I wish I`d brought my camera.

Roppongi is an area of Tokyo, famous for being the place to go if you fancy an international romantic interlude. A recent acquaintance suggested that we go out for a lads night...this coupled with his conspiratorial "don`t tell your girlfriend" and description of himself as a "dirty old man" made me think that his intentions were less than gentlemanly, and my panic that he was going to try and take me to a hostess bar led me to call on a friend for backup, but this proved to be totally unfounded, and the night a good deal tamer than what I had expected.

The most notable venue was Gaspanic, a nightmarish flashback if ever I had one. Painted red, with a sweaty R&B soundtrack (which turned out to be the flavour of the evening), strutting hip-hoppers, randy army types, forty-somethings who looked like they should really know better, and the immortal sight of a line of blonde female patrons, dancing, nay, gyrating on the bar, wearing glittery hats, and clutching bottles of some girly non-beer drink...

...the bottle clutching was all important, and various signs in the establishment revealed it`s character - the strange one that declared "No tap water", and a lengthy one that stated the necessity of having a drink in ones hand...

"patrons seen without a drink in their hand will be asked to leave"

I managed three...having a beer in your hand in a place where conversation is nigh-on impossible makes you feel the need to do something, rather than observing the pulling prowess of your fellow patrons.


In a slightly more tasteful incident of Japanese life, today is the last day of Obon. One of our next door neighbours, a delightful old lady who can`t speak a lick of English, tried to explain it to me when I got home from school...she was sitting outside her front door with a dish of burning wood. She seemed to be saying something about bringing something into the house, and made a reference to Setsubun, so I thought it wa just a changing of the seasons thing...to be honest, I had other things on my mind, namely protecting the futon (left out to air that very day) from the threatened bout of 大雨 (Ouame - lit. big rain) announced on the school tannoy...I found out more later from a lovely group of ladies who pay me to practice their english conversation...

Obon is a period similar to Halloween, but with positive overtones. During Obon, lanterns are lit outside of homes in order to guide the spirits of ones dead ancestors to the family. Toy horses are made out of aubergines and cucumbers and left outside the front door. The idea is that the ancestors ride to the house on the vegetable animal. On the first day of Obon, the animals face the door, to signify arriving, whilst at the end, they face away, signifying the ancestors returning to from wherever they came.

...actually, a straight changing of the seasons wouldn`t go amiss right now - have I mentioned how obscenely bloody hot it is? Even though now, I`m in air conditioner paradise in this lovely internet cafe, when I step out, it will be a very different story...and the flat`s full of cockroaches...ugh...