It's always fascinating to return somewhere that we've travelled to several times over the years. And Tokyo fits into that category. We first came nearly 40 years ago when Japan seemed so remote (and expensive!) that few tourists ever ventured here. During the 80's and into the early 90's, Japan was booming. It was common wisdom was that you should learn Japanese as the country seemed on the way to becoming the world's dominant economy. Then the property bubble burst and Japan suffered years of a stagflation
Today, Japan's just "there": peaceful, stable and prosperous, not really bothering anyone - an Asian Switzerland! The sometimes stifling formality and politeness don't seem to have diminished, central Tokyo is as clean and orderly as ever and even at the busiest times of day, eerily peaceful. There's a staggering profusion of restaurants in central Tokyo and I'm once again reminded that I've never had a bad meal in Japan be it Japanese or anything else. And there's just about "anything else". Our hotel is situated on the upper floors of the Otemachi Tower, an office building just across the street from the Imperial Palace gardens. Restaurants in the building's basement offer "East European", Greek, Thai, Belgian, French options as well as several different varieties of Japanese food. And that's just one basement area in one of very many office towers in central Tokyo. One noticeable change over the years though is the increasing use of English so that eating for non-Japanese speakers is less of a lottery than it once was!
We wonder into the Ginza and head for the basement food halls of one of the still-thriving big department stores. A department store is a department store, selling much the same anywhere in the world. That uniformity doesn't apply though to the food hall. The sheer quality, variety and display of fresh and prepared food in Mitsukoshi is breathtaking and appears far superior to anything to be found anywhere in a western department store. What used to be "breathtaking" years back was the eye-watering price of what was on display. But years of stagflation and the relative weakness of the yen mean that nothing seems that expensive anymore. Well.....almost nothing! There are still perfect melons, apples and other fruits, beautifully wrapped and presented for sale - priced at hundreds of dollars! Mitsukoshi was promoting them as ideal gifts for Fathers Day.....
But perhaps nothing more demonstrates the quiet development of Japan over the past 40 years than the humble commode! Except of course there's nothing humble about a Japanese toilet! We've always been fascinated by the warmed seat, ideal for those who like to linger for a while. Then came spray and jet functions to refresh those parts....well let's just say to refresh those parts. And let's not forget the "deodorizer" function. . But the toilet in our hotel room takes the whole concept to an entirely new level. As you enter the toilet cubical, the lid automatically rises. On the adjacent wall is a control panel which allows the sitter to adjust the spray and jet functions. Flushing is automatic once you stand. But what fascinated us most is that within a few minutes of leaving the cubical, the lid (and seat if you raised that using one of the buttons on the control panel) automatically lowers again. A Royal Flush indeed!
Who knows, perhaps the next development will be for the toilet to become part of the "Internet of things" making life easier for America's Tweeter-in-Chief to send out his middle-of-the-night Tweets while his "parts" are being sprayed and warmed.....