Just came back from Tokyo. Currently back in Osaka.

On maid cafes in Akihabara: All of your preconceived stereotypes of maid cafes and the customers they cater to are probably 100% correct.

On cleanliness: The streets are clean everywhere - not a surprise. What IS surprising is that I almost never see trash cans around so I could end up walking a long time just to find a place to throw away the empty cup of coffee I've been carrying around.

On fashion: Tokyo-ites are extremely fashionable especially around Shibuya and Ginza. You could walk around in Armani and still feel underdressed.

On weather: It's f'ing cold right now. Girls here are apparently impervious since a significant number of them are in skirts when they don't need to be.

On allergies: Don't come here in March. Just don't. You'll be miserable. Hay fever was uncommon in Japan until the 60's when the government decided to reforest using Japanese Cedar. Needless to say, they didn't think that through and the anti-allergy business is now in full bloom (ha).

By the way, Internet access is still hard for me to come by so please don't ask me for anything right now because I will most definitely forget!