Published On:Tuesday, February 23, 2010

THE Japanese's equivalent to Caribbean carnival. With only one word to describe it awesome! For about 4 days Tokushima is rocking with people from everywhere bouncing to the same tune.

The difference with this one as opposed to some other street festivals is that it is completely free to watch, I did not see one single policeman, there was no gap between groups, everyone keeps on dancing and you could walk around with glass bottled beer.

I was like whoa total culture chock!! The groups basically wear the same kind of outfits and the women in the group wear the exact same outfit. My Asian friend told us to come and watch her dance but we realised that would be an impossible feat early on. To find your Asian female friend who is dressed exactly like 50 other women in her group from the hat right down to the shoes is seriously like trying to find a needle in a haystack. We never did find her.

Another thing that got me about Awa Odori is that amidst all that action, music, beautiful costumes etc. some people were taking a picture of me! It didn't happen every two seconds but it happened enough times for me to mention.

This photographer was taking a picture of a stall so I naturally moved out of the way. When I moved she put her camera away. Japanese people asked me to take a picture so I naturally assumed that they wanted for me to take a picture of them but they wanted me to be in their picture. This random guy started to talk to my friend and asked if he could take a picture of me and asked where I was from. There was a part when people from the crowd could join in to dance. So I joined in and two photographers came and just started to snap before I could think.

I am like dang if they like this for big eyed short me what would they do if they saw Halle Berry?

I asked my friend if my shirt was on backwards or something. And she said no it's rare to have lighter skinned black people here (whatever that means) so people take pictures. Shoots, if I had known that I would have been charging a fee per shot to help me pay for this new Ipod that I've been eyeing.

My summer vacation

In August my friend from Singapore, her boyfriend from Czech Republic and my friend from France came to visit and we went exploring Japan together.

One question though- why is that no matter what nationality, age or race men REFUSE to ask for directions?????????? Seriously, if you know then please tell me. A couple of times we wanted to go somewhere and there was a tourist office two steps away or a tour guide that was in arms reach and they just wanted to follow the map and not ask. Seriously! (insert rolling eyes here). But we had a fabulous time no doubt. Went to Osaka which is a huge city and where everyone looks like an anime character. Kyoto which is very old Japan complete with a million and one temples and shrines (I think we saw them all) and few other places by car which had beautiful scenery.

In Japan they have different styles of accommodation as opposed to only hotels like in Western Culture.

Manga Cafe- You rent out a space like a computer and desk for several hours to rest any where from 1 hour to the whole night. You know how you sometimes wish that you can go to sleep at your desk at work? Well here you can with no fear of your boss looking over your shoulder.

Capsule hotels - It is as the name suggests you sleep in a capsule (by yourself). I loved it. Kind of creepy (but cheap) like a morgue box. If you have claustrophobia this is not the place for you.

Ryokin - Traditional Japanese hotel with tatami mat (Japanese carpet) no beds only futons that you pull out (very comfortable). Here they serve you traditional Japanese breakfast which is basically what we would eat at Christmas dinner. Rice, fish, meat, tofu and the list goes on.

I went directly to the gym after my vacation. Ok OK not entirely true I went a week later.