Tokyo Part 1

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.