The Weekend

I have found something new to spend my money on thanks to Saturday's field trip - Toraya sweets. Having a similar price per gram to sterling silver, Toraya sweets are worth every yen. Eating one block of Musashi-no over the space of twelve hours was the best part - the best 1700 yen I've ever spent.

Along with that, there is one thing I've discovered about Japan - natto and sake are not my cup of tea. The former, while tolerable, is far too sticky and makes me look like I'm eating freshly-spun cobwebs or silk. The latter's taste I can put down to this: water you've washed rice in with a dabbing of vodka. Despite the fact that there may be some different levels of taste involved like with grape wine, you can still summarise it how I have - sweet rice water with vodka, calrose rice water with vodka, brown rice water with vodka... we could go on all day...

There is a place in Shibuya that sells clothing for people with more than a 28 inch waist - a miracle in a country where many adult males have the physique of a Western fourteen year old. It spreads over two levels, there are shoes, socks, shirts, jumpers, jackets... and all are American size L or above. This means that all Westerners who are taller than 175cm can actually buy clothing for themselves at price that appears reasonable.

While in Shibuya I noticed that a lot of the grafitti in the back alleys is in English. Okay, maybe Japanese people write grafitti in Shibuya... but, it was actual English as opposed to wasei-eigo or the hilariously ungrammatical compositions of the average Japanese young person. Could it be that the large concentration of foreigners in Shibuya make it shoulder the burden of Western-style grafitti, something we only see in Japan next to left or right wing political posters? Notwithstanding, the presence of a clothes shop where I can buy a jacket or t-shirt (or socks etc) is lovely - going to a place where my foot size is the smallest in the store, and my size of jeans/shirts etc is mid-range rather than hearing 「大変申し訳ございませんが、一番大きいサイズは32インチ」 from store employees makes me realise that I can actually purchase clothing here rather than get it sent from Australia or North America.

What a beautiful country Japan is :)