Differences between Guys and Girls
If a guy wants to fuck a girl now, he's still going to want to fuck her two hours from now, or even next week, probably even next year. Under certain special conditions a girl will want that, too, but that is not the norm. If a girl wants sex now, and she thinks she is showing you the signs, you must close immediately. If you try to make her laugh or have fun or tell stories or do anything besides do your darndest to get making out and get naked with her ASAP*, she will very likely go cold. What is happening is she begins to believe you are not a man of action or are just jerking her around when she is gagging for it. This can be taken as huge insult to her, and is essentially unrecoverable.
Now here’s where it gets interesting. You didn’t NOTICE her signals because they were SUBTLE. All you noticed was that when you later tried to escalate, she wasn’t having any of it. YOU THINK: “I guess she wasn’t really attracted to me,” or make it even more complicated by thinking you needed to build more comfort or rapport or elicit value or “maybe I was too old for her” or some more destructive shit.
…when all that really happened was you STALLED HER OUT, very hard, then tried to run game back from step one. In so doing, you got fleeced and dropped the golden chalice right from your own hand.
Most guys who have reached the level where they can casually interact with chicks are walking around in a sea of opportunity and letting most if not all of it slip straight through their fingers. This is especially true in Japan, because signals are much more subtle and most girls are used to guys striking when the opportunity presents itself.
They are simply stalling chicks out left and right, and wondering why girls don't seem to be going for them. The reality that remains TOTALLY INVISIBLE to them is that they have LOADS of chicks wanting them and they are simply killing that attraction by making things too complicated and not escalating fast enough.
When things didn’t go well, the first thing to ask yourself is if you could've escalated earlier―were there any glaring signals you missed? Now until you have enough experience to identify the early, subtle signals you are not going to be able to tell what you may have missed. BUT even with a lot of experience, if you don't have experience trying to escalate early, you're have no meaningful data to go on. You'll never be a fast closer unless you practice closing fast, and you'll never be a reliable closer until you become a fast closer.
Now keep in mind that part of the reason most guys are not aware of this is because girls aren't aware of it either. It's often a totally subconscious thing. Don't EVER verbalize this information, just know it and use it.
* Note: If your style is more overt, you could save this situation by giving a strong SOI (Statement of Intent, an idea propounded by a Japan-dweller named Rio), wherein you let her know you fully intend to fuck her tonight, either in a direct or indirect way. However, if you know to deliver an SOI here, why wouldn't you just take her home right then? Probably only if you had a huge logistical obstacle.
01/05/2007, 22:33
At what point in the interaction should you drop and SOI??
02/05/2007, 02:19
I rarely use SOIs myself, so I'm not qualified to answer that. You don't need SOIs, and they are not the point of this post, but they can work very well if that is more your style. I suggest googling "Neo-Rio SOI" and see what comes up. Try it out and see if it works for you.
In my case, I like to keep chciks totally in the dark about my plans, so (almost) everything is a surprise. This works so well for me that it outweighs the benefits of SOIs in my experience. But YMMV.
02/05/2007, 10:28
What if you drop and SOI, but an AMOG comes along and the RAFC meets the PUA and then he FUBAR's the RAFC and turns him into an AFC and then you YMMV, but he LMR so she IMHO?? What do I do then??
02/05/2007, 11:10
Well, then you're just SOL ;)
02/05/2007, 15:14
SOIs seem to be more common in Japan, especially in Jgirl/Jboy relationships.
I think this kind of goes along with the idea of a "love confession" in Japan. A guy and a girl go out for awhile, the guy bluntly confesses to the girl that he loves her, and wants her as his girlfriend, and if the girl agrees, then its a given they then have sex. This of course, only works if you are going for a monogamous LTR.
I've actually done some pretty hardcore AFC haggling with girls over sex on the phone, and for some reason, in Japan, where everyone seems so plan and schedule oriented it seems like it just works. Stuff like:
Guy: Want to go to dinner on Tuesday?
Girl: Sure!
Guy: Can we go to a hotel afterword?
Girl: Eee!? No way!
Guy: C'mon, why not? I really like you!
Girl: Eeeee, isn't it too soon?
Guy: Don't be like that. C'mon.
Girl: Well I'll think about it
02/05/2007, 15:26
A love confession can be thought of as a marriage proposal, only it is just a "boyfriend and girlfriend proposal."
I've found if you are dating coffee-shop, non-English speaking, non-foreigner dating types. This seems to work better.
Trying to Don Juan my way into sex has gotten me labeled a "player" and my cellphone blocked by these girls. This is even though I was honestly not seeing any girls at that time, and was really interested in her as a LTR. But I thought that--from reading a lot of PUA material that being smooth, and non-verbally state my intentions was the only way to go, and I got blown out because of it.
Sometimes, depending on the girl, a little bit of AFCishness is better I think.
02/05/2007, 16:04
Most J-girls are used to "Kokuhaku" aka will you be my girlfriend.
So whats a good PUA way of being an AFC to get these girls into bed?
And what subtle signs should we look for?
Amanojack: Maybe you can give us some FR's or full closes of what happened with these.
02/05/2007, 16:30
The beauty of kokuhaku, is that if the girl is attracted to you, it will be very hard and rude for her to turn you down.
Also, a kokuhaku is kind of like an ultimatum similar to a marriage proposal. You are saying to the girl "Do you want to be with me? Either you say yes now, or you reject me and I go away forever."
Once she accepts a kokuhaku, you are pretty much on fucking terms. There will be very little LMR or anything, as if you had already been sleeping together for a month.
This whole concept is basically admitted "oneitis", and clashes with PUA, and being a player. If you use kokuhaku, and still sleep around with other girls, then you are basically a dirty, manipulative liar.
02/05/2007, 16:47
For some reason, I have encountered that every time, before I am about to sleep with a girl, I get "tell me you're my boyfriend"ence. Can this be considered the same as LMR?
I often get told very bluntly by girls stuff like "OK, we can go in that hotel there, but I want you to TELL ME that you will be my boyfriend and you won't see any other girls, OK?"
Is this the same for most guys? Do you all just say "Yeah, OK, whatever!" and start humping her, while the amount of girls you sleep around with on the side goes completely un-phased?
02/05/2007, 16:55
Actually, from reading PUA boards, I think guys can be categorized into 4 types.
MLTR: Is sleeping with 2 or more girls who all will be VERY angry if one finds out about the other. Pretty difficult, and scary to do!
LTR plus sexfriends: Lies to his "main" and sleeps with other girls, but the girls he sleeps with aren't asking for a relationship, and have some sort of idea he already has a girlfriend, and are cool with it. Pretty easy to do, and I'm guessing most PUAs fall in here. Only requires one sided lying.
LTR only: A guy with a steady girlfriend who doesn't cheat at all. AFC?
sexfriends only: A guy who sleeps with multiple partners, and honestly doesn't give them any pretense of a relationship. I think this is the type most PUAs strive for, but it is pretty hard to do and uncommon in reality.
02/05/2007, 17:14
On the flip side, there are 3 different kinds of girls from a guy's perspective.
I: Good girl. Seriously wants and expects a monogamous LTR with a guy. She doesn't cheat on her guy either.
II: Lip service slut. Wants the appearance of a normal LTR only, but in reality, doesn't give a shit. Basically doesn't want to be seen as a slut. The famous "I don't care as long as I don't find out it" Japanese housewife type. She will insist she is a girlfriend, and you are her boyfriend, but when it comes down to it, she won't snoop around too deeply and turn a blind eye to some stuff. She may in fact be sleeping around too. Can be a heartbreaker for a clueless AFC who has given her an honest LTR.
III: The slut. Will sleep around with guys who honestly tell her they won't give her a relationship.
02/05/2007, 20:30
If you want an LTR, kokuhaku (confession of love) can sometimes work, but even if it does it can set the relationship on the wrong foot, even if you are a big alpha player dude (seen it happen!).
It simply does not generate the level of attraction that a fast sexual close does on a girl who is not used to it.
What kokuhaku does is validate the girl totally, making her believe she can get a nice, secure relationship. It does NOT build attraction or respect.
You can get regular fucking as a side-benefit to this, BUT a player can come along and steal your girl away (seen this happen, too - to a guy who NEVER has this happen to him, but did the one time he decided to kokuhaku). The player can do this because you never gave her the chance to feel ultimate attraction to you - you stole that chance from her by giving her your total confession.
And as you mentioned, if you try to use this to get into multiple simultaneous relationships, you'll be hurting people and asking for trouble. No fun for anyone in the long run, unless you like drama.
For the past six years I've rarely had any LTRs, instead keeping a rotating roster of about 8 to 12 chicks I see with varying degrees of frequency (from 3x per week to once or twice a year!).
Among these girls, most never even bring up the subject of other girls, and of course I don't either. A few force the issue and I have to tell them, which rarely leads to immediate "break-up" but rather they persist for a few weeks or months trying to see if they can get me to quit seeing the other ones. And of course there are a few that know I'm sleeping with many women and are fine with it, or think, "oh well, it can't be helped." There are many shades of grey within these, like girls who know I'm sleeping with others, but who would explode if I gave them any specific details. Or girls who keep trying to bring up the subject and I keep avoiding it, and they know I'm avoiding it but don't want to press the issue because they don't want to lose whatever relationship they have with me.
As to asking for a relationship right before sex - it rarely happens to me, and if it does I just power past it and see if it's REALLY a requirement for her when her sex drive kicks in hard. Most of the time, if you can make her very horny and stay efficient, it's not.
02/05/2007, 20:52
SAMURAI,
Are you talking about lay reports where I used kokuhaku (never have done this myself) or SOI (almost never done this) - or do you mean about the signs of when a girl is ready to close RIGHT NOW?
If it's the last one, I can help :)
A whole lay report would take a while to write up, but I can just a extract a few signs and indicators that when combined tell me positively she is ready to close.
With Japanese girls the most common indicator is simply when she doesn't put up resistance to something almost every other girl does put up resistance to.
Here ar some signals that are more obvious (the subtle ones are neecssarily harder to describe!)
If you tickle a girl gratuitously right away and she puts up an uncharacteristically low amount of resistance and stays cheery, that would be enough by itself.
If she holds eye contact warmly while touching you.
If she just gazes at you even though there is no reason to.
There are many more I could list, but basically what detecting these signals comes down to is being familiar with the standard resistance patterns of J-girls - through experience! - and noticing when they deviate from the pattern AT ALL, that is, when they are more permissive with you than the standard hardline.
For instance, what constitutes a "gaze" and what constitutes just a "look" at what point in the pickup is something that is established by the social norms of male/female interaction in Japan. It could even be something like, "We had just met and we ran out of stuff to say and had a moment of dead silence, and she just kept looking at me half a second longer than the normal limit." It depends on the situation.
03/05/2007, 22:15
maybe you can post a lay report on you seeing these cues on a day 2, and what you did with it. so for example where you met her, then go to where you saw her on the day 2, tell us her cues, then show or tell us what you did with those cues.thanks
04/05/2007, 06:35
Im such a pussy man, could you go on a date with me while my pussy azz learns through osmosis because this learning over the internet cant seem to work for me..
04/05/2007, 14:42
SAMURAI,
Easy one:
Girl walking out of a nail salon in Ikebukuro. I say, "Nice nails!" (nothing lost in that compliment since it's not about her, more about the nail salon, but it still makes her feel good). She gets into convo easily (sign 1) and has an "easygoing attitude" (sign 2).
I tell her I'm about to eat dinner at the place above the shop, and ask if she wants to come. She says she has a dinner date already, so I say, just keep me company for 10 minutes. She gives in easily and comes (too easy, should have put up more resistance - sign 3).
I don't have much time to run attraction material on her at the dinner, just mostly eat and chat a bit. I say "let's hang out again" and she responds enthusiastically and we exchange contact info (NOT a sign - THIS happens all the time but means little).
Despite the fact that I ran no attraction game, she agrees to meet me again without any premise for the meeting (just "hanging out"), and she shows up. That was Sign 4. I suggest meeting at her station, because I've "always wanted to go there" and even though there is nothing to do there she says "OK" (sign 5)
At the meeting place, I run up to her, pick her up and spin her around ("caveman style" - see previous two posts), and she doesn't react badly (sign 6), and in my mind IT IS DONE. Just charge to the close at her place (knew she lived alone from the 10 min. fuff talk at the restaurant).
Of all these signs, the "easygoing attitude" at that early stage in the approach was the strongest.
Got it? This isn't rocket science, but it does take some in-field experience with truly attempting to move things forward as fast as they will go and persisting past rejections.
04/05/2007, 21:18
If I have 4 1/2 " penis erect, is it still possible to satisfy beautiful Japanese cherry blossom
04/05/2007, 22:37
>19
It depends...
how big around is it?
05/05/2007, 23:32
During day game do you talk in english/japanese? How else can you have an easy going attitude with the approach? Maybe in a train or a convenience store..?
06/05/2007, 06:30
theres no need to be getting ol downright ugly on this forum..believe it or not, some people are clueless when it comes to women. and the great thing about it, alot of these social rejects have stumbled into Japan which leaves more for the taking for legitimate cats
06/05/2007, 16:54
SAMURAI,
Japanese is less intrusive if you can rock it at all.
Be horny when you approach girls who are alone. Remember that scene from Ferris Bueler's Day Off with Charlie Sheen in the waiting room with Ferris's sister? Let your sexuality infuse every word, every look, every movement - but never verbalize it. That will exude the confidence to put her at ease.
Imagine your cock in her mouth throughout. Do it vividly. Continually scalate physically. Once you see she is ready to kiss, do it and then immediately take her home.
The only question is how strongly you can stay focused on your horny desire as you go through the necessary motions.
06/05/2007, 20:12
I like that thought. It's the opposite of the advice given in "There's Something about Mary" where the protagonist is told to jack off prior to a date. The idea being you're not thinking about sex so you can relate easier to the woman.
Being in a sexual mood means your words and actions subconsciously relay that mood. Once again, another one of those "AHA!" ideas that makes sense the instant you hear it.
So, if you want to be friends with a woman, jack off prior to the date. If you want to lay the woman, keep yourself loaded.
Still, the language issue must be addressed. I think for guys like me it is a distraction. We don't have the option to fall back on speaking Japanese if it's going too difficult. Yes, it's not always necessary as one cold meeting I had the girl that did not speak any English giving the best indicators of interest while her english speaking friend gave nothing (couldn't seperate the two though). Besides that, it feels I'm wasting opportunity because I'm distracted explaining concepts.
06/05/2007, 23:35
Nuke-Marine,
I've used English-only a few times as an experiment, and I've found that it's a matter of keeping it as simple as possible. In fact, make it seem like you understand less than you do, and make the communication more difficult on purpose.
Then it takes them an hour just to run through the basic battery of questions (where do you live, what do you do, where are you from). The whole time, you get the advantage of using more gestures, more touching, and more meaningful eye contact. If infused with your hot sexual thoughts, by mid-way through the Q&A the sexual subtext should be boiling up to the surface.
Use it to control the conversation more: like if they ask you what you do and you answer and they don't understand, don't let it become deadlocked as you try to explain, but instead use that sexual passion to take the lead in answering in a more unusual way or changing the subject, or whatever keeps the convo going.
The idea is that you are constantly visualizing the end result. This is you afterburner, and the more powerfully it burns the more you can push past whatever interference comes up. This is really a direct application of The Secret - the law of attraction, which says that whatever you imagine with strong feeling must inevitably become your reality. The more vividly you imagine success (cock in her mouth, her riding you, her face as she cums, whatever) and the more strongly you feel the feelings you would feel if what you are imagining were happening at this moment, the faster and more surely it will come into reality. This is not necessarily easy, but at least this way you know exactly where to channel all your efforts.
In the past you may have run into problems where the girl(s) couldn't understand, where that alone forced the situation to grind to a halt. That can't really happen when you are infusing tons of sexual energy into it. They may say the same things or put up the same objections, but with this sexual frame you have the leverage to power straight through it as she gets turned on.
This also doesn't work unless you are truly turned on by the girl.
07/05/2007, 04:58
Jacking off before the date is to prevent "smeagoling."
http://www.thundercatseductionlair.com/2004/02/the_harmful_art.html
07/05/2007, 10:41
Hi,
It's after Golden Week so probably a good time to SPQR or AA. Anyway, I feel very much more motivated by the holiday because of the beauty and sexiness of the gaijin man-god (GMG) that I saw at the jazz festival. He had the Japanese girl in his lap while making the sexy thrust movements and kissing the neck. It was very erotic and beautiful especially for the public. Everyone could see and feel his sex power so I wondered if he maybe has read Get Girls. I was able to observe some other GMGs who drink the hops beer and excite the gorgeous girls on the street. They smelt nice and had well-proportioned physiques. I am very happy.
07/05/2007, 14:24
amanojack...jest browsed through the posts...some good stuff...i have a longer experience i'll post a little later for you and your readers...mostly what not to do...but for now...i'd like to add to the mix with a few tips that i figured out on my own:
1. ketai email is more important than ketai phone number...girls use it more often...if you go for a number...you'd be wise to make sure that you get the ketai email as well...you can also use c-mail...but ketai mail is best.
2. use japanese to get girls if at all possible...even if it is not that good...it will score you points...if you've been here 3 months or so...your japanese should be good enough to get girls...it's easy...like stealing candy from a baby.
3. turn your gaijin filters off...what i mean is this...japanese girls don't react the same way that western girls do...they are easier in the sense that they have no sexual hang-ups usually...an example...i was at a club and in the course of talking to a quite busty young lady...i got the old "tomodachi" line from her...with american filters on..."tomodachi" usually translates as friends with NO benefits...but with american filters off...in japan...in clubs..."tomodachi" usually means "i have a boyfriend, but that won't stop me from going to a love hotel with you"...this doesn't happen in all cases...but "friends with benefits" are far more common here in japan...imho...it goes back to the not having any sexual hang-ups...
just my two cents....and happy hunting...
mr. omenko
07/05/2007, 14:30
oh yeah...a little explanation...the only people who will tell you not to speak japanese to j-girls while trying to pick them up are japanese guys...i actually had some bakayaro nihonjin guy tell me this...so, unless they are your friends...japanese guys will try to cock-block you given the chance to do so...they are metcha yakimochi...na..
one more piece of advice...if you go hunting...it's good to take japanese friend with you...one of my japanese friends always wants to go hunting with me...why?...his stock is higher and his chances of success are better if he is hunting with a gaijin...also having a wingman that speaks english and japanese increases my success at hunting...and it is like alcohol...in that it is a great social lubricant...
07/05/2007, 18:47
I think I've metnioned the first two, but #3 is something I've not really touched on, yet it's important. Sometimes that's the girl trying to subconsciously (or consciously) set up a situation where it'll be OK to fuck you without repurcussions. In that case she's trying to help, so let her. As you as you keep the vibe sexual, little things like that will come out and you can know that they are her efforts, however twisted they may seem, as moving the situation toward sex on the terms she wants.
As for hunting with J-guys, it can definitely be good, but make sure the guy knows what's up and knows your gameplan totally. Many J-guys just aren't ready for the ultra-fast escalation schedule I work on. One time a J-guy was sitting right next to me as I was fignerbanging a chick we brought to karaoke, and he didn't even notice until way later because he was too busy singing. I was like, "Hey man, this ain't a walk in the park. Get on this shit!"
08/05/2007, 23:44
So you're saying being horny will make it easier to approach?
10/05/2007, 00:05
Amano:
Amano, it happened AGAIN!
I asked a girl over keitai if she wanted to sleep over at my house and I got asked straight up:
"Do you have a girlfriend?"
"Will I be your girlfriend?"
What should I say to these questions?
10/05/2007, 01:05
>47
often a man will think his own penis is smaller than that of other men. This is due to the foreshortening effect caused by when he looks at his own penis from the top down.
What leads you to believe that you in fact have a small penis?
10/05/2007, 01:06
>46 here
I just decided to say "no i dont have a girlfriend" and "yes you can be my boyfriend" since she is busy as shit and lives kind of far away it doesnt matter anyway
we will probably only meet once a month
10/05/2007, 19:01
Jeepers fellers!intense stuff here. but i need the run-down on those abbrieviations! PUA and stuff. cheers
10/05/2007, 19:49
Hey man, hear me out please!
I met this girl in takasaki last year when i homestayed at her family's house(i was on this school trip to japan when we had to do all this japanese language related shit etc).It was a year ago and we were both 17.
About a year before that, I saw here at my school with her class but I didn't talk to to her or anything because i had nothing to do with her (she was homestaying with this stupid P.O.S horny guy). anyway, i remembered her face until i finally went to japan and was allocated to her by chance. This was a indeed a strange coincidence because i hadn't hosted her or any other japanese chicks at my house. I guess the horny guy wasn't allocated to her because he told her to give him head! what an idiot. apparently she understood his gestures and said "SEXUAL ASSAULT DESU!". So, anyway i was fuckin stoked to be homestaying with her in japan, even though i only stayed with her for about 4 days of the 3 weeks that i was in japan for. i had been hoping over last year that I would be homestaying with her but thinking it would be incredibly unlikely. so over the 4 days we became quite friendly and she even started mimicking me and following me giggling with her friends. and whats with the other chicks pointing a camera in ya god darn face! i guess i looked pretty weird to them, having long red hair and being twice their height.
So, over the four days i found i had stuff in common with her and i fell for the chick instantly. this has never happened to me before. not like this. she was so refereshing compared to the boring skanks of the southern hemisphere. she was typical japanese chick but also not at all.i was fucking gutted when I had to leave. about an hour afterwards we were checking out himeji castle while it was decked out with sakura. the song 'down in a hole' by alice in chains kept running through my head.
A year later, we've sent eachother a couple of letters and emailed about a dozen times. she sent me her high school's badge and i wore it on my blazer for the remainder of school. the gaps between emails and replies are pretty big, around 1 month sometimes. she's at university now and so am i. i am doing a fine arts degree and i'm also studying japanese. but yeah, shit. all of last year i couldn't give a shit about any white chick after meeting the japanese chick. me and my friends want to get back to japan to the max. the japanese chick said she'd come to my country again sometime with her family. so i don't know for sure if i'll ever see her again or how soon etc.
If you could give me a run down on how shit-ass the situation is or you have some advice, then please shout out. i want to try do some exchange to a film school in japan but i'm not sure if one is possible. and i didn't try hook up with her in her family's house because i could've gotten in some deep shit. so nothing sexual happened. anyway, cheers mate.
P.S I expect i'll get a whole tonne of harsh anger shit chucked my way so...a tout le monde
10/05/2007, 23:24
Anonymous,
I'd never ask a girl to sleep over at my house by email unless I was already fucking her. If you haven't fucked her yet and don't want to be her boyfriend, the thing to do would be to invite her to your station, then take her somewhere and get her got and make out with her. THEN bring her to your house and fuck her. Don't get into a relationship if you don't want to - you can still get almost always sex if you can get her horny enough.
10/05/2007, 23:33
Conjuring,
Sounds like you really fell for her - shoulda made some shit happen at the house...I don't see how you could get in trouble for that. If you were worried about that, you could've gone and done something outside. At least getting a makeout and/or finger up her on the sly would've made the connection much more solid.
With this long-distance thing, it's gonna be tough. You might as well find another J-girl where you are, or come to Japan.
But OK, I know you really want this Takasaki girl. What I would do is call her up on the phone, preferably an IP phone or something, and seduce her that way. Email is really hard to get anything going. Get horny, keep imagining fucking her as you talk, and let it show through your voice - deep, stretched out and slow, rythmic - until she finally matches your horny state. Get her crazy for you on the phone if you can.
If she already has feelings for you, the reason she is not mailing much is because she's trying not to let them boil over since you can't be together for the foreseeable future. To let them boil over would risk a lot of pain for her. However, having her feeling boil over would be good for you, because it could motivate her to come visit you.
Anyway, this is silly advice because you can find a more girls just by going to Japan on working holiday or something, or even visit her then.
10/05/2007, 23:37
Bazz K,
Being horny and staying focused on that will make it easy to approach, but this takes the power of concentration and true horniness, not just a desire to validate yurself or look cool. It has to come from a place a raw desire. Then there will be no question what to do - you will just do it automatically and confidently.
Most guys just want a way to avoid being sexual. There are tons of methods out there that teach you this, but why not just be sexual and circumvent all that?
12/05/2007, 02:54
You should turn off comments AJ. Some of this is ridiculous. Im havin trouble with some brother that is pissed cause I told him to get off my blog. Fun to edit his comments and piss him off even more though, hahaha.
12/05/2007, 10:31
Juice,
I need the input from the comments to keep writing. I think all this is from the same one or maybe two guys. It just takes one to ruin a comments section, really.
I think I'll try turning comments off in a few days.
Once comments are off, anyone who wants to comment something REAL or has a Q, please mail me at
amanojacktokyo@yahoo.com
When mailing, tell me whether you're OK with having your message posted on the blog (your name won't be displayed).
14/05/2007, 00:31
Alice in Chains and jgirls...oh man...too of my passions. This blog makes me itch to get on a plane back to Japan...if only it were that easy.