You know you've watched too many movies this year when you have nothing left to watch on the plane except Transformers, which is something I'd never pay money to watch. I forced myself to watch it anyway, and tried to see why males might find these mechanic expressionless characters adorable. And I gave my mom heartfelt recommendations on the rest of the movies being shown on the plane - Ratatouille, No Reservations, Die Hard 4 and Hairspray.

I like Tokyo so far, but travelling with my mom means I do all the picture-taking, navigating around the metro system and going on Space Mountain at Disneyland all by myself. It's also been days of running around in single-digit temperatures into heated places (I have no idea why we never are warmly wrapped enough), watching my Creme Brulee latte turn cold in minutes, eating endless bowls of delicious soba, not getting enough of Japanese food and learning about trees. My mom and I are very different - when cruising down Ginza, the most expensive shopping district in Tokyo, I'm gushing at the four-storey Diors, Pradas and Ferragamos, and she's checking out the trees. The Maple Tree, The Cherry Blossom Tree and other fancy trees. But I've also realised that she's secretly as vain as me, perhaps every woman is - and this is a woman with absolutely no fashion sense - she's been parading around Tokyo in track shoes when everyone else in Japan is in boots or heels. She complained about mortality and sagging skin tonight, and how she needs to go on a diet, before asking me whether she should go for skin tightening. I was about to firmly tell her not to waste money, but then I thought to myself that I'd probably think the exact same thing when I'm her age - and I would probably do it. The perils of being a woman, really.

No, Japan will never replace Hong Kong in my heart, but it does have its charms, although after awhile, you do realise that all of Asia is mostly the same. The major cities anyway - Japan, Hong Kong and Korea all have the same blue signboards and crowded shopping streets and efficient train systems. I love their English expressions most, they have bagels that have "everything" in it, a fish market called "The Fish", a clothing store called "The Store", something at McDonalds called "McPork" and instruction signs all over Japan that crack me up. And the winter fashion here is amazing, everyone is in trenchcoats and boots. And hair is not just hair in Japan, everyone has coiffed, dyed, curled or straightened hair that is perfectly in place. The women never live without mascara, even a 50-year-old woman on the train has beautiful curled eyelashes. I do feel ugly in this country.

I've also realised how horrifyingly fair I've become. Such that I actually have rosy pink cheeks and skin in the cold weather, which has not been the case since I was about three. It looks like it's goodbye to that dark creature I was a few years back where I baked in the sun almost every single day.

Because I plan the itinerary, it's Mount Fuji and Yokohama over the next few days. To feed my desire for snowcapped mountains, and well - to actually understand people communicating when I visit the biggest Chinatown in Asia. I look the most Chinese I've ever looked in years, with black hair and fair skin instead of the coloured tresses and bronzed look I always fantasized having. And for the first time in a long time, I'm actually proud of it.