First news from Japan

This has been 10 fantastic days here in Japan but not too much time to upload pictures and update the blog so I will just make a comments about some topics that struck me:

The first thing is that Japanese people are really friendly: I have numerous stories of people helping me, smiling and coming to me just to practise English, especially the young pupils:

In Japan I am really blond, not only because after 3 months in SE Asia my hair has become lighter but also because I keep getting completely lost, I ask a question in Japanese (I learnt how to say "Where is ...?") but I understand absolutely nothing of the answer so I smile stupidly as if I had understood (for the feminists readers this is a joke, no need to denounce to some sort of NGO for the equality between men and women). Furthermore even the maps are complicated since the North is not always on top

The Japanese love toilets (or maybe they cannot hold a pee), you can find themselves everywhere and I love their comments. I have not tried yet the specific features of the typical Japanese toilet but I will do.

The food is excellent, here is the Okonomiyaki, a sort of pancake that is really delicious (I am convinced this would be a hit in Europe)

In Japan you can sleep anywhere (this was 10 am on a sunday morning)

In Japan deers are protected even when they eat maps of the tourists (you even have posters to warn you not to hold bills in your hand because the deers eat them as well).

Dogs are also really loved by their owners who dress them against the cold

Japanese have old-style way of doing advertising (the first one is probably for a maid cafe (that I have not tried yet) and the second is even more dodgy

Japanese are so efficient that they had to invent some jobs to avoid unemployment: here is the man who folds plastic bags for another use after one has used them to hold one's shoes in temples. Another one is the person to stop the traffic to let cars go out of parking places.

Finally there are the typical activities in Japan:
Karaoke

Prikura (taking picture on a set background and then adding comments/drawing on it)

or going through pillars (it brings good luck)

I have many more pictures of temples and cities but I will make an update later.

I really love Japan and I really hope I have the opportunity to come again.