Tokyo is a seriously bananas city. Things i love about it: it’s so efficient it’s like a machine; trains on time, amazing levels of information, signs in English,although few people speak it. It’s so clean and tidy – no garbage, no graffiti, clean streets, cleaner trains, no dog poo. This is a seriously obedient society, which can cut both ways but manifests positively in – no mobiles on the trains, no eating/drinking on trains and hardly ever in public at all; olympic quality queueing, including lines painted on the train platform to show you where/how; they have no real way of saying NO, which has to be a very optimistic way to live; they are amazingly helpful – people are paid to lurk around on stations and be helpful if you are clearly lost – even if they speak not a word of English they will somehow get us onto the right train. Courteously and with much bowing. The food – totally heavenly, i don’t know where to start. Had a truly great meal a couple of days ago in a total dive with not a single European in sight. The Onsen – mineral spa baths, which are outdoors, and in which you lie, gazing at the sky, bubbling with goodness and gradually becoming prune-like until it’s time for a beer and a massage. We went to one out of Tokyo and were the only Euros, again.