Hi all,
Well I am back from Japan and whatever you think of me you have to admire my incredible luck in choosing travel dates that completely avoided travel chaos from the dreaded Hu?sh?n
?? . Heathrow airport was a bit grim yesterday afternoon though. I'm also lucky I didn't opt for going to Thailand - that place could be heading for civil war and my mum tells me that UK travel companies were dumping British travellers in what was practically a war zone!
Anyway, my love for Japan is undiminished and I could see myself living there. It's by far the safest place I've ever been. Everyone seems so happy, regardless of how rubbish their jobs are. There is practically no crime. In the back streets of Asakusa folk don't even lock their bicycles. So little happened in Tokyo that the evening news main story was the weather.
Yes the weather. One day it was 26C, the next it was 8C. That was really stretching my clothes packing plans to the extreme!!!
I have registered with a Japanese introduction agency. It's a similar setup to the Chinese agencies we deal with. However, business practices are much stricter. Members get interviewed, most are rejected. Ladies all speak English. Ladies all have pretty good jobs and are well educated. Members have to be HIV tested, and all initial meetings with a lady are at the agency. Once a lady gets involved with a man she is hidden from the site. The lady profiles are full of sensible information about the lady, not some crappy poem like a lot of the chnlove profiles. It's free to talk to ladies (but I did pay a modest joining fee). I would love to find a Chinese agency with this kind of setup. There are some in Thailand that are this well managed, but I don't know about China.
The owner of the agency was very knowledgeable and I guess the take home message is that women are fickle creatures and finding a good honest lady from any country is a huge challenge for a man.
He was complimentary about filapina ladies. However, finding an honest one on the Internet is a major challenge for a man!
He told me the best way of finding a Chinese lady is through someone you trust. Actually, that's probably the best way of finding an honest lady in any country.
I didn't meet any ladies this trip - I left things a bit late and I'd rather email them a bit first before meeting them.
Japanese ladies are lovely. I do stand by my observation that generally they're not as beautiful on the outside as Chinese ladies. The ladies from Western Hubei Province are the most beautiful I have ever seen. Mrs Wu was astonishingly beautiful for someone of her age. Is it the clean air and mountains like Miss Wu said? Is it the lack of American junk food? Is it the use of sun umbrellas? I'm not sure, but from the number of brothers who have been in the Hubei/Hebei (Wuhan, Changsha) region of China to visit ladies I guess there's something to my theory!!!
Anyway, it's what's on the inside that counts, and Japanese ladies score highly on that scale. I also think they are a better fit for my personality.
The good thing about Japanese ladies from my perspective is that they won't be marrying me for my money (I'm sure as hell not wealthy by Japanese standards!)
As to my plans, I might spend a couple of years looking for a Japanese lady. If that comes to nothing then I'd probably be the perfect age in which to find a Chinese lady in the 35-40 age group.
I would love to move to Japan, so I will certainly investigate whether it's feasible. My feeling is that if you want to marry an Asian lady, you're much better off moving to Asia.
I don't like the idea of living in China, although I think a visit to Shanghai might change my mind. I watched a lot of Taiwanese TV in my hotel room and I have to admit that after 6 months of studying Mandarin I'm sorry to report that I haven't got a clue what people are talking about! Has anyone picked up Mandarin with any confidence? People speak so quickly! Spoken Japanese is much easier to understand. Written Japanese is a total nightmare but I do seem to have activated the part of the brain that is used to store Asian characters, so I think I could gradually learn to read. I can now appreciate that although Japanese and Chinese use a lot of the same characters, the Japanese pronunciation is completely different. Confusingly, the Japanese also pronounce the same character in many different ways depending on what word it's being used in. What a nightmare.
Anyway, here are some photos! They are from left to right:
Massive boozy party under the Cherry Blossoms.
Central Tokyo.
Akihabara maids.
Proof that women really do wear stockings and suspenders in the street!
One of the cutest things I saw in Japan.
The famous Cherry Blossoms.
Cute Gundam promo girl, wow was she lovely!
I hope you guys can visit Japan for yourselves one day, just don't take your lady anywhere near the clothes shops in Shibuya :s!!!