious


• Iain will eat almost anything once - this is useful


• they don't seem to 'irrashaimasen' quite as much and as alarmingly as they used to


• if you order stuff like starters and mains at the same time they will bring them at the same time or in some really random order - order one lot of food, eat it, press the bell, order more food


• for 'camembert' read 'philadelphia'


• the park hyatt is so posh that it *doesn't* have squirty japanese techno toilets


• also it doesn't give you moist towelettes before you eat because you are obviously posh enough to wash your hands in the restrooms first aren't you


• there's not a whole pile of nightlife in miyajima island after 9pm


• but there are an alarming number of people wandering around in dressing gowns


• all the health benefits of a brisk walk up a mountain are quickly eroded by eating 1.5 large chocolate bars per person when you reach the top


• the Japanese sometimes hide video games characters in their temple gardens to see if you are Paying Attention. possibly.


• Designer Hello Kitty is just plain RIGHT!


• 11 course Traditional Japanese meals are pretty fucking scary I can tell you. even if they *do* lack steamed kitten faces. why was there an oyster in a tea pot? TELL ME!!


• Just because you can fit into size L Japanese Lolita costumes does not necessarily mean you should


• There are no more bear ears


• There are Giraffe ears. having 4 bumps on the top of your head seems like extra value


• breaking the LCD display of your SLR film camera before you even get to Leeds Bradford airport is remarkably full of fail


• Louis Vuitton is as common as fuck


• Osaka is actually pretty good


• you can never buy too much tat. I appear to have nearly run out already


• the cute has got recursive - everything wears a costume. I have an uber cute seal rendered paralisingly cute by being in a removeable pink fluffy bunny costume. neal has the same seal in a bee costume. and a hello kitty in a CAT costume... erm...


• you can buy some pretty hot looking boy love by the looks of it in shinjuku


• goths are the same the world over. there are clearly only 10 or 12 different goths on earth. I swear we meet a Japanese version of Fudge


• the rooms in the akasaka prince are really nice even if you don't get an upgrade. but hell why not try for the upgrade cos those suites are even nicer


• large, deep hot mineral spring baths make your boobs float


• whalesharks have entourages


• watching the column of spinning anchovy for too long can give you neck ache and make your head go funny but it's very pretty


• it's some how *very* british to get terribly surprised and excited that that big boat just there is the QE2


• the japanese do not appear to have heard of VNV nation


• it's possible to get sick of fish pretty damned quickly


• it's even more shocking to see turtle on the menu


• if you don't look out of the window in a curry house in toyko you could be in a curry house here

I'm sure I'll think of some essential ones later and add them. tired now :)

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_insecure_/]

macdonalds have quite a good record as far as animal welfare goes, they led the way whilst KFC continuously refused to make any changes