Just back from getting my hair cut in Japanese for the first time, worked out well despite my nerves - they even hoovered my hair and face (!) to make sure there were no stray hairs left...

K-pop (Korean pop music) is verry popular around my area, and there are pictures of boybands everywhere - at shops, on vans driving around playing their music, etc. It's often difficult to tell if the members are male or female, which isn't helped by bizarre ads like this:

Who is 'she'???

I've been getting involved with one of Japan's favourite pastimes lately - going to festivals. They constantly have events around the city and there's always a great buzz and loads of people. The weekend before last was 'Awa Dori' - they all dress up and dance uncontrollably in the street for a night:

The Police (on the podium above the car) constantly shout at people and narrate proceedings

Seriously traditional outfits!

The festival was on in Koenji district which has tons of tiny bars under the train tracks which are pretty cool:

Here's a video of the dancing, watch your volume it's pretty loud:

After that we headed out to Roppongi, Tokyo's hardcore sleazy nightclub district. It's normally crawling with Westerners so some good craic to be had around the place:

I also got out to Ueno Park again to check out the Science Museum - it's all very well done but very few things have English explanations so I didn't know what was going on. I did find a rocket launcher, a giant whale and a room full of animals: