Burglars in Tokyo must be fat

A couple of days ago, we arrived in the capital city, and since then, we have been doing a wide variety of things whilst eating sushi, sushi, or sushi.

We went to Tokyo tower to prove yet again that the kids have no fear of heights and that my fear is down from a 10 to a 6 or a 7. We went to walk in the eastern gardens of the Imperial palace and roasted in the sun, and we visited the best known shrine in Tokyo (Senso-ji), where Flo and the kids were a bit underwhelmed having been before to Kyoto, Nara and Miyashima. Terrible these cultural snobs .  

We just spent the entire day today in the emerging technologies museum, and after that the kids visited a light show, whilst I took a pass on the latter, and visited the sushi restaurant for a third day in a row. So if you want to hack my email , and you need to answer the favourite food question, then guess what?

What I am fascinated the most by are the little quirks of the culture here. For example, I got on the packed subway tonight, and inside, I discovered everyone standing neatly in parallel rows. One half looking to the left, the other half looking to the right. It was like atoms lining up in a crystal formation (graphite crystal for chemistry insiders).

The museum offered up one that ties in neatly with my ongoing fascination with Japanese toilets. An online questionnaire in which visitors can take part, asks if networking toilets would have benefits for individuals and society. Unsurprisingly, 87% thought this was a great idea, and indeed, it's not as stupid as it sounds at 1st. You see, you could weigh the pooper and analyse the poop and the pee, thereby giving the pooper feedback on health issues and society a method to quantify slow-moving stats like obesity or fast-moving epidemics. Sounds mad, but hey, progress through the toilet network might one day be as important as the internet.

Oh, and you get the impression that everyone is really relaxed about safety and security. No stress to put a laptop on the luggage rack of busy train, and in our hotel, we have a front door with bars but no glass between them. The kids and many Japanese would pass through no problem. (I didn’t try because I was taking photos of the kids), but it got me thinking that any burglars in Tokyo must be failed sumo wrestlers or similar.Read more