Rising stars in the Land of the Rising Sun

Our new friends in the Japanese TV industry
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We have been bowled over by the friendliness and phenomenal hospitality of the Japanese.  People just seem to want to talk to us all the time - it`s great!  We`ve met so many lovely people, especially the staff and fellow visitors at Guesthouse Kaine in Fukuoka. We even made it onto the guesthouse`s blog: http://fukuokaguesthouse.blog94.fc2.com/blog-entry-68.html

Miz and Moo-san at Guesthouse Kaine
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As westerners we get lots of sideways glances, more so in Fukuoka because there aren`t as many western tourists here as there are in Tokyo and Kyoto.  In restaurants our chopstick usage is under intense scrutiny, and when we used knives and forks in an Indian restaurant the table next to us could hardly eat their food for watching our cutlery-handling skills.

Yesterday a woman working in a supermarket tapped H on the shoulder so that she could establish, using only hand gestures, that she was much shorter than H.  Glad we got that sorted out.

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Schoolkids are particularly interested in us.  One day M had a whole bus load wave at him as they drove past.  Later that day a group of schoolgirls stopped him in the street to say hello.  H gathered a crowd of kids on a school trip to a temple in Kyoto. They kept asking `How do you fly in the sky?`  H looked puzzled so they called over more friends, then their teacher.  They all flapped their arms around a lot and shouted louder and louder trying to make H understand.  Still don`t know what they were on about.  H was made to shake hands with each of them before they ran off to catch up with the rest of their trip.

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Today we were grabbed in the street by a small Japanese man full of smiles and enthusiasm.  To cut a long story short, we will be making our debut on Japanese TV some time soon. With the camera rolling we were asked a load of questions for this `Japanese information programme`, including:

• What has most surprised you about Japan?
• Do you know who the bloke is on the 10,000 yen note?
• How long have you been married and are you still happy?
• Please show your love for each other.

Kampai!!!
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So we had a quick snog then the small bloke kissed H and we went on our way.