Typhoon trouble!

As several typhoons hit mainland Japan, Kyoto is quite safe for now. We have seen most things in Kyoto by now and even went to the Yamazaki whiskey destillery. The temple town of Gaidon in Kyoto is the last remaining Geisha district in Japan. Very old and beautiful neighborhood.


Problem? *trollface*

Shinkansen

Shinkansen is the second fastest train-line in Japan and apparantly reaches 295 km/h between Kyoto and Tokyo. Tou have Wifi and a mobile bistro coming by you every 20-30 min. Since Japanese smoke a lot, A LOT, there are designated smoking rooms on some of the carts.


Entering Shinkansen

To Kyoto

Today is the last day in Tokyo and tomorrow we leave for Kyoto. We booked tickets for the Shinkansan Bullet Train which takes us to Kyoto in three hours. It rained here today which makes it the second day it rins while we are here. Considering this is the rain period I think that we have had pretty fine weather. Went to Golden Gai yesterday and it was pretty awesome. A whole block that consists of small... tiny bars. Some serve food, all of them serve beer. The owner of the one we went to even spoke some English.

Tokyo update

Tried to book some tickets for the Tokyo skytree but apparantly they only give the tickets away on lottery since attraction is so new. We have to settle for Tokyo Tower. Got two days left before we leave for Osaka/Kyoto. Here are some more pictures from Ginza.






Who is that handsome beast?

Ginza & Sony Building

Ginza is one of the luxurious shopping districts of Tokyo and the world. You will find every shop you can imagine. Most of the large Japanese companies have their headquarters here such as Sony and Yamaha. We spent all day here looking at stuff and shopping some. The sony building was particularly interesting.


Filip entering Sony building

Seems like Sony got a hard on for Spiderman because their entire 2nd floor seemed to be all about spidey.


The authentic green goblin mask worn by Willem Dafoe in Spiderman


More coming!

And the lord said; "let there be Starbucks"

So the Japanese are good at many things. But one thing they just don't do that well is coffee. The coffee you get in Tokyo is at best watery and bland. Thats why we have taken to buy our coffee at Starbucks which still tastes as the coffee you get back home.


Thank god for Starbucks

Shibuya

Day two and we continue to explore Japan's capital. Today we went to Shibuya by foot.. yea we walked there and it was raining the entire time. Japanese are really used to rain and the entire town seems built around the fact that it does rain quite a bit in Tokyo. Outside every store, restaurant and coffee shop there is either a place for you to hang your umbrella or a machine that will wrap the umbrella for you so that you can bring it into the store without getting the floor wet. This thing is brilliant.
Walking to Shibuya from Shinjuku takes about an hour and something like 5 minutes with the Yanamote line. Shibuya is all about shopping and all the brand name stores like Dolce & Gabbana, Ralph Lauren and Hugo Boss are everywhere. The clientel seems to be young people and it is very trendy. I ended up buying a Tshirt and a pair of pants.

Some things are similar in both Stockholm and Tokyo. For example in both Tokyo and Stockholm you don't talk to strangers on the subway and it is dead quiet in the carts. Also you never tip, they won't accept it. I realize we do tip sometimes in Sweden but it seems unusual. Also when you buy things never hand the clerk money, always put the money in the little tray on the counter. First time I tried to buy something the clerk was almost shocked that I tried to hand her money. Japanese are however very tolerant with tourists and will try to help if they can. Unfortunately not many speak english even among the young people but those that do are usually good, not swedish good but good... German good.

Unforunately I don't have any photos of all this on the Ipad since I only brought the camera with me, ill try to work something out soon. More to come.

Shinjuku at night

Most cities look better in daylight but Tokyo might be an exception to this. Shinjuku truly comes alive at night when darkness sweeps over the city and the business men goes out to ea and drink after a long days work. The shops are open to around 21:00 in most cases and the resturants/bars are sprawling with people well after midnight. It seems like 03:00 is the normal time for a bar to close on a weekday. The mini-markets are open 24/7. Japanese work very long hours, even until midnight - as I took these pictures I saw people working in the scyscrapes. More updates later.

Shinjuku

Time is 00:04 Tokyo time and we have been n Shinjuku district for almost one day now. We landed at Narita around 07:40 Tokyo time, got our rail passes and jumped on the nearest train for tokyo. We ended up taking the Limited Express to Nappori instead of the Narita Express to save about 2000 Yen. In Nappori we switched to the Yentsome to Shinjuku station. This is were all the japanese commuters travel to when to get to work so there was a lot of people pretty much everywhere.... in Japan, there is a lot of people. Limited Express leaving Narita Airport

Airport adventures

To Tokyo! It is early in the morning an we are soon boarding the train that takes us to Kopenhavn Lufthavn. From there to Zurich and then finally to Narita airport (Tokyo).

Fiat currency?

Fiat money?

While watching a debate the other day between congressman Ron Paul, ex-senator Rick Santorum and former governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney. It struck me that in my circle of friends, family and colleagues we never talk about what Ron Paul calls "honest money". Money that is actually backed by a commodity that makes it worth what it says it is. Today our money, the Krona, is just like the Dollar another piece of paper or low grade metal. There is no hidden government cellar filled with gold and silver that backs this currency and ensures its worth to us and to investors. There are actually quite a few dangers associated with "paper money".

Without the support of a commodity like gold and silver to back it up the currency can easily be created when there is a need for it. Government needs to bail out an auto mobile company? Here, have some money! The banks need a financial loan from the tax payers? Start the printers! When you print money the worth of it goes down since there is more of it in circulation. When there is more money in circulation the average Joe eventually gets more money each month to spend on products. This means more people will be able to purchase products and items they never could before and there will eventually be shortages of certain products. Eventually the prices will go up to stabilize the market. It is actually quite simple, more money in circulation = less value of that money. Does that trouble you? It should... But wait, there is more!

So there is more money in circulation, the currency is devalued and is now weaker than the other world leading currencies. Suddenly everything outside your own country became really expensive since you now have to pay twice as much of your currency to exchange it to another one one. This becomes a real pain and a problem because your salary did not necessarily go up with the inflation. Ultimately weak currency will fail. It is called "fiat currency" - currency that is not backed up with a commodity.

So who should really decide the worth of the currency? The free market, the government or maybe greedy banks that only look out for themselves? Some interesting things to consider. I am by no means an expert in this area but I take an interest in it and try to learn more about our monetary system and you should too. It concerns all of us.