December 21st 2025年12月21日

▷ First the wonderful news: I have a new digital….electricity meter. Wow!…..🤣 the Langen company have promised that now it will be some much more convenient to calculate my bill.

▷ Fast forward a few weeks and there is my landlady and myself peering at the ever-changing information on the monitor. For heavens sake. Which display is the right one? ☹️

▷ The latest: A young man in a hi-viz jacket arrives. Oh. Apparently so many people have submitted the wrong information that he is going round reading the meters. How about that for progress…….

▷ I know you are just as excited 🙄 as myself to see “my” building site. Last week I caught a good schnapps moment for you. They work hard. But when I see the crane almost disappearing into the gloomy mist I know it’s time to skidaddle…..

▷ So I have skidaddled. With a little help from the SAS flight out of Copenhagen…..no guesses where to.

Mid-flight I went to the galley to ask for a glass of orange juice. On handing it to me the purser commented on the colour….”here’s you urine test sir…!” Trust the Danes. Merry bunch.

▷ For the first few hours we have to wiggle around conflict zones…notable Ukraine….

Let’s hope that little cabin pressure light never turns on…time for Spotify...”…….ground control to Major Tom…..” seems suitable….

▷ I love the way that, as the aircraft tilts, evening sun moves over the cabin….

▷ Although it’s only marginally warmer than Europe, the big difference you notice when arriving in Japan at this time of year here is the light. There is lots of it…….

And it’s blue. Ginko trees in Yokohama……..

If you are not blinded by the sun, you will be dazzled by the clean floors of the train…..

▷ Crossing the charmingly dilapidated bridge over the Tsurumi river…..to reach Yokohama…..

▷ I am befuddled by Jisa Boke – jet lag – on my first day. So the first place to go is the steamy, timeless world of the onsen – in this case the mineral spring baths of Hoshikawa……for just around 1.500 yen ( 8€. ) you have a wide variety of pools of different temperatures, indoors and out. Or you can lie in the water massage. Wonderful🫧

Every onsen has a rest area……

Today is a lemon-floating day….

▷ The visit to the onsen is followed by a walk through Yokohama’s Chinatown. As well as the 250-odd Chinese shops and restaurants, there is a magnificently gaudy temple….a wiff of incense wafts across the street….

▷ The next morning it’s a walk on the promenade. My Whatsapp pings 💥My daughter has passed her Masters’ exam. Whooppee!

▷ Breakfast is pancakes, blueberries and cream accompanied by coffee…

The coffee is“Koi”, which sounds the same as “love”, but when you write it you use a different Kanji Chinese character. Just one of the ways Japanese trips up Chatgpt et.al. Ha ha!

▷ Japan is safe, they all say. Yes it is, but there are some other challenges which are not in the travel brochures. Let’s say you want to park your bike and go into a restaurant. Park your bike? Try again. There is nowhere. Literally. Unless you are lucky and find a paying slot……it clamps your bike and then notes the time….

But it’s worth the effort……The menu in the Izakaya is curious. No, I did not choose this….

▷ but this……

Grilled pork, washed down with a nice beer…

▷ But there is more to life here than just skewered pork. There are are so many art venues in the whole area I would challenge anyone to visit them all. I decided to investigate the Tokyo Station Gallery. It’s actually above one of the grand entrances, and celebrates the restoration of the station after the bombing of WWII.

You get a fine view of the entrance lobby…

With its Art Deco lighting…

The gallery space has been left with curiously chipped brickwork….

…and some of the original girders have been transformed by some deft iron cutting….(a half moon – of course – how Japanese!)

The station today…..

The actual exhibition was from about a young Showa-era painter……

▷ Later, on leaving the station I headed to the Imperial park complex, surrounded by the old moat of Edo Castle .

….

▷ Although it is December, people are sitting outside. Time to appreciate one of the many modern water features….

…..and examine the purchase of the day…

▷ I’ll leave you now with with one of my Japanese icons. No, it’s not a Samurai warrior or a Manga figure. It’s a bottle of green tea. Thirst-quenching, ubiquitous and guaranteed to give you a lift….

Thank you for reading, and feel free to forward on to anyone who might be interested.

読んでくれてありがとう！。ご興味がある方にはお気軽に転送してください。

See you またね 😉

nigelwruddock@gmail.com

https://www.instagram.com/nigelruddock/

The End

終わり🍜