Japan - Day One

So...here I am in Japan! Arrived on Sunday night, airport was a crazy experience. Colours, people waving at me come this way, go that way etc. It has been pretty hard so far - it's really crazy not understanding what people are saying to you, or not being able to read signs, or food labels. The culture shock makes me feel like an alien; and in fact I am just that. Got my registration yesterday, and the guy didn't speak English. I went to a supermarket yesterday and could have spent hours in there just looking at everything. I also went to a bookshop and saw that the number one J Pop group of the week is "Lonely Town". Sounds emo.

Started the morning off with a cup of tea - Janat; the flavour of Sicily, the taste of Paris. It's classy; my cat feels the same.

When you flush the toilet at my uncles place, this tap automatically goes over the cistern. I don't know how to feel about it...

Heard a strange noise as I went outside to the small garden - it was a crow!! The first I've ever seen. They are beautiful looking, quite large and scary. This photo doesn't do the size of the bird justice.

Oh yeah - my uncle lives right by a graveyard. The crows hang out there and are constantly swooping over it...

The biggest spider I've ever seen in my life. I want to go back to New Zealand now.

Another one eating a butterfly.

A view of a street in the Rokko neighbourhood, where I live.

The first night I got there, my uncle said that we would be taking the rubbish out, but to watch for wild pigs. Apparently Kobe is known for them, and my uncle lives up a hill nearer to the mountains. If you see one, you're supposed to freeze as they can attack. I had a nightmare about this that very night.

Arrived home after a long day feeling tired and crap, only to be greeted by FIVE identical black cats hanging out together. These are two - the others were spaced out evenly atop of this wall. They wouldn't come to me.