JAPAN

(click on images to enlarge)

I’ve just come back from a couple of weeks in Japan. Oh boy what an place that is!
After a 12 hour direct flight I arrived in Narita airport and headed straight to Shinjuku to my hotel – my room was on the 22nd floor!!

I spent 5 days in Tokyo where I browsed the department stores. Japan is cool. Fact. Everyone and everything is pleasing to the eye. Even the JCB’s doing the roadworks were purple and bubbly and had a definite air of Hello Kitty about them, amazing.

Lot’s of shop assistants screaming ‘Sumi Masennnnn!!!!’ at me, quite bizarre! Apparently it’s considered beautiful/ attractive to hold sound for as long as you can in the highest pitch possible.

Played a bit of Pachinko whilst there, it’s a kind of cross between and pin ball game and a slot machine, to be honest couldn’t work out what the hell I was doing and I had lots of scary old Japanese men staring at me, they take the game very seriously and often play 4 or 5 machines at once... So scampered on pretty quickly from there Eek!

I spent a day in old town call Nara where I visited a Buddhist temple and Shintoist one. The word Shinto was borrowed from the Chinese (神道) combining two kanji; "shin" (神), meaning gods or spirits; and "tō" (道), meaning a philosophical path or study (originally from the Chinese word tao).
The earliest Japanese thoughts do not refer to a unified religion and still many people today consider themselves both Shintoist and Buddhist.

Of course lots of amazing food was sampled. Also lots of strange delicacies such as chicken grissle, chicken heart and octopus balls for breakfast... No! not actual... Well, you know what I mean.

Also check out the pic above, it seems I family over there!

Arigato Gozaimasu Japan! Gee whizz I had an unforgettable time!

Ta Ra for now
Leicester xx