I'm in Kanazawa at the moment, still recovering from that amazing festival. My friend Merv is still teaching, so I've been off by myself exploring.

I've been visiting lots of temples and shrines, although the Japanese don't actually seem to be very religious. A good summary of their relationship to religion would be: born a Shinto, marry a Christian, die a Buddhist. Interesting combination, I think. The Christian factor is really only about white weddings; there's actually a fake church just next door to Merv's apartment. I went to see it and it was very odd, a bit like a Vegas chapel. It's not a real church, but it looks exactly like one and even contains original stained glass windows from Europe. Apparently a foreign priest can even be hired for weddings, for a very high price.

I've also visited a castle here - it was nothing like our castles, but it did have a moat around it. Most exciting was my visit to a Ninja Temple, the safehouse for the Ninjas about 200 years ago. There were loads of secret staircases and hidden trapdoors inside, and I wanted to move in there and then. The design was amazing. They even had a suicide chamber (never surrender!), though we were told this was never used.

The Japanese have a knack at taming nature. I've been to some beautiful trained and pruned, much like bonsai trees, and the whole place is very ordered. I saw lots of giant carp and turtles in the ponds - they come rushing over for food when they hear you walking nearby.

Merv took me into his school the other day, which was an interesting experience. The children weren't half as quiet and organised as I expected them to be! It was sports day, so there weren't any lessons, but I was introduced to lots of them and they all thought I was the new teacher. That evening I went to Merv's adult class, in which I became the subject of the lesson. They had to ask me questions and it ended up getting slightly embarrassing. One guy asked me if I had any lovers. I think he meant boyfriends: translation problem.

I've been lucky enough to be invited for dinner at various homes - with Merv, of course. It has been a real experience, getting to grips with all the etiquette and politeness. No pouring your own drink and no leaving your chopsticks upright in your bowl (to do with death and incense sticks). Kneeling was a slight problem for me after a while, but unfortunately only men can sit crossed legged. Apparently this is why many Japanese girls are bow-legged. I found myself bowing a lot of the time too.

Food is a bit difficult as a vegetarian, but there's plenty of tofu and vegetables. Luckily, every restaurant has a plastic display of the all the food on the menu outside, so you just point to what looks edible. Definitely useful for foreigners. I still managed to have a few encounters with unidentifiable food, especially in people's houses. Once I was surrounded by the most amazing looking seafood: they even had a speciality of octopus mouth. You definitely feel very dull being vegetarian in Japan. Tofu just does not have that same glamour.

In the evenings we tend to go to tiny, very cool one room bars. These bars really fit only one group of friends, so I don't know how people meet other people. Intimate though. One bar I especially like is this little hippy, reggae bar. The guys there are lovely and serve traditional Indian chai, and curries too. It was strange to drink sickly-sweet milky tea again, but comforting. It brought back strong memories of India.

One Japanese speciality I have tried is karaoke. Over here, you hire private rooms and sing to your friends rather than strangers. I actually enjoyed it and felt much more relaxed than I would have in a big pub or bar.

There is, of course, a whole other side to Japanese night life. By this I mean the hostess bars, which are called 'snack bars' here. They are full of young foreign girls, mostly Russian and British, who entertain Japanese businessmen - by which I mean conversation, jokes and lighting cigars. There is a lot of alcohol involved too, of course - Japanese men are very shy otherwise. The money is very good and if you're lucky you might get some diamonds out of it. The men take you shopping if they like you and spend lavishly on you. They seem to give much less attention to their wives from what I understand. There are also Japanese girls working at night; a lot of school girls do it for the money, according to a reliable source. They are incredibly fashion conscious, and need the extra cash to keep up with the trends.

I had a special treat a few days ago. One of Merv's adult students took us on a private tour of Shika Nuclear Power Station where he works. I had visions of spacesuits and geiger-counters - and I wasn't far off. We did have to wear radiation counters round our necks and were given the option of space suits. I really wanted to wear one, but Merv insisted on the silly socks and shoes instead.

Security was extremely tight and we kept passing through amazing machines that read your palm (rather than fingerprints) and eyeballs. For some reason, I had trouble with these machines and one in particular was quite scary: you had to walk into a cubicle and then the walls and ceiling moved in towards you! I think I panicked, but it didn't like my fingertips and it wouldn't let me out. I can laugh now, but at the time it definitely wasn't funny.

The control room was the best part: I've never seen so many buttons on one machine. The turbine room was also amazing: a huge room with only the generator inside. The noise from it was so loud, you really felt like you were deep inside the machine. I was a little concerned about radiation, but I kept checking my levels and they didn't increase.

Last weekend, we had had a big beach party for the leaving JET's, with live bands and DJ's at a beach bar. It was fantastic - we danced the night away until the sun rose. Japanese beaches are surprisingly dirty for such a clean country. I hear they blame the rubbish on neighbouring Korea - they claim it's all washed up from across the water. Apparently, Korea says the same about Japan.

I'm leaving Japan soon for Australia - this place is so expensive. A peach costs $3. I'll spend a few days alone exploring Osaka and Nara (the ancient capital) before I leave, then I am out of this mad place.

Bye!