So.

A week in Japan and I thought I'd be just utterly confused/lost/homeless/dead, and I'm not. It's just so utterly wonderful here!

There have been times I've had to pull out the phrasebook, and I'm scared that I'll just go into somewhere, try a bit of Japanese and get arrested for spouting filth.

However, I've been able to understand a surprising amount, and had a few really cool people to show me around. But a case in point as to how helpful the Japanese can be; I was looking for my second hotel/hostel, and completely lost as it's right in the middle of a maze of streets. I asked a little old lady to give me some directions in my broken Japanese, and she just motioned for me to follow her. Five minuites later, I was outside the place and she walked back to where she was going.

I have, however, had a big scare whilst here, on my third day losing not just my credit card, but my Passport as well. I was bemoaning my fate and looking forward to going to the British Embassy and making my dad fly into a murderous rage and demand I come back home immediately. However, a really nice Canadian remembered where I may have dropped my things and went out of his way and spent his evening searching the places we'd visited that day. A couple of hours later, he came back and took me to the Shibuya police station and I got them back in the same day.

My respect for the police in all countries has always been great, and I was expecting to be taken into a back room, given a stern talking-to about my things, a phone back home and a mire of paperwork. However, what I got was a very cute plainclothes female officer who spoke in constant broken English and asked me to simply fill out a small form and presto, I got my things back, free to go. I pulled out my iPhone at one point to get the address of the hostel I was staying at and about 4 police officers swarmed in to have a look, cooing and 'ahh'ing over it.

But apart from that, it's all been great. The people are great, the transportation is easy to use (once you get the hang of it), the food is tasty, filling and cheap (is the drink), the people I've met are friendly, the stuff I've found and bought is cool and I've still got to visit Osaka and Kyoto and then come back to Tokyo, and I'm considering using my open ticket to stay for a weekend longer to go to an 'Edo Experience'.

So I'll give a more detailed report soon.

...ish.

Ja ne~