Tokyo Post #1

Tokyo is brilliant. I've been fascinated by Japanese culture since I was fifteen and always wanted to visit! It's a great city and the epicenter of the world's second-largest economy - almost everything works very smoothly and politely. Most people work long hours as a matter of routine. Luxury-brand shopping seems to be an obsession, but along with that space and resource optimization is a constant part of life. I was thinking about that - the small but well-equipped cars, the big simple cellphones (to accommodate the script for texting). Basically lots of people fitted into very small spaces have to figure things out together and be very polite to get along easily! Perhaps there's a lesson there...

For instance, here's my hotel room, of course it's small - pretty much in the heart of the city. The nice thing though that there's a window (so it's not claustrophobic) and everything is literally within arm's reach! And then there are the details. If you look closely, the chair actually has a leather handle to pull at the back.

And my personal favorite - a single bedside console that controls everything in the room - the radio, air conditioning, clock with alarm and the lights (for the room and the loo!). Really convenient and fewer separate things for the hotel to keep track of!