Tag Archives: Japan

sex, Travel

Flight attendants

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=Do you like flying? Although most people hate it, I think there are a number of reasons to love it. Apart from being the fastest way to travel, allowing us to get across the globe in less than 24 hours, it’s very cheap, probably the cheapest per mile of any transport. But for me the number one reason to love flying has to be the flight attendants. Sure, it would be nice to have a little more legroom and space, and I’d prefer it if the flight had fewer people (how are they always full even mid-week), but once I am onboard and I’m greeted by the sweet smile of a sexy young woman, my travel complaints all but disappear.

Snacks and dinner (as well as drinks which can be refilled several times) make the flight extremely comfortable, and when else do you get such attentive service? The narrow seating is actually a positive because it means that the flight attendants have to move closer to us. The other thing I should mention is that most of these women are beautiful and young. I don’t know about Easyjet or RyanAir, I haven’t used them for years. But if you take any Asian airline you won’t go wrong. It’s rare to see a male flight attendant, although it’s more likely on the long-haul flights. the uniforms are good, usually skirts and a tight-fitted jacket. Many flight attendants prefer to wear heels because of the height advantage. All of this means that I’m particularly motivated to fly and often board the plane early. Unfortunately, some passengers couldn’t care less about the service they receive onboard.

Do you greet the attendants when they are welcoming you onboard? Or do you ignore them and carry on looking for your seat? I’m astounded by how many people ignore this basic courtesy. And this rudeness continues onboard, with passengers ignoring requests to follow instructions, keep there seat-belts on, and generally behaving in a unpleasant manner. Like the character Nick in Crazy Rich Asians, (a self-professed airline geek), I always follow the safety demonstration in case their is an emergency, but many airlines don’t do this anymore, preferring to show a video on the seat TV screens, or totally ignoring it. A shame, as I particularly enjoy watching attendants mime the inflation of life jackets and showing us the emergency exits. I guess I’m not alone, because there’s a scene in Chungking Express where Valerie Chow strips out of her uniform and blows into an imaginary life jacket to seduce Tony Leung. The film also has Faye Wong dress up in a flight attendant uniform in the second part of the film.

Actually, a personal fantasy of mine is to fly alone on a small jet with a group of women from Korean air or JAL, just stopping off at airlines to refuel, and enjoying the food and drink onboard. I think there is a real niche out there for people like me who don’t care about where they go, only how they get there. I guess there is first class, which allows for a few passengers to enjoy better service and food, as well as boarding earlier. But my dream is to see these women in and out of their uniforms, to see what happens when the plane lands and the passengers leave. Mostly the attendants have several hours between flights and end up hanging around the airport. All this means you should feel much more positive about flying.

 

Personal, sex

Sexless Korea

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Is it possible that I got it wrong about Korea? Specifically, that it’s really easy to get with women if you’re white?

Whilst there are those who would say otherwise, here are a few reasons why it’s actually hard, really hard, to get even a date here as a foreign male.

  1. The culture is totally different. Yes, it’s obvious, but any of the rules in other countries don’t apply here. The hook-up culture is not the same. For example, Tinder is used as much to make friends as it is for actual dating (or so I’m told).

Some Korean women won’t date foreigners. You could have excellent Korean, be successful and good-looking, but some Korean women won’t date you because you’re not Korean. Although you will see WMAF couples, you won’t see many really top-level Korean women going out with anyone not Korean. As much as I hate it, it’s just a fact of life here.

The clubs are as much for dancing as they are for meeting people. On the two occasions I have been to clubs, I saw that most people were staying in gender-segregated groups. Men were definitely not approaching woman to dance. It would be completely different back home. It’s even harder to approach people in bars, because people sit on separate tables and don’t even place their orders at the bar. Although there is less opportunity to take a girl home here (most people still live at home) Koreans use the same phrase for one night stand, showing that they are at least aware of the concept.

Koreans have a rigid dating culture, and to approach someone randomly on the street, or in a cafe, isn’t really done. Although I have tried it several times, in most cases I could feel that the women didn’t really want to have a conversation with me and made a point of moving on as soon as possible.

The sheer amount of foreign students and English teachers has made foreigners less of a novelty. In fact, I feel largely ignored here, and somewhat invisible, to the point where I can be in a room of Koreans and nobody will acknowledge me.

The possibility that women will feel judged if they go out with foreign men possibly puts them off approaching them in the first place.

Lastly, the fact is that there are some sickos out there who will date a korean woman and flood sites with articles like ‘Korean women are easy’. This sort of thing does nobody any favours. Whilst you must always take something like that with massive grain of salt, whether it’s even true – and ask yourself whether someone who was actually sleeping with a lot of women would want to tell others about it online – it’s going to only make it harder for everyone.

One thing I am seeing is that there are much more Korean men with western women. I guess its because men are much more comfortable dating out of their culture than women here.

Meanwhile any men moving to South Korea in search of easy sex should do an instant reality check.

Japan, Travel

Two Film museums in Japan

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Two film museums in Japan.

Studio Ghibli Museum

Juzo Itami Museum

As one of the most popular attractions in Japan, tickets are very hard to get hold of. You can only get them in advance. You are given a time slot. And that’s it. Bow, I have no issue with popular places and I understand perhaps the need to make a reservation.

The first big downside is you must enter a queue before you can even enter. So imagine arriving at 4pm, waiting for your poreciuos slot, and then finding you have another ten minutes before you can go inside. Then your ticket must be verified with your name, and it might cause problems if you are not the same person as the one who booked it.

I t looked like there were people who hadn’t left from the previous showing. Why on earth do you give people a particular time slot if they aren’t going to have the museum to themselves?

When we went inside we were told not to take photos of anything in the museum. This didn’t bother me and I can understand why they ban them. Now I’ve been to a lot of famous museums in my time and I m used to being told what I can and can’t do.

But this has to be the most overly monitored museum I have ever entered. Although there’s nothing particularly fragile on display, there are staff at every turn, ready to admonish you for not taking your shoes off in the right place, or for not putting them on again properly.

I thought that calling it a museum is not truly accurate. Most museums offer some explanation of their subject and follow a logical theme. This is really just a theme park, with one or two museum-like areas. There is very little information and only one or two exhibits. One of the most disappointing experiences was the short film shown in the cinema. Although we had to queue for ten minutes (valuable time which could have been spent actually looking at things) there was no idea of what we were waiting to watch. By the way, these ‘films’ are not shown anywhere else. I’m all for giving customers a unique experience, but I can’t imagine why they would only show a film in a museum if, oh, wait, it’s not going to be any good then, is it? iNDEED, Those expecting to see some kind of lost masterpiece will be bitterly disappointed.

I’m not sure if the short film was even by Ghibli, so poor was the animation.

Next to the cinema is a room containing carousels of some of the famous Ghibli films which light up when they are spun. It’s titled how a film is born. Fair enough, but aren’t most of the Ghibli films taken from existing ideas, such as children’s books? So why not show how the book’s were developed into the movies?

There are several staircases leading to the second and third floors. After failing to get any thing from the short film (which wasn’t short enough), I left, eager to see what was so exicting for people to make a special visit for. A room upstairs contains books and type writers. It’s charming but I can’t see the link with Ghibli. Are these items belonging to the famous directors Hiyazaki and Takahata? We don’t know, because there aren’t any captions to tell us. At this point I was feeling frustrated and a little fed up. It was a lovely day and I was thinking of skipping the museum for a walk on the park. But there was finally something worth looking at on the third floor. Titled food and film, it contained actual storyboards from Laputa, Spirited Away, and Princess Monoke, showing frames of characters eating food. It was the only part of the museum containing any real substance.

The museum also feel somewhat dumbed down. Yes, Ghibli make films for families, but so what? I don’t consider the films themselves childish. For example, the explanation of menstruation in Only Yesterday, or the effects of war in Grave of the Fireflies. The museum doesn’t even mention the 1993 title Ocean Waves, despite it being some people’s favourite Ghibli movie.

There are two shops, one which was so crowded I couldn’t go in to. I have heard that there wasn;t much to buy and that the manga shop has better merch. But I didn’t go to buy things. I wanted to learn more about Ghibli, but the museum failed on this front. There were far too many people for such a small space. Tourists crowded together, families with crying children who looked as though they were bored, and yet again, too many staff who seemed to interrupt anyone from enjoying things too much.

 

Finding the Ghibli museum a little bit of a turnoff, I had low expectations for other museums. But I found a second museum that in some ways I liked more.

For starters, this one had some things in it and contained a stronger theme. The name Juzo Itami might not have the same meaning for foreign fans as Ghibli but he was one of the first directors to really make a name for Asian cinema internationally (at least after Kurosawa).

His most famous film is easily Tampopo. It has some of the most fabulous scenes of characters eating and is perhaps best known for an incredible sex scene involving various food items.

The museum can easily be seen in one hour. Easily, because there are few people attending. There aren’t many exhibits in English but as it’s all visual, this won’t be a problem. Starting with a video of his wife Nobuko introducing the museum, there are exhibits of some funny sketches the young director made. Helping to give a sense of who he was as a person, the museum has old family photographs.

There is a café where you can enjoy tea and try a cake popular with the direcrtor himself. These were really overpriced but at least they could be reasonably associated with the films. As opposed to anything at the Ghibli museum, which I couldn’t try anyway due to the lack of time.

 

 

 

 

Juzo Itami museum

Studio Ghibli museum

 

 

 

Restaurants

Hochi Bochi – Restaurant review

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Hochi Bochi restaurant

Sometimes restaurants deliver in some unexpected ways and I react in different ways to how I imagined I would.

Like when I went to Hochi Bochi restaurant in Chiba recently.

I was lured in by the varied Okonimiyaki on offer restaurant. The restaurant has a very unique atmosphere With low level tables where we sat on cushions in front of a polished steel grill,  which was where the okonomiyaki were cooked. Monje yakki was raw vegetables (tuna, cabbage and sweetcorn) which we combined with the batter to  make our very own okonomiyaki.

To my delight the staff were nearly all female, with many of them young students. I started to focus more on them than on the food. They were wearing red bandanas with  t-shirts with what looked like the restaurant logo.

I went back a second time the following evening. The restaurant has a great atmosphere where staff call out each order as they go back to the kitchen. In traditional Japanese style the servers greet each customer loudly and this happened on both occasions when I went there with my girlfriend.

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Photo of Ayume, my girlfriend Mihi and me. I got so sidetracked by the female staff that my interest was moved away from the food and onto other appetites.

The atmosphere was warm and very inviting. The smoke rising from the grill greeted us as we entered, and the interior was so warm and cosy that we didn’t want to leave.

Ayume served us on both occasions and she was an absolute delight. Watching her sit down to scrub one of the grills in her bare feet was an experience I won’t forget in a long time.

She posed for photos, laughing as she did so. She works there every night from seven. I’d like to go back in a few months time to find out if she and any of the other cute girls are still there.

Restaurant information: Hochi Bochi, Chiba.

 

Travel

Making waves in Matsuyama

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My most recent trip to Japan to Japan took me to some new and interesting places.

There was the small city of Matusyama. It’s actually the largest city of Ehime prefecture. As well as having Japan’s oldest onsen (bath house), it’s famous for a beautiful white castle high on the hill.

I arrived in Matsuyama just after dark, as the residents (and a few tourists) were getting ready for their evening bath. The view of the Onsen is very impressive, lit up by lanterns and street 20180421_170807.jpglamps. To add to this peaceful mood, you will see many visitors walking to the spring wearing brightly-coloured yukatas (a lightweight version of a kimono). Just outside the Dogo station is an old electric train and there is a robot clock that comes to life every hour.

The tram running from the main JR station connects the city’s main areas of interest. Taking line 5 allows you to pass the city’s main shopping area. Right outside Matsuyama City station is the Takeshimaya Shopping centre. The roof is home to a 50 metre illuminated ferris wheel (moved a few year’s ago from Hiroshima). In a lovely gesture of good will, the city allows foreign passport holders the opportunity to ride it for free (normal price is 700 yen). It’s 15 minutes for it to make one turn, and the views are as impressive as the structure of the wheel itself.

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The city is famous for udon noodles, slightly chewy and very thick soup noodles made from wheat flour. At about 400 yen for a medium bowl of ‘dons in a light seafood broth, they were some of the best value food I had here.

If you want something more fancy, the Michelin guide has for the first time published it’s ratings for the city. It covers most of the city’s expensive restaurant, but a few cheaper options are recommended. With everything from ramen places (Shiosoba Maeda) to very expensive Kaiseki restaurants, it admittedly favours places at the latter end of the price scale. But reading the guide does at least give a good indication of the range of food available.

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Although famous, due its age, and also its connection with the Studio Ghibli film Sprited Away, the Dogo Onsen is actually has very little options for bathing, with only one bath. There’s a much more impressive onsen near the JR station (Hibiski). There are several different waters including foaming baths. Walk around naked, but put your pants on if you’re getting a massage.

If it sounds like Matsuyama is a bit of a sleepy place (bathhouses, trams and castles) there’s a large red light area in Okkaido where you can go if you’re feeling sexy. And with some of the best looking women in the whole of Japan , this might be the number one reason to come here.

Getting there 

I flew with Jetstar, a budget airline from Narita airport.

There are many alternative ways to get here; for example by bus, train, or across the cycleway from Hiroshima.

Travel

My trip to Fukuoka

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I took a short trip to Fukuoka just the other day to see my girlfriend for Christmas. I got there on Christmas Eve Eve. We stayed in Nishi ward the first night.  I wasn’t impressed with our Airbnb stay at all. Firstly, our host kept us waiting for twenty minutes in the cold. Then we found that there was not any food for us or any place to cook.

The next day was better. We went back to Hakata which has several big department stores. I find the service in these shops to be first rate and you can eat dozens of free samples if you are so inclined. We went to a doughnut shop I had read about online called Canezee’s. It was nothing like Krispy Kreme at all and the doughnuts tasted natural and fresh, as healthy as it is possible to get.

There was a Christmas market opposite Tenjin station with traditional stalls and a J-pop band performing. It was pretty funny to watch as the fans were made up of 40 year old men copying their dance moves and singing along.

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We took the bus from Hakata to Tokurikikodanmae, a district of Kitakyushu. When we got there it was raining but our lovely Japanese host was there to pick us up. She drove us to her house where we were staying for the night.

It was an incredible experience which exceeded my expectations. We stayed in a large bedroom with a balcony overlooking the misty mountains.  Then a couple of hours later we sat down to eat a delicious Christmas dinner that Kimi and her mother had prepared for us.

First we had a kind of chicken pie with puff pastry topping. Then they bought out roast chicken with several plates of vegetables. I was getting full but we had tomato pasta (the first time I have eaten pasta since leaving UK three months ago). There was bread to follow which the guests really enjoyed dipping into olive oil.

 

Throughout the meal I drank sake which I had purchased that morning near the Dazaifu shrine. The other guests were not drinking much but they drank plenty of non-alcoholic beers and sweet plum cocktails.

I was especially excited to try the Christmas Cake. Unlike the traditional English rich fruit cake served at Christmas, which has marzipan and sugar frosting, it’s traditional to eat a cream roll cake with strawberries. It wasn’t very sweet but it was wonderfully light after the rich food we had just eaten.

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I took a bath with my my girlfriend and then we slept on wooden beds with thick futons. The next morning our hosts gave us breakfast of toast and black tea before driving us all the way to Kokura station.

We walked around the castle and then spent time in the museum looking at costumes and swords from the Edo period. It was more fun than I expected and we spent a long time there.

Kokura
A nice souvenir from Kokura castle

The museum has the largest diorama in Japan – a recreation of Kokura town with 5,000 dolls and to scale buildings. A funny experience was the theater, where they had a robotic doll who came on the stage and narrated a video presentation about the Gion festival.

Kukora Castle

We stopped off in a branch of Coco Curry, ordering a scrambled egg with curry sauce. I’m always impressed by the Japanese way of ordering lunch alone. It’s totally different from the Korean style of sitting on a table in a large group. We had to leave soon after to get the bus back to Tenjinm.

I nearly missed my flight because the bus was delayed in traffic. Thanks to the kind actions of an Asiana worker, I was rushed through security and I made it to the departure gate minutes before boarding the plane.

I can’t say anything bad about Fukuoka. In fact I enjoyed everything we did here. Just doing simple things like going to a 7 eleven, which is their convenience store, is better than anywhere else.  You feel comfortable taking the subway trains because the seats are made of soft upholstery, similar to the old-style London tube trains.

I will try not to use Airbnb on my next trip. I don’t like the extra charges they add (for 1 more guest, cleaning charges, cancellation). Couch-surfing is often better because you can have a deeper interaction with your host and really learn about them. And isn’t that what travelling is for?

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Chateau Life-eze, Japan

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I’d like to tell you about a really cooI place I stayed in during my recent trip to Japan. I was looking for a room on the Couchsurfing website and I came across an International Share house in Kanagawa just outside of Tokyo. The building itself is very unusual and I was glad I found it.

Firstly, its designed in a chateau-style which stands out dramatically from the grey concete of modern Japanese buildings. Secondly, It’s in a very picturesque location: perched very high up at the top of a steep hill and next to a dense forest, it’s a bit like being in the Swiss Alps.

It’s called Chateua Life-eze and they really run with the concept. The kitchen has been fitted with wooden beams and the doors are decked out with wrought iron handles.

The rooms are fairly small (for a single person) and the beds are western style (my mattress was on the firm side). Each one comes with a wardrobe, TV and desk.

The house has a third floor for women only and although I wonder if this is necessary, it might be a consideration for some people. I didn’t find out whether couples can sleep on a different floor but there are larger rooms for up to 6 guests.

There is a kitchen on the 2nd floor with excellent cooking facilities. It was so spotless that I was afraid to use it, although I did made dinner on two separate occasions. Japan has become very strict with regards to waste recycling and seems to have a problem with cockroaches. I was told to wrap all food waste in plastic bags before throwing it away.

The main purpose of my visit was to provide a cultural exchange for the mostly Japanese residents who want to learn about other cultures. I was a bit unsure what this would involve but it was mainly fine, although it took a while to break down barriers (the Japanese are at least as awkward when meting strangers as English people). They wanted to talk to me about my impressions of Japan and the differences between Japan and England. I shared some food with them, but people seemed to cook their meals separately (it’s a share house but people definitely don’t share their food).

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Overall I did enjoy my stay at the Chateua but I would have liked to have spent more time with the other residents, and I would have enjoyed the opportunity for more activities. It was also a little strict (I was told not to leave any belongings in the bathroom) and I didn’t feel that I could relax completely while I was there, but other more clean and careful guests who don’t mind sticking to rules will be fine.

The people

The house is managed by Mai and Nagi. I got on well with Mai who was very charming but I really wasn’t sure if Nagi was being rude or simply didn’t appreciate me being there. Each morning she asked what I was planning to do (implying I should go somehwhere). There were two other members of staff who I spent some time with in the evening, but most guests were at work most of the time I was there). There were 7 guests who came to the cultural exchange. I thought the book of short biographies for each guest was a nice touch.

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About the area:

Yomiuri is on the Odakyu line (express trains from Shinjuku take 15 minutes). There is shrine near the house and an amusement park not far away (Yomiuri Land). Tokyo Women’s University is also nearby. The Chateau can be booked through AirnB and Couchsurfing.

 

 

Personal

Tokyo Diary

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A city I have always wanted to visit. A place about which so much is known but little is understood. Here is an account of how I spent my first days there and some of the things I got up to.

We got up early on Sunday to visit the Tsukuji fish market which is near the Ginza area. It’s the largest open fish market in the world and the amount of stalls is overwhelming. We probably should have chosen a different day to go because the crowds were out.

I tried the Oyaku Don (chicken and rice with scrambled eggs) and the combination was pleasing.

They also have some great ice-creams including flavours I haven’t seen anywhere else (sakura, white peach). The sushi was good but not outstanding for some reason (maybe I made some bad choices).

Back in central Tokyo, we visited the Shinjuku park. You have to pay to enter which was a good idea to keep it safe.

I wanted a cold drink and I’d heard about the melon flavoured drinks for sale here. Imagine a very sweet, slightly artificial tasting soda the colour of crème de menthe and topped with soft ice cream and that’s what it looks like.

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We met Miho’s friend near the busy Shibuya area. We had ramen (Chinese noodles in pork broth). You can specify the thickness, and the hardness of the noodles as well as how spicy you want the broth). By ordering at a vending machine, it takes less than 10 minutes for your food to arrive.

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It wasn’t really satisfying enough so we walked to another place. We went to an Izakaya restaurant. Sometimes they are translated as pubs but that seems to be doing them a disservice. The focus is very much on the food but the drinks are very good. I particularly like the range of sours (yuzu, pear, apricot).

It’s still legal to smoke in many indoor bars and restaurants but with good ventilation you don’t notice the smell of the smoke.

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Then we went to Starbucks which is popular here and offers some more interesting choices than are available anywhere else.

Another thing. You can still smoke in many restaurants, cafes, bars. This being Japan, its hard to notice any smell as the ventilation means the smoke is sucked up into the air. Then you should also bear in mind that life expectancy is the highest in the world and you have to wonder whether we haven’t been overly alarmist in having a total smoking ban.

The next day is Miho’s first day back at work, so I spend the day alone. I type up a story that’s been running through my mind recently. With so many people going to exotic places on their holiday, would it be possible to spend the entire duration of a holiday alone in a hotel room? You could argue that many famous tourist sites are disappointing. a nd with the recent terrorist attacks, there is more danger than ever in visiting cities.

In the afternoon I want some company so I contact Jun, my A irbnb host. She asks me what I think of the apartment and I answer that its very small. a problem with airnbnb for me is that when you’re staying in someone’s house you feel inclined to be positive. Yet you’re also spending money so you want to get your money’s worth.

She recommends a few places and I leave with my head full of things I won’t have half enough time for. But one of the places she recommends is Yoyogi Park, which I can walk to.

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There are lots of trees and some shrubs. At the end of it there is shrine, where many tourists come to visit. Right at the end you get to Harajuku, the centre of youth culture and fashion. In fact, it was made famous outside of Japan by Gwen Stefani in her song ‘Rich Girl’. I also check out the massive, monolithic structure that was built for the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games.

I take a walk around the Shibuya area and pay attention to all the kids on the streets. one thing you soon notice in Japan is how differently the young people dress, They have their different tribes that they belong to. It’s said that most Asian trends develop here and you can well believe it.

I still have time before I have to meet Miho so I go over to Asakusa; another busy area popular with tourists.

I stop off in one of the many convenience stores. I’m fascinated by these well-run, clean treasure troves which are so well-stocked. for one thing, they never seem to close. Secondly, they sell things that you would actually want to buy. For example, packs of rice balls. Bread, even yakitori. You can buy pornographic magazines which are sold next to fashion and sports magazines.

There are dozens of restaurants. I also spot a famous revolving car stand, which allows the vehicle to spin round before pulling out.

It starts to pour with rain before I can meet Miho. Not just light shower but heavy driving rain. I arrive back at our apartment absolutely soaked to my skin.

Day 4

The rain continues so I stay in the flat for a few hours. then I walk over to Yoyogi hatchiman, an area close to where I am staying. There are several nice-looking shops ( I mean traditional, not chain stores here). I want to buy some katsu curry which is so good here. But no point buying it too early I suppose. Instead, I take the metro to another area of Tokyo for the araki exhibition. an entire display devoted to photos of his wife Yuko. Some of the photos are stunning and he is clearly a master of his form. But what also impresses is the total respect that patrons have for the exhibition. No-one stands in front of the pictures for too long. No one pushes or shoves. I spend a good hour taking in all the photos.

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Day 5

I go to an area I have already heard a lot about. The electronics area of Tokyo Is called Akhibara. Actually, first I went to Ueno but it was pouring rain and the place was full of locals still on their vacation. So its better to go somewhere else. there is also a market near the station: Ameyoko. But there is nothing of interest to buy there.

Although most people visit the area for electronics, computer games etc, I’m more interested to find girls who work in Maido-kissas. These are cafes where women dressed in maid costumes serve coffee and cakes to men using extremely polite and deferential language. It looks a little bit like prostitution but there’s nothing sexual about the service they provide. I’m tempted but the funny thing is the service is already plenty polite everywhere I have been so far.

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Going for lunch in a soba restaurant I meet another traveller. Ocasionally when I’m travelling alone I like to talk to other foreigners. So I ask Alex about what he has done so far in Tokyo.

Oh and they have ‘cat cafes’ here. I’ve never seen them anywhere else. But it seems people go there to stroke and play with cats for a thirty minute time slot. Another concept that originated here and will be unlikely to spread anywhere else although its possible I suppose.

A cool discovery was seeing a street that only sold musical instruments. On one side were several guitar shops and then on the other side several stores selling brass instruments. It makes things very easy for the customer but probably causes unnecessary competition for the other shops.

The other thing out here is they have people everywhere to guide you, or answer any questions. The other day I was walking near Akhibara and there was someone standing by a part of the road that had been closed off; he wasn’t doing any roadwork, he was there to apologise to pedestrians over the inconvenience of the road being closed!

As well as people manning the train station platforms, there are almost always staff standing outside shops and restaurants to invite people in. You can have as many free samples of snacks in the department stores and no-one seems to mind. I had expected my purchases to be carefully wrapped, but other than the occaisional ribbon, most things are simply quickly put into a plastic bag and handed directly to you. Or maybe its just that I haven’t been buying any big ticket items.

 

I have found the apartments I have been staying in a little hard to get used to. The rooms are very small with low ceilings. And the bathrooms are strange too. There is often no separate compartment for the shower. You turn it on and the water floods everywhere, so you slosh around until you are done. they also have the air conditioning on all the time and I have to remind myself to turn it off when I’m not in the room.

 

I’ve seen plenty of lone diners. Today I went for my morning coffee at about 8:30. The place was full of workers on their way to the station, drinking coffee and chain-smoking. You can still smoke in bars and restaurants without a problem. Its seems like a very civilized way to live.

The quality of life is what makes it so special here. Of course, there are one or two things I’m not so comfortable with. For example, when you order something in a restaurant, you’re not expected to be able to change your mind, or ccomplain if something isn’t right. It’s a different concept they have to human rights, or consumer rights.

I’ve noticed that Miho would rather eat her way through a bad meal in silence than kick up a stink. Whereas in the same situation I would be itching to ask for a replacement or a refund.

Speaking of food, you have to look around for the best prices. Its possible to eat a bowl of ramen in a quick-self service restaurant (order by vending machine)for lss than 5 pounds. But for something of higher quality (cooked to order) you will have to spend up to 900 yen, which is about 6 pounds. Sometimes the price of food is close to what you would spend on coffee. Its pretty strange. Starbucks is poular and there are several local brands that do something very similar for a lower price. In any case, it seems that coffee is more popular than tea for most people. It’s usually drunk cold in a glass half filled with cubes, but ask if you want it hot and they will do it for you.

I’ve seen a lot of attractive women here, similar to those in Korea. In fact, I’d go as far as saying that they are more attractive than Korean women because they have less plastic surgery. They are also more likely to show individual taste in their fashion sense rather than dress the same way.

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I’ll be visiting some more museums here. You need to pay unfortunately. I’ve been to the museum of photography and the museum of Oriental ceramics. Tomorrow I’m getting up early to go to the Ghibli museum, then I might wander over to the cemetery where several famous Japanese authors are buried, including Yukio Mishima.

When it comes to obvious places to visit, I’m usually disappointed. When we were in Osaka, we thought about visiting the sky observatory. We went as far as the 38th floor, and then looked at all the tourists queuing for tickets, and we decided against it. I think I remembered not going more than actually going upo there. Then a few days later, we had some time to kill before travelling to the airport, so we went up there and this time we paid for a ticket. In the end, we were right to have our doubts, as it was nothing special , just a view of the skyscrapers and nothing more. As in so many areas of life, things are better in imagination than reality.

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Personal

Room Service

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Room Service

I like to stay in the best hotels when I go on holiday, and I know where all the best ones are. Right now I’m in Tokyo, staying at the Mandarin Oriental. I like the privacy you get from being in a high-class hotel.
I don’t want to see any tourist places when I’m on holiday, and I definitely don’t want to bump into any tourists…

I check in at the lobby and I give my bags to one of the attendants. They make a light glide along the polished floors as the attendant pushes the button for the lift with a gloved hand……

I enjoy the conveniences that come from staying in a good hotel. I definitely don’t want to have to worry about anything for the whole time I am staying here.

I leave my bags in the room to be unpacked later. I grab a soda from the well-stocked minibar and enjoy its cold, refreshing effervescence.

I test the shower next. I take my clothes off and leave them in an untidy heap (to be neatly folded later). The water runs in steady streams across my body. I nearly slip on the tiled floor as I go to grab the bath robe with the hotel’s famous shell logo embroidered on it.I let it soak up all of the moisture on my body until I am fully dry.

I turn on the TV and there’s an old Humphrey Bogart movie that I haven’t watched before. It’s where he gets plastic surgery. It’s very entertaining. Next I watch an old re-run of Friends that I’m certain I haven’t watched before. I wonder to myself why they no longer make shows of this quality any more. The haircuts are dated but most of the jokes still work.

It’s beginning to get dark outside. Time for a swim in the hotel pool. There’s no one else in there except for an old man doing a slow breast-stroke up and down the side of the pool. I give him plenty of leeway and use the lane next to him. The swimming pool gives off a faint smell of sulphur and the light from the ceiling shimmers on the surface of the water.

I carry on swimming lengths for twenty minutes until my muscles are all fully stretched. I then sink to the bottom of the pool, holding my breath at the bottom for as long as I can manage until I must come up for air. The old man is still making his heavily labored lengths of the pool. I’m about to get out when I see a tall, elegant looking woman wearing a one-piece swim-suit carefully enter the pool.

She barely makes any waves as she carries out perfect front crawl strokes of the pool. Her arms stretch out in front of her and her face is looking directly ahead.

When she reaches the end of the pool she executes the perfect tumble-tuck, her body bending tightly into a ball as she kicks off for another length of the pool.

I start swimming again, matching her speed so that we both reach the end of the pool at the same time in different lanes.

I slow it down and swim a few lengths on my back, watching the strange shapes made by the ripples on the glass ceiling.

I watch her again as she makes her way down the pool for another circuit.

“You’re a great swimmer,” I tell her as she climbs out of the pool.

We take a coffee together in the hotel bar, and I note that although she is several years older than me, her age barely shows and her straight cut hair accentuates her heart-shaped face.

“Do you often travel by yourself,” she asks me?

It’s the kind of question only a woman could get away with asking but I answer casually and try to sound non-offended.

“I always travel by myself.”

“Don’t you feel lonely sometimes?”

“Everyone’s lonely,” I reply.

She takes a sip of her espresso, unable to think of a response.

“Which room are you staying in?”

“Room 106. Right over the river.”

“We’re on the same floor.”

“Then we must have a drink later,” I suggest.
“Let me finish my work, and then I will knock for you.”

We walk up to the lift together and I take her name (Chloe) and thank her for the coffee.

Upstairs I watch another movie. The Young and Innocent is a great early Hitchcock about lovers on the run. About halfway through watching, I hear a knock on the door. I open it and find Chloe standing right in front of me. Her legs are parted widely, and the light from my room shines through them in an inverted V-shape, her spiky heels digging into the heavily-carpeted floor. She bends her head round and looks disconcerted by the pile of clothes on the floor.

“I’m sorry, I never clean up when I’m on holiday.”

Chloe looks out of the window, seeing the bright lights of Tokyo lighting up the dark sky.

We walk downstairs to the hotel bar.

“I think I will have a cocktail,” I tell her.

The barman mixes a long Manhattan for her and a Southside for me.

“Did you go out anywhere the at all today?”

“I stayed here the whole time.”

“Don’t you feel bored all by yourself?”

“It’s not too bad,” I say. “I can always read a book.”

I go back upstairs and ask Chloe to join me.

“I’ll come in, but I won’t stay over.”

“Is that a promise?”

I laugh and grip her shoulders firmly.

Chloe takes off her dress and shoes and then climbs on to the bed to join me.

Soon we are kissing and she reaches down to stroke my cock.

“I normally have to do that myself,” I tell her.

The alcohol has affected me slightly but I stiffen up quickly at her touch. My balls feel heavy and full. Chloe starts caressing me and her heart-shaped face lights up.

Soon she takes me in her mouth and her mouth forms a perfect seal around my hard cock. She smiles at me as she makes a circle around it with her tongue.

I look at her and she looks directly back at me.

“Ready for fucking?”

“Not yet.”

She sucks again, almost deep-throating me.

With one hand I reach down and stroke her glorious wetness.

She takes away my hand and pulls me into her.

“Come on, that’s it. I’m coming,” she says.

……..

The next day I look for Chloe in the hotel. I take my breakfast at the hotel bar but I don’t see her anywhere.

The hotel is full of people going around their business: tourists with their day-glo sun visors to middle-aged business-men. But I ignore them all.

The next day I give up on looking for Chloe.

The hotel has other attractions. And with the internet, its possible to find anything you want, as long as you know where to look.

A quick search for escorts in Tokyo reveals any number of choices. I type in late thirties, Asian and get 500+results. I narrow it down to services such as OWO (oral without condom) and I get a smaller selection to work with.

I find one who looks good. I arrange for her to arrive this evening and tell the agency for her to come directly to my room.

When she arrives she is wearing a long belted coat and the customaty high heels. She has a slim frame but when she slips off her coat she reveals herself surprisingly well-stacked and with petite but full buttocks.

She looks around inquisitively at the large hotel room

“Don’t worry, there’s no one else around,” I say re-assuringly.

‘My name is Mina,’ she offers.

I detect a Chinese accent but the profile specifically said she was Japanese.

I lay the money outs in front of her, which she carefully counts and then puts in her pocket.

“That’s for one hour,” I say.

Immediately she shrugs off her coat puts it on a chair. She is standing in front of me, her underwear a pale blue colour.

Naked as can be after taking off her bra and knickers, she proceeds to take off my shirt and then unzips my trousers.

Soon we are both as naked as each other and we walk over to the large bed.

I carry her up on to the bed and I pull her on top of me. She is very light and her skin is silky smooth. She plants excited kisses on me all over and then feels around for my cock which has already swollen up completely to the full extent of its hardness.

Mina starts talking dirty in Mandarin and I pull out a condom and open it making a zig-zag perforation. Mina takes it from me and puts it on so skillfully that I feel nothing.

One of the reasons that I enjoy sleeping with prostitutes is that they always know exactly how to turn me on. She is soon on top of me and riding me magnificently. I’m ready for oral. Her eyes light up again and she pulls off the condom. She taps it one her mouth and then uses her tongue to flick the glans.

When I come I cover her face with shards of semen. She smiles and starts sucking again until I am hard enough to re-enter her.

……

I don’t know what happened to Chloe or Mina but I know one thing:

I had the best holiday ever, and I never had to leave the hotel once.