An apology

An apology
I am sorry that I haven’t written much in the last week.  I have been extraordinarily busy with work and I prefer to use the 5 hours of my time to sleep.

That said, I thought I would share a list of the things that I have got used to whilst in Tokyo for a month.  Please don’t take offence…

Things I have got used to in Tokyo

1. Working 14 hours a day 6 days a week.


2. Heated toilet seats… it’s going to be a wake-up call on my return to the chilly British bowls!


3. Seaweed-based snacks.


4. Being considered quite tall.


5. Cans of hot coffee.


6. Eating with chopsticks – I actually prefer it to a knife and fork.  Especially with noodles.


7. Lunch in a café that takes 10 people max.


8. Living on the 22nd floor.


9. Forming an orderly queue at a pedestrian crossing or waiting for a train.


10. Musical fanfares at train stations when the train arrives.

Things I haven’t got used to in Tokyo

1. Being barged out of the way when the train arrives by a person who was helping form the orderly queue 2 seconds prior to the train’s arrival.


2. Heated toilet seats starting up some kind of motorised de-odouriser as soon as you take a pew.


3. Cost of eating dinner is four or five times more than eating lunch… may be the difference is the pint of Kirin at dinner?


4. Everything is wrapped up perfectly three times; including my underwear returned from the laundry.


5. Face masks juxtaposed with coughing up phlegm.


6. Tremors.  I have got to the point where I think we are actually standing on something that is in constant flux… it’s making me dizzy (however, that may be related to point 1 in the first list or point 3 in the second list.


7. The general perception that sea urchin is a delicacy.


8. Old people listening to their iPods… and by old I mean well over 60.


9. Wet handshakes.


10. Missing my friends and family.