A quick entry again as time is playing against me ... In a few words, I am absolutely mad about Japan! It totally rocked my world and would without a doubt consider living here...It got to the point that, as I ve met so many westerners who teach English over here, I even started to think that maybe I should stop my further travels here and just hang around for a couple of months doing something similar! Just holding myself back for now as I do not want to be too spontaneous about it, as I am sure I could be...and will see

So basically, i ve only had 6 days in Japan but as I have spent my time between Hiroshima, Kyoto and Tokyo I reckon I have had a fairly good　overview of what this country is all about. And the selection of places allowed me to see different faces of Japan too: history and food in Hiroshima, more traditional Japan in Kyoto and then crazy Tokyo.

So I have started off in Hiroshima, having arrived by first shinkansen from Hakata, the port city. Needless to say, the quality of transport here makes me think of Europe as being stuck in the Medieval age. I naturally saw the most important spot over here Peace Memorial Park and the A-Dome (which is the only still standing building after the bombing) and yes it was well shocking, basically the only similar experience i have ever had was Auschwitz. Plus not really sure why but it felt a bit weird to be white there as the place was full of Japanese people, basically it almost made me feel guilty for no reason. Weird. Or probably it`s just me being paranoid. And then I went out of town to Miyajima island where there`s the world famous Otorii gate. And that was well cool too, especially after the sunset when the high tide came, a magic moment! And funnily the whole island is full of deer so they were all over the place coming right after you.

Kyoto was totally different, it felt like the realm traditional Japan, with loads of women wearing traditional clothing and obviously the geishas! Not that you can easily find them, but I went on a geisha-spotting mission, got some inside info re time and place, put my spy outfit on and there they were! I have managed to see 5 in 3 different sightings, felt a bit uneasy about taking the pix tho as i thought it`d be a bit out of order to just loom out in front of them and shout `cheese!`. Am probably not the world`s best paparazzi. And then boy they were quick, they basically just come out of one door and almost run to the other just looking down. Then there`s loads of temples in Kyoto, and I saw a few before I felt a bit `templed-out` tho they`re seriously awsome, check out the pix! And there was this place called the Rock Garden in one of the temples, which was basically an area with 15 rocks spaced out around it and it`s meant to be the `quintessence of Zen art`...so everyone is just sat down around it gazing at them and trying to understand what is this all supposed to mean. Boy I needed some dope! Then the place I was staying at in Kyoto was great as it was a small guesthouse run by this Japanese guy, so it was basically his home, very traditional, and we cooked some Japanese food, very chilled-out atmosphere. I could come back to Kyoto anytime!

And finally Tokyo is just mad. Just as I have imagined it - crazysexycool. Especially at night. It just never stops, the Japanese are crazy about fashion so not only there`s more designer shops here than in Milan but also they`re much bigger and nicer, not mentioning absolutely gigantic department stores...And some of them are really funky, especially the ones targeting the young people, with loud music banging out of every small shop, competing for customers. So yes, i ve done loads of walking, got lost many times between subways and trains and feeling rather worn out again. Then last night I went up to one of the Tokyo towers, the Mori tower which gives this 360 degrees view over the city and it was just out of this world. I have seen quite a few cities by night from above but Tokyo beats them all.

And lastly food... Loving it, absolutely loving it. And I dont even mean sushi as I dont think I have had it once. Really enjoyed food here, and feeling healther tho I do feel I ve lost loads of weight. But again there had to be one episode and that was I went to this place around the corner from where I was staying and ordered some sashimi from the pictures and then something else which looked ok. SoI got my sashimi, tucked into it and have noticed the chef in front of me pulling a fish out of an acquarium that was just behind him. Somehow I didnt even realise there was this acquarium with live fish in there... So basically, he chops the head off, bones it and literally a minute after it lands in front of me: the inside with rice, and then the head and some leaves that were meant to be decoration. My Monthy Python moment if you ve seen the Meaning of Life. I just thought `s***, and now what`... i dont mind raw tuna and salmon, and at least i dont see them swim a minute before they land on my plate..but that`s like a proper raw medium sized fish. Anyway, I went for it, it was surprisingly very nice but then in the middle of the night the ghost of the fish started haunting me, I woke up feeling sick and had to give the fish back to the water. I reckon my stomach has had its fair share of scorpions, dogs and is taking no more dead bodies.

So that`s about it. It rained over the last couple of days in Japan tho it was still warm but today it cleared up and it`s a lovely hot day. And I reckon that`s the turning point for me as from today on I am entering the heat zone and should stay in the sun until the end. I am on my way to Hong Kong this evening, tho I am going via Taipei and will stop there for two nights. Hmm the only thing is that I have just discovered that a powerfull typhoon has struck Taiwan a couple of days ago causing a lot of disruption...so i am just hoping for the best now!