Japan post #3

This post will be about just a few of the people that I crossed paths with while in Japan. Everyone (and I mean everyone) was really very polite. Not prudish however!

You may know or have heard about the Japanese "thing" for karaoke. Now I've never been a big fan of karaoke. In fact prior to my trip, I'd only ever done karaoke once before, and that was with a bunch of mates (wasted of course) doing Echo Beach at the Quakers Inn. Sad in so many ways, I can't believe I'm admitting to it. Never the less, here I was in a bar in Himeji. A very small karaoke bar with only my work mates and hosts. Mama-san was filling our glasses with Chivas before they were empty. Oh well, here goes.....

My boss and I do a beautiful rendition of Stayin' Alive. You won't believe that I hit that falsetto perfectly! There was something Elvis, I can't remember what. Suspicious Minds I think. And then my finale. My solo. John Denver's Country Roads.... Take me home..... to the place.... I belong! You know the rest! Fortunately, no photos of that night!

Here's a picture though of some school kids in Kyoto. Now why the heck would I be taking a photo of some school kids? Well, we were wandering up to this temple thingy - not sure exactly what it was - and these girls approached us. All giggly. The boys came over and asked could they take our photo with the girls.
Um sure... ?
(Insert mental image of excited girls jumping up and down here)
"Are you a movie star?" they ask.
Sure!!!
(insert high pitched squeal here)
They can't contain their excitement. They boys take their camera and take a few shots of the girls with me. They squeal some more, then go to leave.
"Wait, I'll take a picture of you too" I say. (This is too funny to pass up).
They squeal some more. I take this picture, then they skip off. Literally. Who knows, perhaps you'll find a picture of me with them on another blog. "The day I met a movie star on my school excursion to Kyoto". Too funny.

Lastly, this photo is one of me (blurry head) and a little old lady. It was very hot in Kyoto and we'd been out in it all day. Walking down from one particular temple, we came across this little stall. Selling beer. By the long-neck. OK. Let's stop for a quick break. From memory, there were about 500 Yen. What I remember clearly is that they were icy-cold. How good was this. At one end of the path was an ancient temple. The other, a long row of market stalls. And right in the middle was a little old lady selling icy-cold Kirin. I had two. And took one for the road. So now I'm walking through the markets and streets of Kyoto, beer in hand. Loving it. Then we walk into a McDonalds (still with beer in hand) and get some tucker. As you can see, the old lady is very short, and I'm quite tall. The whole time I was there, I came across only one person who was as tall as me - and that was at the airport on the way home. It made for excellent sight seeing. Just look over everyone's heads!

So that was a little about some of the people I came across in Japan. Until next time, sayonara!