Turning Japanese

Despite the highrise, the traffic and the bustle I enjoyed Tokyo.. not that I really got to see that much between the office and the hotel. But I am left with an unexpected affection for the Japanese.

Sitting on the plane on the way home I was thinking why was that?? It's a funny place really with all that formal bowing and smiling... but the bowing and the smiling is infectious and sincere, and really what can be better than spending your day smiling??

Life is a carousel

The sky darkens slowly towards dusk, the city horizon a darker highrise shadow now sequinned with shining windows. Blue neon rings a ferris wheel starting another slow turn as cars on the big dipper are caught, briefly, silhouetted against the sky. Below, people swarm like ants across the lit plazas of the Tokyo Dome.

From my room on the 18th floor (the hotel has 43) I look out across the Tokyo city skyline, and hear the rumble of the cars and the gay screams from the fun-fair. It all has that existential timeless feel that comes from too little sleep.

I got in this morning - just twenty hours after leaving home and my body still doesn't know what time it is... except it must soon be time to sleep.

.........

Pity my camera's not working... :-(

Hot beer and cream...

You take the highland and I'll take the lowland... an islay from Scotland before you.. for me and my friends
...are at the Stockholm Beer and Whisky Festival!

Swedish porter, czech dark lager, weissbier, stout, and bitter. It's my first time at this annual tribute to grain, malt and hops - sipping my way round the exhibition with a group of salsa friends ... including not surprisingly a large contingent from the British Isles (a term which neatly includes Dublin as well as all parts English).

Dancers are of course renowned for not drinking.. (aren't they) so it was a very sober evening ;-) which finished in best Swedish fashion with an 'after-party' - at which I learnt how to follow in salsa... and how to dance bug AND foxtrot. If I could only just remember...