So my Japanese is improving a bit, and I now know that my original attempt to request chicken was not actually Puma, but literally was "please give me black cat". The Japanese for black cat is quite different from chicken, no idea how it ended up there. As mentioned they apologised for not having "black cat" on the menu, and I ended up with chicken. It was pointed out to me how lucky I was to be in Japan...in some countries the waiter would have fled out the back and some poor local mog would have bought it, and I would have been munching in thinking "hmmm, interesting chicken".

So I go to a public toilet today, and a split second before I sit on the seat I see the panel in front of me (19 buttons, all labeled in Japanese, no idea what they do, 2 rotating dials, 2 switches - how much can a toilet do?). The panel says "shower toilet" in english, so a microsecond before touch-down I try to avoid contact with the toilet seat, which sort of created a leg straightening and loss of balance so I got launched into the wall at the back of the toilet (nice bruise and yelp), while twisting to look up to find the shower head that was about to annoint me once contact with the toilet seat announced my desire to be showered. There was no shower head. But I wondered about what the others in the loo made of the commotion in the little room. Do they tell jokes about foreigners trying to figure out Japanese toilets? I hope so, they would be good.

So I'm channel flicking before bed the other night, and come across a Japanese channel where I see 3 women in pvc black hotpants kicking the crip out of an angelic looking lass in white in a wrestelling ring. Ok I think, lets see what happens.
- in walks a dominatrix type in black thigh length boots, clearly the leader of the "vixens", and takes over the beating of the angel
- suddenly switches to rolling clouds with a mantovani background and silouettes of the vixens with japanese writing and a single english word "killers" (now I'm fixated)
- mantovani winds down, back to wrestling ring, and a referee is introducing the fight netween angel and one of the vixens. Now, the fact that angel is still wimpering on the ground indicats not much of a fight, and when it begins, vixen just walks over to prone, crying angel and continues to kick more crip out of her. At this point I'm overwhelmed with the thought "cultural experience".
- so vixen wins (huh? angel never even got off the ground to fight back, what was that about?)
- then in walks woman in red pvc hotpants, who enters the ring and starts to cuddle our poor abused angel. I'm thinking "ok, back to script, woman in red kicks crip out of bad guys". err, no.....
- woman in red grabs a microphone and starts singing opera!

My apologies, but I went to bed at that point. Felt like I was on acid.

So I stroll down the street the other day, and you know when you walk past a hairdressers and see people lined up getting their hair done. Well this one had 5 dogs lined up in exactly the same scene. Hmmmm.

Then a few doors down, I come across a "dog clothes shop". Not your average "mutt rag shop", no. This was "canine mode de Paris". So dogs have fashion clothes now?

Different planet.

Gats are you in Yorkshire?

I've been to Yorkshire, and everyone called me ducks! (well everyone calls every one ducks). But I didn't find Yorkshire to be that different a planet, Tokyo outscores by quite some margin (better weather too).

And carrots are much cheaper in Sheffield.....

Lovin' da tales Gat.:thumbsup:

Are you in the middle of the city or outside?

Any Irish bars? :laugh:

oh crip, there are probably are.

carrots are e0.76 per kilo in dublin today.

Lovin' da tales Gat.:thumbsup:

Are you in the middle of the city or outside?

Any Irish bars? :laugh:

oh crip, there are probably are.

carrots are e0.76 per kilo in dublin today.

Pretty much central city, but it has quite a nice small-town feel to it though Tig (surprising), place called azabujuban. Two minute walk away from an Irish pub called The Blarney Stone (Hubs claims it does a good draft kilkennie beer).

Irish pubs seem to have an interesting franchise thing going on all over and I wonder what the mechanism is behind it. There are Irish Pubs all over Asia and as good as the real thing from what I understand. The only Irish pub hubs found in Costa Rica though served no irish beer, only local, so had all the advertising but none of the delivery. Bit like english politicians.

On a different matter, my little one has a British passport thanks to hubs, but was born in Asia. Hubs is English, and trying to figure out how to say the little one's nationality (British, he's can't be English as he wasn't born there no?), the Japanese language can only say "English" for British. So Great Britain, and the UK, is called "England" by the Japanese. Land of hell for the Scots I think having to say they are English! hehe

You tell it all so well...I am chuckling quietly in the corner right now and receiving funny looks from my work mates...brilliant....keep the tales coming! :w00t: :good:

So I run out of deoderant and go shopping. Not a sausage for sale (actually there are one or two, but they don't work). The international call goes out, and a years supplies delivered.

If you go to Tesco in England, there are deoderant options up the Kyber, so why does Japan have such a thin market for the anti-smelly stuff?

Then I hear the stories of the Japanese saying "westerners smell differently, not good". Are they immune to BO? I spent time in Africa and India, and can confidently report BO is alive and well there (distinct curry flavour in India), but, come to think of it, I have not encountered one Japanese yet with The Problem. Are they immune? Is it the diet? I must admit my post-sushi armits seemed quite fresh during their deoderant depression days here.

Oh, back to the toilets which are a fascination here. So I'm sitting in a reasonably upscale toilet yesterday and there is a big button, maybe 3 inches diameter, with the word PUSH written on, with explanation of what happens next in Japanese. Would you? I didn't. I'm thinking next time push it and run (maybe point to someone else accusingly on the way).