Sunday 28 February 2010

In Japan

I'm currently in an internet cafe in Osaka typing to you, and as I do, I'm imagining the words being spoken by a plummy 1930's BBC announcer talking to you all the way from Ally Pally.

There's going to be a tsunami tomorrow, according to the TV. In fact every channe; has an icon in the corner of the screen of Japan, with the coast line colour coded according to the level of sea rise. I'm not feeling too worried myself since I'm quite a long way inland and on the 7th floor, but I do wonder if I'm taking my holiday in the middle of a little bit of history. We shall see: the last tsunami warning the Japanese gave out was withdrawn soon after so we'll see how long this lasts.

The flight was okay. Only got three hours sleep in the whole night, so I'm feeling a bit wired. Interesting things I didn't know about Japan is that the layout of the seats in train carriages can be arranged by switches near the driver's cabin. I watched as one guy made all the seats in all the carriages turn on the spot so they were facing the other way.

I also successfully piloted my first Japanese toilet, managing to avoid the "spray my bottom" button (not a literal translation, I admnit) and hit the flush button instead. Good job too, since I wasn't sitting down at the time and it would've sprayed most of the cubcile door. Anyway, inbuilt bidets aside, I can't say I'm too keen on the heated seats. It's like you'll always feel that someone's done a poo just before you did.

1 comment:

Ersby said...

The tsunami (caused by the quake in Chile) never happened, though there was a rise in sea level. The warning was apparently cancelled at 3am. The next day on TV the map of Japan was still in the corner of the screen, but with far few colours along its coastline.