I’m writing this at Tokyo-Narita airport, on an unseasonably warm and humid Tokyo afternoon. The airport internet kiosks are of the eat-your-money variety, though the price being in Yen disguises its magnitude somewhat. 1000 Yen? Pah, ’tis a mere drop in the ocean. And I have Yen to burn before I leave. Still, I’d rather burn it on tacky souvenirs than have it disappear into the ether, so you’ll have to excuse me if this entry doesn’t cover much more than here I am! And I should be internet accessible for the foreseeable future, unlike for the last - God, nearly a year.

I’m also still rather badly jetlagged, though I’ve been here since Thursday. My brain is instructing me to lie down on this hard concrete floor and have a lovely nap. Last night, as I lay on the nice, comfortable futon in the nice, cosy ryokan, my brain was telling me it was time to party. Stupid brain. Still, it would have been rather a waste for me to acclimatize to the time zone too quickly, because the red-eye flight to Melbourne is sure to screw with my sleeping pattern again.

Tokyo is - different, is probably the word that springs to mind. I mean this positively. It’s completely different to anywhere I’ve ever been before. The first day I was here, I agonized for half an hour over whether it would be impolite to eat a Snickers bar in the street. I read somewhere that it used to be, but it isn’t any more. Or was it the other way round? Maybe eating a Snickers bar in public is a sign that you’re prepared to, I don’t know, perform sexual favours for money? I know it’s rude to blow your nose in public, though apparently it’s perfectly OK to say “eurghheechalwaghh” [insert disgusting coughing up flem noise here].

The thing is that I just don’t know what’s acceptable here and what isn’t. And that’s what’s so disorientating - and such a good thing. To get shaken out of your cultural comfort zone every now and then (God, I write pretentious phrases when I’m jet-lagged. ‘The Cultural Comfort Zone’. That sounds like some place where girls who eat Snickers bars in public would hang out).

Anyway, I shall update again in Melbourne. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to buy lots of tacky souvenirs to celebrate having finally updated my blog.