TRIED AND FRYED.

This evening I am sorry to say, my affair with japanese food ended. Heres how it began a love, end ended a horror, story:

Lucy and I, hungry from a hard days work, decided to go to try one of the resturants down the road from us. Welcoming lights and (what I now think may have been warning signs) menus out we thought it looked charming. Seated in a cosy corner, we ordered some drinks with the tried and tested method of point and wait. They arrived, non descript cocktails with a fruity flavor. Lovely.

Here comes the bit where they decide to go into the tunnel, pick up the phone, investigate the dodgy neighbour's basement. We ordered the pictureless, plastic food replica-less SPECIAL.
Then we waited. An hour and a half. I think I became slightly delirious from a combination of lack of food, remember I'm still starving, and so thought I might get a bit fuller from next doors second hand cigarette smoke. Nope, just a coughing fit. Eventually, the waitress spotted us in our out of the way corner, and realised she had forgotten to place our order. Whoops, honest mistake, right? No, this was the warning signal, the fallen down sign with 'danger' on it, the local who tells the children to stay away from the basement. Did we see it, no. Ofcourse we still wanted the special. It arrived.

A bowl of pig skin, fat and onion in a brothy soup. Tried and fryed.

WONDERFUL CITY.

So you can't be an art student without the cool clothes right? We went shopping. Hard.
Wonder City is the local Bull ring and it is fricking ace. Personal highlights were:

Bolo - The first shop we went in, sort of like an earthy All Saints. Bought a calf length jersey floral dress from there. Thought I looked like Annie Hall... If Diane ever came to Japan.

The Ice Cream place: I can't actually remember what it was called but I know it sold ice-cream because there was 30% off. One thing I am learning about the Japanese is that they love to que. Rich coming from an English girl right, no! They LOVE to que. Evidence provided.

Wonder City Department store: Just like the Selfridges of the Bull Ring. Although this one is more like Debenhams on second thoughts. Had to get a puncture repare kit because I had a flat and stumbled across this lovely bike. I know nothing about bikes but this one was pretty.

SAGA Store: Not like the Disney store with loads of crappy stuff with Winnie on, this was a mini arcade but taken with maximum seriousness. Drum game was my favorite.

SOUL FOOD.

Thought I would give and update of the things Japanese life brings.

To begin, SOCKS. They love socks. With good reason too as you take your shoes off in all homes, most restaurants and some parts of uni. Obviously my grey English cotton numbers were not going to cut the mustard so I branched out into glittery, frilly, woolly and patterned, outshining the grey by a mile.

Second on today's musings is restaurants. Quite a few, in Nagoya at least, have plastic examples of their food before you go into the restaurant. Just in case you don't like the look of it I suppose but the other thing about Japanese restaurants is they all sell the same stuff... Maybe there was a sale on at the plastic food shop this month.

And to round up today's post, umbrellas. Now I'm not talking about the flimsy fold up variety which always, ALWAYS breaks, but the larger, sleeker variety. Come rainy season no body wants to be caught out so there are always a stack, whatever the weather, in every shop and ones to borrow at uni and most public places. Just in case you have an especially fancy umbrella, or maybe as a reminder to pick it up again, they also have umbrella locks. Like bike locks you position your brolly at a clasp, lock in and leave with the key. When you are finished and ready to brave the elements you are sure to still have your beloved friend. Not that any one would steal it for fear of the public eye. I don't quite understand this yet, but its something to do with social behaviour and

WATASHI WHERE?

Went to Mino today in search of a paper museum. Okay I know how that sounds but paper is cool! I never grew up from that 11 year old obsessed with new pens. Pre-email would have been my hayday.
Anyway, arrived at Nagoya station bright and early to get the bus to Mino but was actually quite stressful because being illiterate in Japan is not fun. Nor is their cash society. Linguistics/logistics aside we got there in the end to find the Paper Art Gallery which was a bit naff in places and pretty awe inspiring in others. Also got a personal tour (Completely in Japanese) round a 200 year old house and gardens. 'Unn' is Japanese for 'uhuhh' and mine is getting quite authentic!

Japan is very very flat with very pointy mountains and hills dotted about, for which Mino is surrounded, so we went to this lovely park and climbed to the top of one said pointy hill to admire our surroundings. It was very pretty indeed! The park also had these one roomed open buildings people hire in the summer to stay in.

SKINT.

I'm not too sure how I feel about this. Fur is very cheap in Japan. Those tails were about £10 and the lizard foot £3. I think they are from Fur Farms.

I like fur. I like meat. I like living animals.

BENTO BOXED.

I have been saving this post for a while because I wanted to be absolutely sure I had the best possible examples. Bento box just means, lunch box with little bite sized delights inside. To be delightful, they put little faces on the food. Gives a whole new meaning to 'happy eggs'. On Saturday we went into Nagoya, to a shop called Tokyo Hands where you could buy pretty much anything you needed. I needed a Bento Box. These fine examples are what I have narrowed it down to, help me choose?