Day 58: Last day in Tokyo

I spent most of the day packing and cleaning, it needed to be done so it wasn't like I wasted the day. I had to prepare mind and body for my Sayonara Party. It was going to be a tough evening saying goodbye to all my friends :(. I had decided to go for the "GO OUT ALL NIGHT, GET THE FIRST TRAIN HOME AND THEN GO STRAIGHT TO THE AIRPORT" option because my flight to Seoul was at 9.15am... Only god could tell me if I would achieve this. It seemed doubtful though. When I had gotten myself ready I headed to Shinjuku to meet everyone. Nat grabbed my ass at the crossing so her and Alex was first to arrive and then everyone arrived at once at Studio Alta. Some people were running late so we just headed to the restaurant to meet the others. It was only round the corner which was useful and we said our hellos. Lots of people didn't know each other so we went round the table and said our names and where we were from. Turns out we had like 9 nationalities there - i'mma so multicultural gurrrlll.

The meal was delicious (apart from the natto kebab) and the food literally kept coming. Just when I thought it was finished more and more food came, THEN MORE came. I was so full and then the ice cream came out so my 2nd stomach inflated. The latecomers kept arriving and I was so happy everyone managed to make it. After dinner we all headed to a nearby arcade and got lots of purikura taken before saying our goodbyes. I first said goodbye to Yuka and could not stop crying, then when she left I said goodbye to Kouji, and still could not stop crying. For about 20 minutes I cried and then I regained my composure and the rest of us headed to Nichome for some drinks in Dragon. Nat was so good at cheering me up. I so did not want to leave and I was pretty drunk (anyone who knows me, knows how often I cry when drunk). We got to Dragon and got lots of nice drinks and I made even more friends before leaving.

I somehow ended up playing pass the chewing gum with like 8 random people in the street so I most likely have hepatitis now... It went on the floor (cos some people were shit at it) and the girl I just met kept picking it up! What a minger! But to be fair, I was too drunk to even care. Tak arrived and I was glad I got to say goodbye to him too (was just lucky he was visiting Tokyo with his family). I dont know how 5 hours passed in that bar but it did and it became time to say goodbye. Saying goodbye to Shuho at Shinjuku station was pretty emotional and we both cried. God, so glad I wore waterproof mascara. I got on my train, depressed and 30 minutes later I was at my apartment, still drunk desperately trying to get my shit together and head to the station. My god were my bags heavy. I got to the airport, checked in no problem and had my last Japanese breakfast! :( It was even too early for the Hello Kitty store to be open. So shit :(

I got on my plane and said goodbye to Japan once more. I had the best time of my life and made so many amazing friends. I can't wait to see them all again and I hope they will come visit me! :)

Day 57: Packing :(

Such a boring day, all I did was actually officially pack my clothes (always shite) and then I met my friend Braulio for dinner and wine in order to say goodbye before my last day approached :(.

Day 56: All you can drink and almost breaking my tailbone

After waking up I headed straight to Tokyo Sky Tree to do a little bit of shopping pour ma famille. I bought some fucking beautiful glittery blue chopsticks for myself and some nice little Japanese things for my gran and mum. I was starving and literally every single restaurant had queues going for days. In the UK when people see a queue for a restaurant they think "FUCK THAT". In Japan, when people see a queue for a restaurant they think "OH IT MUST BE GREAT LET'S QUEUE". So bizarre. I ended up in this German Oktoberfest themed restaurant... in Japan. Everything on the menu was extortionate so I got the cheapest thing and headed off home. I had some last minute packing things to do and washing clothes. I decided to go back to Harajuku, where 2 years earlier I had bought a ring from this cool silver jewellery store. At the time, the guy said I could come back and get it reshaped for free. While I was waiting, I had a look around the extortionate shop and found my ring design. It was genuinely the cheapest thing in the whole place, haaa. Are you sensing a trend here....

Well it gets worse, I then headed to Daiso which is a 100yen store (=80p) and bought some cheap shit to take home (e.g. more chopsticks). I then headed home to get ready for my night out with my shabu shabu bitches. I had to meet Dr Takeda one last time so he could sign my Elective Attendance sheet and give me my mark. I got a chance to see some of the doctors at the hospital and say goodbye and Dr Takeda signed my sheet and gave me top marks for everything (despite being admitted to my own A&E for being drunkenly unconscious) which was amazing. I said my goodbye and then I headed straight to the train station to meet my bitches in Shibuya. I went to this nomihoudai (all you can drink) restaurant with them and it was so much fun! I ordered two beers at a time because they were so slow at bringing our drinks! We had 3 hours to drink as much as we could. I really didn't think I was that drunk and maybe I wasn't in the restaurant but after we met Erik and headed to the club in Omotesando and got more drinks (again, two at a time) I was absolutely wasted. There is a huge 4 hour gap in the night where we somehow ended up in a bar in Shibuya with these English guys and I thought I was going to throw up so had to go home (it was 5am, so it was hardly like I was giving up).

I said goodbye to my girls and then jumped on the first train home. I got to the train station (not far away from my apartment). Really not difficult to get home but I was so drink I went the wrong way and had to get A TAXI HOME. I have made that journey about 20 times, so bad. I curled up into bed to prepare myself for the hangover of tomorrow! :(

Day 55: Farewell Ryota

We slept in really late because we were up watching Resident Evil films all night. When we eventually got our acts together we headed to a nearby restaurant to eat some Tonkatsu before getting the train home. Ryota had a work event near where I live so we got the train together. It was such a sad train journey, knowing I wouldn't see him again for a very long time. Saying goodbye was pretty difficult. I had to hold back a few tears! We had really bonded together. I got on my train and headed to my station after saying goodbye. I spent the evening pretty bummed out, realising I would have to do this a lot more times at my leaving party on saturday. :(

Day 54: Resident Evil x2 and Pole Dancing Lesson

I left my morning empty so I could go for a walk around the nearby area in order to say goodbye. I had arranged to meet my friend Ryota later in the day. We met in Shinjuku Studio alta before heading to an arcade to take some purikura photos. We decided to play this amazing shooting game before heading to Wald9 cinema to see Resident Evil 5 (I had already seen it a few weeks prior but Ryota was dying to see it). Such a good film, shockingly I still jumped as many times as I did last time, not learning from last time.

After the film was finished Ryota said his pole dancing studio was free to use. I was dying for him to give me a pole dancing lesson. We headed to Shibuya and arrived at his studio, where his instructor Kaori was giving some hot girl a lesson in pole dancing. He made me put on the tiniest shorts before instructing me on some very basic pole dancing. It fucking hurt I can tell you that. Really makes you sweat hehe ;). Kaori was absolutely lovely and showed off a lot of her amazing high speed pole dancing skills. She was a nurse originally who went into pole dancing, which I thought was really cool. I met Ryota's other friend Haruna, who was about 145cm tall - 40cm shorter than me aha.

I invited Kaori out to dinner and the three of us headed to a nice restaurant nearby. Her english was very good so it was easy to converse with her. Like most asian women, she was 10 years older than I thought she was, which is crazy. Afterwards she took us to this petshop nearby to see the little puppy she wants to buy. She said she gave him the name of a famous samurai. He cost a fucking fortune though, better be worth it.

I said my goodbyes to Kaori :( and then Ryota and I decided we wanted to watch more Resident Evil films so headed back to his apartment and bought some munch too. I was in so much pain from the pole dancing, I was definitely going to regret it in the morning.

Day 53: Hangover Burgers

I woke up at approximately 3pm after my night of heavy drinking. All I did afterwards was meet my friend Doug for Burgers and saying goodbye before I left Tokyo. :(

Day 52: Almost missing my flight -> Jikei goodbye

I woke up in a daze, my head was banging and I appeared to have stubbed my toe. I looked at my phone to see it was 8.15am..... WTF?! MY FLIGHT IS LEAVING IN 45 MINUTES! "WAYNE GET THE FUCK UP AND HELP ME PACK I'M GOING TO MISS MY FLIGHT"!!!! We scrambled to get all my shit together, me looking like an absolute train wreck. I gave him a quick hug and jumped in a taxi! TSONG SHAN AIRPORT PLEASE! He sped off and as I repeatedly checked my phone I almost started crying, convinced I was going to miss my flight. Such a first world problem.

I didn't have enough money to pay for the taxi ride so I gave the driver my Taiwanese travel card (like an Oyster card) which had about 2 pounds on it (sorry bout it) and then BOLTED IT into the airport. The desk was still open, the flight attendants were like ARE YOU PAUL GRAY OH MY GOD YOU NEED TO HURRY. I have never seen someone scan a passport and print a ticket so quickly in my life. I like ran up the escalator, looking like a crazed lunatic! Running through every desk that came my way. As I reached my gate, looking like a murder victim they were boarding the last passengers. It was 8.50am. THANK FUCK FOR THAT. I got on the plane, with some serious chest pains and sweating like a whore in a church. Who cared, I made it on time.

I slept the entire flight, after dealing with my traumatic experience. I arrived in Tokyo relaxed and headed back to my apartment to get my life back in order. I was meeting the Jikei staff at the hospital around 8pm so I had some time.

I headed to the hospital to meet the gang and we waited a fucking age for the nurses to get their shit together. Misono (one of the nurses) had convinced the charge nurse to come out for dinner! We went to this really cool chicken restaurant where they served charcoal broiled chicken, making it black. Dericious! After dinner, Misono and the other nurses presented me with two charms, wishing for my career success and finding love! It was the cutest thing EVER, such a nice gesture. We said goodbye to some of the people (who needed to get the train home) while the rest of us partied away at ALL you can drink Karaoke! I got majorly involved! Everyone was plowing me with drink so I was eventually carried home. I remember saying goodbye for about 20 minutes before I finally went upstairs. My Jikei family :( noooo x

Day 51: Last night in Taipei

Another hangover day, and Wayne was working again. All I had the energy to do was go for lunch and then grocery shopping with Wayne's flatmate Joe. I spent the day responding to emails and trying to update some of this blog but not getting very far. Joe said he would take me to a night market in Shili before going to meet Wayne later in the gay area. The night market was so crazy, so many disgusting food Joe made me eat, I honestly felt sick by the end of it. I got this crazy "massage" where this cute guy just hit me with some sticks, was cray. It was then I got assaulted by the crazy fruit lady, who stuffed a bit of mango down my throat and forced me into buy some of her fruit.

We then had to goto meet Wayne in the gay district along with a couple other friends. We went to this secret outdoor patio area where all the gays assemble on a saturday to smoke and drink together! It was actually pretty cool. After that we went to this S&M bar! As we arrived we quickly realised it was military night aha. The drinks were pretty cheap, and someone (JOHNNY) made me drink his absinthe so I got a lot drunker than intended. All of a sudden this blindfolded and GORGEOUS asian man (wearing nothing but y fronts) was lead across the room in a blindfold. They then spent about 15 mins tying him up in about 100 ropes. I actually got bored when they started whipping him I thought it was pretty tame... disappointing. I genuinely almost offered to go up myself and show them what S&M was ahahaha. Oh god I was definitely drunk. When the night was over we drunkenly fell into taxis and went home... my flight was pretty early the next morning. Shit.

Day 50: Snake Penis Wine

Today was the day we would finally do something touristy. We had a wee lie in before going into the centre of Taipei to meet Brad and Eric for lunch! We went to this nice restaurant which had lots of bookcases, so it was like we were in the middle of a library. I had fish and chips as I was beginning to miss British food haa. After lunch Wayne and I headed to Longshan temple, making our way through lots of backstreets and almost getting hit by mopeds several times. The temple itself was absolutely gorgeous, so vibrantly colourful. We walked in during the middle of a buddhist chant, it actually sounded really amazing, was great to witness. We walked around, me taking lots of pictures and looking at all the different statues. Wayne told me what each one was for, hilariously the one that was for love was the busiest. After that we headed to the tourist night time market. So many weird and wonderful foods on display. Then we saw it, the snake soup restaurant. For like 4 pounds, you could have a set meal of snake soup, with shots of snake penis wine, snake bile and snake venom. I thought what the hey, when am I ever gonna get this chance again. The snake soup itself wasn't too bad, the shots were all vile. I was terrified I would actually die from the venom but I was told it was safe. It did give me some nasty heartburn.

We headed over to Taipei 101, one of the tallest buildings in the world. I was super excited to goto the top! We had some food first downstairs, before getting our tickets to go up. We got our photo taken in front of a green screen. Because I was wearing green shorts and wayne a green t-shirt our bodies mashed together with the background scene which was pretty funny to see. We went up in the elevator, my ears must have popped like 4 times. It is apparently the fastest elevator in the world! So cool! The view was absolutely incredible from the top and we even got to go out on the rooftop. After we were done we headed quickly back to Wayne's apartment to have a quick nap before heading out.

We went to meet Wayne's friend Johnny before going to this really cool gay bar. It was themed to be like an outside park, so cue lots of fake grass and crazy amounts of A/C. The drinks were incredibly strong and although I vowed to take it easy tonight found myself drinking a bit too many cocktails. Once we were done there we headed to this other gay bar that was completely packed. So difficult to move and I almost fell down the stairs. I've never seen so many hot asian guys packed into one room in my life. I NEEDED to come back here in the future. We all had a really great night before getting a taxi home to go get some much needed sleep.

Day 49: Taipei Hangover

Absolutely nothing happened today. I was so ridiculously hungover and slept in. I just waited for Wayne to get home so he could bring me crisps and we watched a film together. My new favourite thing is falling asleep with a film on.

Day 48: Taiwan National Day!

We had high hopes for what we were going to do today but we both ended up sleeping in! Instead we went for a nice tasty traditional Taiwanese lunch followed by some suit shopping for Wayne's flatmate Joe. After that we had to hop on the train to goto Taoyuan to meet Wayne's family and their friends for dinner! It was to celebrate Taiwan national day, yet we went to a Japanese restaurant. The staff were absolutely adorable and the food was amazing. There must have been like 10 courses and it was all stuff I had never tried before, including sea urchin. So good! After dinner, Wayne and I got the train back to Taipei and headed out to one of the gay bars called Funky. It was quiet when we arrived except for some of Wayne's friends but it quickly got more busy.

Some of my fave korean pop songs came on and I had to jealously watch as all the Taiwanese gays knew all the choreography. :( There were so many hot guys everywhere it was absolutely ridiculous. I think I drank more than I realised because I cannot remember leaving the club.

Day 47: Off to Taipei!!

I spent the morning getting ready for my trip to Taipei! Speaking to Wayne about where to meet and our plans for the week! I headed to Shimbashi station and got the monorail to the airport. After checking in I got some Taiwanese dollars before walking around some of the shops. I immediately saw the Hello Kitty shop and decided to see what useless crap the company had branded. The weirdest thing by far was the Hello Kitty branded dried cuttlefish... lol. A cool item I saw was an umbrella with a samurai sword handle. I wanted to get it but there was literally 0 reason to. I headed to my gate after attempting to buy an adapter plug and failing miserably.

Yet again, I was the only foreigner. I cant believe how long it took to get through the safety video and the generic captain announcements. Everything that needed to be said was first said in Japanese, then Mandarin and THEN English. So it took 3 times as long. IT INTERRUPTED MY FILM. I watched Elizabeth, starring Cate Blanchett and became incredibly obsessed with everything Elizabethan. Thanks Cate.

A couple of hours later I arrived in Taipei! Wayne was going to be a while cos he had to finish work still so I just sat in the arrivals area being stared at by everyone that walked past. At least when I caught people staring they would smile or laugh unlike Japan where people look ashamed of themselves. WAYNE ARRIVED soon after! We hadn't seen each other in over 2 years! We jumped in a taxi, and headed back to his. The taxis are SO cheap here. A 10 minute journey cost like 2 pounds lol, so not Edinburgh and I would know! We dumped my shit at his apartment, had a quick ciggie on his balcony and headed to meet his friends for dinner. They decided to have Japanese food, great. I'd not had enough of that recently! ahah! The dinner was delicious and his friends were SO nice. One of them exclaimed I looked like a doll. After dinner, Wayne and I headed to a few gay bars before heading home very late, and getting our McDonalds. The one I prayed to God for! :) He must love us gays, really!

Day 46: Back to Tokyo!

After I woke up I headed to Tak's house to go play with his son Jun and his new puppy! I arrived at the station and Tak picked me up. We walked back to his apartment and on arriving I received a cute welcome from his new poodle, which is called Noodle. His son Jun is so cute! He can speak English and Japanese and he's only like 6. We played Mario Kart and I absolutely thrashed them both. All those years of practice finally paid off. The phrase "i've been playing this since before you were born" has never been more true. I was drinking a can of beer and the damn dog knocked it over, gutted. I then tried out Tak's massage chair, oh my was it good.

We then all headed out to lunch together near the airport. We had this cool indoor BBQ food that we pretty much cooked ourselves. After that they both took me to the airport for my short flight back to Tokyo. My only plans that evening were to wash my clothes and pack my bag for Taipei the following day! :D

Day 45: Universal Studios Osaka

We slept in so woke up starving and had a long day ahead of us at Universal Studios. We got a quick burger at KFC before hopping on the train (again, dumping our bags in a locker). The closer we got to the theme park the more people started to appear. I totally forgot it was a sunday, which explained why there were so many fucking people.

We walked along the path to the entrance and there were just so many people. It suddenly had become absolutely roasting as well. We paid our entry and Tak had reserved express tickets, I would later find this to be essential in a Japanese theme park. We went to the first ride, a huge rollercoaster, and it had a wait time of like 90 minutes... For the commoners. Not even kidding it took us 5 minutes to get to the ride. The woman then takes us to the front row seats. Those poor people burning alive down below and it took us 5 minutes. It felt amazing I won't lie.

After that we decided to goto Jaws. This ride was maybe 30 mins wait for express ticket holders. It was actually pretty decent as well. The woman on our boat was a pretty dec actress. Obviously she spoke all in Japanese so I just screamed when everyone else did. After that there was this absolutely massive parade. I am not exaggerating there were about 50 floats and it lasted about 2 hours. We kept trying to get away from it and it kept finding us. The same 4 bars of music over and over and over again. All the fake smiles and drum banging. 3 times I thought it had finished before it started ALL over again. I got so mad lol.

We were going to on the Spider-Man ride but for absolutely no reason the queue was about 2h30 for express and 4h for everyone else. I had been on it in Orlando and it was shite. Was I fuck waiting that long for a ride. Last time I waited that long for a ride was space mountain at Disney world and I almost pissed myself so had to piss in a bottle IN THE QUEUE. I was 15, cut me some slack.

So after that we decided to have a hot dog before exploring around. We went to the Jurassic park ride. We ended up in the front row AGAIN. I remember in Orlando I didn't even get a tiny bit wet, so I was pretty fearless this time. How wrong I was... I got fucking soaked. Like so soaked.

We had tickets to the mummy haunted house at 6, giving us queue jump. It was actually pretty scary. Shat myself a couple times. After that we walked a trek to the other side of the park for our next queue jump ride. The park warned us they were turning into Halloween zone. Like all the staff turned into zombies and were running around scaring fuck out of everyone. The best one was a midget in a pushchair pretending to be a zombie baby. So scary. Someone with a cleaver ran at me. Some silly bitch saw me and my pale skin and thought I was a zombie so screamed and ran away. Dick.

We made it to the ride and it was another haunted house but it was an abandoned aquarium? Fucking psychopaths chasing us from all directions. My heart, honestly. I got some srs chest pain. After that ordeal was over we headed to our last ride, this space travel one. It was quite similar to space mountain in the sense it was pitch fucking black and you had no idea what direction you were going. To make it worse the cart span around over and over. I have never screamed so much in my life.

When they ride was over it was time to go! It was late! We headed back into Osaka city centre before going on a big ferris wheel (on top of a 10F building) and then hit a couple of bars to relax after our stressful day! :)

Day 44: Being attacked by "sacred" deer

I woke up after an amazing sleep. This amazing breakfast was brought to our room. It was a bit extravagant to be honest, there was about 20 little plates. I didn't really know what I was eating but it was rather savoury. Still, it was tasty. I got showered and ready before we got our coach back into Osaka. There was tonnes of traffic on the motorway so it took longer than expected. We arrived and got something quick to eat before chucking our big bags in a locker. We were spending the afternoon in Nara, so didn't want to have to drag them around. I fell asleep on the train there, even though it was a rather short journey.

The experience in Nara was an amazing one. You buy lots of special biscuits for the THOUSANDS of deer that live in the park grounds and they go fucking mental for them. I was rammed and chased by so many, I was pretty scared most of the time. We walked through the beautiful park and eventually found the temples and shrines. The biggest Buddha statue in Japan was inside and oh my god was it huge. So many tourists around also. It was such a relaxing experience. Tak took about a million photos of me. It was starting to get late before long and we decided to goto SpaWorld back in Osaka before heading out that night.

We both fell asleep on the train home and luckily managed to wake up in time. We headed to SpaWorld, this absolutely gigantic spa/onsen/water park complex. We got changed on the 4th floor but had to go in the elevator in our trunks upto the 8th floor for the water park! There were so many amazing water slides and we also spent time outside on the roof in the warm baths. After we were done there we headed to the men only European style baths. You literally just wear a towel and walk around bollock naked. Something I did find interesting is that I found some of the baths to be far too hot but I was able to go all the way into a freezing cold bath where no one else would.

It was such a refreshing experience and when we were done we headed to dinner nearby. We found a restaurant which gave us all you can drink for the first hour. I was on a roll, because I managed 7 beers and 3 glasses of wine, the staff didn't seem too happy my 8 pound fee for all I could drink stretched so far. The rain came on shortly after and not having umbrellas (or many clothes at all on in my case) we got a little soaked. We got the train to the gay district and partied the night away in the relatively busy clubs! I got free drinks as I was a foreigner which was pretty dec! Another amazing day!

Day 43: Naked Hot Springs up in the Mountains

I woke up suitably hungover and very glad I packed my bag the night before. I put on some shades to hide the bags under my eyes and made my way to Haneda Airport. It took a surprisingly short amount of time and I left ridiculously early in case I ran into any problems, which I almost did. I went to the right terminal but went to the wrong end and couldn't find my flight. After a mini heart attack I spoke to the woman at the desk who said I just go straight to security. I had received an email with a bar code in it and this was how I was to check in? I simply showed the picture of it on my phone over this machine and bam, I was checked in. So bizarre. I almost didn't trust it. When I was through security I decided to get some brunch so found somewhere that did toast. It took them about 20 minutes to bring me a slice of toast and a coffee. I didn't even ask for coffee. The barista was cute so I let him off and didn't complain… this time.

I boarded my flight, the only white boy once again and most of the safety instructions were in Japanese so if I crashed i'd be facked. The flight took hardly any time and soon we were descending into Osaka. It was amazing to land in an Airport that wasn't miles from the centre because I got to fly past most of the city! Was so beautiful! I landed and I was quickly through security and had no bags to collect. I met Tak at the arrivals and we headed to somewhere nearby for lunch! We had some amazing sushi and I even had some beer with my lunch to get me going. We bought some more booze for the bus journey and then headed to catch out coach. We caught up majorly on the 1hr journey to Arima, a small town up in the mountains.

When we arrived a member of staff from the Onsen came to pick us up! Literally everyone we saw in the town were old people. We got to our wee onsen hotel and had to take our shoes off straight away and put on slippers. After getting to our room, a woman came to drink some green tea with us and explain to us the schedule for the evening. After settling in we went to the public onsen, I had to get bollock naked in front of complete strangers (strangely didn't find it that difficult) and bathe in different hot springs. One was full of iron and tasted like blood and the other was acidic. It was rather relaxing, if not for all the naked old Japanese men. After our bath we went to have our delicious dinner of shabu shabu and Kobe beef steaks. Kobe was only 20 minutes away by drive after all. The food was absolutely amazing and I almost exploded from how nice it was. Tak cracked out the plum wine after dinner and we took some down with us at our 10pm private onsen. It was just like hiring a jacuzzi really, so relaxing. After dinner Tak arranged for us to get a massage. I was hoping to get a fucking stunning muscly asian man but instead I got a fat middle aged woman. After my massage I literally fell right asleep! Was so nice to relax for once!

Day 42: Shabu Shabu Bitches

I spent the entire day packing my bag for Osaka, washing clothes and fixing all my flight details etc so I wouldn't fuck anything up for my little trips. So that part of the day was boring (yet extremely satisfying).

In the evening I had planned to meet Hayato, Shuho and Natsumi in Shibuya for dinner and drinks. I headed to the station and met them at Hachiko statue. We decided to have shabu shabu (which is where you dip lots of meat and veg into boiling hot pots of sauce basically, it's so good). It took us a while to find the restaurant and then we had to wait 20 minutes for them to have space for us. Natsumi's friend Midoriko joined us too and we took lots of photos with Shuho's cool camera while we were waiting. We were seated and we decided to go for all you can drink for an extra bit of money. It was also pretty much all you can eat too. The food was absolutely delicious and I filled up really quickly, though it was probably all the beers I ordered. We had so much fun together as we got more and more drunk! We took some videos of me teaching them all scottish words!

We spent the entire evening in the restaurant eating and drinking so much. After we left we took some funny Purikura photos before heading to the station. We took some funny photos next to Hachiko statue and then headed home. I blasted Taiwanese pop in my ears the entire journey home and was so drunk was mouthing out the words on my walk home from the station. I had to make sure and set a couple alarms so I didn't miss my flight to Osaka the following day aha.

Day 41: Day Trip to Kamakura

I overslept a little bit so I just headed to the station and had a quick tempura lunch before getting the train to Kamakura to see the big Buddha :). The train didn't take as long as I thought it would and after one line change I was in North Kamakura station. It was absolutely pissing down with rain and I left my umbrella at home. Gid wan Paul. I walked up to the first temple and luckily for me there was a store outside the temple that sold cheap umbrellas. I bought a blue one (to match my eyes, as always) and headed up to the temple. It was so pretty and again very relaxing! Even with all the rain. This woman on a postman's motorbike came riding up and ruined my tranquility. She was delivering letters to the temple. I don't know why I didn't think they would receive mail at the temple…

I decided to walk the 20 minute walk to the next temple down the road. I was surrounded by tiny little houses and forrests as far as I could see. Again, very peaceful! I eventually reached the next huge temple. There were lots of people here taking photos. I walked down about 100 steps to get to the main entrance of the table, pointing towards the city centre and the train station. I walked down the main street of Kamakura, past lots of cute little shops. They mostly sold the same thing- plates. Weird. I decided to chill in a nice little cafe with a beer and a lemon pie aha.

Afterwards I got the monorail to the Daibutsu station. There was a sudden influx of tourists as I walked up from the station. It was getting darker and colder, people were surprised to see me in such little clothes at this point. I arrived at the temple housing the Daibutsu and took about a million photos. It was absolutely huge. I felt so lonely, I was the only person there by themselves :(. Everyone else had other people to take photos of them with the big buddha! I had to ask some random old woman to take mine for me. I decided to call the day quits as I had done so much walking around. I got the monorail back to Kamakura main station and then hopped on the train back to Tokyo.

Whilst on the train I decided to pay Yokohama a visit (city next to Tokyo) as I had never been. I just made a fleeting visit for dinner. I had some Okonomiyaki again, which is usually something you cook yourself on a hue hotplate but the waitress had to make mine for me aha. When I was done I jumped on the next train back home and have an early night. I needed to spend the following day preparing for my trips to Osaka and Taipei!

Day 40: Day Trip to Nikko

I left Jun's place early and headed home to pack a day bag for my trip to Nikko. It was actually a bit warm so I wore very little clothes (big mistake). I minced my way to Shimbashi Station to get the train to Asakusa. Here I would change lines in order to get to Nikko. I bought a special pass that gets me access to all the best temples and covers all my travel for pretty cheap, which was good. I didn't have much time to catch the next train and I had to run to make it. The journey takes 2 and a half hours so I just had a wee nap and updated my blog a bit. A huge bug fell on me and I almost had a stroke on the train. The further away from Tokyo, the less and less buildings there were. The older the train stations started to look. The scenery was absolutely gorgeous though.

We arrived up in Nikko 2 and a half hours later and it was a little bit chilly. Definitely regretted my tiny shorts and barely-there vest. I left the station and the town was really pretty. I decided to have lunch first before getting the bus up the mountain to the temples. I went to this cute little restaurant and saw something on the menu I have always wanted to try. It's like chicken and poached egg over rice. It's meant to be you eating the animal and it's children. A bit cruel but it was delicious. I also had a beer (at 12pm) to wash it down.

I got the bus higher up into the mountains and got off at the first temple. It was getting renovated so there was lots of scaffolding around it. It was absolutely huge and the artwork inside it was beautiful. Outside the temple was a big load of schoolchildren. I walked past them and they went silent, staring at me. The whole area was beautiful, so peaceful and calm. I had some time alone to myself. It was very different to the noisy, crazy Tokyo. I saw so many beautiful temples and shrines to historical Japanese figures.

After my tour of the temples I decided to get the bus up the mountain to see the lake and waterfall. The tiny little bus drove up the bendiest and most winding roads i've ever been on. I felt so sick the entire 40 minute journey and genuinely thought I might die. When I reached the lake I had to have a quick cigarette and can of beer in order to relax myself again. I saw the waterall as well and walked around the little town up in the mountains. Such amazing scenery and it was actually really cold. Once I was finished I got back on the dreaded bus to head back to the station. It wasn't quite so hideous a journey this time thank god. I bought some snacks for the journey home and got the long train home. I was stuck in the same carriage as these incredibly chatty schoolgirls who wouldn't shut the fuck up for one minute.

I napped most of the way home and I was absolutely exhausted! An entire day walking around temples and shrines and on buses that I thought would kill me. I got home and had some beers and fell asleep.

Day 39: RESIDENT EVIL RETRIBUTION

When we awoke from our slumber we were both very hungry so Jun and I decided to goto Roppongi hills for a nice lunch. We took the train a few stops before walking through the blistering heat until we eventually reached our destination. Jun took me to this amazingly authentic Italian Restaurant. It was literally like I had walked into a restaurant in Italy and all the staff were beautiful Italians. We opted for half and half pizza/lasagne and it wasn't long before I decided to get a cheeky glass of white wine. We then had these amazing chocolate and almond cakes before deciding to part ways. We both really wanted to go see the new Resident Evil film so we decided to do our own thing for the afternoon (Jun had a dance rehearsal to goto) and I needed to do chores at home before meeting up later on.

Most of my chores involved cleaning my room and doing my washing. Now I can barely do my own washing in Scotland. But throw in a fucking 40 year old washing machine with instructions ALL in Japanese and barely any washing powder, you got yourself a fucking disaster. I also had no clothes rack so I had to hang it up in my bathroom and then stick the heater on. Jun finished his rehearsal and said to come meet him in Shibuya. I left my washing to dry in the bathroom and got the underground to Shibuya. We met at Hachiko statue and crossed Shibuya Crossing to buy our cinema tickets. We didn't have much time to eat so we just had some KFC before the movie started. The cinema was absolutely boiling, so I sweated a beast. The film was amazing, we both absolutely loved it! One of the scenes actually involved Tokyo Shibuya Crossing, where we had been like minutes before getting to the cinema. It was so cool! Like being in the film aha!

After the film we walked around Shibuya for a bit before I decided to get a delicious crepe. We found this really retro Beer Bar to sit and chill in. They had Blue Planet on the TV and I found it difficult to concentrate when there were seals being eaten by whales. It was nice and chilled. Jun and I talked about where we wanted to be in 10 years. I missed the last train again and Jun's place wasn't far so I ended up crashing there again. I needed to be up early in the morning for my train to Nikko! :)

Day 38: Hours watching films!

I think I tired myself out at the concert because I woke up exhausted! I decided a nice day in bed watching lord of the rings was needed before meeting my friend Jun in the evening for dinner. He lived not so far away in Yoyogi so I headed to meet him after my lazy day and we had Freshness Burger for tea. We went to his amazing apartment and decided to watch some more films aha. I missed the last train so just crashed at his place for the night.

Day 37: 2NE1!!!!

I woke up in the art society room in the medical school and was already running late to meet my friend Jin. I rushed home and got showered and ready then headed over to Shinjuku to meet him for lunch! He was over visiting from Seoul and we are going to meet up when I go over there to visit a few weeks later. It was just a quick lunch as I needed to head to Saitama to meet Yuka for the 2NE1 CONCERT! I had to get a couple of trains as Saitama is the prefecture above Tokyo. As you get further from Tokyo people definitely start to stare a lot more. I had to stand the entire journey which was a bit shitty.

I arrived in Saitama waaaay early so I took some pictures of the surrounding area. I don't why I expected it to be a bit less of a city but it was just like any central area in Tokyo. Skyscrapers everywhere etc. Lots of girls started to walk past with 2NE1 t-shirts and bright pink bags! I NEEDED TO HAVE ONE. Yuka arrived and we went to a Korean restaurant for dinner (as we thought it appropriate). 2NE1 is an amazing young Korean girl band. They have made some of my favourite songs ever so I was so excited when Yuka said she bought me the tickets. For dinner I had this weird Korean pizza thing and Yuka ordered us this pomegranate vinegar juice? Also weird but kind of tasty. When we got our bill we got popcorn flavoured sweeties. An interesting experience for the taste buds indeed.

We were running really late so had to like run to Saitama Super Arena. It was empty outside the arena when we arrived which means the concert may have already started. I seized my opportunity to buy a bright pink 2ne1 bag though. We went through the NO CAMERA CHECK and I told them I didnt have one on me when it was in my pocket. I even let them search my bag knowing full well ahah. We ran to our seat and oh my good lord when we opened the doors the music blasted into our ears. The arena was shaking because everyone was going nuts for the opening song (also my favourite song, gutted I missed the opening). We got taken to our seats and I was so overwhelmed by how fucking massive the arena was. SO many people singing and dancing and generally going bonkers. I had never been to a pop concert before! I had only ever been to small venue death metal concerts (lol).

There was this older man in front of us who was dancing and singing along to EVERY song. He knew all the words, every last one of them. Very creepy. All my favourite songs came on and I sang along to the words I knew (even the korean), some of the people around me looked so shocked. They laughed at me :(. The dancers on stage were absolutely delicious half naked korean men, I wish I was closer to the stage grrr. The concert itself was pretty amazing and at the end they played my favourite song AGAIN. A really great concert. So interesting that Korean bands sing their songs in Japanese for their Japanese audience. They even release whole albums in Japanese. Could you imagine Cheryl Cole releasing an album in French? She can barely speak English, the stupid cow.

Anyway, after the concert we ran out to avoid the thousands of people who were heading to the train station. I think I may have actually been the ONLY white person in the entire audience. I didn't see one single foreigner on the way out or at the station! I said my goodbyes to Yuka and headed back in Shinjuku to go for a few quiet drinks in Shinjuku before heading home! :) A great day!

Day 36: Last day at Jikei and Medical student drinkathon

I headed to my final day at Jikei :(. After the morning conference I had to stand up and make another goodbye speech. They should really give a warning ha. Afterwards I chatted to Takahashi-sensei and we had a final secret cig round the back of the hospital. I took a photo with him in case I didn't get to see him again and he headed home (as he just finished his night shift). I spent my final day being very proactive. It didn't feel like my last day at all. I spent the last few hours organising my leaving party with Misono, one of the nurses. We decided for the Wednesday of my last day in Tokyo. I eventually finished and said my goodbyes! Hoping a lot of them would come to my leaving party.

I headed home to get ready for the medical student drinkathon and then headed to the medical school basement floor, where my friends were waiting. We went to the conveni and spent like 5000 yen (40 pounds) on booze and snacks ha. We got our drink on and we played a lot of drinking games. I taught them all international Rinking rules which helped people get more drunk ha. I met lots of new and fun medical students. I think I crashed out about 11pm but woke up again at 3am and woke people up to start drinking again haha. We went out for a cig and accidentally locked the door so had to climb back in through a window. We slept at 6am and when I woke at midday I had a big scratch down my ass cheek and one on my upper back. I can only assume I fell over.

Day 35: Hangover Okonomiyaki

Woke up at 3pm feeling like I might die. Headed to Ningyocho to meet Doug for dinner! We had okonomiyaki which was delicious but a bit overpriced lol. Just a very quiet hungover day.

Day 34: Beer museum and party time!!

I woke up and felt a little refreshed. We had to attend the case conference before we could go home. I met a doctor there who loved Edinburgh a LOT. When were finished the doctors gave us breakfast. I can't count how many meals I've been bought. We walked to the station and got the train back. We decided to goto the Yebisu beer museum, for the sheer craic. Each train station in Tokyo has its own little tune and the Ebisu station one is the Yebisu song. We found the museum after much searching and bought the tour tickets. We were joined by 5 students. I think we were all there for the beer tasting at the end lol.

The tour guide was this cute little woman who could not have been nicer. Funniest thing ever, she was all quiet before the tour then she like strapped on a mic and dimmed the lights and this music came on. She sounded like a boxing match commentator. You could tell she really loved Yebisu beer. I sat at the back reading the English tour commentary, I felt like such a dunce. She kept asking questions to us all about Yebisu beer ha. She asked me what we eat with beer. I ended up saying haggis and everyone was so intrigued by it. It turns out I'm not even that sure what is in it, does anybody though? We finished the museum tour and headed to the tasting area (pretty sure that's the only reason any of us were there lol). We sat around a big table and were given little glasses of beer to taste. Light and dark beers. She then showed us a really cool way to pour beer from a can and asked who would like to taste, obviously my hand shot up and so did Hiro's so we split it.

At this point a smiling barmaid came over and put down a bit of paper in the tour guides table. She brought it over and showed me the Japanese Wikipedia page for haggis!!!! Hahaha! They really were intrigued! After the tour was finished we got some pictures and then Hiro and I decided to get another beer. This time grape flavoured? It was on offer lol.

We needed something to soak up the alcohol so we got some delicious food nearby. Afterwards we went back to Ebisu station and said our goodbyes until Friday! I got the train home so I could go get ready for the party.

I got ready and opted for trousers again, it was a lot cooler so this was no problem now. I arrived at the restaurant to find the Jikei ER had booked out the entire restaurant for like 40 of us. Nuts. We sat down and were quickly given this gigantic salad. I think it was made from daikon, a Japanese root vegetable. It genuinely filled me up and I found out that it was one of about 6 courses. Next course was some tuna sashimi, delicious. The courses kept coming and the drinks kept flowing as it was all you can drink. I went for some secret cigs with Chiba-sensei and Okazawa-sensei. It wasn't long before we were all standing and speeches were being made by nurses and doctors who were leaving the ER. Then Itai-sensei turns to me and told me I was the last person to make a speech. I froze, totally unexpected. I was made to stand on a chair and in English basically just thanked everyone so much for being so welcoming and said I had made lots of lifelong friends here. They love a speech here ha. People were getting really emotional during some of the speeches ha, was very cute.

More drinking ensued and desserts came out. Professor Ogawa gave me a good chat about UK and Japanese culture. The meal finished and the older staff headed home after the photos whilst the younger staff went to karaoke round the corner. I tried to pay for my meal but the medical secretary stopped me lol. I then paid nothing for the karaoke and it was also all you can drink. I love Japan.

Unlike the UK where karaoke tends to be a lot of X Factor wannabes trying to show off the little talent they have, in Japan people are there for a good time. No one cares if you sing badly. It's all about enjoying yourself and everyone joins in. It's a lot of fun. :)

After our time was up most people went home but I managed to drag people out to one last bar (this is like 2am). Two nurses and 2 doctors came with me (Ito-ken and Masuda-sensei!) we just went to a quiet bar and got even more drinks. I ordered a straight double whisky on the rocks for absolutely no reason. I was chain smoking and eventually had to be taken home haha. An amazing night.