Ristorante Sawauchi

My main reason in going to Japan (and one of the reasons I signed on to the Shanghai project) was to see my friend Aki and his wife and their new baby. Aki is one of the most interesting people I have ever met, and one of the busiest.  Of course that did not stop him from taking the time to treat me like a king, even with a new baby and two restaurants to run, and while making a movie on his iPhone, watching TVwhile driving, taking up golf, and running several kilometers every morning, etc. (you get the picture - this is one busy guy).

The highlight of the whole visit was the meal I had at Aki's new fine dining Italian restaurant, "Ristorante Sawauchi". I have some more written about the restaurant here, with a full set of pictures here. If you are ever in the north of Japan, please give it try!

Tokyo

After about two weeks in Shanghai, I flew to Tokyo. I spent 2 nights there and even though there was a decent amount of rain I had a great time and really was taken with the little bit of the city I got to see. I could imagine visiting Tokyo again, especially exploring more of the museums and temples, and trying more restaurants.

I have plenty more to post about China, and Japan, but I will be rolling that out once I get back home. And I have hundreds of photos too. Here is one:

This is the train crew changing shifts at Tokyo station. A glaring difference between Tokyo and Shanghai is the supreme sense of order and formality that the Japanese have compared to the seemingly permanent chaos of Shanghai. Look at the uniform on the "Captain" of the train - white gloves, suit, hat - every detail is precise. I also have some photos and videos I want to post of construction crews from both Shanghai and Japan - in Shanghai we saw lots of people at work in flip-flops and t-shirts. In Japan, everyone is uniformed, with an amazing amount of gear on, and safety is paramount.  Just some jarring juxtapositions between these places.