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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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What else? Go to a pachinko parlour and blow 10,000 yen. Noise levels are incredible. If you're lucky enough to win, fat chance for a newbie, take the cheesy gifts round the back of the building where they will be exchanged for cash.
Foods to avoid are things like raw sea urchin, octopus sushi, I just could not swallow a tongue size slab of broiled leg. Live bee larvae, fresh from the hive. Raw prawns are ok, just a bit disconcerting when you spot them trying to walk off the plate.
Do go to the ukai which is where you are on a boat on a river having dinner provided by the cormorants, you sit there as the fishermen come down in their traditional boats with teams of cormorants catching the aiyu which is a type of trout. Done at night and the whole river lit up by huge log burning braziers on the bows of the fishermens boats. The fish then cooked over charcoal.
You may find yourself sitting on the floor a lot of the time, watch out for pins and needles. Discreetly move your legs and change your position often. Nothing so embarrassing as standing up and keeling right over.
Get a copy of the lonely planet guide to Japan.
Take the Shinkansen down to Kyoto, that's a good day out. Those trains are so smooth, fast, clean and on time. If the train is late by even a minute makes the headline news, they run them about 3 mins apart so it's a major deal if one is late. Plus you'll go through our home town of Nagoya.
Watch the BS news at least once on the TV, it's bilingual. Will give you a different perspective on what is news over there.
Take a wee shopping trip to one of the big supermarkets, the fish section is amazing. All alive and kicking of course. Also go to the fish market.
If you get the chance get up into the mountains and go to a natural onsen. You wash thoroughly before going in the baths. Baths are for relaxing in, not for washing. Don't worry about the little old cleaning lady staring intently at your genitalia.
Japanese women can be a little confusing, if she looks 30 she's probably 15 and if she looks 15 she's probably 30.
If you enjoy a puff of or whatever, don't over there, a gram of will see you in prison. Paul McCartney was thrown straight out of the country when he got caught and being a Beatle was the only thing that saved him from prison.
Go to the electronics section of town, forget the name of the area now, but some amazing bits of kit there. Same for all the tech stuff in the music industry. It will all be 100 volts but easy enough to sort transformers in this country.
That's it for now. Have fun.
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