Postcards from Tokyo, Japan, 2005

In the late 19th century Ginza was one of the first areas in Tokyo to modernize. Here opened the first supermarkets, and the street got modern lighting (gas). Come here on a Sunday and stroll the alleys closed off to car traffic. This is a shopping paradise, as long as you've got the money of course, but the area also houses some of the best sushi restaurants of Tokyo (the big fish market is not far away). Art galleries abound, and there is a well-known kabuki theatre.

The daily newspaper Asahi has 21 million or so readers, while the worlds combined editions of Metro have 18,5 million. Asahi's offices is just beside the fish market in Tsukiji, not far from Ginza in Tokyo. The editorial offices look like any other daily, in any other country: slightly shabby, cluttered, wall clocks showing different timezones, TV-screens with news from far-away places, a feeling of anticipation in the afternoon that turns to frantic activity later in the evening.

Asahi Shimbun (Japanese for newspaper) has 2.000 journalists employed. The number is difficult to grasp for someone like myself, who usually think about newspaper staff in less bloated Metro-terms. But let's do the math: Metro has 60 different editions. If every paper has 20 journalists, that makes 1.200 Metro journalists worldwide. That means that each Metro journalist provide news for 15.400 Metro readers. Asahi has 10.500 readers per journalist. The difference might not be so enormous after all. And Asahi is a profitable paper, while Metro International continues to lose money.

The Prada store on Omote-Sando in Minami-Aoyama opened 2003. It was designed by the Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron. Like the Koolhaas Prada store in new York (2001) the building steals the attention from the clothes, and totally obliterates competitors like the Comme Des Garçons and Yamamoto stores on the same block. It is one of the coolest buildings in Tokyo (and they have a lot of them).

The pagoda tower in Senso-ji stands 53 meters tall in Asakusa. When we visit the Christmas market is in full swing, and the temple area was packed with shoppers. The pagoda, as so much else in Japan, is fake: it was built 1973, after a Tokugawa original. However, the shinto shrine closeby, Asakusa-jinja, is the real thing, surviving fire, earthquakes and bombings. Do as the Japanese: clap your hands, throw coins and buy your horoscope.

The dolls showing kabuki actors are bought in the outdoor stalls beside the temple. They bring good luck to the household for the whole of 2006. But first you bring your old doll and burn it.