Earthquakes and Cold Noodles

The one thing I hate about weekends in Tokyo is that the place is just too crowded. Wherever you go, it seems that the rest of the Japanese population has got there first. It just gets right on my tits at times, but why rage about it now, I hear you ask. Well it was all down to lunch. At 2pm I met my friend for lunch in Ikebukuro, quite late I thought, there shouldn't be many people around. How wrong I was, at every place we went there were massive queues. After plodding around for half an hour, we gave up and joined the nearest queue, which turned out to be a Chinese style noodle shop and as it was hot and humid as usual I went for the cold version.
They were excellent and just what I needed to cool down both mind and body. To top it all off there was another plus 4 earthquake at three.

Spaghetti in the Sky

On of the first things you notice upon arrival in Japan are all the cables and wires above your head. They are everywhere and usually placed without any thought or consideration to their ugliness, as a result it is almost impossible to take a picture of a famous temple or landscape without having it ruined by some 30 foot telegraph pole or a criss-cross mesh of wires. Any Japanese will be happy to give you the reason for this. "It's because of the earthquakes. The electricity system is safer and easier to repair if it is not buried underground," they say like misguided sheep.


However, a transformer the size of a dustbin, hanging off a concrete pole doesn't seem that safe to me. I would much rather have it under my feet than above my head if there was a major earthquake. Half of the poles also look like they are about to fall over now, so I am sure they would hit the ground if given even a mild shake. I just hope that I am not walking down any street around here when the big one hits Tokyo, otherwise it will probably be curtains under a pile of spaghetti.