If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Today being Sunday was the last day I had to walk Marrosan at five. Success. I have had problems getting back to sleep after exercising so early so I spent the rest of the morning listening to the excellent BBC Radio and News player on the internet. Thanks to this, I can keep more up to date with music, news and sport in England. I am no longer forced to listen to Americans translating two day old news on NHK for me and I can listen to proper English speaking English voices what what what. Thanks to this I have discovered the greatness of Graham Coxon`s music as well as some other English music which I wouldn`t have normally heard until they come to Japan three months to three years later.

In the afternoon we went to Shin Osaka which cunningly enough is the station the Shinkansen stops at in Osaka to pick up Reiko`s mother back from Yamaguchi. After that we went to a restaurant and ate a truly beautiful meal of sashimi which is raw fish including squid. We also ate some onigiri, tofu and lots of other delights. I was in a supermarket a couple of weeks back and I saw some tofu and I started salivating. I couldn`t believe myself but it looked so nice (add a bit of soy sauce. Lovely.)

On the way to the Shin Osaka which is just under an hour`s subway journey from our house, a brace, a group, a gaggle, a quartet of Western business men got on the same carriage as us and started talking loudly. They had two Japanese colleagues with them and I think they were German by their accents. We all resolutely attempted to pretend we hadn`t seen each other even though at one point one of them sat down next to me.

Spotting a Westerner in the street or in a confined space is worse. What do you do? Previously, as I have written in these hallowed pages, I have smiled at them or said hello and either been blankly ignored, given a face that says, “My life will not be complete until I have force fed you cowshit.” or an apologetic smile. What are you apologising for? Japan is great. Well done for coming over here AND not choosing to eat at KFC. But it seems almost like a game. “Ok you caught me I`ll get the next plane out I promise. Just don`t tell the kids.”

But if I were back in England I wouldn`t go up to the first English person I saw and smile at them. Or I wouldn`t say hello just because they were Western and I had caught them on the way to the post office. So why should I say it to them in Japan? In Japan we are the minority. An increasingly loud and vocal one depending on which country you come from but a minority nonetheless. I think we should see an increase in solidarity between our Western brothers and sisters and shout Hello from the rooftops. But after you.