Samstag, 7. März 2009
Lost in Tokyo (III)
diegolego, 20:55h
There are a few ideas I got in the conference.
The first: what is a bubble? Answer: Faster than exponential growth.
Currently the world seems to experience an economic crisis. The second idea states that the least bad scenario could be the japanese situation after the 1990 bubble, namely the so called lost decade.
I noticed that one sees few kids in Tokyo. Either they are all at kindergarten, school, home, or anywhere hidden, or there are just very few, which could be due the lost decade.
I also learned that the japanese analogon to pricegrabber or geizkragen/guenstiger is kakaku.
There are a few thing that I conclude from Wednesday night:
- although the fish is raw, one can eat a lot of sushi
- sake makes drunk
- “kampei” is similar to the chinese “gambey” (?)
- japenese are very patient (but I do not want to know what happens when they get angry)
Thursday (5.3.2009) we used to check out the city. This includes:
- The Fish-market is said to be the biggest of the world. I mean somewhere all the raw fish must come from. It is not a secret that the trawlers cruse the oceans of any corner in the world. The market itself is somehow funny. Obviously there is a lot of fish – dead or alive. However, there is no way of not standing in the way.
- The Hama-Rikyuteien Garden is located close to the fish market. One has to pay a small fee, but it is worth paying. The Park is very well maintained and kept very clean. It includes some nice ponds, bridges and stuff. The only disadvantage is that at this season all the lawns are grown, because of the dry grass. There is also a 300 year old tree.
- We did not skip the Imperial Palace. It sounds great, but when you visit it, there is not much to see. It is a quit big area with some old buildings. The real palace – one can only see its entrance – cannot be visited. We walked a lot.
- The Meiji Shrine is supposed to radiate tranquility (?). When entering, one needs first to wash hands and mouth in a fountain. One is also asked to ease ones mind (!). The shrine is nice and as everything else very clean. Unfortunately we were not able to figure out how it works, I mean the Shrine. I bought a “charm for soundness of mind and body”.
- We also went to the Shibuya neighborhood. There are many shops and people seem to be very busy. We realized that the flow is a big thing in Tokyo. I refer to the flow of people. They always stream from one place to another, such as in the subway stations or sidewalks, and one has to be careful not to interfere to much with the flow. In Shibuya we also visited the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office, a building with a platform on the 45th floor – nice view, but we were unlucky and had some cloudy weather. (accidently, we first entered the wrong building, but again people are so friendly that they just let us and did not escort us out)
The first: what is a bubble? Answer: Faster than exponential growth.
Currently the world seems to experience an economic crisis. The second idea states that the least bad scenario could be the japanese situation after the 1990 bubble, namely the so called lost decade.
I noticed that one sees few kids in Tokyo. Either they are all at kindergarten, school, home, or anywhere hidden, or there are just very few, which could be due the lost decade.
I also learned that the japanese analogon to pricegrabber or geizkragen/guenstiger is kakaku.
There are a few thing that I conclude from Wednesday night:
- although the fish is raw, one can eat a lot of sushi
- sake makes drunk
- “kampei” is similar to the chinese “gambey” (?)
- japenese are very patient (but I do not want to know what happens when they get angry)
Thursday (5.3.2009) we used to check out the city. This includes:
- The Fish-market is said to be the biggest of the world. I mean somewhere all the raw fish must come from. It is not a secret that the trawlers cruse the oceans of any corner in the world. The market itself is somehow funny. Obviously there is a lot of fish – dead or alive. However, there is no way of not standing in the way.
- The Hama-Rikyuteien Garden is located close to the fish market. One has to pay a small fee, but it is worth paying. The Park is very well maintained and kept very clean. It includes some nice ponds, bridges and stuff. The only disadvantage is that at this season all the lawns are grown, because of the dry grass. There is also a 300 year old tree.
- We did not skip the Imperial Palace. It sounds great, but when you visit it, there is not much to see. It is a quit big area with some old buildings. The real palace – one can only see its entrance – cannot be visited. We walked a lot.
- The Meiji Shrine is supposed to radiate tranquility (?). When entering, one needs first to wash hands and mouth in a fountain. One is also asked to ease ones mind (!). The shrine is nice and as everything else very clean. Unfortunately we were not able to figure out how it works, I mean the Shrine. I bought a “charm for soundness of mind and body”.
- We also went to the Shibuya neighborhood. There are many shops and people seem to be very busy. We realized that the flow is a big thing in Tokyo. I refer to the flow of people. They always stream from one place to another, such as in the subway stations or sidewalks, and one has to be careful not to interfere to much with the flow. In Shibuya we also visited the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office, a building with a platform on the 45th floor – nice view, but we were unlucky and had some cloudy weather. (accidently, we first entered the wrong building, but again people are so friendly that they just let us and did not escort us out)
