When the sun comes down

I indulge in mysterious Japanese sweets. I believe that's where all my money has gone to. I especially love rice cakes with bean paste. A day just isn't right without sugar.

Gwen Stefani would die...

OMG bunnies!!!

I went to a temple today...

and it was under construction.
But I did get a chance to walk through magical healing fumes and hopefully my hives will disappear (Alex rechristianed me as Toad-hands). It meant to be a place of spirituality but was flocked by tourists. Oh well. I still have hope in the fumes.

Chinese food

The scariest restaurant I've been to. I'm not sure if you can read anything in this picture but it says : Giant shark fin stew, Fried silkworm's larvae, and Fried Scorpion. The menu was full of other delicacies like pig intestine and pig's feet. The cat and dog were probably on a special menu. They also didn't skip on the MSG. To complete your experience they had erotic paraphernalia as decor. In the centre of the restaurant (right above the main table) was a vagina-shaped (fake - en plastique) bell with a golden penis beam (complete with christmas lights). Also stucco boobs, vaginas, and ass everywhere. I apologize for being so vulgar but this place really was.
It seemed everyone was there just for our entertainment. Across of us sat this couple. The man was this huge Japanese business man with suspenders and glasses and all. In front of him and his wife about 20 different plates (I'm not even exaggerating!), they were just gorging themselves. At the end of their meal, the much smaller Japanese little woman starts saran wraping all of the left overs... individually (at this point a box of saran wrap appeared what seemed like out of the blue). After saran wraping each little tiny morcel of food - with much precision I must add - she neatly placed all of the items into a plastic container. What killed me though is when she took the left over sauce and poured it into the centre of a piece of saran wrap and twisted the ends. SHE SARAN WRAPED THE SAUCE TOO!!!! I died. I will never eat there again.

Sure is Golden

Deep in Shinjuku, after combing through a bunch of "modern-day-Geisha" buildings (into which foreigners are not allowed to enter), I refer to them more as prostitutes but apparently there is no sexual exchange... only 'conversation'... anyway, once you've walked through street and street of those buildings and Tokyo gambling-arcades you find an area which I believe is called Golden Gai: a whole network of allies with small bar after small bar. Each of the tiny bars embraces a theme and they seat at most six people, sometimes only two. Not all are welcoming to foreigners though. It really dazes you about how surreal some things are here. It caught me off guard and it's one of the many reasons to love Tokyo.

The cat is

Stray cats everywhere! And they have really short tails and are really friendly. People feed them and leave water bowls for them in community parks.

This must be one of my less interesting posts.