I'm now sitting (drunk) after my third day in Japan. It's been quite a lazy day in comparison to the last two. Tom and I went for a wander round the gardens of the Imperial Palace. We didn't spot any heirs, but we did't look all the hard. I had ice cream rice dumplings from a vending machine. As I was buying them I was approached and talked to by a Jap for the first time. She pointed and said that they're very tasty. After our spot of tourism at the Palace we went for a meal and had the worst tie so far in trying to order vegetarian food. I don't think I've had a meal so far that hasn't involved fish- and I DO know how to say "I'm vegetarian" in Japanese. When I ordered by bento box this morning I got asked if pork was alright. Jeysus.

Yesterday we went to Harujuku and saw a load of weird cosplay girls. Little bo-peep seems to be a common theme. We tried to find a good restaraunt for breakfast, but the Rough Guide's advice led us to a hard-to-reach place and an incredible misunderstanding- what we took to mean "we have a guest entrance" in fact meant "we're too busy at the moment". We ended up in a cafe in a park eating noodles. They were fucking disgusting.

The park did contain a rather splendid temple. An enjoyable smattering of ritual had us washing our hands in holy water before entering. I got to watch people praying after throwing coins down slots in a box wishing-well style. There was a lovely little hand-jive and bow included in the prayer.

We went to the Pancakes and hotplates place for tea and I was laughed at for the way I spread oil on the hotplate before cooking. The woman laughing dropped her food which only seemed to make things funnier- I did hear her say "first time". I wondered what the problem was and so watched someone else do it. They did it the same damn way I did. The food was very good at least.

After dinner we went on to Roppongi Hills, an enormous tower that pulses like it's the Warp Core of Tokyo, surrounded by expensive shops, bars, and an enormous spider statue. and went to see the film Gedo Senki (which I believe means 'The Wizard Ged'). With the fact that I have read all of the Earthsea books aiding my sparse knowledge of Japanese I did manage to follow the plot- I now know how to say Sparrowhawk as well. In standard Ghibli style only evil chracters are ugly, and so Tehanu has turned from a severe burns victim into a girl with a bit of a red face. Another aesthetic problem is that all the characters are white (Ursula's biggest complaint about the film), though gladly only Tenar is blonde. It starts very much like The Farthest shore- with Arren and Sparrowhawk in Hoort town, watching the druggies and slavers- even has the scene where Sparrowhawk rescues Arren from the slavers who capture him- after that, however, it deviates massively from the known plot. They do rather seem to conflate all of the places, however. I didn't know that Hoort Town was only a quick llama ride from the house on Gont where Tenar lives.

We got a fair few critical looks once the lights came up at the end of the movie- we'd only started talking once the credits rolled anyhow- is that 'not the done thing'? That sentiment does seem quite strong- it doesn't matter if you actions make sense, they just have to fit in with the norm. A shop assistant wouldn't accept money from me until I put it into a little tray from which they could pick it up. Maybe it's offensive to be white during a Japanese film?

The film finished late. Tom an I got quite a late train back along the line toward kurumae. At one of the stops a guy ran down the train shooing us and a load of drunk japnese guys off. After a low-vocabulary talk to one of the officials we found out that it was just knocking-off time and that the train driver was just going home. An hour's walk saw us back to the backpackers at 2AM. After a bit of a crack on with the people who were still up, bed.

Signing off.