FISH

Sunday morning in Tokyo, and we're at the Nishitetsu Inn Hotel. Last night we met Koujisan (Yuuka's Dad) and his Chinese Assistant Chaosan - actually this is the last day in Tokyo as the four of us are taking the shinkansen over to Niigata this afternoon, where I'll stay with the family (also mother, daughter, and possibly psycho Granpa lurking next door).
So, down to business... Japanese food! But first I have to tell an interesting story. Yesterday we went to Odaiba, a kind of Pleasure Island type place in Tokyo Bay, only with a lot more diggers and less naughty boys turning into donkeys. We went in this huge arcade because Yuuka and Keiko (our friend from back in Edinburgh) wanted to do a Puri Kura, which is best described as a teeny bopper pop star photo shoot inside a booth. So we did that - I can't say it was my cup of tea but they enjoyed it - and then I got pretty fascinated by these two rows of basins filled with a mini horde of plain black fish, each a different size but the average being maybe about finger-length. The basins had little wooden stools set up in front of them, and the whole area was cordoned off, clearly indicating it as some sort of attraction, though actually no one was there. I assumed you had to catch them or something - I couldn't understand a word of all the writing in Kanji on the posters. Well anyway, I thought it would be a bit of old style fairground fun after the Puri Kura silliness, so I sais to Yuuka I wanted to do it. She said, are you sure, and I said, yes, yes, but what is it actually. You put your feet in the water and the fish clean your feet, she said. Ok, pretty weird, but intriguing, so I said yes. Two minutes later I was led over by a girl who delivered an incomprehensible spiel to one of the basins. I took off my socks and plunged my feet in, a wee bit apprehensive I have to say. As soon as I did this it was like the piranha scene in Doctor No - thrashing and foaming in the water - a complete frenzy... all the fish thrust themselves on my feet and started nibbling... within second I had only two toes... Ok, I lie, they just tickled - a lot. They were eating my dead skin. My dead skin! Can you imagine? Who would want to eat that? But these fish did. They loved it. After a few minutes they decided my left foot provided the better pickings. The tickling had turned to a pleasant sensation, and I had to shoogle the left to encourage some to my right, but it didn't work, they kept going back - all those afternoons playing football on the meadows did have a purpose after all - what a lot of work those fish had to get through!
Right, Yuuka says I have to go. Next time food, really...