Here’s a selection of the stuff we’ve been busy with: (in no particular order)

- We’ve eaten pretty much every food we’ve stumbled into for 14 days straight

- Eaten Kobe Steak & Traditional Sumo food

- Spent time with so many really wonderful people

- Photos of (and with) Geishas and Sumo Wrestlers.

- Visited Osaka & Himeji Castles

- Saw the beautiful cherry blossoms (Sagura) in full bloom and as it fell from the trees

- Our first Couchsurfing experience being hosted by Michael and Martin

- 3 nights with long-lost friend Anthony

- Couchsurfing picnic in park

- Experienced a Japanese tea ceremony

- Night out in Tokyo with Aikiko and Yuko (from couchsurfing)

- Night at a love hotel

- Night at a capsule hotel

- Night at a traditional tourist ‘Ryokan’

- Night staying with a Japanese lady and her farmer husband in a UNESCO village.

- Onsen hot springs

- Window-shopping in Akihabara, Tokyo – The electronics area

- Game of Pachinko (Japanese slot-machine game with ball-bearings)

- Visited a few Japanese sex shops

- Travelled by plane, the high-speed shinkanzen train, underground, local trains, buses, taxi, bike and loads of walking.

- English Tour of Edo-Tokyo Museum, Tokyo

…. Updates to follow.

These would have been the best purchase ever, were it not for the fact that the plastic support broke through the lining and cut into her feet. She persisted until the last day of our trip and ceremoniously binned them.

Here are some photos of the local scenery, taken from the bus.

Below is the butter-soft Hilda steak which the area is noted for.

A mix of vegetables was served which was cooked over a traditional clay stove.

Despite the overwhelming size of the meal, Tik and I took pride in clearing the plates.

We wandered around, visited their local markets, intent on filling our stomachs with anything that we’d not yet tried.

A local market trader selling apples. Note the clever apple-peeling machine she’s using.

This was from a local gift shop where we bought all the souvenirs we needed in one efficient 30 minutes.

After eating all we could at the local markets, it was naturally time for lunch.

Much of the local architecture is old and wooden and the town sports some unique craft stores.

We spent the night with Martin, a very hospitable Couchsurfer who was really enjoying his life. Martin worked as a teaching assistant which meant he worked with far less stress than a full-time teacher unlike other teachers we met, he lived a lifestyle that very much made the most of his time there.

Martin treated us to some traditional Japanese tea before taking us out to explore the bars for a bite to eat.

Note the leaf that cooks our food over the clay pot, the fantastic local marbled beef that was very similar to traditional Kobe steak and also note that we pretty much ate everything we possibly could.

I can’t quite remember what the paste on top of the leaf was called but again it’s another delicious local food.

They are REALLY noisy!

We stopped briefly in Nagoya for a bite to eat.

They are mainly used by Japanese businessmen but there are a rare few that have separate floors for women.

I’ve been curious to try a capsule hotel for some time and was actually looking forward to my own space for a few hours.

As you can see, this particular capsule has a TV build into it and inside there’s controls for the lights, radio and alarm clock.

Tik describes the hotel as like being in a coffin but I found it quite cosy. They are pull-down curtains at the end to shut you away but it certainly didn’t feel as claustrophobic as I’d have imagined.

The washing area was on the top floor and it’s completely communal. The photo below is of the spa bath where you take off your clothes in the changing area, go inside for an intensive shower and then relax in the heated water.

I’ve experienced similar in Taiwan so this was not such a problem for me but understandably makes some travelers nervous to experience.

The location was perfect, a minutes walk from Asakusa underground and in waling distance from yesterday’s Ryokan.

We had a nice view from the top floor window and were directly opposite the famous Asahi headquarters.

I certainly enjoyed the capsule hotel more than Tik. She didn’t enjoy sleeping alone and found that the girls floor was full of inconsiderate backpackers who didn’t understand that they shouldn’t be talking or organizing their bags in the sleeping quarters. In contract, most of my floor was occupied by Japanese men.

The experience was certainly different to anything we’ve tried before and we are both glad to have tried it.

Aikiko is a fellow Couchsurfer and both her and her friend Yuka spoke perfect English, have a very sharp sense of humor and we couldn’t have hoped for better hosts to spend our time with.

After an enjoyable dinner together we went to a bar in Omoide
yokocho (translates at ‘memory side-street’).

The area used to be a popular haunt for Yakuza but nowadays it’s safe, friendly and very fun.

We enjoyed refreshing beers here and also an assortment of grilled nibbles such as the mushrooms below.

The bar was only small and after about 90 minutes we were asked to vacate our seats for waiting customers but got a lot through some great food, drink and conversation during that time.

We left Aikiko and Yuka about 10pm and headed for a Pachinko parlor to finish off the evening.

We didn’t spend much time here but Tik wanted to see the famous crossing which is very often shown on the news in reference to Japan and it’s culture.

Around the station is a statue of an Akita puppy who, after his master died sat waiting patiently at the station for him to return from work. The original statue was melted down during World War 2 but was recreated recently.

This well-organized museum details the history of the city and contains both life-sized replicas of authentic buildings as well as very detailed miniatures.

We arrived just in time to piggyback an English-language tour that was presented by an elderly Japanese volunteer.

He was very knowledgeable although his monotone accent made things quite difficult to follow at times.

The tour lasted about an hour and introduced us to suggestions as to how Tokyo has managed to grow so fast in the last century. It is another city that’s suffered desecration after earthquakes fires and bombings, yet has miraculously bounced back, many times over.

The guidebook suggested we’d see a lot of sumo wrestlers walking around but April is not sumo season and apparently the high rental costs in the area mean that most wresting schools have since relocated.

It didn’t take us long to find a restaurant offering ‘Chanko-nabe’ which is a favorite Sumo wrestler food.

For those of you familiar with Thailand’s MK restuarnat, the food was very similar.

We were served a pot of boiling water which was gradually populated with meats and vegetables.

Unlike MK, we had no choice as to what was served and it was cooked for us by the waiter.

Despite being about eight times more costly than the Thailand equivalent the stew tasted much different as it contained a lot of foods we tend not to order ourselves in Thailand. It was very tasty and, typical of us, we finished the lot.

I was lamenting to Tik as we headed home how I was a little disappointed that we didn’t see one sumo wrestler in the area and, literally a few seconds later one walked out of the station.

I was actually quite nervous to ask permission for a photo shoot and bowed my head a few hundred times between asking him, taking the photo and saying my goodbye. He doesn’t look especially happy with the intrusion but Tik doesn’t half look small and slim by comparison.

If you notice though, Sumo wresters are not actually fat. They’re actually very muscular and well proportioned. I’d certainly not want to see one of them angry at me as they cut quite an intimidating figure.

I definitely believe that the schoolboy legend of schoolgirl panty vending machines are real. I did spent time looking but decided it wasn’t one of my must-see’s in the city.

There is YouTube footage showing it really does exist though.

Tiks huge DSLR camera made it impossible to take any discreet photos there which was a shame, but of note:

- I found entire floors dedicated to latex vaginas. It seems like there’s quite an industry for them.

- A few floors were men-only although I respect that very few women would probably really feel they missed out on the latex vagina floor as I dare say an authentically styled vagina probably is not on many women’s shopping lists.

- Tik noticed two carrier bags full of used tissues on the top floor of a sex store in Osaka. Inside was a video store where you rent a private room and a basket of 5 porn videos for an hour.

- I didn’t spot any beer-can vaginas.

- Loads of maid and school girl costumes.

- It’s true that Japanese porn does blur out the vaginas, and sometimes the nipples.

These cafes are hosted by pretty girls who dress up as french maids and speak with childish squeaky voices.

Customers (referred to by the staff as ‘Lords’ or ‘Masters’) are not allowed to touch these maids but can, at an extra fee, play a children’s card game with them. For your money you get expensive snacks, sloppy service and an earful of high-pitched giggling when your maid places your order at the table.

There was a seating fee of about 700 yen and the selection of food and drinks there was dull and really expensive.

Tik really was not impressed and neither of us really see the attraction of being pestered by squeaky adults so we didn’t venture any further.

The map of the area has a clearly marked building on it called ‘robot store’ which was the first place we headed …

only to learn that the shop had closed down last year. Apparently the Japanese economy’s been hard hit and a lot of stores have either closed or have changed hands recently.

The area is full of IT and electronic stores but, there was very little that really attracted my attention. Laptops were no better than in Bangkok, All the cellphones looked identical and had no features that were especially interesting.

I was a little horrified that many electronic superstores housed cassette players, the same Casio databank watches I had in the 80′s and displays of original Sony Walkmans which presumably some Japanese people still buy.

If anything I much prefer the IT centers of Bangkok. The products seem identical but in Bangkok products are cheaper and pirate software and hardware are also available at bargain prices too.

The small stores on ground floor level were really just like expensive bargain basements where I could fill my bags with blank DVD’s, wires, usb sticks or mousemats should I really want to.

We eventually found a robot store. It was on 5 floors and not one of them housed anything high-tech. The nearest we came to anything remotely like a robot was a floor full of Gundam models.

A few guidebooks and websites boast that Akihabara houses some wonderful gadgets including portable bidets. I eventually stumbled on this obvious tourist gimmick which is nothing more than a batter powered water pistol. The sales blurb behind it explains the reason to buy it is to ‘wow your friends’ but I refrained because I prefer not to have friends who’d find things like that impressive.

Beyond electronics, Akihabara is also a mecca for Manga fans and at weekends the area is pedestrianized to allow pop artists to dress up and parade round the area demonstrating their unusual fashions.

The sushi train comprises of single plates of sushi and sashimi that travel round the restaurant on a conveyor belt.

Each plate is color coded to denote the price and, at the end of the meal the waitress totals up the plates to prepare your bill. In this photo below the waitress swipes her high-tech scanner over our plates and we efficiently part with our ever-decreaing savings.