Diary Entry #3

July 16^th

The Morning

What better way to start a day than with a free breakfast? A casual stroll around Tottori during the morning finished at a small internet café where we encountered Madonna Girl. I’m sure Madonna Girl has a real name but to us she will always be that. It is quite interesting to see little bubbles of obsession amongst Japanese people and entertaining when they wish to share them with others. Madonna Girl ran the internet café and was, according to Sir S, fascinated by my eighties fringe prompting her to quickly put on her favourite music once we had settled – that’s right; Madonna. She was dressed as if an extra on Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion and when we revealed we were researching nightclubs in Tokyo she mimed a little dance – all new-romantic and eighties of course.

Lunch was fantastic. Hiroki and his girlfriend Kaori took Sir S and I to an amazing sushi restaurant in Koyama. Pat your index and middle finger of your right hand down into the cupped palm of your left hand. That my dear friend is the ancient symbol of the sushi chef and rightly so are the given such veneration. When we say we have had sushi train in Australia what we really mean is the same as saying I have seen a photograph of the Mona Lisa but never been to the Louvre. There is only one word for Japanese Sushi: Oyshi!!! Raw fish never tasted so good (although I should warn you to stay away from Natto – that is one Japanese dish that defies logic, smell and taste, unless of course fermented (rather I would say rotting) soy beans is your thing). The price too is amazing; 8 dishes of amazing sushi only came to $20 AUD.

But the day does not end here. After lunch Hiroki drove us in his car to Kurayoshi (we would have taken Kaori’s car but apparently the rear seats have been removed to make way for speakers). We stopped at a lookout where I snapped pictures of our lovely guides and the verdant coastline. To illustrate the wonderfully peaceful and trusting nature of country life in Japan we started to wander down the hill from the car. I suggested that I should go back and retrieve my bag (that contained my passport) from the back seat. Hiroki told me the doors were unlocked. Well, not only were the doors unlocked but the keys were in the ignition and the car was still running – at a relatively busy lookout he had no qualms about wandering off for ten or more minutes! What a wonderful contrast to our society where one must bolt things down lest they are removed, and even then that may not be enough!