There is a post on my thoughts of the new Transformers movie coming, but before that I would like to share one of those only-in-Japan expierences - which, as luck would have it, happened as I was en-route to Cinema-Town to see Transformers!

 So, that`s the scene. Myself and Liz cycling out to Cinema Town, a multiplex that`s pretty remote but pretty swish, when we stumble upon a street party cum festival happening in a local park. Curiosity aroused, and with an hour or so before the curtain, we tentatively stick our heads in to see what`s happening. However, no sooner have I dismounted my bike than a microphone is thrust into my face and, as the music stops, I`m implored to give a speech to the now silent, motionles and staring-straight-at-me crowd. Quick-thinking Liz captured a video of slow-thinking me blurting out fractured niceties in my rough, impolite Japanese. I`ll stick the incriminating video up in a later post, whenever YahooBB deliver my interwebs.

 Speech over with, we were then thrown into a series of increasingly perplexing traditional Japanese dances (which, to be honest, weren`t a million miles from the macarena) - a new routine commencing just as I would get the hang of the previous one.

 Exhausted both physically & mentally from my dancing ordeal, I then entered into a willy-waving contest of sorts with the local men, where I was plied with booze and barbequed food until I could take no more, and the locals were satisfied in their powers to consume more skewered chicken than a stupid gaijin.