Oh, I made a mistake... I'm off to Sanda tomorrow - I'm still in Tokushima.

The head office is not as impressive as I'd imagined. It's this sizable car park in front of an unimposing building. When I arrived, we walked in and there seemed to be noone around. Tumbleweeds wouldn't have been amiss. Then, once a door or two opened, I could see all the mystery drivers of all those cars - sitting side by side working away in silence! I've since learned that Japanese people let it all hang out after work, but during worktime virtually nothing is said by anyone. "Silence is golden" must be a Japanese adage. We were kept pretty much separate from the Japanese staff. There seems to be a real fear on the part of the Japanese and a real disinterest in engaging with them on the part of a lot of Westerners here. I find that a bit strange, but I guess we're all here for different reasons.

Speaking of reasons for being here... I love the food! It's funny, I order from pictures mostly - tonight I thought I was ordering, among other things, a coke and some lychees. I got an ice coffee and some pickled onions! Luckily they went with my salad anyway.

Had a lot of fun riding around town tonight... around the castle ruins of Tokushima-jo. All that's left is the stonewall base. Sadly that's the case with the majority of castles in Japan - with Himeji Castle being the notable exception. It's magnificent. Others suffered the fate of wars, lightning strikes, fires, earthquakes and Allied bombing in WWII. Some have been reconstructed from ferro-concrete (like Osaka-jo... you take an elevator up to the top!), but it's not the same as the real deal that you get at Himeji. Akita and Hirosaki are also faithful to the old wooden construction. There must be others, but they're the ones I've been to.

Where was I? Oh, bicycles... They're great because you don't lose much time if you go the wrong way, unlike going around on foot. I'm still finding my cycling legs (i.e. I'm pretty unco-ordinated), but you can ride in relative safety. Back in Sydney I wouldn't have the gumption to ride a bike - people drive like maniacs. You can ride on the footpath here, so you mainly just have to dodge people and other bikes (I'm sure the school kids see me as a pothole).

Got a new watch battery today! Hopefully I won't have anymore dramas to do with catching buses or clocks with the wrong time (see previous post). Fingers crossed. Oh well, lesson learned - not everything over here works. Most things do, mind you! Are you reading this back home, Cityrail?

Anyway, time to catch some kippers...
Ja mata

p.s. re: the photos. Didn't realise as I was taking the "kombi" that the owner was waiting to get in! He seemed pretty chuffed that I was that interested. The dance is something Tokushima is famed for... the awa odori. Basically the ideology surrounding it is that one should adoptat a nightclub (so I'm told... I don't get out much!)...

the dancing fools
and the watching fools
are foolish the same
so why not dance?

Can't argue with that!