Observations of Tokyo

Konnichiwa

I'm in Japan. I've always wanted to come here, so it's great to have a chance to come here on a business trip.

What have I found so far?

• Japanese people don't wear sunglasses. It's the summer and it's stinking hot. Sunny, muggy and humid. Everyone is mentioning the heat to me, so I'm sure it's not normally this hot. Yet nobody on the streets is wearing sunglasses. I'm the only one. I don't know why. I hope it's not considered rude. The women, however, are hiding from the sun with umbrellas.
• Japanese people are concerned about contracting diseases. Upon arriving at the airport, I had to go through quarantine before passport control and customs. Video cameras were looking out for people with symptoms.  Many places have alcohol hand sanitiser available for everyone to be able to clean their hands at the first available opportunity. In 7-Eleven and similar stores you'll find a whole shelf dedicated to medical face masks, and indeed you'll see many people wearing them. I'm not sure if they are wearing them to stop other people's germs getting to their face, or whether they are being considerate and wearing the masks so that they don't breathe on other people - maybe they are sick and don't want to spread the germs.
• In Japan, I'm a millionaire. By no means rich, but at $100 to a yen, it feels like I have a lot of money in my wallet. A lot of zeros anyway. Which is fine, until I pay 900 yen for a coffee and a bagel at Starbucks.
• Japanese food is great. I was worried about what I'd be made to eat in Japan. Raw fish? Chicken feet? But I've really enjoyed the food, from chicken yakitori freshly barbecued over coals to sushi ordered straight from a computer screen. The weirdest (yet surprisingly delicious) sushi I had was cheeseburger sushi!

Tokyo from one of the many meeting rooms I've visited this week

I have a few more days left in Japan so I'll do my best to supplement this with a follow-up post, maybe with some observations about the politeness and conservatism of the Japanese people.

Sayonara.

A mild winter

Last winter, as I trained for a half marathon in April, I was constantly having to run through frost and snow in and around London. This winter, however, has been very mild. It has barely been freezing at all, which is more than I can say for some of the winters I've endured since moving to London. Some years I've witnessed a frozen serpentine in Hyde Park and tubes not running due to snow.

Last week I visited Oslo for a business trip. I expected Norway in winter to be a really cold experience but even there it was surprisingly mild. No snow on the ground and temperatures in the positive side of the Celsius scale.

Grand Hotel in Oslo, where I stayed on this occasion.