A crack at Tetsuya.

Japanese soups are so quick and easy!

Keep your dirty hands off my Domo-Kun.

I actually have a spare brown towel nearby so no one puts their grubby hands on my new towel.

Dinner at Makoto's

We got the attention of Makota, Myko and Masaie while pouring tempura sauce onto our rice in Kyoto. They thought we were excellent company/entertainment and invited us round for dinner at their home in Yokohama, Tokyo. When we arrived, the sushi was laid out in the shape of an 'N' for Nicole and 'D' for Donald. Classic. The meal was very educational; I finally found out the correct way to position myself over a squat toilet. After my incident earlier in Hakone, I had felt somewhat incompetent, but i was reassured that it was the toilet, not me.

 

Watashi no kutsu wa kawaii desu.

I haven't had much success with clothes in Japan. Although they have a particular 'fashion' going down here i.e. rara skirts and hot pants with mega heels and boots a maternity tops, it's not a look i could a) pull off and b) get away with in Oz. Their trainers however are another story. They have the cutest shoes ever and they are so much cheaper than in Australia. These were AU$75! I will be the talk of the town when i get home. I will also be Clean & Clears acne model for 2010.

A WOMB. Kyoto, Japan.

The Wallpaper City Guides have yet to fail us. The latest example of frickin awesome food is the 5000 yen set course dinner at A WOMB near the Kyoto Art & Design University. We had a hell of a time getting there as we jumped on the no. 5 bus in the wrong direction and then landed ourselves a taxi driver who spoke no English and could not read small text, so despite having 5 different maps and photographs of the directions from Yahoo!, he had no idea where we were going. He was kind enough to call up the restaurant and ask them for directions and half an hour later, in -1 degrees, Puss in boots and Domus in shirt rocked up to a hidden concrete restaurant which only seats 10. There were only two other people there. We were a tad nervous but as the food started rolling, we couldn't contain our excitement, I haven't included all courses but each plate was immaculately displayed with so many different colours and flavors and the waitress, who spoke fabulous English and told me where we can get chicken sashimi and those funny toe separating shoes, explained every last detail. Unlike the 120000 yen traditional meal the other night, nothing here could be mistaken for turtle ejaculation or hardened sea moss. Don even got to choose which glass he'd like to drink his Sake in. Full on! I'd be back here in a second.

This will no doubt be very useful in Japan.

Water glass at Izakaya Den. Cute!

The conventional option

Not as cool to look at but definitely more sturdy.

Experiment

Looked good for all of 2.5 seconds, then it collapsed. Will have to settle for something more conventional.