Day of rest

Having an enormous hangover from yet another `quiet` night at the George, I tried to settle down to the Sex Offender`s complimentary copy of the Lord of the Rings, but the day seemed too nice to waste so I dragged myself into a passable state and took myself to Omiya park. It seems far more like a treed avenue with a small rock garden and water feature taking you towards the shrine, but I may be wrong. The shrine itself is quite small and in active service. It is nestled amongst more trees and you have to cross a small red bridge, leading over a pond alive with koi, to get to it. Today there was some kind of ceremony taking place and lots of young children in their kimonos (I tried to get one in the picture, but I wasn`t particularly successful) trotting around the gravel yard ahead of the shrine. I felt a small pang of disgust at my tourist self taking shots of the service on my phone whilst others were praying, but you have to throw in money to pray and I am skint (and not a Buddhist, though this is no barrier for the Japanese who heartily partake in any old festival), so I couldn`t join in.

I strolled back into central Omiya and found a strip of hairdressers to take my sorry barnet into. I will check at my Japanese lesson on Wednesday if `shorto` will work before venturing in. The contrast between the serenity and class of the shrine and the consumerist haven of the rest of Omiya was overwhelming. Particularly as this internet cafe is in the midst of hostess bars and strip clubs!

Steven (the Scottish one) called and has offered to take me to the cinema to see Sin City this evening. I am constantly on the scrounge and hope that next month I will be more sensible with my money and less shameless in my begging. Last night, I had to force Ken (a possible private student - we may exchange English for trips to the izakaya) and Eto to buy me drinks, although men here do seem more than content to pay for a girl`s company. The up side to a society that founded hostess bars. I will stay in for the rest of the week and try to avoid thinking about the down side. You do have to keep your hand on your ha`penny and Ken was most interested in practising his bar room compliments than any other phrases. He mastered `pretty` in minutes.