Dear X,

I feel I should destroy the myth that the Japanese never take holidays in order to please their boss, and get promotion sooner. Although many (older) Japanese don't take their work holidays - the simply reason is that they get so many national holidays, they don't need to take any more time off. Golden Week has just finished. What's Golden Week? A whole whopping week of national holidays (which incidentally, comes just 2 weeks after our last national holiday).

I decided to go to Osaka with Miss Funk (Gianna), since (A) I'd never been, and (B) there are some of our SOAS friends there. I'd booked an 11am bullet train, so we didn't exactly have an early start. Thing is, SexyP had been out the night before to Shinjuku and didn't get back to his station until 1am. Some kids (probably some damn foreigners!), had let out all the air from my bike tyre. So I had to carry it back the dorm. :-( OK, I'm a fool for deciding to carry it back at 1 am, and should have just left it there. But it didn't occur to me at the time. That was Friday.

Saturday, I get up nice and early (So that's an oxymoron, but you get what I mean), pack my suitcase ensuring I have everything I need (clubbing clothes, sightseeing clothes, toiletries etc.). I finished it when I realised I should take a few more things, so I took my rucksack and put in the tomatoes I'd just bought but hadn't eaten, 2 videos that were due back at the store, and my mobile. (I know this seems like an irrelevant list of what I did, but there is a point to my babble). Time to go to the station arrives, and for once I was ready on time. I left for the subway and stopped off at the video store to return my videos. But no, they were closed (too early). So I take my first subway train for 6 stops, and the whole way I'm kicking myself for having forgotten to pack my aftershave. How can P forget his aftershave? Typical. Well, he changes subway and sits down for the one stop there was 'till Tokyo station (yes, it really is called Tokyo - why don't we have a station called London?). So there I was sitting down, thinking how easy this all was. I'd imagined it was going to be really packed and I'd be squashed carrying my heavy suitcase. But I was sitting down, in a quiet air-conditioned train, and all was fine. But then it dawned on me. I was sitting down, but I didn't have a heavy suitcase with me. No, P just had his little rucksack, with 2 videos, 3 tomatoes and a phone. Period. Nothing else. Clothes? Nope, Underwear? Nope. Cash? Tiny bit. Train tickets? Panic sets in. Where were the train tickets? Shit! P becomes red-faced P. Phew... train and hotel tickets were all in my pocket. A little nervous laugh later, and the subway arrives at Tokyo station, and there was Miss Funk standing on the platform with her bag, looking all eager to go off on holiday. And there was I, bagless. For the rest of the holiday, I was to be called ForgetfulP. Yuck! SportyP? fine as a joke. SexyP? yup, that's me. But ForgetfulP? Ugh!

Of course it did provide me with a good excuse to go shopping in Osaka. And as I found out, the shopping really is good at Osaka. I do like Japan. So many good shops. I'm really starting to know my way around now.

Ollie met us at the station with Ben, and we took our time over a long lunch recounting our different tales of life over here. I didn't need to tell them about my bag. Miss Funk did that for me. And then proceeded to show them what I did bother to bring (tomatoes...). It was nice to see them again - it had been since last year.

Originally we weren't going to go to Osaka at all, but to Okinawa to go to the beach. But the flights were way too expensive. Sunday morning we wake up (in Osaka), turn on the TV to help up stay awake. Boy were we pleased we didn't go to Okinawa. What was on the TV? Tidal wave warnings for whole of southwest Japan, especially for the Okinawa islands. There had been a 7.7 Richter scale earthquake in the sea, and 2 meter high tidal waves were expected any time soon. People were advised to get as high up as possible, and were warned that the region's electricity supply would be switched off soon, to avoid any short circuits. Moments later a 4.5 Richter scale earthquake hit Yokohama (city which is just next to Tokyo). Never had Osaka seemed like such a good holiday destination. In the event, the tidal waves went in the opposite direction from the islands, and so didn't have any serious consequences - and no one was injured, but we didn't know that we turned on the TV...We felt very weird.

Later that day we went to Kobe (where they had the BIG earthquake a few years back). They had a China town there, where we managed to get 16 shrimp dumplings brought to us, instead of a bowl of 4. Oh well, it's just as hard to get them to understand our orders here, as it is back in the UK. Funny though, I would have thought Gianna who is Chinese wouldn't have had any trouble getting what we wanted but it was not to be.

We were going to go to a temple, and visit the harbour, but on our way we saw an amusement park, and ended up spending pretty much the rest of the day there instead. One of the rides, was excellent. It was like a huge swing, except instead of sitting in it, we (you went in pairs) were in a large sleeping bag-like holder. We got pulled up and backwards about 100 meters into the air, with nothing but air between our faces and the ground... And then they let go. So you go swinging downwards and forwards (like a swing), towards the ground, until your face is about a meter from the ground, and which point you continue swinging, but upwards. I don't know if I've described it well, but it's VERY, VERY scary. Well worth the hour queue.

Monday we went to Kyoto and saw the beautiful Golden Pavilion in the Japanese garden. World Heritage listed site, Absolutely amazing. What was surprising was that despite there being lots of people (Golden week, so the whole of Japan was on holiday), the site was so calming. In the evening we met more friends for dinner and then headed back to Osaka on the last train.

Tuesday we checked out of the hotel, and went to the station to put our bags in a locker, to avoid having to carry them around all day. Luckily SexyP asked Miss Funk to double check she still had the tickets (which she decided to look after, since my suitcase incident made her doubt my ability to ensure their safety). Well Miss Funk had forgotten them at the hotel. What a pair! So we had to go back to the hotel, get them and rush to Osaka castle, where we were meeting Ollie. UGH!! Needless to say, we were late, but we got there in the end. Long good bye lunch (which was also a hello-goodbye to Spank-the-bitch James, who we'd not managed to meet before then) and then it was back to Tokyo.

It was so much fun - more so than I'd imagined. It was good to catch up with people, meet Ollie's new and first boyfriend and see all the sites. I'm really going to try to make the most of my time remaining here.( I expect now to return on the 29th June, but that date changes regularly.... At the latest, I'll be back by the 7th of July.) So I have very little time left.

My god, my fingers are going to die, if they haven't already. I can't type another word…

I have a Kanji test tomorrow, (what a lovely university welcome-back tradition), so I'd better get moving....

Hope all is swell. Take care,

Love, Hugz + Kisses

SexyP.