A different experience

The i-Phone and the i-Pad are now happily talking to each other but in the process half of the photos on the i-Phone have gone to a Japanese version of the cloud and seem to be irretrievable. Angus quietly wonders how he'll cope with technology when he's ten years older.

For foreign visitors there are four things that stand out about Japan. 

1) Everything is clean. We've seen workmen washing the white paint on pedestrian crossings. This morning the cleaning staff were busy hoovering the escalators in the lobby. That's something you don't see every day back at home.

2) Shops and restaurants seem to employ 6 staff for every 2 they would employ in the US or the EU. This makes service quick and easy and comes as a shock to British visitors who are now used to a post-Brexit hospitality industry chronically  short of people.

3) There are policemen everywhere ( and no apparent crime ).Government functions don't seem to have been hollowed out in the way they have in Europe.

4) Japan excels at dense, mixed use urbanism. Basements and the lower floors of high rise buildings are full of good, low cost restaurants and cafes to a degree unthinkable in New York or Berlin. This is an urban experience quite different from that found anywhere else in the world. Five minutes away from the main streets and you can find yourself in an oasis of complete silence and calm. 

Taken together, even if you live in a tiny apartment, the city around you is free and accessible. People are really friendly if you manage to speak a little of the language.

Japanese wine is a new discovery. It's more than enjoyable - fresh and flinty - but not likely to challenge the French anytime soon. I shall look at the prices when I get back to to Scotland but can't believe they'll be competitive. To our surprise ( and Angus's delight ) prices for almost everything else are lower than you'd expect to pay for something comparable in the UK and much lower than they'd be in the US. This might explain why there are so many tourists around despite this being the off season.

Stations have signs warning tourists against unexpected dangers. A favourite has to be this one of the dangers of selfie sticks and overhead railway power lines. 

Not everything is cheap. These strawberries were seen in a department store this morning. I don't think I've ever seen individually packaged strawberries.

I'm not sure what these are. Wild strawberries perhaps ?

There's lots of new building in Tokyo. The serious man in the grey suit in the parliament building yesterday told us that every day more and more companies are taking the view that they want to de-risk from China. They're also taking the view that Asia isn't going to be displaced as the worlds electronics manufacturing mega-cluster. Japan, not surprisingly, seems set to be benefitting from this trend.

A couple more days and then we'll be facing another sixteen hour flight home.