Spotted this the other day whilst out for a walk at lunchtime. Contrast this pic to the ‘man putting up umbrella’ that we have in the UK !

It’s been a long time since I spent a proper Friday night out in a big city. And Tokyo certainly makes up for it. The energy of the city is absolutely amazing, just wandering around there is so much visual and sound stimulus- exactly what I need to relax. A few choice quotes of the […]

The range of food gadgets here never fails to amaze me. There’s a tool for absolutely ever task, whether it be the optimal spoon for eating ice cream, or special skewers for chicken. Tonight witnessed a new tool: Forget messing around with forks trying to take meat off of skewers, the Japanese have a special […]

Last time I was here in Japan I was amazed at the volume of people in Shinagawa Station walking to work. The station forms a good crossing from East to West, as well as being a major travel hub including the bullet train. There used to be a picture of people in bowler hats crossing […]

I like the fact that everywhere in the world, save for Italy, you can go to Starbucks. Venti Cappuccino is the standard order. Oh, in Japan/Korea they have macarons: I like the cover at the top to prevent spillage (they have in the US also):

One thing I’ve realised is that the Japanese really like information and user guides. They are there everywhere. A couple of examples: Narita Express – beside the best Vanilla Frappuccino ever: Breakfast user guide, including a map of where to find everything ! Some random sign on the Shinkansen:

Dinner Monday night consisted of BBQ at a restaurant next to the office with a Japanese colleague who used to work with me in the UK. It’s always good to go somewhere abroad with a native, and also someone whom you know well. Some pics, poor quality (sorry): Firstly, beer. I love how in Japan […]

This picture sums up the attention to detail in Japan. In this case, on a flight, when filling out immigration/customs forms, the most common question people ask is “what is the date” or “what is the flight number”. In this case, the custom forms are handed out on board, but with these 2 bits of […]

Tomorrow starts a 2 week travel journey, involving: * San Francisco/San Jose * Los Angeles (I don’t want to say LA as that makes me sound as if I’m in the entertainment industry) * London * Cambridge (for about 13hrs, a near optimal duration of time spent in Cambridge) * Peterborough/Durham/Newcastle * London * Tokyo/Yokohama […]

In Shanghai now, arrived late last night from HK. I always forget how polluted Shanghai is, so when I arrived late night (foggy) I was surprised at just how bad things were. On a positive note, managed to win the the bet with the person I was travelling with that we be in our repsective […]