Two students in somber school uniforms and spiky haircuts board the Yamanote Line at Shibuya with an enormous drum. They just manage to fit it through the door of the last car and they have to keep it next to the door or it would completely block the aisle. (There are signs in the stations which indicate that surfboards must not be taken on the trains, but nobody said anything about drums.)

The drum is as great a presence on the train as would be Lady Godiva, but nobody evidences the slightest interest. Finally, a little boy breaks away from his mother to go up to the drum and flick a finger against the drum head, causing the drum to give off a timid ping. One of the students takes a large drumstick from his back pocket and hands it to the boy, who grins and belts the drumhead as hard as he can. The sound rumbles through the train. Comes an announcement from the conductor at the back of the train: "No-drum-playing time is between seven to nine in the morning and four to six in the evening We request your kind cooperation in this regard. Thank you."

       

      Tokyo lives easily with its thousands of vending machines. Commuters scurrying through Shinjuku Station know they can pick up a cheap, healthy breakfast from a vending machine dispensing fresh bananas or sliced apples.

On a gloomy day there might be a choice of six kinds of hot soup. If you're caught in an unexpected shower, a vending machine will sell you a cheap umbrella in your choice of color. Or a necktie for an unscheduled meeting. Or a bouquet of flowers to present as a gift.

      But now a whole new kind of vending machines has begun to appear in large Tokyo stations. These new machines are equipped with a camera and are programed to determine whether the person standing before them wondering whether or not to insert a coin is male or female, young or old, and to use this information together with knowledge of the season of the year, the time of day, and the temperature to present the potential customer with a range of choices which it has calculated they are most likely to respond to. A man, for instance, might be offered a cup of black coffee, if it's late perhaps laced with brandy; a woman might be offered a flute of Champagne with four minutes of Chopin as background music.

      The next level in vending machines, it would seem, would be to offer ninety seconds of psychological counseling, depending on how fast the customer has approached the machine, how confidently he or she has grasped the vending machine's proffered hand, and the tenor of their voice when instructed to read one of the phrases they choose from a list the vending machine offers…

Procedure for disposing of Sodai Gomi ("Oversized Garbage")

When at last you resolve to dispose of that rickety old step ladder or the rusty folding chair that's been in the shed out back for as long as anyone can remember, first call your town's Collection Center to tell them how big the item you want to dispose of is. You will be told the Handling Fee and when the item will be picked up. With this information in hand, you can go to any convenience store, bank, or post office and buy a Collection Sticker, which will cost between 200 and 1,000 yen, depending. Write your name on the tag and paste it on the item to be disposed of.  Set the item out by 8:00 am on the day it is scheduled to be collected.

TVs, refrigerators, air-conditioners, and washing machines cannot be disposed of this way, however. You should ask at the store where you bought the appliance to pick it up but if for some reason they are not cooperative, call your town's Home Appliance Recycling Promotion Committee for advice on how to proceed.

To dispose of a home computer, contact the manufacturer. If you are unable to get assistance, contact your town's Personal Computer 3-R Promotion Center for help.

Procedure for disposing of an animal carcass

Call your town's Resources & Waste Recycling Bureau to schedule collection.

If the owner of the pet is unknown, there is no fee. If the pet is yours, the fee is 6,500 yen. The ashes will not be returned to you but if you would like to have a separate cremation and take the ashes home, call your area's Ceremonial Hall. 

- from a town's 38-page manual instructing how to dispose of garbage

Plenty of benches in the Ginza

Parking-lot war

In Tokyo, it is seen to be an advantage to live close to the station. It's convenient, clean, and respectable, and because valued, a good investment.

But what if you live equidistant from two stations? The travel time to your destination will differ only by a couple minutes, so in the morning how do you choose which station to cycle to?

Both stations are aware of their commercial confrontation, of course. The station that attracts more people is in a position to attract more businesses, and therefore the land in the area will be more valuable. What has evolved in my area is a subtle struggle between the bicycle parking lots at the two stations.

The lot at one station is clean and efficient and perfectly acceptable but the parking lot at the other station has devised an edge. Not only is it cheaper (80 yen vs. 100 yen a day), but its manager greets everyone in the morning, immediately gives them change, takes their bike from them and puts it in a rack, and makes a bit of show dusting the seat off. In such small ways is the allegiance of customers forged in Tokyo. 

Awkward, but authentic

The Wall Street Journal tells of a little tapas place in Kyoto, a well-known Tokyo suburb, which  specializes in deep-fried croquetas de jamon--ham croquettes--washed down with canyas--small draft beers. The owner has made a careful study of such places, which abound in Spanish cities, and has gone to the trouble of importing from Spain the napkins used in these places, which are made of thin wax paper, although he knows his customers in Kyoto feel these napkins are unsuited to wiping oil from the lips but nevertheless appreciate that they are authentic.  

natasha nakamura's diary

Lost bird

        A couple days ago a painstakingly written leaflet was pushed into the mailbox of everyone in the neighborhood. It let everyone know that Kawakami-san's pet bird had escaped from its cage and wondered if anyone had seen it. The bird was lovingly described and there was a photo. The leaflet said please let Kawakami-san know if you find the bird or, if you'd like to keep it, please give it a lot of love.

Rooftop garden

natasha nakamura's diary

Dinner with Hugo and two couples who he knew at Hugo's club called Century Court near Tokyo Station, the land for blocks around owned by Mitsubishi Corp. We approached from Yurakucho Station down car-less Marunouchi Dori, the trees on both sides lit up by sparkling lights, a great urban scene.

The club itself is in a perfectly preserved art-deco building which was taken over during the Occupation by MacArthur's GHQ, as is the right of conquerors.

Our meal was miraculous, by a Japanese chef who trained at a three-star restaurant in Belgium. We started with Champagne and had a different wine for each of the five courses. To my taste, the most exquisite course was the warm foie gras with a white Burgundy. I have an idea we should call this vision of eating "Western kaiseki". We were just overwhelmed.

Does Hugo want me to marry him? Does he believe in marriage at all? Can two people who don't believe in marriage live happily together? Why not? 

Subway poster

Natasha Nakamura's Diary

Don't Tokyo women realize that high-heeled shoes, particularly ones that have to be strapped on, are not made for walking? They are only for showing off the curve of the leg. This city is too large for traipsing around in high heels. A popular alternative seems to be the athletic shoe, but the problem here is that this suggests the wearer is preparing to sprint 400 meters or at least trek around Mars. They simply do not go with a sweet summer dress. The Italians are the people to design athletic shoes that are not only comfortable to walk in but also make a statement.

Restaurant sign

natasha nakamura's diary

We use cards for buses, the subway, and even cards to buy espresso at Starbucks. But why not one card for everything? Just eliminate cash altogether. Or even better, why not use an automatic face scan and debit your account accordingly? We have the technology.

In our local market, you can buy five perfect peaches in a wooden box lined with velvet, for 7,850 yen. Or a single perfect melon for 12,000 yen. Two possible uses come to mind: to inspire an extravagant sexual adventure or to give as a gift. Not to eat, surely.

natasha nakamura's diary

Got a job at Frippery, one of Tokyo's several dozen lifestyle magazines They seem nice people but I can see they are scrambling. Tokyo newsstands are just jammed.

Dinner with Sadek in Jiyugaoka, an engaging suburb. The place was called AEN. What they seem to be doing is peppering Western ideas over Japanese dishes, artfully dribbling sauces in decorative swirls on large white plates. What do we call this? Nouvelle Japonnaise? A couple stores down the street sells wonderful pottery and glassware by a man from the provinces  named Takahashi. There was a lovely glass for some exotic liquid, like Campari maybe, which is so light you could blow it across the table. (4000 yen.)

natasha nakamura's diary

Posters in subway saying it is bad manners to apply your makeup in the subway. "Good manners are more attractive than your makeup will make you." Sure. Also makeup must be difficult to put on in the train. But what other city would be so prescriptive?

"Do not walk onto the subway tracks because it is dangerous" is another wonderfully solipsistic instruction. Also, "Counterfeit credit cards not accepted."

Long-legged lady juggling two cellphones. "Why two?" I ask her. "One for business, one for me" OK. But why not make a cellphone that can handle both? And while you're at it let's have a cellphone that can keep communications with multiple boyfriends absolutely separate. Anyway, I don't want to carry these things around with me. They are almost as big as a butter dish. Give me a cellphone I can wear around my wrist, or perhaps, discreetly bejeweled (this would be tricky), around my neck. 

Park behind Midtown building in Roppongi. Note the shoes taken off at the edge of the blanket.

natasha nakamura's diary

Poked around Omotesando with Akio. The pre-war Dojunkai apartments have long gone and Ando has built something completely new. There's also a huge Chanel building and the neighborhood is dripping with money. Some people like this sort of thing--the same people seem to be intrigued by Manhattan. But too much money is burdensome, I think. Like for a country to have too much oil. It becomes how it defines itself...

Natasha Nakamura's Diary

Perhaps in the end the whole point of travel, as my recent two-week excursion in Europe, from Amsterdam up the Rhine to Basel, then by train to Vienna, is that it clears the mind of routine and makes the return home seem somehow a return to a magically new place.

After the glorious but altogether too confident architecture of Vienna, which after a while seemed like living in the midst of the bass section of an orchestra, it was good to return to the scuffy but cozy architecture of sweet old Tokyo.

I've decided to give up my job of inspecting the First Class service of various airlines. Eleven hours in the air from Amsterdam to Tokyo is something to be endured, no matter how pampered. The best solution is simply to sleep. As a parting shot, I will make this recommendation.

Now I think I'll ease back into a routine of sketching and photographing the city and painting.

natasha nakamura's diary

A test was recently given to all elementary-school students, just to see how they were doing, and on the 7 o'clock news tonight we got a ten-minute rundown of the results, broken down by prefecture. Scores ran 65-75 percent, which was judged not bad.

Then we got a look at one of the questions, which involved the geometric spaces that could be created when straight lines were drawn through oblongs whose dimensions were known. A dozen teachers from around the country were asked the answer, which some got right and some flunked.

Then we were told the answer and shown how it was derived. The answer required no special knowledge, only an ability to reason. (I didn't get the answer myself.)

All this took ten minutes, as I say, on a prime-time evening news program. Would this happen in any other country? South Korea, maybe.

Natasha will be travelling in Europe until the beginning of October and has decided not to take her iPad with her.

natasha nakamura's diary

Monday

Home late so drop by a local "British Bar" with football jerseys and London street signs on the wall. Order fish and chips for ¥580, even cheaper than a bowl of ramen. It comes with a bottle of malt vinegar, a small side dish of ketchup for the chips and a small side dish of mayonnaise for the fish. It is served in a wire basket lined with a Xerox copy of a page of an English newspaper.

Bardyl's surfboard, which he polishes every morning.

natasha nakamura's diary

Friday

Friends are curious how I can afford to so often fly from Tokyo to Paris and Vienna (the Paris of Eastern Europe) and to New York and San Francisco. They know I don't otherwise have a lot of money: my one-room apartment in Roppongi is certainly modest and when we go out it's very rarely to a place with an elaborate menu and an evocative wine card. The fact is I eat better on planes than I do on my own, because I always fly First Class.

How can this be?, you ask. This seems to you against the rules of nature.

Well, I can do this because Father finds himself in the extraordinary position of caretaker of the standards of the service offered by the international airlines. His meishi reads: Vice President Operations, Amalgamated Air Transport Organisation (AATO), with headquarters in Amsterdam.

My father is responsible for seeing that (most) airlines flying internationally maintain a level of service that ensures that flying is recognized as a comfortable, even enjoyable, way to travel and that no airline which belongs to AATO is allowed to compete by cutting back on service in order to allow it to offer cheaper tickets. He has a small staff whose job it is to fly and report whether airlines' service meets the AATO standard. I've taken over a small part of this job. It's my job to fly First Class and report. I can pretty much do this when I want as there is inevitably an empty seat in First Class. I am told it's best to have a single person keeping an eye on First Class service as she will apply the same standard (her own) to all airlines for purposes of comparison.

It's gotten so I'm beginning to get to know the First Class cabin stewards of the various airlines, who are usually those the airlines figure are the most charming of its staff.

Next Wednesday I'm off to Berlin on Lufthansa, whose First Class I know to be first class. 

natasha nakamura's diary

Monday

A motorcycle the size of a small horse rumbles by. It seems to be clearing its throat. The rider, sitting bolt upright the better to inspect the scenery, wants to give everyone a chance to listen to his wonderful machine. He wears an immaculate black t-shirt and lettered in white in an insistent script across his back: 

                                   ACOUSTIC.

natasha nakamura's diary

Friday

Spent the whole day lounging in beautiful Kiyosumi Garden in Koto-ku, part of the old Mitsubishi Estate. Carp and turtles swimming in the pond. A teahouse. A pavilion for moon-viewing. Stone lanterns. Moss spread out as a rug. I would die here if I could be sure of not causing a disturbance. 

Homework consultation

natasha nakamura's diary

Monday

I went to Kappabashi to buy a kitchen knife. Japan makes the best knives in the world, drawing on the same skills used to make swords for the samurai.

I decided on a 12-inch-long beauty which a surgeon would be happy to work with. "Would you like your name on it?" asked the shopkeeper. 

"That would be nice," says I. "My name is Natasha Nakamura".

"I can easily inscribe the kanji for Nakamura, but as for your other name--Na Tah Sha?--I would have to use katakana, which with its tight curves are difficult to inscribe in steel, so I regret…"

"Just 'Nakamura' would be fine, thank you."

Such a beautiful knife.

Tokyo Station