Drink your Züri water! This little notice is from my hotel bathroom to say the tap water is absolutely fine to drink.The Landsmuseum (National Museum) is right across the main train station. It is not very big, but the exhibits it has, are nicely presented. The main exhibit right now is of the 1917 Russian Revolution, and the connection between Zürich and Russia. (From Wikipedia : There was significant emigration of Swiss people to the Russian Empire from the late 17th to the late 19th century. Also, Zürich played host to both Lenin and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn).
Zürich has been around for a long, long time : when the Romans founded it in 15 BC, they called it Turicum. I can tell the German they speak here is different from Germany’s (not that I understand a whole lot of it!). The city has a reputation for its quality of life, but man! you’d better have a good job or have money to spend. My $4 Seattle Starbucks latte (admittedly expensive already) goes for $6.50 here, and I paid $25 for a pretty modest (but very nice) lunch today at seafood franchise Noordsee. The same lunch cost $16 in Germany.
Here’s the quick orientation of Zurich I gave myself, when I started out today. The Marriott hotel (at the top) is at the confluence of the Limmat and Sihl rivers. The blue at the bottom is Lake Zurich. The old town sits all around the Limmat river (the one on the right).The main entrance to the Zürich Hauptbahnhof (main station). It’s early evening and lots of commuters are leaving the station to go home. The blue-and-white flags beside the Swiss flag on the right, are the flags of the City of Zürich.Zürich Altstadt (Old Town) has lots of crooked and cobbled streets, and two and three storey buildings, many of which date back to the 1500s or 1600s. (Renovated many times, I’m sure, though).‘Hier wohnte Johannes Caspar Lavater 1778-1784’ says the words in the panel. I saw several other buildings with names and dates on them.‘Haus Zur Glocke (House of the Bell) dates back to 1357, then owned by bell maker Konad Glogger. The neo-Renaissance facade was added in 1881 architect Adolf Brunner. Finally, in 1925 the art deco ceramic cladding on the ground floor for the cafe-restaurant was added.There are many, many luxury shops and expensive watch stores on Bahnhofstrasse, and they get ever more upmarket the closer one gets to Lake Zurich. Many of the street names here go by ‘gasse’ (alley) and not ‘strasse’ (street). I guess that is correct, given how narrow they are!The Grossmünster (‘great minister’) as seen from the Münsterbrücke (Münster bridge) over the Limmat river. It is a Romanesque-style Protestant church. Construction of the present structure commenced around 1100 and it was inaugurated around 1220.Here’s a panoramic view of Münsterhof square with some of the guild houses (or halls). These are buildings historically used by guilds for meetings and other purposes. Today many of them have been turned into restaurants on the ground floor and office space upstairs.Here’s Lake Zürich by Bellevue platz as the sun set tonight. The swans are squabbling over a little tidbit in the water.
My time in Munich was up on Monday morning. I checked out of my comfy Marriott hotel and made my way to the München Hauptbahnhof once more, same as Sunday, but this time to catch a EuroCity train to Zurich. The train went west and around Lake Constance, making stops at some small train stations with charmingly short names, such as Elgg and Wil. At one station I saw a guy roll himself a cigarette from loose tobacco (have not seen that in a very long time), and at another, a businessman stepped on board using a strange, square-shaped phone : turned out to be a Blackberry Passport.
I love the Süddeutsche Zeitung (even though I understand only every third word ! LOL). This morning’s edition featured Roger Federer on the front page. ‘Triumph and Angst’ : Roger Federer about his secrets for success – how he reconciles the pinnacle of sport and a family rich in children’.Here’s the 4h 34m train ride’s route to Zurich. Will we go north? or will we go south? around Lake Constance, I wondered. (South). There are several stops along the way, and at some stations cars are added or disconnected. No stop at the Swiss border, though – just an announcement ‘Willkommen in der Schweiz/ Welcome to Switzerland’.Here’s a glimpse of Lake Constance, this at the town of Lindau on the eastern edge of the lake.And just a cool barnhouse of sorts (?) shortly after we crossed the Swiss border. I love the giant roof and its overhang, and the siding tiles on the front.This is at Zurich Hauptbahnhof, and we had just disembarked from our train. (Yes, not a very sleek-looking engine car, but hey, it did its job very well for 4 1/2 hours). The upper train station has an older industrial look, but sits on top of a sprawling and modern underground shopping mall.
Here’s the route: Munich main station to Salzburg main station. It’s pretty flat most of the way, and Rosenheim is the biggest town on the way there. The railroad also passes close by a few lakes.
I took the train to Salzburg (just over the border in Austria, birthplace of Mozart*) today. It’s just under two hours one way. I was somewhat surprised not to find U-bahns, nor trams, in Salzburg at my arrival. From the main station, the way to get around is by bus. (The old town is nearby, and a 15 minute walk).
*I did stop at Mozart’s house. It’s now a museum, of course. Classical music barbarian that I am, and pressed for time, I did not go inside, though.
Munich’s Hauptbahnhof (main station) has a low-key main entrance. Smoking is not allowed inside the train station, so this is where all the smokers are!Here’s the Salzburg Hauptbahnhof (main station) platforms. The train station departure hall roof structure were refurbished in 2014.The old entrance to the Salzburg hauptbahnhof. (Hmm. I’m really not sure what the purpose of the gray column is that obstructs the view of the front entrance, and if it really needed to be put right there!).Here’s the Parish Church St. Andrä with its stately and square bell towers at Mirabell Platz in Salzburg old town. This is not the original church, though. The original church was rebuilt and consecrated in 1898. Most of that church was destroyed in WW2 and reconstructed again by 1949. Even after that, in the late 60s/ 1970 the towers were shortened and covered with flat pyramid-shaped roofs to make it fit better into the Salzburg cityscape !This is the Dreifaltigkeitskirche (Church of the Holy Trinity, a Roman Catholic Church), on Makartplatz. It opened in 1702. The big picture is mine, but it was impossible to get a good far-away picture, so I pasted one in on the bottom right that I found on-line.This elaborate metal art sign belongs to the Gablerbräu Restaurant & Beer Inn old city Salzburg.Just a block of apartments off Schallmooser Hauptstrasse (I wandered off in an uncharted non-tourist direction). The building’s straight lines were a welcome relief from the old Gothic and Renaissance buildings in old town.Oh wow! I stumbled on an an art museum, I thought – this is on Schallmooser hauptstrasse. But no, it is an ärtztzentum, meaning a medical (doctors’) center.
Marienplatz has been Munich’s main square since 1158 (whoah). This is the bell tower with the Glockenspiel which is part of the Neues Rathaus (New* Town Hall) *New is relative, in this case meaning since 1874. Is is exactly 12 noon, and soon thereafter the two carousels came to life, with kings and knights and joker characters going around for a few minutes.The view of the Frauenkirche from a street coming out of Marienplatz.This is the Montgelas Memorial (artist Katrin Sander, 2005) at Promenadeplatz square in the old city. Maximilian Josef Garnerin, aka Count von Montgelas (1759–1838) was a Bavarian statesman.
It was a beautiful spring-like day on Saturday, and I spent most it on and around Marienplatz, just doing a random walk around it, with a nice lunch at German seafood franchise Nordsee, and a coffee at Starbucks.
Some men dress up in lederhose, others walk their dogs on Marienplatz .. this pooch must have gotten something caught in its long hair. There was also a ‘women against inequality’ group singing songs and making their case from a podium, with a few policemen at hand to keep an eye on the crowd.This is the view looking eastward from Marienplatz.Inside the department store Galeria Kaufhof, off Marienplatz, this T-Rex is displaying its, um – charming character.Check out these old collectable pictures, part of a large series, of the buildings of Munich in the 50s and 60s (or earlier? I’m not sure). I bought these at the Munich City Museum’s store for a few euros.
I spent much of Friday traversing the city on the U-bahn, stopping at the stations with really nice interiors to take some pictures. It still gets pretty darn cold outside as soon as the sun sets (down to freezing), so it’s good that I packed my scarf and gloves.
These giant domes bathed in purple from the walls and ceiling are at Westfriedhof station all the way north on the U1 line.Sign inside one of the train cars; one of those uniquely German words : ‘Schwarzfahren’ .. traveling without a ticket. (Yes, but will an offender even bother to read the sign?)This badge is painted on the outside of a train car on the U6 line, a symbol to the city’s historic past, but that’s all I know.Many older stations such as Sendlinger Tor (Sendlinger Gate) have older interiors.This beautiful building is right next to my hotel at Berlinerstrasse 95. It belongs to Munich RE Group, a reinsurance company based in Munich.Fridge magnets from a souvenir store. Isn’t the bearded guy in his Bavarian lederhose with his beer and his doggie just utterly charming?This is the underground inside of the large train station at Marienplatz. Five years ago when I was last here it was a big mess with all the renovation going on, and now it’s looking great.And this is a little further down at Marienplatz, by the U-bahn platforms. It’s 10 at night, so no humans around to spoil the clean lines of the tunnel !The station called Münchner Freiheit (Munich’s Freedom) on the U6 line has beautiful blue columns with LED lighting to accent the blue. The walls are yellow, and the ceiling panels a polished metal.This is the street level at Münchner Freiheit station. It is somewhat of a hub since there are connecting bus lines and tram lines here as well. (But certainly the new BMW would be the sweetest mode of transport, right?).
It rained all day long in Munich today (9°C/ 48°F), and I had to buy a cheap €10 umbrella to get around without getting too wet. (One only gets less wet with an umbrella, and completely wet, without one). The other unexpected event of the day was an unspecified problem on the U6 train line at 6 pm as I made my way back to the hotel, that stopped all northbound trains. ‘The U6 line will be closed for a long time’ announced the driver, after it had stopped at Giselastrasse station. We all got out, and ‘What do I do now?, I thought. There is no other U-bahn line that goes to the Norfriedhof station by my hotel. No tram line goes there, either. Maybe a bus did, but I had no bus map. So: taxi. No luck flagging one down by Giselastrasse station, so I took the southbound U6 train two stops down, where I knew there was a taxi stand. Yay! I was so happy to find a taxi waiting, to get off my tired feet and just sit. Ten minutes later, I paid the driver the €15 fare and hopped out at my hotel.
Here’s a wet Odeonsplatz – a large square in central Munich. That’s the Theatine Church in yellow, getting renovated, and a ‘Trump, What Now’? poster in the foreground.The entrance to the Neue Pinakothek, a museum with European works of art from the 18th and 19th century, some four blocks from Odeonsplatz. A student tour group is approaching on the left, umbrellas and all.One of the prize items in the Neue Pinakothek collection is the Van Gogh Sunflowers (Arles F456). Van Gogh painted several similar sunflower stills in two series. This one is the only one with a blue-green background. There are also a few Monets and Gustav Klimts in the museum, and a sculpture by Picasso.Here are the trains on the U3 & U6 lines by Odeonsplatz station. The train on the right is an older model, and the one on the left a brand new train.The rain finally cleared late on Thursday, just as I was getting ready to call it quits and go back to the hotel for dinner. These are the twin dome towers of Munich’s iconic Frauenkirche. The church building was completed in 1488, and the Gothic Renaissance domes in 1524.No, giant aliens have not landed in Munich! This 17 m (54 ft) tall ‘Walking Man’ artwork has actually been here on Leopoldtstrasse since 1995. It was designed by American artist Jonathan Borofsky.
My long overnight flight to London, and the short one to Munich both went smoothly. London was gray and rainy. There was a little turbulence on the flight to Munich, spilling the tea out of my cup and onto the tray (a storm in my teacup?).
This is at the gate at Cape Town airport, and we are just stepping into the Boeing 747 from British Airways. ‘One World’ says the giant letters on the fuselage (the airline alliance BA belongs to).This is at the Heathrow Airport security checkpoint as I went from Terminal 3 to Terminal 5 to catch my flight to Munich. (A little unusual for the Brits to deploy cute little characters such as ‘Mr. Adventure’ on their signage, is it not?)Arrived at Munich Terminal 2, and here making my way to the baggage claim and exit. I like the blue and yellow neon that adds a little color to the grays of the airport terminal.
I made one final excursion today, to Stellenbosch. This is Victoria Street, on the University of Stellenbosch campus. The trees are already shedding their leaves even though autumn has not arrived. Stellenbosch is as dry as the Cape Town area. The blue decorations are for the annual Wordfees (‘Word Festival’), a celebration of Afrikaans with poetry readings, plays, debates and discussions.
Today my time in the Cape Town area, is up (alas). I made one final trip to Stellenbosch.
Tonight I will take British Airways to London Heathrow, and then on to Munich, to spend a few days there.
I made it into Cape Town early on Wednesday afternoon. Summer is showing no sign of slowing down here, with a high of 33 °C (91°F) today, and tomorrow’s forecast at 35 °C (95°F). In fact, a severe drought has prompted authorities in the Western Cape to impose water restrictions on residents.
This is the first of my three British Airways flights, boarding the Airbus A319 at Frankfurt’s Terminal 2 for London Heathrow.Flight No 2 – making my way at London Heathrow’s Terminal 5 to the big Airbus A380-800 for the long south-bound flight to Johannesburg. Flight time was 11 hrs and 11 mins.And here is our flying machine for the third and final leg of my journey from Frankfurt to Cape Town, a Boeing 737-800. We had just landed at Cape Town airport. No bus! We had to hoof it over to the arrivals terminal that was close by. I did not mind: it was great to stretch my legs.
It takes about 48 minutes on the Stuttgart-bound train from Frankfurt to Heidelberg.
I took a Deutsche Bahn train to Heidelberg today in the morning, returning to Frankfurt some 4 hours later. It’s not the best time of year to visit, of course – but Heidelberg has Heidelberg University, founded in the 14th century. I also wanted to check out Heidelberg Castle, conveniently located on Königstuhl hill right by the Altstadt (old town).
This is Markplatz right next to Heiliggeistkirche (the Holy Ghost Church), off Hauptstrasse. It is chilly – not a lot of people around!This is the Neckar River that runs through Heidelberg. It is a major tributary to the Rhine. To the right of the sluice gates is a set of locks, elevating the river surface upstream by a few feet.This is the entrance to the Institute for Translation and Interpreting at the University of Heidelberg, at 52 Hauptstrasse.This is looking west on Hauptstrasse, with Zum Guldenen Schaf (‘To the Golden Sheep’) tavern on my right.This is an ornate and very beautiful pair of entrance doors on Universitätsplatz (University Square).This little square is called Kornmarkt (I think) .. in the background on Königstuhl hill is the redstone buildings and remains of Heidelberg Castle.Heidelberg has the distinction of having both the oldest and the most modern funicular railways in Germany. The lower portion opened in 1890, and was most recently updated in 2004, giving it the ‘most modern’ title as well. Here’s the little train car on the funicular railway that goes up Königstuhl hill. There is a walkway up the hill as well (but it’s easier and way more fun to take the little train).It’s a quick ride up, through some very old tunnel. I am sitting in the last row at the back, and this is the view down.Alright! Let’s go inside and see what the castle looks like.This is the back of the best-preserved part of the castle. The front overlooking the city, looks similar. The black and yellow flag on the tower on the right is the City of Heidelberg flag.Lion’s head detail on the castle wall from the previous picture. Is this a sad lion? Like the one in the Wizard of Oz?Here’s a zoomed-in view from the city from a vantage point on the castle. The church towers of the Jesuitenkirche (Jesuit Church) on the left, and the Heiliggeistkirche (Holy Ghost Church) on the right, stand out. That’s the Neckar River at the top of the picture.
The weather finally cleared up after a week of snow and rain, and I made a run out to U-District (short for ‘University District’, next to the campus of the University of Washington). My favorite store in all of Seattle is probably the University Bookstore.
This is Capitol Hill train station, now nearing its one-year anniversary, with the northbound train to the U-District on the right. It just looks as if the platforms are empty; there are several people behind me!A book about American English asks : What do we call it when it’s raining while the sun is shining? In most of the USA there is no word but Florida & the Northeast say it’s a ‘sunshower’, and in the southeast ‘The Devil beating his Wife’. In South Africa (in Afrikaans), we say ‘Jakkals trou met Wolf se vrou’ (Eng. Jackal marries Wolf’s wife). In some folklore the Jackal and Wolf are sworn enemies. This fence is the edge of the enormous construction site for the new University District station. (It has a little art project going, on it. I will have to go back and take a night-time picture when the light strings are switched on).
The Hydrogen Council* was announced in Davos this January – a global initiative to provide a united vision and long-term solution for using hydrogen instead of fossil fuels for transportation and as a renewable energy source generally. (Their proposition is here). Hydrogen fuel cell cars have a formidable future competitor in electric battery cars.
*The member companies are : Air Liquide, Alstom, Anglo American, BMW group, Daimler, Engie, Honda, Hyundai, Kawasaki, Royal Dutch Shell, Linde Group, Total and Toyota.
Hydrogen as a fuel can be generated in a true zero emission fashion, though.
> Plenty of free sunlight + abundant water + electrolysis = hydrogen.
> Use hydrogen as a fuel; water is the by-product.
> NO carbon involved or CO2 produced anywhere. Yay!
.. is the proposition.
Here is the Nikola company’s proposed Nikola One, a hydrogen fuel cell truck prepared for commercial use starting in 2020.
So what else is going on? Well – Toyota’s $57,500 hydrogen fuel cell car, the Mirai, is off to a slow start (about 400 sold in California so far), but there are other companies jumping into the fray as well. A start-up company called Nikola (not to be confused with Elon Musk’s Tesla) announced the Nikola One in December, a hydrogen fuel cell truck that will be available in 2020. Nikola is going for 100% vertical integration, which means they will build solar-cell power stations to generate electricity for the electrolysis of water to generate hydrogen for its trucks. You lease the truck and Nikola provides the hydrogen and the hydrogen refueling stations needed for it.
From the Hydrogen Energy Council’s report – how hydrogen can take carbon out of major sectors of the economy.From the Hydrogen Energy Council’s report – countries building hydrogen infrastructures.From the Hydrogen Energy Council’s report – improvements along the hydrogen value chain.Hydrogen fuel cell stations are starting to pop up in the Los Angeles and San Francisco metro areas, but only about 400 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles have been sold in California so far.
It’s less than two days before the Trumpapocalypse starts here in the USA. There was an interesting comparison between the Air Force One airplanes (there are two) and Trump’s airplane on ‘CBS This Morning’. Some say President Trump will ‘downgrade’ to Air Force One (give up the opulence of the Trump jet). I disagree. Air Force One can fly much further, seat many more passengers, and has an in-flight refueling ability, anti-missile systems and a blast-resistant skin. Oh, and the seal of the President of the United States emblazoned on the fuselage.
Air Force One on the left is a 747. Trump’s jet is a 757 built in 1991, first owned by Stirling Air, then a Mexican airline Taesa, then by Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen who sold it to Trump in 2010.The 757 has a range of 4,400 miles and seats 43 .... while Air Force One can go 7,800 miles, seat more than 70, and has all kinds of defense features.Here’s a peek inside the Trump jet’s main cabin .... and the bathroom, complete with 24 carat gold-plated faucets and washbasins.
President Obama delivered an emotional farewell address in Chicago on Tuesday night. These eight years saw many accomplishments – not the least of which was to get out of the economic free fall of the 2008 financial crisis – but also setbacks and a Congress that became almost completely dysfunctional. Will life for most Americans improve under the Trump Administration? Time will tell. I generated these slides from the Obama Administration’s exit memo that was posted on the White House web site.
Um .. I am ‘modeling’ the Mondrian dress, one of Saint Laurent’s most famous contributions to the fashion world, introduced in the Fall-Winter 1965 collection.Picture and text from Seattle Art Museum website.Picture from the exhibit; text from Seattle Art Museum website.This is the ‘Dahlia’ end-of-day dress from Spring-Summer 1959 Yves Saint Laurent for Christian Dior haute couture collection. The fabric is a fine lustrous silk, with a raised bubble skirt over the dress.Believe it or not – this is a wedding dress, from the Autumn-Winter 1970 haute-couture collection. It is a multi-colored silk velvet coat that Laurent said he initially wanted to make in black, but that the colors were inspired by the colorful pop art of the 1960s.
Seattle Art Museum has had an Yves Saint Laurent exhibit on since October, and we had to jump at it to go take a look before it ended this week. I’m not a fashionista, and learned a lot of the man and his work. Here are a few pictures from the exhibit, and from the SAM website.
Saint Laurent passed away in 2008 in Paris after a career that had spanned 44 years. He is regarded as one of the greatest names in fashion history.
I loved the rotating globe on the ‘sky map’ display channel on the plane. Honaria is in the Solomon Islands, 18 hrs ahead of Seattle. And New Zealand is away even one time zone more, at 19 hours.This still is from an anime film I had watched on the plane, called ‘The Place Promised in Our Early Days’. It is about parallel universes, and war, and worlds that are changing. Anime films are enormously popular in Japan. The film ‘Your Name’ that runs there right now, is the second highest grossing movie of all time there. (Most popular was 2001 ‘Spirited Away’ by director Hayao Miyazaki).
I’m home: east, west, (and north south), home best. With Tokyo 17 hours ahead of Seattle, the 9 hour flight back landed us at Seattle much ‘earlier’ on Monday, than when we had left in Tokyo on Monday.
We had just pulled up to the gate at Seattle’s South Terminal. The sky is crisp and clear and cold, with a little snow still on the airport grounds, left over from New Years evening and New Years day.
My time in Tokyo was finally up on Monday morning. I got onto the Narita Express at the Shinagawa train station, and made it out to the airport with plenty of time. That was a good thing : apparently the entire Thailand and China (and some other countries) visited Japan for New Year’s Day, and throngs of people were traveling back.
Here’s the Narita Express at Shinagawa station, traveling in the opposite direction , bound for Yokohama. I almost bought a ticket just for fun, on the shinkansen (bullet train) to Yokohama and back, but was a little pressed for time. Got to leave something to do for the next trip, right?The Akihabara store at Terminal 1 is always a treat to check into, and they did not disappoint with this giant ceiling ‘light fixture’. I’m afraid I do not know if this is a well-known character or not... and I like to check out the scarves in the window of the Hermes store as well. I love the motifs and colors on this one. ‘Strolling to Versailles’ says the lettering in French.
A new Gregorian calendar year has hatched, and a few weeks later this year the lunar Year of the Rooster will start.
The image on the left from a store window.
I went to the Yodobashi store in Akihabara again today; nothing big (such as a Seiko watch or a Canon camera lens). It’s just such an overwhelming spectacle, with the enormous variety of all kinds of products and toys that are on display. Casio had an interesting scanning-translating pen on display. It looks like a giant marker. The reader drags it across the text and then the translated text is shown on the display.
Rawwr ! The dragon with the goat horns is coming for my camera lens. (I did not note the name of the creature).This is the platform for the Yamanote line (green on maps) at Kanda station. I love the old exposed iron work with the giant rivets.I changed hotels for my last night .. the first night I could take advantage of using my Marriott points. It helps a little to keep the expensive hotel costs in Tokyo in check. This ikebana is by the elevator. (The panel lines in the wall in the background, interferes a little with the arrangement!).
The Keiyō Line, run by Japan Rail East, runs out to Tokyo Bay. (I am close to the Tokyo station, the long bar on the top left). The Disney Resort line is a loop that runs around the Disney premises.
Well – the year is almost out here in the ‘Far East’. (Hey, is there such a concept as the Far West? Shouldn’t there be, if there is a Far East?).
I walked around Shinjuku again today. Many of the stores closed early for New Year’s Eve.
Tonight I thought I’d pay my ‘respects’ to American culture by running out to Tokyo Disneyland. They have a fireworks display at midnight. I thought I might stay for the fireworks at midnight – but in the end I did not.
Here is the beautiful fixtures from the Isetan department store in Shinjuku, considered to be one of the most influential department stores in Japan.One of several display frames with merchandise inside Isetan .. or is it art? Both, I’m sure. For once, I was not inviting trouble by taking pictures inside the store : there is a sign that says ‘OK to photograph’.Shinjuku station is nearby, and I went upstairs to look down at it .. and lo and behold, there is the Narita Express (on the right).Here is the Tokyo Disneyland Station stop. The train runs in a loop, on a monorail, and the windows have mouse-ear silhouettes. (That would be Mickey Mouse, of course).This is inside the main lobby of the Tokyo Disneyland hotel. I have never seen such an enormous chandelier! Those are hotel rooms in the background.
Newly-clad copper roof of part of the Meiji shrine. The copper will oxidize and turn green over time.
I made a ran out to the Meiji Shrine in Shibuya ward on Friday .. but found it not as impressive as other shrines I have been to on previous visits. The shrine is dedicated to Emperor Meiji and his wife, Empress Shōken. The emperor died in 1912, and the shrine was constructed in 1915.
This beautiful building is nearby the Meiji shrine, and houses administrative offices. (The copper cladding on the entrance canopy has turned green).This is in Shibuya. The tear-dropped shaped kōban (police box) on the left is unusual. Usually they really are ‘boxes’!Half-boy, half-bird face on an advertising display panel at the entrance of a Virtual Reality arcade in Shibuya. Judging by the clientele inside, I was wa-ay too old to go in (but I did, anyway).Inside Shibuya station.The more mundane platforms on the old Ginza line that I use to get to Kyobashi station by the hotel.Display panel by the door inside the train car on the Ginza line. The program generating the display not only ‘knows’ which line the train is on, it also knows which CAR of the train it is in, and displays precise directions of connecting lines and how to exit the station.It was the Year of the Monkey, so the stock market went up and down, said the news reader at the final day of trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. And weatherwise it is not warm, but at least sunny here in Tokyo. Six days ago there was a massive snowstorm north in Sapporo, trapping hundreds of Hongkongers in Sapporo and sparking violence at the airport that needed police attention.
