Pligget
Little to say for myself


Monday, January 12, 2004

Has it really been three weeks?

  
Blimey, doesn't time fly? Hello again.

Just got back yesterday from a trip to Tokyo - my first visit to Japan. I noticed something striking within minutes of stepping out of my hotel in Akasaka, and then realised it was something Mr. Happy had also remarked when he visited there in July last year. There are no litter bins, and there is no litter. Towards the end of that first stroll I saw why. A policeman, walking towards me, stooped to pick up a couple of sweet wrappers in his white-gloved hand (from an otherwise spotless pavement) and popped them into his pocket. I thought about how much money would be saved if we all did that - if we all thought about who could be responsible for the dropped litter, rather than who was responsible for dropping it.

It seems that most uniformed officials are issued with these white gloves. The most curious I noticed were the men in green posted on each subway station platform. Their role appeared to be to walk to the platform edge before the imminent arrival of a train, and to make a sweeping gesture of the arm indicating that, on this occasion, the train would be arriving in this direction and on this track. What was even more curious was the fact that they repeated the gesture after the departing train had disaappeared into the tunnel again - as if to say "There you are - I was right."

Some photos (click on them to enlarge): First of all, can anyone tell me the significance of these pots:



and these lanterns:



stacked at the entrance to the various Shinto shrines around the city? I'm guessing they relate to the families that use the shrine, but I could be very wrong.

Also, can anyone tell me what was kept in this beautiful chest of drawers I spied in an antiques shop?



I really wanted it, but couldn't see how I could squeeze it into my carry-on bag.

Outside Shibuya station is apparently the world's busiest pedestrian crossing. From my vantage point at the second-floor window of Starbuck's (I know, I know - the shame - I explain it away with the photo-op excuse), I was struck by the discipline of "don't walk":



and the free-for-all of "walk":



Finally, I liked this subway commuter:



and was impressed that someone had the balls (if that's the right anatomical reference) to design the entrance to a Roppongi lingerie shop in the shape of a vagina:



No beating about the bush there...

posted by Plig | 13:53 |

Comments: Post a Comment
Forget the sentimental notion that foreign policy is a struggle between virtue and vice, with virtue bound to win.
Forget the utopian notion that a brave new world without power politics will follow the unconditional surrender of wicked nations.
Forget the crusading notion that any nation, however virtuous and powerful, can have the mission to make the world in its own image.
Remember that diplomacy without power is feeble, and power without diplomacy is destructive and blind.
Remember that no nation's power is without limits, and hence that its policies must respect the power and interests of others.
Hans Morgenthau

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts
Bertrand Russell

The release of atomic energy has not created a new problem. It has merely made more urgent the necessity of solving an existing one
Albert Einstein

When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative
Martin Luther King Jr.

Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man
Bertrand Russell

I think it would be a good idea
Mahatma Gandhi, when asked what he thought of Western civilization

There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun
Pablo Picasso

Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others
Groucho Marx

Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it
Mahatma Gandhi

Always make new mistakes
Esther Dyson
archives
blogs I like
Mr. Happy
me-ish
Poor Man
Plastic Bag
Making Light
Electrolite
Body and Soul
Sideshow
Little Red Boat
Great Communicator
The Autoblography
Londonmark
Matthew Yglesias
Troubled Diva
Wherever you are
What you can get away with
Mad musings of me

Team Leadership
CB2020
MyLandmarkForum
Neale's Blog

< # Blogging Brits ? >

The look of this blog owes much to Mena Trott, but everything posted to it is my copyright, unless I say otherwise. If you want to use or quote any of it, please do the decent thing and let me know.