I wonder if the Japanese actually like their children?

Okay, okay. I know the Japanese do actually like their children. It's just sometimes when I'm driving around and I see the kids using the car like a play park or climbiing frame - I kind of wonder. If the car had to stop suddenly the kid would shoot right through the windscreen and end up splattered on the road.

The other day I even saw a child do a handstand and kick his mother, who happened to be driving at the time, in the head. Then there was one of my fiance's friends who had their two year old child sitting in the footwell of the passenger seat. I really wish the Japanese government would do a campaign on it. I mean no one wants to see children splattered on the road/

No diving in the bathtub

Yesterday, a friend of mine emailed me a picture from a hotel in Hikone. It was a sign attached to a bathtub saying 'No diving'. Hmm, as if diving in the three foot bathtub was a common problem.

Weird little fish

The other day my friend, who's working down in Okinawa, told me about some weird little fish. They'd gone to the beach and because the weather was a bit crappy they ended up going to a spa. At the spa they had a bucket filled with little fish. You were supposed to put your feet into the bucket, and the little fish would eat off the dead skin. She said the fish tickled her feet so much she coudn't stop giggling and the other people looked at her as if she was crazy. Hmmmm, I wonder if bizarre, little, skin-eating fish would take off anywhere else in the world?

Funny t-shirts

I've devoloped a weird habit in Japan - reading t-shirts. You can find the funniest things on t-shirts in Japan. Actually it's not just t-shirts - bags, pencil cases, sweatshirts, even things like tissue boxes all have the oddest English you've ever seen on them. Take yesterday for instance, my friend emailed me and told me about a t-shirt she'd seen on one of her student's mothers.

It said 'daddy was a street corner' - I mean, what's that all about? Unfortunately, she couldn't get a photo cos' taking photos of your student's mothers chests is not really allowed.

Sometimes you can't argue with the philosophy though. This is one of my favourites!

Why weird? Why wonderful?

So, why weird? Why wonderful? Well I reckon that Japan is a country that you can see something weird or wonderful every day. Not everyone will agree with me, but I find that I'm constantly sent into fits of baffled laughter by the bizarre things I see around me. I mean seriously let me give you a couple of examples.

Last year a friend and I were visiting Tokyo, and while walking down a street, a couple in front of us stopped and swapped shoes. The man put on his girlfriend's evidently uncomfortable high heels and she put on his comfy sneakers and then they carried on walking down the street. Wow, it's got to be the ultimate in gentlemanly behaviour, may slightly ruin the masculinity of your boyfirend though! And could you seriously ever imagine it happening anywhere else in the world?

And then there was the little shop we came accross selling clothes for dogs. And I don't mean just little raincoats or sweaters to keep your little pooch dry and warm. I mean jeans, sneakers, denim skirts, hoodies, t-shirts, hats and, of course costumes so you can dress them up for those fancy dress occasions. My favourite were the Pooh Bear or little animal costumes that mean if you're a little bored of your pooch being a pooch you could turn it into someting else - a bee or a dinosaur perhaps.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Japan is full of the unique, the strange and the just plain bizarre. I mean in a country where a boyfriend will swap shoes with his girlfriend, and you can buy a Superman costume for your dog life will never be boring again!

So Japan, huh? How'd that happen?

A couple of years ago I decided I was getting a bit too comfortable with my life in New Zealand, so I packed in my job, jumped on a plane and headed off to teach English in Japan. Yeah, it was going to be just for a year, and yeah here I am two years later settling into my new apartment with my Japanese fiance, but hey things happen. Life changes. I'm still teaching English to kids, which I love. And I use my spare time to write children's stories and poems that one day I'd love to have published. One day we'll probably move back to New Zealand, but for now I'm enjoying living in the weird and wonderful world of Japan.