And four beers, thanks

I don't know if it was the daily beers, the constant meals out, no-money poisoning or all of the above, but I am mentally all over the road at the moment; I find my mind drifting constantly. Japan is well and truly Narnia-like, I said to myself as I drifted off last night. The only problem is that rather than grand adventuring with Aslan, I seem content to sit on the couch and drink cups of tea - I tut and draw the curtains on all the centaurs and magic. Is this amazing world behind the wardrobe that few people ever discover wasted on me? Probably. Now get out of the way, I can't see the TV.

Ken and Carol spent the rest of the week with Lisa while I was at work and if her photos are believed, she specifically took them on a those-wood-things-that-you-stick-your-face-in tour of the region. One of the many was to be found at Osaka Castle, before they moved on to enjoy the view from the Umeda Sky Building, an enormous magnet-shaped twin tower connected by a viewing platform that can be used to peer over the skyline. Another day they headed up to Mt Rokko on the cable car and finally ventured into the much talked about "music box museum", which turned out to be less dorky than expected; they apparently had wall-sized music boxes with real accordians and violins that played away merrily by themselves. While they were up there they found an art exhibition which featured, among other things, a man "cocooned" in wire up a tree with only his face showing. "Hello!" he said cheerily, obviously not too upset about it. Lis also bought a goat made of newspaper - I'm not entirely sure why.

The next day they spent exploring Kobe properly, checking out the old foreign settlement in the north ward and wandering Harbourland for something other than food and UFO catchers. In this case it was "Meriken Park" (a play on "American"), where a huge faultline from the big earthquake sits untouched, its street lamps still sitting at a jaunty angle and looking like they could topple at any moment. Having walked past Kobe Port Tower enough, they decided to go inside and found what was called "Kawasaki Good Times World", which according to Ken Lisa initially turned her nose up at. He didn't tell the next bit of the story - he just held up a picture of her sitting on a Ninja motorbike with a smile almost as big as the engine. "You could fly a plane there", she gushed. They finished up the day with some admittedly hilarious photos of Ken posed as Bruce Lee in Chinatown.

Saturday, our grand plans to hire a car and drive across Awaji Island were dashed to pieces due to not having our passports with us (certifiably living in Japan is clearly not proof enough), which was probably just as well - the rain was lashing down and trying to do anything outdoorsy would have been revolting. Instead, we headed to Osaka Aquarium where the water was safely behind glass. Apart from not having Great White Sharks (-100 points) or piranhas (-50 points), it was neat - it's apparently the only place in the world with whale sharks in captivity.

I met up with them for dinner each night and for the occasional coffee break while Ken and Carol perused their choice of the fishing, craft and 100 yen shops. Through the course of the week we managed yakitori (grilled things on sticks), yakiniku (grilled things not on sticks), a seafood buffet in Harbourland and shabu-shabu (hot pot). Add that to the copious souvenir shopping and I think you could say they had a really good trip; everyone seemed satisfied when we parted ways on Saturday night. "No more meals out," I told myself, until the next day when we ate lunch and dinner out again with one of our friends. The irony of sitting on the couch all day for yesterday's "Sports Day" public holiday is not lost on me either. The mind is willing...

We've just hit the 10 week mark now. 10 weeks! That's hardly enough to "shape your summer body", never mind uproot and go home. Do I want to go back to the real world? I don't know, really. In some ways I feel like I've seen all I want to see; in others, I haven't started yet. Maybe a looming deadline will spur me into action, or maybe it doesn't need to - some would probably say that even vegging out here is adventure enough. Pass me another biscuit, Mr. Beaver.