Had a relaxing shopping trip today with Ian, Richard and Tom. Tom only arrived a couple of days ago – he’d been travelling around the world previously, and on the way had had to leave his suitcase in Vienna! Luckily, it was retrieved and sent to him today.

Before I came to Japan, my Dad guaranteed I’d find two things in Kumamoto, and indeed anywhere I went in the world: 1) An Irish bar, and 2) A coach-load of Welsh people. Well, today, guess what – we found the Irish bar! It’s just outside Kamitori shopping arcade; we’ll have to go out one night there! I NEVER expected to find an Irish bar in Kumamoto – Tokyo, maybe, but not Kumamoto! Now all I have to do is find the coach-load of Welsh. Well, on the plane to Japan, there was an insane Welsh woman sitting on the seat near to me (she kept insisting to her friend that the Japanese announcements were in Welsh), so maybe I’ll get lucky!

I had my first experience of Japanese karaoke tonight –it was really fun, and nothing like what I expected! I thought the karaoke would be a tiny, squalid shack in the middle of the town, but no. The one we went to was housed in a large, bright and very clean building which looked like a hotel on the inside. You and your friends go in your own separate room (which can fit about 10 people) where the karaoke machine is, complete with hundreds of songs to choose from. You can order food and drinks which are brought up to your cubicle, so you can easily pass a whole evening there singing, eating, drinking and chatting. Richard, Tom, Nick, Chie and I set out for the karaoke at about 11:30pm (after watching Chie’s DVD of School of Rock with the others in my room), and met with Kisako and two of her friends there. We went home at 3:30am! It was a very fun night.

One thing I learned about the Japanese last night was that they don’t use sarcasm like the British do. At one point, Richard asked Chie how to say “it’ll all be ok” (as reassurance) in Japanese, and Chie told him it was “daijoubu.” We were surprised that “daijoubu” could be used for this meaning too, as we use it a lot to mean “I’m ok,” and Chie said yes, that “daijoubu” is used quite a lot in Japanese. Then Richard joked, “Shinde iru ga, daijoubu” (“I’m dying, but its ok”). Now, to an English person, that’s simply exaggerated sarcasm, but the Japanese people were really surprised. They said, “What do you mean? How can it be ok if you’re dying?” They simply didn’t understand the humour. Chie explained that, unlike us British who use sarcasm all the time and enjoy it, the Japanese hardly ever use it and, when it is used, it sounds quite nasty. Such a huge but somewhat obscure cultural difference was very interesting for me.

When I finally got home, the first thing that greeted me as I walked though the door of my room and turned on my light was yet another big, fat, hairy spider scuttling around in my room. I tried to spray it with deodorant, but it didn’t kill it. Now that spider’s run off somewhere, and it could be anywhere in the room…even in my bed….

Not that spiders are the least of our bug worries here, I found out. When I came in this afternoon, I found an enormous dead centipede at the bottom of the stairway. This thing was far bigger than any of the spiders – I wouldn’t be surprised if it was over half a foot long. As well as spiders, my only other invertebrate fear is centipedes. If I was to find one that long in my room, I think I would scream the place down. When I showed Chie the centipede, she told me that they’re not only scary to look at, but they’re probably poisonous. Great. Ah well, I suppose getting used to the horrible, scary, deadly bug life is all part of being in Japan.

It’s gone 4.00am now. And I’m tired. But I know that when I turn off the night and go to sleep, that spider’s going to come out again to haunt me….