Tuesday 7th November 2000

I took only my second trip to Osaka last Monday afternoon. On arrival, I met up with some colleagues and we were taken to dinner by the following day's hosts. We had yet another high quality, very expensive, if not extremely tasty Japanese meal. This meal differed with those of the past in one small detail - killing your food before eating it! Okay, it wasn't as drastic as it sounds, but I'm not into watching my food leap around in agony as it screams silently in the boiling water. It made me feel quite sick. I have to admit to later eating the nicely cooked victims (prawns), and they were very tasty, but I would not see that sort of thing by choice.

The following evening, after the day's second meeting with another company, we were taken to dinner in a tempura restaurant in Kyoto Station. This too was top class, but we didn't have to suffer the murderous ritual of the night before. Tempura if cooked well can be delicious, but I intend to write about eating in Japan a bit later, so I won't go into detail. I will elaborate on the service though. One of our party was not too impressed when the waitress dropped a glass of white wine on his back! However, we were all quite impressed when within minutes an identical replacement shirt had been purchased from the neibouring department store.

On Wednesday, I had a rare business trip within Tokyo. No bullet trains for a change, just a taxi ride. But, like the previous visits this week, it involved being taken to dinner. By the way, the diet I mentioned a while ago has now been abandonned. It seemed however little I ate, I stayed a constant 175kg. Now I eat what I please, and I'm still 175kg! Strange. Anyway, the meal on Wednesday was a very nice Italian affair. Italian food is very popular in Japan. It would have been perfect were it not for the "Grappa" that we were told was a dessert wine, but which was in fact a type of corrosive drain cleaner!

I took my third trip to Osaka on Thursday, but this time, just a day trip, so no dinner (thankfully). It's really pushing things to do Osaka in a day. It's about three hours each way by shinkansen. At one of the local Osaka stations, I spotted a dark blue, Flash Gordon looking train, with oval windows, that serves Kansai, the nearby international airport.

Friday was a public holiday, Culture Day. Had a few beers and a Cambodian meal in the evening. I didn't reallise Cambodians ate so well!

On Sunday afternoon, I played rugby. I hadn't played rugby since at least six months before leaving England, but the Crusaders' football team seems to have fizzled out, and this rugby team, also the Tokyo Crusaders, is made up of some of the same players. I found the warm up almost killed me, but once into the game (I played just the second half), I managed to cope reasonably well. I'd forgotten how enjoyable rugby can be. Incidentally, we won 47 - 0.

Saturday 25th November 2000

I'm in London now, on a short trip to the UK then Finland. The trains in the UK are in a right state right now. Even at the best of times though, it's really noticeable how much better they are in Tokyo. That goes along with most people's stereotypes, but one thing that is not commonly understood is that, despite the denser population, the Tokyo streets are never more crowded than Oxford and Regent Streets in London. I am very relieved that on visiting Liberty's, where I bought Yuki's engagement ring, I managed to find exactly the same ring again. "Why"? You might ask. Well, Yuki lost the first one several months ago! If you read this before I've surprised her with the replacement, please don't tell her, as it would no longer be much of a purprise would it?