Don't get me wrong. Sitting in such a car would not be a pain in the... err, bottoms.

Actually it's about 痛車 (Ita-sha) which literally means "painful car". To give you a better picture, a typical Ita-sha looks like this:

OK, a Ferrari F430 Spider isn't typical, but you get the idea: Ita-sha is about decorating your car with HUGE anime, comic or game character stickers in a very elaborate fashion.

Back to reality, most of the Ita-sha you see on the streets are Japanese sport cars. Needless to say, there are lots of them roaming the streets in Akihabara.

Here we go!   Let's check how it was going.

Hi!

How are you getting along these days?

Finally, it's getting warmer! I don't think it will be snowing anymore, but you still need to be careful with using the heater.

Basically, Sakura House is not providing kerosene stoves as heating appliance, but you need to watch out for fires as long as you are using any kinds of heating appliances.

 

I went to my friend's house  this Sunday afternoon to watch rental DVD together.

Suddenly, fire sirens scared us, and the fire fighter approached to backyard of her house a few hours later we started to watching DVD.

Just fire sirens, that what I thought as usual but in same time we smelled something burning from backyard!!

Just in a moment, we ran fast to the backyard as we could and surprisingly, there was FIRE!! coming from her neighbor's house!!

 

My friend screamed in panic, because fired house is just right next to her house.

She was trying to contact her father to tell what is going on but could not reach him. We were freaked out so badly!!

I felt so dead inside to see the fire burning down in front of me!!

The firemen extinguished fire very quickly so her house did not catch the fire!!
It was really frightening experience... but we were safe.

I don't want you guys to encounter a fire so please be careful when using heating appliance.

The first time I came to Japan, I stayed in an area within Tokyo called Ryogoku, a "shitamachi" famous for sumo. Upon exiting Ryogoku Station, one can see rather overweight sumo wrestlers walking about the streets.

One day, on my return from a day out to Kamakura I happened to bump into a Japanese friend who I had met in London six months previously. Bumping into a friend in large city such as Tokyo is such a random event that naturally I was surprised. Rather than getting off at my stop I went to Yokohama with my friend where we went drinking at a local bar and had a good time.

Unfortunately, soon enough this good time had to come to an end and in order not to miss the last train, I headed back to Yokohama Station. Upon arriving in Ryogoku I casually placed my Suica card on the ticket gate when suddenly a red alarm flagged up. A rather nervous looking station attendant appeared.

"Sorry Sir but I'm afraid there isn't enough credit on your Suica Card", said the station attendant.

I handed over the remaining yen and nodded. As I proceeded out of the ticket gate, the station attendant suddenly did what is known as "ojigi". Despite being my fault, he a full ninety degree bow and said,

"I sincerely apologize for any convenience caused, please forgive me"

At that very moment I was surprised, suddenly the sky turned bright blue and I could see a positive future. I was completely moved by the attitude of the station attendant. "Japanese people really are modest and kind people", I thought to myself. In Japan, customer is GOD.



僕が初めて日本に来たときは両国という下町に宿泊していました。　両国は相撲で有名な場所で、JR両国駅を出ると超太っているお相撲さんを見ることができます。

ある日、鎌倉から両国方面に向かう帰りの電車の中で、昔、イギリスで知り合った日本人の女性の友達と偶然再開しました。　

あまりの偶然に感動し、本当は両国まで帰る予定だったのを変更して、その友達と一緒に横浜まで行き、そこにあるバーで久しぶりの再開を祝いました。

その後その友達と別れ、終電に乗り遅れることなく両国駅に到着したのですが、改札を出るためにスイカカードを自動改札機にタッチしたら、スイカカードの残額が不足していたために、改札のドアがうるさい音とともに、突然閉まり、外に出ることが出来なくなりました。

すると、駅員さんがやってきて「お客様、申し訳御座いませんがお客様のカードは残額が足りません。」と言われました。

足りなかった残額の２０円を駅員さんに渡すと、駅員さんは大きな声で「誠に申し訳御座いませんが、ご了承ください」と深い御辞儀をしてくれました。

その瞬間、僕は凄く感動して、涙が出そうになりました。目の前に青い空が見えました。日本は本当に素晴らしい国です。

日本人はとても謙虚で、僕が悪いにもかかわらず、凄く丁寧に謝ってくれました。

日本ではお客様は神様です。