Weeknotes 356

Hello JST.

Zero gyms, because I was in Tokyo. 🇯🇵

I left from Heathrow on Monday morning and arrived at Haneda on Tuesday morning. The jet lag hit me hard for the first day or so, then gradually eased off and I felt more human again. So let’s focus on the positives.

I spent the week wandering around, looking at things and eating. I was obviously way out of my element but fortunately vegan food was always easy to find and uniformly delicious so I was content. Same goes for the coffee.

It’s a beautiful city. There’s not quite enough room for anything (frequently including my physical form) but they make the most of it.

CLICHÉ CORNER: It’s impossible to miss how much tidier, quieter and better-organised everything is compared to the UK. Despite the cultural and language barriers I frequently felt more relaxed walking about than I do in London, just because of how the people around me were behaving. (Being on holiday helped.)

The Tokyo Metro is an obvious example. The attention to detail in the signage and wayfinding is so impressive: all of the route signs are oriented to match the direction of travel — so necessarily mirror images on opposite walls — and on the platform there’s constant visual reinforcement of the next station as well as that line’s final destination. Screens inside the carriages make it obvious where you are, where you’re going, and which side the doors will open on next. Everyone remains calm and respectful even when it’s ridiculously busy. None of this is rocket science but it evidences an unfamiliar degree of financial and emotional investment in things working properly.

As I said, I ate a lot. It was all amazing. Holiday calories don’t count.

My jury service has been moved to the first two weeks of January as requested. That’ll be a weird start to the year.

RIP Patrick Stewart.