From March 17 to March 23 this year it is Ohigan, which happens twice a year in the Spring and Autumn equinoxes.

The word 'higan' comes from the Sanskrit word 'Paramita', which translates into 'other shore'. It is an abbreviation of 'to-higan' which means 'to arrive at the other shore'.

The 'other shore' refers to Nirvana or Enlightenment. During this time people go to graves to pray for their ancestors. People also eat ohagi which are rice balls covered with sweet beans.

Firewalking

On Sunday, I went to a firewalking festival (Hiwatari Matsuri) at Mount Takao which is about an hours train ride from Tokyo.

Priests believe that it was first started over 1300 years ago by yamabushi, mystics who mix Buddhist beliefs with Shintoism.

Before the firewalking begins the fire is blessed and ceremonial arrows are fired into it. It is then lit and after it has died down, the priests walk across the hot coals. It is believed that by doing this the soul is purified.

Members of the public are then allowed to have a go and I also tried it (my middle name is danger). Fortunately I didn't burn myself.

You can see the pictures here.

Snowboarding

Snowboarding is extremely popular in Japan. On Monday I decided to go snowboarding for the first time in a place called Gala Yuzawa, which is conveniently only an hour and a half north of Tokyo by Shinkansen.

It's a really nice resort, with a good range of courses for various levels and the snow is good too. A return ticket from Tokyo is about 12,000 yen, the ski pass is 4500 yen for the day and rental for the full snowboarding kit is 5000 yen.

You can also get a group lesson that is 3000 yen for two hours, although I decided not to.

You're probably asking yourself, 'Why didn't Steve get a snowboarding lesson? It's his first time and it would be very dangerous not to.' Well the reason is because I laugh in the face of danger. Fear isn't in my vocabulary.

After getting to the top the beginners slope I immediately fell over when getting off the ski lift. Little did I know that this would set the precedent for the rest of the day.

Anyway I decided to set off down the slope on my maiden voyage. To my surprise I had started remarkably well. I was managing to keep my balance. I was gradually picking up speed, perhaps a little too much speed for a snowboard virgin such as myself. Then I suddenly realised that I couldn't actually steer very well and I didn't know how to stop the thing. Unfortunately I was heading towards the edge of the slope and the huge abyss below (alright it was only a few metres). It was a bit like Roger Moore at the Beginning of 'The Spy Who Loved Me', but without the KGB assasins chasing me.

As I'd unfortunately forgotten my Union Jack parachute, I realised that falling over was probably the best option. So I just collapsed to the floor. I somersaulted about three times and created a huge spray of snow. As I lay on the ground with my bruised body and an even more bruised ego I realised that maybe I should have got lessons. Perhaps next time.

As I got up I saw a small child, no older than five years casually skiing down the slope, just to rub it in a bit more.

From what I could tell the people who are good at snowboarding make a sort of zig zag pattern down the slope and then stop at the bottom and then go straight up again. In contrast I sort of take a straight line down the slope, ending up in a big heap, with arms and legs flailing around at the bottom.

The biggest miracle of the day was that I didn't manage to break anything.

The second biggest miracle of the day was that I only managed to collide into one person (who I fortunately didn't manage to see again).

I had a great time, but my whole body is still aching. Next time, getting some lessons would probably be a good idea.


You can see all of the pictures here.

The website for Gala is here.

I've spent the past two Sundays traipsing around Tokyo, looking for tickets for David Bowie's Reality Tour concert, unfortunately to no avail. I've always loved Bowie and he's one of my favourite singers.

Well, last night I thought why not try and get a ticket from a tout. I might have to pay over the odds, but it wouldn't matter as it's not every day I get the chance to see one of my musical idols.

Anyway, I arrived at the Nippon Budokan Hall at just gone seven. The Budokan is is one of the world's most famous venues. The Beatles made their Japanese debut there and Bob Dylan was the first of many to release a 'Live at the Budokan' album.

The Budokan was originally built in 1964, for the Judo competition in the 1964 Olympics. Although many concerts are held there, it's primary purpose is for martial arts such as Judo, Kendo, Karate and Aikido.

I managed to get a ticket and fortunately it wasn't much more than the face value. I was ecstatic.

This is the set he played:

01 Rebel Rebel
02 New Killer Star
03 Fame
04 Cactus
05 All The Young Dudes
06 China Girl
07 Never Get Old
08 The Loneliest Guy
09 The Man Who Sold The World
10 Hallo Spaceboy
11 Sunday
12 Heathen (The Rays)
13 Under Pressure
14 Life On Mars?
15 Looking For Water
16 Quicksand
17 Days
18 Sound And Vision
19 Be My Wife
20 A New Career In A New Town
21 Ashes To Ashes
22 I'm Afraid of Americans
23 "Heroes"

(Encore)
24 Five Years
25 Suffragette City
26 Ziggy Stardust

He played a mix of new and old songs, which went down very well with the crowd. In fact, for a while David Bowie stopped playing a lot of his old music in the 90s because he just wanted to play his new material. I was also impressed by the number of songs he did as well, which gave really good value for money.

I had an amazing time, even if security were a bit over zealous. He has a lot of stage presence and it's definitely one of the most impressive gigs I've been to.

You can check out the official David Bowie site here.

Last weekend, I went to the John Lennon Museum in Saitama.

On entering, you are shown a fascinating documentary of his life. Following this, you then walk through various different zones which chart his life from an early age in Liverpool, through to his success in The Beatles and finally to his solo career and death in New York.

It's definitely worth going to and you get to see lots of interesting things like books from when he was at school, original lyrics, clothes and musical instruments. There's also some artwork by Yoko Ono which includes a phone, which apparently she occasionally rings to talk to people in the museum.

He's definitely my favourite Beatle, if only for the sheer fact he never did anything as bad as 'The Frog Chorus'.

The official site for the John Lennon museum is here.

Parasite Museum

Last weekend, I went to the Parasite Museum in Meguro. Here there are about 300 different parasites taken from animals and humans. There are also some quite disturbing pictures.

One of the most interesting exhibits is an 8 metre long tapeworm (Diphyllobothorium nihonkaiense) which was found in the belly of a middle aged man after eating sushi. There is also an interactive map which shows you where you can get parasites in different parts of Japan.

There is also a souvenir shop where you can buy parasite t-shirts and key rings with real parasites in them if it takes your fancy.

The official site for the parasite museum is here. My favourite bit is the parasite of the month section.

After this I went to see the Monet exhibition at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum in Ueno. Monet is one of my favourite impressionist painters and some of his greatest works were on display.

This website has lots of paintings by Monet as well as a biography. Click here.

Easy Rider

When I first arrived in Tokyo I was woken up in the middle of the night by an extremely loud siren, with someone talking over the top of it through a loudspeaker. My initial reaction was....

a) that it was the end of the world.
b) a large earthquake was about to destroy Tokyo.
c) Godzilla was on the rampage.

Breathing a sigh of relief five minutes later, I realised that it was just an extremely loud ambulance.

And speaking of loud things that keep me awake, gangs on motorbikes frequently drive past my building late at night very slowly, revving their engines extremely loudly.

Now when I saw the Japanese anime film called Akira, I thought young Japanese people riding about on motorbikes was really cool.

I have since changed my mind.

Apparently in the Toyama prefecture, music therapists have developed a police siren which is soothing and reassuring. Click here for the article.

Today I went To Sumida City Hall and I was interviewed for the local TV channel by my friend Ken, who works for the local government.

You can check out the website for the district I live in here.

The interview was about cultural exchange and how Sumida is viewed through the eyes of foreign people. I got to talk about what I like about Sumida and how it is different to other places. A Chinese woman was interviewed as well and she talked about how she helps foreign people intergrate into Japanese life and how she helps organise cultural exchange.

It's on Channel 9 this Sunday.

The interview went really well and I think I may yet still become famous. Ideally I'd like my own show.

This isn't the first time I've been on TV in foreign climes though.

When I was in Thailand I went to a Robbie Williams concert and afterwards I was interviewed about it by a local cable channel. The only reason I probably managed to get on Thai TV though was by telling a slight lie about how I'd been at school with Robbie and what great mates we still were because money hadn't changed him.

Sapporo Snow Festival

Last weekend, I went to the Sapporo Snow Festival(Yukui Matsuri), on Japan's northern most island, Hokkaido. The official website for the festival is here.

The snow festival first began in 1950, when local highschool students built six snow statues in Odori Park. Now it's one of Japan's biggest winter events and attracts around 2 million people over its seven days to see the snow and ice sculptures.

The festival now has an international snow sculpture competition and other events which include ski-jumping and musical performances.

Sapporo is also famous for its beer and it hosted the 1972 Winter Olympics as well.

I caught a plane at 6.30 from Haneda airport in Tokyo on Saturday morning. I arrived at my hotel in Sapporo feeling pretty exhausted at about 9.00 as I hadn't had much sleep the previous night before. The hotel I stayed at was the Keio Plaza Hotel which was very nice (a lot classier to what I'm used to), if a little expensive.

It was really cold but I had a very nice time. Many of the statues and sculptures were very beautiful and the amount of time and effort that goes into them is amazing. It's just a shame that they don't last forever.

I even got to make my own snowman in an event to make as many little snowmen as possible, in order to get into the Guiness Book of Records.

Other highlights included my trip up Mount Moiwa to see the view of Sapporo. Unfortunately there was a huge blizzard and I didn't get to see much. I did get to have some miso ramen(noodles) in a nice restaurant at the top, which was delicious.

Man who catch fly with chopstick accomplish anything.

-Mr Miyagi

Hosts

One of the strangest sights I've seen here in Japan so far, are hundreds of young Japanese men, just standing around looking very smart in their suits with highlights in their hair(looking like a horde of 80s Simon le Bon lookalikes), in a part of Shinjuku called Kabukicho (a very dodgy area if you know what I mean - I was lost, honest!).

I later found out that these men were hosts. Apparently women can hire out their services for a bit of company and they can earn up to fifty thousand yen a night.

I'm obviously in the wrong profession. I'm more than happy to charge 20,000 yen a night (+ bus fare home and a bag of fish and chips). The thing is I think some of them in the menu above, taken from outside a host bar in Osaka, look a little odd.

And if you think hosts are overcharging, apparently Mickey Mouse costs 330,000 yen just for fifteen minutes if you want him to come to your party. I've learnt that he is so expensive because there can be only one Mickey Mouse at a time in Japan. You can't have more than one existing at the same time in different places.

Hello! It's a man in a suit. He doesn't even say anything.

Today was the Setsubun festival, which welcomes the coming of spring. In the past people would drive evil spirits away with the strong smell of burning dried sardine heads, the smoke of burning wood and the noise of drums.

Nowadays people throw beans around their house, or at temples and shrines. When people throw the beans they shout 'Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!' ('Devils out, happiness in'). People should then eat the number of beans according to their age.