Well, I took a break from China for 4 days and I am in a disgustingly plush hotel in Osaka. I went to visit a former student and am enjoying actually being able to drink water from the tap, not having people poo on the floor, and all the GLORIOUS electronics. It`s ridiculous. Every camera shop has oodles of professional cameras just laying around, and lenses galore. If heaven involved electronica, it would look like Japan. On the downside, it`s really easy to burn through huge amounts of money here. Everything is so expensive, and there`s so many tempting things on offer. I bought a 2GB memory card for my camera and a new MD player because I sent mine back to America. I was also tempted to get an MP3 player and a portable hard drive. But..after finishing China, India is our next destination, and I have a feeling that it`s not wise to bring so many electronic goodies there. I`ve already lost a telephoto lens- no need to add anything to that list.

I used to bitch and moan about Japan, but I have a bit of a fresh persepective now. Sure, the Japanese are oblique, and getting a straight answer out of them is neigh impossible, but at least they don`t torture foreigners for the sake of it, and EVERYONE gets ripped off equally. The prices here are ridiculous- but at least everyone has to pay the same nosebleed prices. It really irks me when I know I paid 10x the fair price for something and nobody else did. Misery must love (impoverished) company.

There`s a bidet in this hotel. How am I going to go back to the Chinese poo-stained toliet hole in the ground in China? You know, the Chinese have been using the old squateroo for their entire lives- you`d think they could aim well enough to actually get the poo in the toliet, and barring that, they would at least make a feeble effort to somehow get said poo into the toliet. Nope. Just leave a steaming pile of it right OUTSIDE the toliet- that`s China for you.

Goodbye, bidet and mints on the pillow. Reality is calling my name tomorrow...