20/7 Claire

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Originally uploaded by blenkers

A few observational updates

After two sweltering days we have rain again today. We are lucky that today is both travelling and the hot spring bath day so no need for much outdoor pursuits. Apparently it’s rainy season which means you get a couple of days at about 34 degrees whilst the humidity builds up then a day of rain at a temperature of about 25 degrees and still very humid. So it’s either sunny and hot or rainy and hot.

I am now starting to get used to rice with every meal even if my digestive system is not. And my chopstick skills are coming on slowly but looking around it could be that I am still eating like a child by holding the chopsticks in the middle rather than at the top.

I am still trying to get used to the slurping of noodles. Noodles are picked up with the chopstick and sucked into your mouth (as you might with spaghetti) however the noise some of the Japanese gentlemen make slurping up the noodles is REALLY loud. I think perhaps it’s expected but haven’t noticed any of the ladies doing this yet so I am still attempting to eat these sans slurp. Being a little obsessive about noisy eaters at home this has been a little bit of a challenge to get used to.

Talking about digestive systems, although there are many western style toilets there are also as many Japanese style. When I say western style I mean they look like our loos but in fact they are all “washlets”. This is an electric toilet/bidet combo. Buttons down the side allow you a number of different settings depending on the quality of the product and so far I have seen all or a combination of the following; Heated seat, bum spray, front spray, drier. The latter being similar to having a hairdryer in the loo and I am just not sure about this. The Japanese style toilet is much less advanced but requires much more skill. This toilet is floor level but with no handles or bars to hold on to. This requires a squat-like balancing act in an attempt to not get your trousers wet on the floor, you don’t pee on yourself and you don’t fall over backward – all of these outcomes would get you quite wet.

Outside of the big cities there seems to be a lack of available internet access so we are a little sporadic with our updates. These are being written on the computer and we will upload them as soon as we get access.