I've been here for almost 2 years and 4 months now. Jen and I have experienced a lot together and then in the last 4 months, I have been basically just saying the same things over and over again. When my friends Sonia and Glyn were staying with me, it occurred to me that I am taking things for granted. There are some really weird, strange, "only in Japan" things out there and I am now a little oblivious to them all. So without any further ado, I would like to start my Top "Ten Quirky Things about Japan" list.

#10 Everyone in Japan seems to be employed. There's this bakery down the road with about 10 spots for cars. Every weekend without fail there are 3 parking attendants working there, complete with little flashing batons, whistles and ties.

#9 Even the homeless people look fashionable. I'm not kidding, they still wear all the fashion accessories!

#8 Japanese people won't sit next to foreigners on trains. Do we smell? Probably better than the typical coffee/BO/cigarette stench arising from the salarymen. Are we taking up too much room? Not anymore room than other Japanese people my size or larger (of which there are quite a few). So what is it I hear you ask? I have NFI. But I do know that the train can be quite crowded and the seat next to me is the only one in the carriage vacant.

#7 Men's hairstyles. Shoot me, shoot me now. No, actually shoot them! I have seriously seen more Japanese guys using the mirror to look at their hair, play with their hair, fix their hair than I will in the rest of my life time. I saw a whole team doing their hair before an indoor soccer game one night. Soccer players on the field constantly fix their hair at half time and some even during the game. Grown men will be looking at a shop window really closely and I'll think to myself "Why is he looking at that poster from 20cm away?" and then I'll see his hands picking at strands of hair and placing them where he wants them. He's looking at his reflection in the glass.

#6 Soccer players in Japan. They dive, the don't tackle and if you ask me, their a bunch of pansies. This is typified when I was reading the team bios of my favourite local team, Chiba JEF United. About 5 of the players from a team sheet of about 15 said one of their hobbies is shopping.

#5 Krispy Kreme donuts. There is a store in Shinjuku and people wait for, on average and i'm not kidding, over an hour and sometimes beyond 1.5 hours to buy donuts. I thought perhaps it was a new thing in Japan so the novelty would wear off but one year on, the lines are just as long. These are just donuts people!

#4 Japanese people and their phones. The Japanese word is Keitai, Americans use cell phones, Aussies use mobile phones. In Japan, it's typically a phone with the ability to call other phones, send emails, take a photo, play games, surf the internet, listen to music and that might be it. But Japanese are just so obsessed with them, they use it in their cars while driving, while riding a bike, while walking, while on the train, while at a soccer game, anywhere! The typically situation is that the train doors open and everyone gets on with phone in hand, they search for a vacant seat and sit down if possible. Either way, the next action is to whip open that phone and start doing whatever it is they do. This craze has actually spawned keitai novels, where authors write their novel on their phone. Oh yeah, and you can now get phones in Japan which you can view TV on...

#3 Warm toilet seats. There's nothing funny about a warm toilet seat. Means that someone has just used it. BUT! A lot of the toilets up here have seat warmers so in winter, they are permanently warm for your little bottom! Crazy but true. These toilet seats also have a little French style bide and a button that you push when you want the sound of the toilet flushing to cover up any bodily function noise.

#2 Fashion. I should just leave it at that but fashion in Japan is pretty unique, some might say peculiar. Women's fashion comes in cycles (knee high cowboy boot season is October and November) and at the moment it is typically short skirts or short shorts with a pair of high heels (pumps) AND a pair of awful knee high stockings. It apparently doesn't matter how short the skirt or shorts are, so long as you're wearing the black knee high stockings, its all good.

#1 Japanese men and handbags. Now this is not rife throughout the male population... oh yeah actually, it is! Men carry bags that can only be described as women's handbags. At first I saw a few guys carrying their girlfiend's handbag and then I saw this being repeated almost every weekend, which in itself is scary. But then I started to see single males walking by themselves with bags that were very feminine. The love em, the feel of a handbag over the shoulder, nothing like it apparently!

I just wish that I had lots of photos to back up what i'm saying. I know what you're saying, easy, just take some. But I can't because, alas, I have become Japanised and people just don't take photos of others in Japan.

We started out our ten day trip with two nights in Sapporo where we visited the famous annual Sapporo Ice Festival. Some of the sculptures were really amazing; intricate and very detailed. Check out more photos on our Flickr site.
We also sampled some of the local delicacies.

We had a Gengis Khan BBQ, a hit plate with lamb, vegies and a special sauce.


We ate sushi with a view overlooking Otaru. People say that really fresh sushi melts in your mouth, well this didn't melt as such but it was damn gooooooood.


We also had Sapporo Ramen, a flavor that is distinct to up here. This one was butter corn Ramen.


Something that I found out last year when I was in Niseko was the Niseko Komekichi Rice Ball Family Restaurant, tucked under the Gondola lift. They are by far the cheapest and best restaurant on the mountain. What else do you need when snowboarding in Japan?


We went to one good restaurant which had an indoor rock climbing wall in it! The food was awesome too... the hamburger i had literally melted in my mouth...


Here's one neat bar. You enter through a fridge door...


And finally, I'll finish this post with a photo of Jen's new haircut, the Snowfro.