Rainy days and Mondays........that sounds familiar.

It is a rainy day here in Tokyo; it is also a Monday! 

It has been raining most of the day thus far, or rather, I think it has, but I can't be completely sure because I was asleep for most of the morning.  I only arose a little after 13:00 from my hard yet comfortable bed. Now, before you think something disparaging like Jason is a lazy arsed fool, or something equally as accurate, let me inform you I'd stayed up late to watch the US Grand Prix. The time difference between here and Austin is something like 14 hours behind us, so the build-up to the race on Sunday afternoon there started at 04:00 Monday morning here.  Therefore, I hope you'll understand my somewhat lackadaisical start to the day. 

After a long awakening shower at exactly 43 degrees Celsius, I dressed and tottered off to the local supermarket for some supplies for the next day or so. I do rather like my Olympic supermarket, not only as it's less than a two-minute walk from my apartment building, but also for the range of products they carry in a space that's about half the size of a football pitch. Now, I shan't bore you with a list of my purchases, save to say I got enough for three days of dinners including snacks, but no chocolate or ice cream.

'Jason, without chocolate, what is the world coming to?' you may exclaim silently, which of course would be understandable; such is my love of the brown heaven-sent delight. But I'm being strict with myself: unless I do 8000 steps in a day, I do not partake of chocolate. Furthermore, I have to achieve 9000 steps before my willpower allows me a bowl of ice cream.  I'm not being masochistic just for the sake of it; I do have a reason, which I feel is pretty valid. You see, I am, let's face it, overweight now, by rather a lot. I can't give you an accurate tally of the kilos, pounds, or stones my body currently has amassed, as I don't have scales here; however, in Australia, before my little plane and helicopter flights, I was weighed, and I came in at 103 kg. In old money, that's 16.21 stone, or a BMI of 36.9, which for a fella of 5ft5 (167cm) is more than just overweight; it puts me in the obese category. According to the NHS, a healthy weight with an average BMI for someone my age and sex should be somewhere between 51.6 kilograms and 69.7 kilograms!

So, yes, I'm being careful with what I put in my body, which is working, sort of. You see, if you think I'm a big fat bloater now, that's nothing to what I was around this time last year. I stopped jumping on scales after I broke my leg, as I wasn't able to do any exercise, and that was about twenty years back. Therefore, when I had to have a colonoscopy last year, I had no idea how much weight I was carrying, ok, that's not quite true; I knew I was a fat bloke, but exactly how much this extra blubber was, I had no clue. When the nurse sat me on a chair, that was actually the weighing scales, I guessed I was on the heavy side. I couldn't believe my ears when I asked her what my weight was; she seemed hesitant to tell me at first, but the pleading look in my eyes must have got to her. "138 kilos," she uttered softly. I'll save you from doing the maths; that is 21st 10lb. I let it wash over me at the time, yet after other doctor's appointments, it dawned on me that 'little old me' was anything but little! I wasn't just a porker; I wasn't just a bit overweight; I was gargantuanly fat, and more so, I was morbidly obese. They don't like to use that term anymore; it's something like obese level III, although to me it doesn't matter what term you use; it's way, way too bloody big and I don't want to get that way again, and rationing chocolate and fat intake is one way I can help prevent it. 

Therefore, the long and short of it is that as I've done little over 840 steps thus far today, no chocolate is passing my lips!

Going back to my reason for a late start to the day, it was an interesting race, not major excitement, thrills and spills with crashes galore, but fast and enjoyable. Plus, it was so good to see Charlie pretty boy LeClerc up on the podium behind wonderkid Kimi Antonelli and in front of Max Verstappen. Kimi looks like he's going to be World Champion after the next race in Mexico, which would make him the youngest ever driver to claim the title.  

Salad for dinner, yum. 

Calculate your own BMI here.

Further reading on definitions and diagnostic criteria here.

That's all for today..... Copyright © 2026 Seafront Media

Ever seen a statue move? Matsuo Basho

Have you ever seen a statue move?

Just along the river from my little apartment is the Basho Heritage Garden, a raised tiny oasis of beauty dedicated to the memory of Matsuo Basho, one of Japan's greatest poets, especially of the Edo period. 

Here, in this little corner where the Sumida River and Onagigawa River converge and not far from where Matsuo Basho is said to have lived for a number of years. Local legend has it that during the day he faces towards Mt. Fuji and then in the early evening he moves to face down the Sumida River. 

The statue is a life-size Basho sitting on a cushion and seems to cultivate a sense of stillness and calmness that soothes the soul and quietens the mind. There are examples of his work in the garden and along the side of the river on the terrace, which tourists from overseas and closer to home often stop to take photos of to enjoy at their leisure. There is also a little pond in this heritage garden; some say there are small fish swimming in the clear water, but \i'm not so sure. I can, however, say that on the six or seven times I've been there, I've not seen any. 

There is also, quite often, a gentle breeze up here that kisses the cheek like the softest feather, which itself encourages a peacefulness and reflection. Of course, the view is vastly different from the three-hundred-plus years since Matsuo's days; you can get an idea of what it might have been like days long gone. The modern bridges of Shin-Ohashi and Mannen Bridge are in the same places as many previous river crossings that his feet may have used.

 

That's all for today..... Copyright © 2026 Seafront Media

A blast from the past at 4:40am

I was woken by my phone blasting out a version of Harpo's Movie Star, my current ringtone, at 04:40 this morning. My bleary eyes blinked open as the sound got louder; it took a few seconds to first locate my phone and then turn it around to read the illuminated screen. It was a UK number; for some reason that I've yet to discover, the caller ID doesn't display here, so I answered with a sleepy, croaky voice. "Hello," a voice I knew boomed out of the speaker, although it took a few moments for my sleep-addled brain to fire the neurons in my right inferior parietal lobe and recognise the dulcet tones of Simon, an old friend and beau of mine from times long ago. 

It was a surprise phone call, and Simon had no idea I was not in the UK and currently on the other side of the world and living in a time zone that was so vastly different to that back home. Now, I haven't had a conversation with Simon for ever such a long time, more than a year and a half, I'd wager. Therefore, it was jolly good to catch up and have a natter; indeed, whenever we do converse, we do so at length. This morning was no exception, and whilst he woke me up, I kept him up late as we gabbed away as if we'd chatted only the week before.  Our discourse lasted just over four hours this very morning, although it passed by in a fraction of that duration, I thought.

After a shower and a second cup of tea, I ventured to the local Supermarket for all sorts of goodies and supplies. After unpacking, I put a load of washing in the machine and went for a walk along the river. Only 7075 steps were completed before my little tootsies crossed the threshold of my eighth-floor apartment and I relaxed.

I may have felt a little tired all day long due to such an early start, but I was jolly grateful for the call. It is always great to have a conversation with an old friend, especially one that you have such a long history with. Simon and I first met way back in the early 1990s, and when I say early, I mean 1990; it might even have been 1989 — I'm not completely sure, but I'm sure you'll agree that is rather a long time down the long and winding road that is called the past!

All the way through my walk, fragments of our conversation came flooding back, as did memories of a lovely weekend in Oslo, staying in the Oslo Plaza Hotel, a massive mirror-fronted tower block hotel that was considered (at least at the time) one of the best the city had to offer. As memories of Scandinavia faded as the steps mounted, recollections of another overseas trip tumbled out; Malta was a dusty place, filled with old people with wrinkled faces, dark hair, and never without a cigarette. I can remember the two of was walking along the front of St Julians Bay, Valleta and buying comilation cassettes for a fractio  of the cost back home. Oh, the memories! So odd how some things from more than thirty years ago can seem clearer than what I did a week ago last Monday! 

That's all for today..... Copyright © 2026 Seafront Media

River walks....

When you consider that I live in an apartment that overlooks a bridge over the Sumida River, it probably wouldn't surprise you to learn that one of my favourite pastimes is to stroll up and down the banks of the aforementioned river. There are a few reasons why I like it so much; not least the exercise value, its calming nature is also a boon. Watching fellow walkers, joggers, dog walkers, promenaders, anglers, or other such activities is very enjoyable for a person such as myself, who some might say is nosy whilst I'd contend I'm just inquiring. Experiencing the weather is jolly nice, especially in this autumn season which seems so very changeable at the moment. As an example, there had been a long period of rain every day just recently; the day before yesterday it was bright sunshine with temperatures knocking on 29 degrees. Yesterday, mostly cloudy with the afternoon sun chasing that cloud away like a naughty minx in the wood. Of course, sometimes the humidity is a factor; sometimes it is quite low at 40%, other times it's up to 92% and above, which means you'll either have to walk thirty minutes to get a sweat on or do half a dozen steps before the moisture starts leaking from your pores. Apologies if that's given you mental images of things you'd rather not have floating around your hippocampal formation

Yesterday I went for a walk along a river, but not the one that I can see from my window. I arose early, well, ok early for me, and headed off down the road. I strolled all the way along Tokyo Prefecture Route 50, otherwise known as Shin-ohashi-dori Avenue, or to me, the road outside, until a jolly long bridge/flyover construction, Funabori Bridge. Now, I'm not sure where officially the bridge starts, but the whole thing is pretty long, about 1.9 kilometres, and transports vehicles and people over the Kyunaka River, Arakawa River, and Naka River. 

Pccari Sweat and an egg sandwich picnic refueled me after the 6.2 kilometres or 3.9 miles walk, and I enjoyed the view for a while. There is a cycle and jogging track, a separate footpath, and a lush, overgrown, marshy-type section right by the water, which all vie for attention.  There is an almost wild, wide-open charm about the area, despite the busy road, the industrial aspect, and the overcast skies. It was moody; it was, at least for a little while, a brief scene from a music video or a promotional film, maybe of a dystopian drama with the distant Tower Hall Funabori, the evil overlords' watchtower. A scene made all the more believable by the tower's square, almost brutalist architectural style. I can only wonder what this place would look like on a cold, snowy winter's day with a sky of battleship grey and as bleak as bleak could be. 

Sorry, rivers often make me dream, or perhaps that should be daydream, or just let my mind wander down rabbit holes of gargantuan proportions and create mental images of the movies in my mind. I'll try to resist those temptations in the future, but the mind does what the mind wants.

I didn't walk home; I took the metro, the super efficient Shinjuku Line, back to Morishita Station, just down the road from the apartment for a bit of a rest. Of course, you'll never know what I did a couple of hours later, after a long rest and a nice cuppa.  Yep,  went for a walk by the river! 

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That's all for today..... Copyright © 2026 Seafront Media

Back in Japan with a typhoon sent to greet me!

I've completed the Australian leg of my travels, have returned to Japan, and am back in the Tokyo apartment. I had a wondrous time 'down-under,' and it was great to experience so many places. In the days to come, I'll tell you more about my activities and my innermost impressions of the Australian cities I visited.

Now, I'm back in Tokyo, and my soul feels contented, although the weather is a bit damp. In fact, today is the 35th consecutive day of rain in central Tokyo, a new record, and tomorrow is very likely to be the 36th. In the last 24 hours, there has been 36mm of rain.  Typhoon / Tropical Storm Surigae is off the coast and may bring more wind and rain tomorrow if it doesn't weaken and change course, which is quite likely. 

I arrived back on 25th September on a lovely Japan Airlines flight from Sydney in Business Class, thanks to a successful low upgrade bid. I was flying on a Boeing 777-300, which was very comfortable, with a lie-flat seat, massive entertainment screen, and lots of space. As it was a day flight, almost 10 hours' worth, I didn't turn it into a bed and only had a post-meal nap, as I didn't want to create that jet lag phenomenon. I'm glad I did, as I slept through the night, waking up around five in the morning on Saturday.

I've wandered around the local area, up and down the river and to the local parks, to reacquaint myself with things and see what has changed in the nearly three months I've been away. In short, not a lot has changed; the major noticeable difference is that the two trees out the front of the apartment block have been well and truly pruned. Everything else looks and feels the same, including shopping in the local supermarket.

On Sunday I took the long walk to Tokyo Station, which is always a great place to visit, almost always very busy and packed with all kinds of life going about their business. I often find it strange that if you ever want to feel completely alone whilst being in a big crowd, go to the station. Yet, if you feel lonely, you can also head to the underground shopping streets and feel the warmth of humanity, which chases the birds of loneliness away. 

I didn't buy anything down there, but I headed down the street to the massive flagship GU, Uniqlo, and Daiso stores at Marronnier Gate, Ginza, which, despite the number of people, is always a nice place to shop. I got some domestic supplies, such as fluffy towels, vases, flowers, containers, and a super large mug. Now I can have a cuppa, British style, whilst looking over the river from my balcony.

I was awoken at 4:47am yesterday morning by a 4.9 magnitude earthquake, and as the epicentre was only in the next-door prefecture, the warnings only arrived as the quake had already roused me from my slumber. Now, it may sound scary, up here on the 8th floor, the wobbling wasn't aggressive or excessive. Indeed, dare I say, I actually find it almost comforting. No point getting scared, as such tremors from the ground up are a fact of life here in Tokyo. Thus, after a brief look outside, a drink, wee, and then back to sleep, I went for an hour. 

In the last few days, I've gone by the lovely statue of Matsuo Basho, which is a five-minute walk away from the apartment, at various times of the afternoon to see if I can spot it moving. Yes, legend has it that the statue faces Mount Fuji during the day and shifts position to gaze down the river to Tokyo Bay of a night. As of now, I've yet to see the big bronze sitting poet move, but I'll keep you informed. 

That's all for today..... Copyright © 2026 Seafront Media

Typhoon number 6 Jangmi

During the last day or two of May and the first couple of days in June, Typhoon number 6, called Jangmi, blew its way here, causing record-breaking rainfall, flooding, and quite a lot of disruption in many areas of Japan.

Morning world....here comes Jangmi.  Photo Jason Shaw

Jangmi, a Koren girls name which translates to Rose, a somewhat benign name for a storm that was anythng but. It affected Okinawa, Kyushu, Shikoku, and western Japan. According to the local news channels, it was a particularly powerful Typhoon, with strong winds, around 126 kph with gusts up to 180 kph, that's 78 and 112 mph! Travel was widely disrupted, some 524 domestic and 92 international flights were cancelled and numerous train services either halted or delayed.

Typhoon number six whilst having a morning cuppa.

The storm produced record rainfall in a number of regions, and there was some flooding and damage. According to News on Japan, 1.6 million people in the Tokyo metropolitan area were affected by official warnings; indeed, some parts of the city had Tokyo’s first-ever Purple Level 4 (Urgent warning - all residents should evacuate from affected area, when or before Evacuation Instruction is issued). The area where my apartment is located, just across the river from Chuo City, four streets away from Sumida City, Koto was in a level 3 warning area, but I had no plans to go out.  The day before, I'd purchased enough food and supplies for three days, including food that didn't need to be cooked or heated up in case of power outages. I've lived through the so called great storm of '87 in the UK, a Super Derencho in Illinois, USA in 2009, a 7.9 eartquake in December last year whilst enjoying my first visit to this fine country. Yet, I'd never been through a Typhoon, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect.

Even during a typhoon the expressway is busy  Photo Jason Shaw

  

Opps,  I went out on the balcony in my slippers, I'm so naughty!

and wind was the answer, a rather lot of each and then a wee bit more of both and guess what, even when I thought it was over a whole lot more came from the skies. As the day passed into afternoon, the typhoon had moved up and venturing out, I was greeted by a surprisingly pleasent early evening. In fact, if you'd been asleep all day and just came out after 17:00 you'd be forgiven for thinking nothing but a brief shower had occured. 

Sumida River - the calm after the storm.  Photo Jason Shaw

A poets view, a perch up high, refreshed anew, water drips from the sky  Photo Jason Shaw

In the olden days you could see Mount Fuji from that bridge. Photo Jason Shaw

The river seems high, the cloud breaks. Photo Jason Shaw

A ripple of light is a right good sight on a cloudy day.  Photo Jason Shaw

Eitai Bridge over the Sumida River. Photo Jason Shaw

The typhoon is blowing away as the skies clear.  Photo Jason Shaw

Watching the clouds pass  Photo Jason Shaw

You'd hardly believe more than 7 inches of rain had fallen in 24 hours.  Photo Jason Shaw

Its almost sunset time.  Photo Jason Shaw

Can you see the bird?  Photo Jason Shaw

Clouds and dreams. Photo Jason Shaw

A view to the back side of the departing Jangmi.  Photo Jason Shaw

That's all for today..... Copyright © 2026 Seafront Media

Lets take a walk and go and get lost

Walking, walking, and more walking.

One of the main activities of my time in Tokyo has been walking. I’ve walked to Ginza, to Asakusa, to Akihabara, to Ojima, to Kachidoki, to Shimbashi, to Shiomi and all places in between. I’ve not quite made it to Minato City for Tokyo Tower or Edogawa for Arakawa River yet, but who knows, maybe next week I’ll venture that far out.

Keeping fit is one of the reasons for me electing to use my own two legs as my main method of transport, rather than the epically proportioned rail and subway networks of Tokyo. The other, and perhaps the main reason, could be called sightseeing, although for me it is slightly more a case of seeing life going on around me, rather than spotting typical tourist sights, which sightseeing usually conveys. My eyes are sweeping along the various streets, roads, and avenues that my feet are walking down. I’m gazing at the restaurants offering a multitude of cuisines, many displaying pictures of meals served. I see the stores selling household supplies are commonplace, whereas clothes retailers tend to be mainly in the shopping centres. Another, conceivably surprising addition to the Tokyo scene is the proliferation of European-style bakeries making a variety of cakes and pastries at high prices, which are popular with the well-heeled ladies of the city, especially at the weekends. The queue outside my local one is always nine or ten deep, fragrant ladies under parasols.

I enjoy walking off the main thoroughfares just as much, down those narrower streets, where houses are cheek by jowl, where pavements are just differentiated from the highway by a white line. One of the charms of these less busy streets is the remarkably different styles of architecture that complement each other. There are funky new apartment blocks next to vintage machiya - small, mostly wooden townhouses, just over the road from an abode that looks somewhat like an akiya (old vacant property).  Then, just when you least expect it is a shrine, complete with banners, stone animals, and an ink stamp in a box. You might think it is someone's drive, but if you look carefully, you’ll often find that shadowy uneven ground is actually an entrance to a small but peaceful park.

Over the last few days, I’ve spent a lot of time walking down streets like that. I’ve gone out with just a phone, a packet of Polos, and a plan of having no plan! I left the mobile internet Wi-Fi thingamabob behind as I didn’t want to rely on Google Maps or other such location-finder apps to influence my wandering. I don’t have mobile internet on my phone – well, I do, but I can’t afford to use it on my current plan whilst in Japan! Plus, if it didn’t have a pedometer and audiobook app on my phone, I’d have left it on the side in my apartment as well. For more than seven hours over the last three days, I’ve wandered about freely, deciding which direction to turn at every crossroads only when I get to it, and happily getting lost. Every now and then, I can honestly say that getting lost is the most fun.  I advise you to do it, no, really, go and get lost sometime this week!

That's all for today..... Copyright © 2026 Seafront Media

Insomnia in the city.....

Insomnia and me are no strangers, indeed, you might say we are old friends, we’ve been acquainted since I was a sulky schoolboy in sleepy Surrey. For me, it comes and goes; it arrives unannounced, stays around for a week or so before it pops off again. There is no way I can tell when this old mate will show up, stomping about in my head, throwing things hither and dither and generally being annoying.

Shin-Ohashi Bridge as dusk is just about to fall.

I had regular bouts as a teenager and during college, then he disappeared for a long while before coming back in my late twenties. I don’t remember him visiting during my thirties, although, if I’m completely honest, I can actually recall a lot of details about those years.  I didn’t have many periods in my forties, although working twelve-hour night shifts on a four-on, four-off basis plays hell with the normal sleep pattern anyway. After I stopped earning a crust in the darkest hours before and just a tingly bit after dawn, I’ve had regular periods of sleepless nights. Usually it is when my world turns upside down, and daytime seems sleepy bye-byes time, and at night, it's wakey wakey after midnight.  Sometimes there have been reasons for it, job stress, end of relationships, death, illness and that sort of malarkey and other times, there seems to be no reason, none at all.

For the last few nights, he’s been back, the first time since I’ve been in Japan and about as welcome as a glass of Andrews Liver Salts when you’ve got the trots!.  Actually, yesterday that was also the case, I had both a sleepless night and a butt that was almost permanently on the heated seat of my class A loo.  The tummy trouble was, I’m pretty sure, due to consuming four cans of a ‘sugar-free’ alcoholic beverage as well as polishing off a tube of ‘sugar-free’ mints. Accidentally overdosing on sorbitol can have a laxative effect; well, it certainly does on me, as yesterday can attest to.

Clear skies and gentle breezes

I did manage to head to the supermarkets today for a stock up and also a walk around the neighbourhood.  I enjoyed a lunch on the river terrace watching the boats go up and down the river, and after returning home, I sat on the balcony and again watched boats go down and up the river, until the sun started to set.

Now, as the clock ticks onwards to midnight, my mind is not in the least bit sleepy and is racing away to various subjects and topics. Indeed in the last twenty-four minutes, I’ve contemplated buying a new camera, which shop to get the tax refunded, potatoes ‘n’ mint with the possibility of growing one or the other or both on the balcony, where to buy a bag of compost, can kiwis fly, how many steps it is to the nearest vending machine that takes IC cards, what liquid refreshment to have next!

So, as the week rapidly races to its end, this sleepy insomniac is wondering if he should go for a walk before midnight to tire even further achy bones to encourage sleep to arrive before four in the morning. Or stand on the balcony and watch the last of the river traffic heading back to its mooring while I wait for the timely dew of sleep, falling with soft slumbrous weight, inclines my eyelids!

Pretty hydrangeas and other lovely flowers offer food for the soul.

Matsuo Basho keeps a lookout up the river. On a clear day, in days of old, you can see Mount Fuji

Who can say what dreams were made this day?

That's all for today..... Copyright © 2026 Seafront Media