Go to any combini here in Japan and you with be greeted with a vast selection of exotic and not so exotic “lunch time for busy people” foods. From sushi to pasta to salads it’s all there.

The first thing you will notice is that there are no sandwiches made with brown bread, after picking one up the next thing you with notice is that there are no crusts.

Thats right.

No crusts.

For a country so health conscious that calorie counts for everything on the menu are given at every resturant I’ve seen and computer game developer Konami have branched out to running gyms, I find it really hard to believe they cut the crusts.

The bread is the most “white” I’ve ever tasted too, by that I mean that it feels incredibly insubstantial and fake, the closest thing I could compare it to is driving a Fiat Punto.

What makes the whole business that little bit odder is that their normal bread is perfectly fine, the crusts are intact and the bread is tasty enough. Sure they only seem to come in half loaf packs minus the ends but hey, nobody eats the ends unless they are desperate.

So I will have to make my own sandwiches from now on, if I only could find some ham…..

The stories that you’ve heard about Japan are true, gadgets are everywhere. In the commute to work almost everyone is sitting (well standing) there with something or another, be it a mobile phone, laptop, iPod or PSP.

However the thing I notice people playing with most is the Nintendo DS, it seems like almost everybody has one. Its not just young fellas either, almost every demographic is catered for from school children to go-getting 30 something business women to balding 60 somethings. I even saw an old lady in full traditional dress standing next to me deep in concentration, training her brain.

In England if you get a game console out in a public place you are considered like some sort of freakish deviant. Here I feel like I’m letting the side down if I’m not solving complicated court cases or killing vampires.

Anyway, the other day I witnessed something I thought could only exist in some Nintendo marketing man’s head before I came here. A young couple, probably in their twenties were sitting opposite me. They had a pair of his and her DS lites (one blue, one pink) and were sitting very close to each other with their legs crossed together.

While playing whatever it was that they were playing they would occasionally point at each others DSes, say something, giggle and then look into each others eyes in a lovey dovey way. It was such a lovely scene, two people brought closer together through the power of Nintendo.

I wish I could have taken a photo of the moment, not just because I am a whimsical sentimentalist but because if I had photoshopped a pixelated heart hanging over them and sent it to Nintendo, I could have made a fast buck from the ensuing incredibly successful marketing campaign.

In the first week I was here there was a typhoon off the coast of Japan, it was not too bad and just produced heavy rains where I was (as one of the other new teachers commented “Its just like Wales”). I had not had a chance to buy a umbrella yet so I was walking along, looking miserable, in the rain and an old lady just rode up to me on her bike and gave me an umbrella! I was amazed, it would never happen in England.

On the other hand it was a very small and girly umbrella, so it can’t have been of great worth but its the thought that counts and I was amazingly grateful. I have since been to the Tokyu Hands department store and bought an umbrella to call my very own, however the whole event inspired me. So if you are in the Tokyo/Sagamihara area of Japan and get caught short in the rain without an umbrella maybe you will be lucky enough to bump into me and I will be happy to hand over that wee umbrella that was once given to me.

The other day I went out to a bar in my work clothes and because there is no smoking ban here I came back home with clothes that smelt of fags. I was wearing a suit and thought that I would have to get it dry cleaned to get rid of the smell, which oddly had not dissipated after a couple of days.

However after further inspection I found that it said “Machine Washable” on the inside. So having become adept in using my rather confusing washing machine, I chucked it in my wash.

Big Mistake.

Now half of my favourite t-shirts have blue stains all over them.

Ick!

Gah!

>_<

Now I know the old don’t mix colours with whites rule but I have never had any other problems with my washing ever AND this washing machine only uses cold water anyway. Grr, I am angry with myself and Marks & Spencer for their “machine washable” lies. I demand compensation!