On Japanese laundry and particle trouble..

I absolutely despise Japanese washing machines. I don't know what they have against clothes, but they are not good. At all. I've had to witness things no girl should ever be witness to; almost all my clothes could probably now fit a small baby elephant. At least I now know why I never see anyone wearing the same outfit twice here - because their washing machine has murdered their last one. My top tip for newcomers in Japan: just wear dirty clothes. Never wash them. It's much better to smell than to walk around looking like you've got some kind of excess skin problem.

Anyway, rant over, I've pretty much settled into a routine now - even the staff at the sushi restaurant I constantly frequent in Shinjuku give me a little "hisashiburi" whenever I walk in, even though they know full well it's only been on average around 4 days since I last went...because I'm just that greedy. Tokyo is a really wonderful place. I feel so at home here in amongst the amazingly endless clothes shops and cheap tempura. I'm slowly learning not to be horrified at the price of everything and not just gawk in alarm when I'm spoken to in Japanese, although my sentence particles are a bit of a mess. I constantly end up accidentally saying gems such as "I just ate the restaurant" or "I rode in the bike" - all just because of the misplacement of one or two tiny ni's or wo's. If my Japanese friends have noticed, they haven't let up - which is pretty admirable seeing as I would probably be in stitches if I were in their situation.

The past few weeks

I joined the gym last week, and my already gym-experienced flatmate's wise words to me before leaving to work out were "at first, you feel self-concious, and you think people are looking at you. But that's because they are." Ok then! Thanks for that. To be honest, I haven't really been affected with oh-my-god-I'm-a-gaijin syndrome, because quite frankly, I knew that was pretty obvious before I came to Japan! I generally think some foreigners are a bit overly paranoid about getting looks - it's only human to glance at people as they walk by - doesn't necessarily mean anything. It probably does mean something if they come up to you and blow a kiss in your face with a look of sheer jubilance on their face, however. Although admittedly that was an old man in Ueno park. Who was homeless. And had no teeth. And was most probably drunk. Ah well, I'll take the compliment.

I've had a few funny gaijin-related experiences; such as trying to explain what gay pride festival is to a bunch of shocked Japanese students, being waved at by a gaggle of Japanese schoolgirls who then screamed in delight when I waved back (that one admittedly made me feel a bit like Beyonce), aaaand the not so good times like when people have refused to speak to me seemingly just because I'm foreign. But all in all, I think life in Japan just has to be taken with a pinch of salt - if you don't read too much into things, it's possible to have a really good time. Take mine and my bank statement's word for it!