Starting week 2...

So, before I let the wife completely take over this column, I thought I'd add a little summary of the first week on the road and look a little ahead as well..

Tokyo was the perfect start to the trip, its just like a big city anywhere in the world. But its just that little more difficult to communicate and understand what is going on, since the ability to read is slightly impeded. We had three really great days in Tokyo though with the highlight coming on the first day, the fishmarket and wandering through an almost deserted downtown Tokyo in the early morning.

As for Kyoto and Nara, it seems they are more tourist intense (though that might be an illusion due to Tokyo's size) and as soon as you step off the train you are attacked by tourist information officials showing you all you have to do. Don't get me wrong, that's a good thing, since it is more difficult getting around (read no underground) and you rely more on the information they feed you.

So the rest of this week we'll be spending in Nara and Osaka, before we return to Tokyo for a night of Sumo wrestling (watching!!) and the flight to Beijing, which hopefully will ease us into China just like Tokyo eased us into Japan.

And as a final note, I'd like to start a hopefully regular occurance of... lets say interesting observations.. The first week has brought three really interesting signs.


The first one in downtown Tokyo, obviously a training area for pedestrians, as there is no other explanation for it. There are a lot of pavements in Japan, but I haven't seen any other warning signs anywhere.


The second sign was at the station in Kyoto, and it kind of speaks for itself..


And the final one, is another loo-related story I am afraid, after the interesting expereince with the features of Japanese toilets I have been staying well clear of any experiments. After all it is quite warm here anyway, so I don't need a heated toiletseat thank you very much. And sometimes they provide enough entertainment just the way they are, yesterday I spend about 5 minutes looking for the button that did the 'flush' operation, only to realise it was a lever on the side, what will they come up with next I wonder?? But I digress, the picture Vaniah located was in a more 'basic' model..

Laters!!