We were both highly gratified to discover that although Lynne:s baggage appears to have grown lighter by three kilos and mine gained weight while we were in Australia, even including the two didgeridoos (which are nearly as tall as we are) we were still within weight allowances. Wooo Hoooo.

We:re in Japan again where I am being foiled by the strange keyboards and had been intending to use my remnant yen to dutifully email my mother and let her know I:m alive (as she worries pathologically and I:m getting kinder about it of late) but found that the net was loath to access any web based mail programs and that I could guiltlessly update on LJ instead.

Japan is pretty surreal (even though we:ve seen little beyond the hotel that Japanese Airlines was kind enough to put all thier passangers in when they have a night between their connecting flights). I have been freakishly taking pictures of everything because it fascinates me and you seem to need a degree in order to work out how to get the kettle to boil, the bath plug resembles a miniature wrecking ball and the toilet looks like something out of Star Trek.

Lynne and I were both shattered and pathetically grateful for the opportunities to shower and spend a night horizontal. We did not venture into Tokyo proper on account of the fact that we were knackered and it would have cost more money than I was prepared to spend in order to do so. Instead we took turns soaking i a bath made for small people and watching Japanese television which was one of the most surreal and thrilling experiences of my life.

First there was a show in which already to my untrained eye, thin Japanese women resolved to lose more weight andget super-skinny, and then conversely there was a show in which what looked like obese American children sumo-wrestled each other, and then (in what i assume is some kind of tele-sales thing) a man peeled pineapples and hazelnuts using an electric chainsaw , then teenage girls dressed like cheerleaders sang karaoke and then in yet another show people got painted with glow-in the dark paint to look like various animals (which all sound like elements of a really great party).

And then we slept, and it was blissful.