This past week a friend of mine visited from Hong Kong. He's been living there for roughly a year and has become thoroughly accustomed to life there. Though Japan and Hong Kong are obviously quite different there are some fundamental "Asian" similarities that made hosting him a particularly unique (until now at least) challenge.
For the most part it's rather easy to host visitors from back home, as few of them have been anywhere in Asia and are thus impressed by just about anything. Temples? "Can't get enough of 'em." Crazy food? "What is that?" The hustle and bustle of Tokyo? Dumbfounded.
This time, however, he's been all over Asia and has seen a million temples already. He's eaten indescribable things. He lives in Hong Kong, which makes even Shibuya look tame at times. His life experience for at least the past year has resulted in a person who is much more difficult to impress with the wonders of Japan. So I had to reach deeper into my repertoire of amusements to show him what Japan has to offer.
We played kickball.