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Here comes what might well be the pen-ultimate issue of the 'Empty Seat'. As regular readers will know, I am leaving Japan, after 14+ years residence, in late June, and so although I could quite easily write this page from my new home in Thailand, it wouldn't be fair to criticise Japan from afar. Anyway, not having noticed anyone wearing black or weeping over the imminent end of the 'Empty Seat', it seems like a good idea to let it depart from the internet next month -- maybe even before that. To prepare the wwaiting world for its disappearance, you might notice that there are fewer stories this month -- 13 sections compared with last month's 21. This is partly due to my being rather busy, but that's another story. Anyway, enjoy it while you can, so here comes a parting glance at what's been in the news here in Japan . . . 

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The  main story in the Japanese news this past month was, of course, the train crash near Osaka, Japan's 4th-worst post-war railway accident. The accident was covered by the BBC and other international news concerns, but just in case it didn't reach you, here's the story. A JR West commuter train smashed into a condominium building after 5 of its carriages derailed on a curve. By the time rescue operations were completed, the death toll amounted to 106, including the 23-year-old train driver, as well as injuring 540 people, 150 seriously. The accident occurred one Monday morning when the train was travelling from Tsukaguchi Station to Amagasaki Station. According to the police, the train was travelling at more than 100 kilometres per hour when it derailed, even though the curved section has a speed limit of 70 kph. This reckless haste had previously led to the train earlier overrunning a stop at Itami Station by about 40 meters. Many, including some from the railway union, believe that the driver was afraid of being punished for being late, hence his excessive speed. As a result of his trepidation, the train's front car ploughed into the ground-floor parking area of a condominium building, located about 6 meters from the tracks; the second car was flattened when it crashed into the building. According to reports, JR drivers who are late have to undergo a long re-education course, which means they have to do meaningless chores such as weeding, etc.,  and are shouted at and intimidated by superiors. The dead driver is said to have been under tremendous pressure after undergoing such a 13-day re-education programme for a past mistake. This tragedy is the worst since the Japan Railway group firms were created from the break-up of the state-run Japanese National Railways in 1987. Japan's worst-ever post-war railway accident happened in Saitama Prefecture in February 1947, when a train derailed and turned over, killing 187 people. 
Update: Rather worryingly, especially for those who hoped such carelessness only happened in the Kansai, was the report that a JR Kyushu driver forgot to stop his train at Space World Station (I didn't invent that name, honest!) on the JR Kagoshima Line a station in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture. "I was thinking about something else," the driver said. Like how to keep his job, maybe?

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The  anti-Japanese demonstrations and bad feeling in China continue to provide local journalists with plenty of copy. However, although some Japanese businesses are starting to suffer (only mildly at present), recent figures for 2004 revealed that China has replaced the United States as Japan's biggest trading partner for the first time on a fiscal year basis. Including Hong Kong, Japan's exports to and imports from China hit a record high of ¥22,714.1 billion in the year to March 31, far outpacing the figure of ¥20,603.5 billion in trade with the United States. In percentage terms, China accounted for 20.3% of Japan's trade in FY2004, compared with 18.4% for the US. You'd think someone would mention this to our beloved Prime Minister as he strives to upset China by honouring war criminals. However, he may not care but China does seem to. In a recent front-page editorial, the People's Daily, official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, urged Chinese consumers not to boycott Japanese products. Proving that someone in the Communist hierarchy is more in touch with reality than some of Japan's leaders, the paper said that refusing to buy Japanese products hurts China as well as Japan, as their economies are "more and more inter-dependent," the editorial said. Now we all know that China is one of the worst dictatorships around, a supposedly communist state where education and health care are far from free, and so I don't fool myself by thinking that this call for sanity is based on brotherly love. It is, of course, firmly based in self-interest, but maybe if Japan were to show a realistic amount of self interest, instead of living in a world of "we're not guilty" illusion, this whole situation might never have arisen!

 

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Some of my students seem surprised that the UK has privately-run jails, but Japan has now also acquired its own private sector prison. Due to open in April 2007, the prison will be in the far north, in Yamaguchi Prefecture, the westernmost prefecture on Honshu Island. However, in line with Japan's hi-tech image, this prison will use a special integrated circuit tag system to detect the location of prisoners, the Justice Ministry announced. The prison will be created by a business group that, logically enough includes the construction company Shimizu Corp, but which also includes Secom, one of the world’s leading electronic security companies. So the use of electronic surveillance equipment is hardly surprising! However, I'm still not too fond of the idea of private prisons. In the UK, I have heard a lot of misgivings about cost cutting, putting the interests of the shareholders above human rights. Now those who know me usually place me a little to the right of Genghis Khan, politically speaking, but with Japan's government prisons enjoying a truly shocking reputation for abuse, I fear that such a cavalier attitude towards life, combined with concern over the 'bottom line', might lead to a few inmates getting released in body bags!

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You know, love them or hate them, some Japanese politicians truly have the cheek of the devil! For example, take our respected Foreign Minister, Nobutaka Machimura. In some recent TV debate programmes, he was quite vocal about the recent contretemps between Japan and China over history textbooks -- but with a difference. Believe it or not, he accused China's textbooks of being anti-Japanese! I kid you not. To be exact, he said that the Japanese government will examine China's history textbooks for alleged anti-Japanese references and ask the Chinese government to "improve them" if necessary. In his words, "The textbooks in China and South Korea are designated by the government". And the textbooks in Japan are not? OK, Japan's textbook censorship is a case of leaving facts out, whereas China's consists more of barefaced lies, but even so! Now many reasonable folk might have hoped that Japan might start acting in a conciliatory way towards China. Few truly think that the recent regrets quoted by the Prime Minister are adequate, but few could have expected Japan to criticise China's textbooks. Cheek just isn't a strong enough term, in my view. The Yiddish/American term 'chutzpah' comes closer, but even that wasn't coined with the sort of effrontery shown by Machimura-san!

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Crime File

• This page has sadly often reported molesting-type attacks on schoolgirls but a recent attack went far beyond that. It took place in Nagano and involved a 17-year-old girl who was on her way to school by bicycle when someone allegedly poured paraffin on her and set fire to her clothes. The girl sought help at a nearby house. Not surprisingly, the girl, a senior high school student, has been hospitalized with serious burns. No one has yet been arrested, and no motive for the attack has come to light. 

• As part of the ongoing 'disagreement' between China and Japan, a man was recently arrested for hurling a fire bomb at the Yokohama branch of the Bank of China. No one was injured. The attacker, a 40-year-old self-styled rightist, filled a beer bottle with gasoline-like liquid. set it alight, and then threw it at the bank branch at around 6:20 in the morning. It might not compare with the near riots in China, but it does once more reveal the looney right here, who see Koizumi-san as a patron!

• Japan's love of football (soccer to the uncultured few) has yet to lead to hooligan problems such as some Western countries have experienced, but it might be heading that way. This isn't exactly a police report, but it seems that Japan's first-division club Kashiwa Reysol has banned 11 fans from their matches indefinitely for their involvement in a punch-up that took place after a league game at home to Nagoya Grampus Eight. OK, it isn't exactly a street battle between Millwall and Tottenham fans, complete with skinheads and 'Doc Martens', but as they say, "mighty oaks from little acorns grow".

• They say that you're never too old to fall in love, and it seems that you're never too old to get arrested, either! Take the case of the 74-year-old restaurant owner who was recently arrested in Saitama Prefecture. What did he do? He's suspected of murdering his 73-year-old wife. How did he manage such a feat? Well, it seems he hit his wife on the head with a carved wooden figure and strangled her with a belt. Pretty thorough, you have to admit. So why did he do it? According to the Police, he said, "I got into an argument with my wife because she bought expensive health food products." At first, he went to visit his younger brother who lives nearby and told him his wife was dead, but later admitted to killing her when his brother questioned him. Till death us do part indeed!

• Remember last month I commented on how busy the Yakuza were for a group the cops pretended didn't exist for many years? Well, they haven't been inactive since then, it seems. Police down in Shizuoka Prefecture (around Mt Fuji) recently arrested a man on suspicion of killing a gangster who allegedly stabbed his friend after a quarrel, It seems that 41-year-old Kazumi Masuda, who belongs to a group affiliated with Japan's largest crime syndicate, the Yamaguchi-gumi, stabbed 29-year-old Tsuneji Sudo with a kitchen knife after a quarrel. In return, 33-year-old Takahiro Fukada, who was in a car with Sudo, stabbed Masuda with the same knife. Masuda and Sudo were taken to a hospital where they died. By the sounds of it, Japan's a lot better off with both guys gone!

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Despite its laudable recycling efforts (which may well be less impressive than they appear), Japan is far from being an environmentally friendly country. Polluters are rarely punished and people throw away possessions within a ridiculously short time after purchase, old being a very relative term here! Now, however, its official. In the updated version of the Ranking Power Report released last November by WWF International, Japan's power utilities were given what were described as deservedly low scores for their anti-greenhouse gas efforts. The report assessed the seriousness of anti-greenhouse gas measures taken by the world's 71 major utilities. The survey was based on  the utilities' performances and future plans in terms of environmentally-friendly power generation methods using wind power and other renewable energies, as well as natural gas-based cogeneration systems. Japan's best utility was the Hokkaido Electric Power Company, which ranked 9th in the list of power companies in OECD countries and Russia. TEPCO, the Tokyo region utility and said to be the world's largest electricity provider, ranked a shameful 50th, although this is much better than its Shikoku counterpart, which ranked 71st -- 2nd from bottom! In case you're wondering, the top 3 were Iberdrola (Spain),  FPL group (USA) and ScottishPower (UK). And the worst? The 'Southern Company', of the USA.

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Not content with putting a lot of makeup on when they get up, many young ladies often feel the need to 'top up' their paint job during the day, no matter where they are. Indeed, the local Metro has many courtesy posters including one that mildly criticises ladies who spend their journey time putting on makeup. To me, such a habit is mildly annoying but some clearly find it very vexing. Take the case of the 65-year-old woman who admonished a 22-year-old woman on the platform of Hiroo subway station -- not far from where I am writing this! It seems that the young lady, a restaurant employee from Tokyo's Meguro Ward, was sitting on a bench on the platform when the woman admonished her, saying, "You should not put on makeup here." The girl is alleged to have followed her critic, called out to her and then shook her by the shoulders, causing the elderly woman to stumble against the first car of a train arriving at the platform. The 'attacker', who claims that she only wanted to clarify to the woman that she was not actually putting on makeup but wiping the sweat from her face with a makeup sponge, has been arrested on suspicion of seriously injuring the elderly woman! Now I am damn'd if I can see why the youngster bothered following her critic like that, least of all shaking her, so maybe the police have a point. However, the main puzzlement for me is her choice of where to add to her makeup (or wipe the sweat off). Hiroo Station is a rather gloomy, shadowy old station, with narrow, often crowded platforms. Hardly ideal for beautification, and certainly not suited to chasing an accuser and giving her a good shaking!

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Returning, if I may, to the way some Japanese politicians seem to go out of their way to upset China, I recently read that some idiot had seriously suggested stationing 'Self-Defense Forces' troops on the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyutai Islands, 400 kilometres west of Okinawa in the East China Sea. Why? Well, he didn't actually say "to irk China" -- he claimed he wanted "to avoid invasion by other countries". Can you believe that? What's more, this wasn't one of the usual senile ruling party dinosaurs, this one is the chief of the Constitution Research Committee of the opposition Democratic Party of Japan! No wonder so many young people don't bother to vote! This genius told a TV news show that "I believe the SDF should be stationed there so other countries will not be able to invade them,". Now it is true that the Senkakus are claimed by both China and Taiwan, but I hardly think that Taipei is planning a D-Day landing on these godforsaken rocks, so it's all too easy to see who he's talking about! However, there are two things about his idea that bother me. First off, the SDF already has serious problems recruiting people, due to the boredom of peacetime soldiering without the chance of travel. The prospect of being stuck on one of the 5 small volcanic islands and 3 rocky outcrops that are closer to Taipei than Tokyo, with only passing Chinese warships and seagulls for company, is hardly going to have them queuing up at the recruitment offices! Then, of course, we come to his alleged motive. On one side, we have China, with the 2.5 million strong 'People's Liberation Army", the largest army, in terms of sheer numbers, in the world. On the other side, we have a handful of inexperienced SDF recruits who aren't allowed to use their weapons without permission. I'm sure Beijing is already quaking with fear! 

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America has for some time been pressuring Japan to once again allow US beef imports, which were banned due to BSE reports in the US. Well, the White House recently used a much more subtle means of trying to get Japan to change its mind. It happened when the Acting Secretary General of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Shinzo Abe, was attending a lunch hosted by US Vice President Dick Cheney's Chief of Staff, Lewis Libby. Somewhat cunningly, the visiting politician was served US beef and asked by a senior official if he enjoyed it. Pretty foxy, ah? Mt Abe didn't say what his answer was, but unless he starts acting as truly looney as some of his LDP colleagues, I think the point is that US beef might be safe enough to import again. This would, of course, hit Australian cattle farmers hard, as Aussie beef has pretty much taken up the slack the US ban caused -- Japan's own beef being both highly expensive and somewhat different to the beef we Westerners are used to. Whether Abe-san's experience will lead to am earl resumption of beef imports remains to be seen, but I have to give Lewis Libby ten out of ten for creative menu making!

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Regular readers might have noticed that I am not exactly a cheerleader for the local constabulary, but a recent report surprised even me! However, on reading the full story, I must admit that the cops' mistake is pretty easy to understand. It happened in Tokyo's neighbouring prefecture, Saitama, where police arrested a man for theft. However, they released him shortly afterwards. Why? Because they 'discovered' that he wasn't the perpetrator, he was the victim! I kid you not! The story is this. The 58-year-old man, who was drunk at the time, fell down and sustained minor injuries after a teenage boy threw a bicycle at him at around 11:55 p.m. on a Wednesday night.  The youth then stole the man's wallet, which contained about ¥80,000 (US$745) in cash. Police said the youth accidentally dropped a girl friend's wallet at the scene of the robbery, which the injured drunk later picked up. See how things are going? Anyway, with remarkable gall, the girl (who hadn't actually been involved in the robbery) reported to the police that the man had stolen her wallet. The police later found the man, who matched the girl's description and had her wallet, and arrested him on suspicion of theft. However, the next morning (when he had presumably sobered up and realised where he was) the man told the police that his wallet had been stolen, prompting them to question the girl again. This time, the girl admitted she had lied and that her friend had stolen the man's wallet. She was duly arrested on suspicion of filing a false complaint, and the boy for robbing and injuring the man. However, if they man is expecting an apology or, even more improbable, compensation, he seems likely to be disappointed. Not long after this mix-up, the local deputy chief of police said, "We believe we took the proper procedures for an arrest because the man had not accounted for why he had the girl's wallet. While we do not think it was a case of false arrest, we indeed feel sorry for the man." Such a tale should help deter we men from getting legless on the streets of Japan, but judging by myself, I doubt if it will! 

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In the aftermath of World War 2, many people criticised General Macarthur for allowing the late Emperor Hirohito, posthumously known as Emperor Showa, to remain on the throne. However, almost 50 years later, the late emperor still arouses controversy, with Japanese people seemingly split on how to view him. This split was recently exposed by two reports, both involving Japanese politicians. Firstly, we have opposition lawmaker Naoto Kan, who said on a Fuji TV political debate show that Emperor Showa should have stepped down from the throne when Japan lost World War 2 to take responsibility for the war. Even he denies that emperor had any real political responsibility, but claims that "he did have responsibility symbolically." Mr Kan believes his abdication would have helped Japan to come to terms with the war politically and symbolically. 
Now, let us turn to the other side of the argument. Japan's parliament approved a bill to rename April 29th, currently known as 'Greenery Day', as 'Showa Day' to mark the dead Emperor's birthday. The move, they say, will mark Japan's post-war rebirth as well as look to the future. Greenery day will now be celebrated on May 4th, currently called 'People's Day'. Now this isn't the first time the ultra-conservatives have tried to do this, but previous attempts have been abandoned due to political pressure. However, as if to prove that there isn't much to choose from between Japan's various politicians, the latest attempt has the backing of the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan, which says the holiday would encourage public reflection of the turbulent 63 years of Hirohito's reign. Only one politician admitted that the change could upset people with memories of World War II, but he seems to have got the completely wrong idea, for he seems worried that Japanese people might be prompted to recall the wartime hardship. Do you think that someone in the corridors of power is given the task of dreaming up new ways to offend Japan's neighbours? I often think so. I also think that if I were to stay here, and if (as some politicians plan) foreigners with permanent residence were given the vote, I for one would probably never use it. Choosing between a rock and a hard place seems rather pointless, don't you think?

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Say That Again . . .

 The recent train crash near Osaka really came as a shock to most people, used to the clockwork punctuality of Japan's railways. However, some creeps have reacted in a much more negative way, and since April 25th, JR staff have been threatened, punched, kicked;, and one conductor was dragged from his cabin by an assailant. As one railway union spokesman justifiably commented:
"We understand this is a sensitive time. But crime is crime, whatever the circumstances, and violence toward JR employees is unacceptable."
I wonder what these people will do when JR finds it hard to recruit staff and the whole service comes to a grinding halt? Or when the fares go up to finance 'danger money' for them?

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After years of enjoying such a reliable service, some Japanese have become almost fanatical about getting from A-to-B in the shortest possible time. I totally agree with what one professor of transportation and industrial psychology at a University in Tokyo recently observed:
 "I personally think Japanese should relax more and think that two- to three-minute delays are no trouble. But you see people rushing up and down the station stairs to catch a train even if there's another one coming in two minutes." 
The professor said, possibly with some justification, that the pressure to stay on schedule was partly to blame for the train derailment. Sobering thought -- or so I hope it is!

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One reason for Japan's increasingly worrying juvenile crime rate is the lack of a father figure, with 'Dad' spending most of his life at the office, pachinko parlour or golf course. As one man who decided against following such an example observed:  
"My father was a workaholic and away from home for a long time. I cannot understand why salary men have to make their families sad because of their work."
This  23-year-old is one of the new breed known as 'freeters', a term derived from the English word "free" and the German word Arbeiter, meaning people with college diplomas who prefer menial employment -- in his case, working part time sorting goods at a warehouse.

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From the "Who the hell does he think he's kidding" file comes a recent quote from the Foreign Ministry's press secretary, who felt obliged to defend Japan's attempts to censor history, saying:
"There is no textbook published in Japan which tries to glorify or beautify Japan's history of aggression, colonization or atrocity in any country." 
He claimed, almost laughably, that Japan's textbooks reflect its pacifist ideals. Well, if not mentioning atrocities is what pacifist do, then I suppose he's right!

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On a closely related topic, just see if you can guess who said the following, and what he was talking about.
"In the 21st century, people are expected to offer an apology and compensation if they damage other people's property. We cannot call a state governed by the law if its people believe they can do whatever they want for the sake of patriotism."
Well, the speaker was Japan's Economy, Trade and Industry Minister, and believe it or not, he was criticizing China for offering no apology or compensation for violence and damage caused by the recent anti-Japanese protests. Sadly, it seems that this rule of politeness didn't apply to crime committed in the mid-20th century!

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However, the best way for those nations that Japan's wartime policies so grievously hurt to get their own back is not by breaking a few restaurant windows, but by beating Japan at it's own game. This was concisely summed up by one young Chinese protester taking part in a Beijing rally:
"China's economy needs to grow even bigger so Japan won't be able to push us around ever again." 
He said that he had learned about the rally on a website, with others getting advance word of the protests by email and cell phone text messages. That suggests that China is heading in the right direction, progress-wise.

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It has always been my proud boast that I have never been remotely fashionable. Therefore, the shockingly boring taste in clothes shown by most Japanese males has only amused rather than upset me. However, times are changing and the Western trend of 'Meterosexual' is edging into Japan. As the editor of a recently launched middle-aged men's magazine observed: 
"They'll spend 200,000 yen for a suit, while scraping by on a 500 yen lunch." 
I've never spent that much on a suit, but I have had some similarly priced lunches, so I guess the narcissistic fashion followers will continue to have no competition from me!

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And what if your ¥200,000 suits fails to attract the lady of your dreams? Well, in that case, you could resort to something that is becoming increasingly popular here -- renting life-size latex mannequins! As one local Sex therapist explained:  
"Rather than have sex with a woman who doesn't fulfil their expectations, some men would rather play with something that corresponds to their fantasy, even if she's not real."
I could comment on this but it might get me out of Japan quicker than I plan!

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I remember when living in London that we men were somehow expected to be careful how we behaved around females in case they started to think we were stalkers or worse. Well, that trend is coming here now, and the introduction of ladies-only train carriages (reported in last months; 'Empty Seat') hasn't changed this. As one male commuter said:
"I always keep my hands up because I don't want to be mistaken for a groper. In that respect, the special carriage benefits men, too."
I haven't seen one of these new carriages yet, but anything that makes it easier for me to act naturally, whether there are ladies present or not, has to be good.

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As seems fitting, I shall be leaving Japan in late June aboard a Japanese aircraft. However, anyone else who is planning to travel through a Japanese international airport might have serious doubts about their security operation after reading a recent report of an incident aboard a JAL plane. The story is that back in March, a Japanese woman in her 20s was travelling as a passenger aboard a JAL flight from Tokyo's Narita Airport to San Francisco. Sometime during the flight, she cut herself with a knife it seems she had carried onto the plane in her hand luggage. The lady, whose behaviour might be interpreted by some as a form of protest about JAL's service, was taken to hospital on arrival in San Francisco. In an effort (possibly naive) to reassure we travellers, the company that runs Narita has asked JAL and its security subcontractor to take measures to prevent anything similar from happening again. I don't know about you but that doesn't exactly set my mind at rest. After all, this female passenger, who was obviously somewhat lacking in the sanity department, could have used that knife in a very different manner, and when I remember the fuss a security guard at Kansai's famous sinking airport made about the tiny manicure knife on my key ring, I feel distinctly peeved. I also wonder why it took from March till May for this shocking story to be made public. How much else has occurred since then that the authorities haven't decided to share with us? No, reassured is one thing I sure as hell don't feel!

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Oddly enough, for a country where most people have never heard of the French Foreign Legion, quite a few Japanese have travelled across the world to serve in that famous/infamous unit. This fact was recently underlined when it was reported that a Japanese veteran of the Legion had been kidnapped in Iraq. The ex-legionnaire, 44-year-old Akihiko Saito, served 20 years in the 'Légion étrangère', mostly in my old unit, the 2e REP or parachute regiment. Not surprisingly after such an experience, he didn't feel like rushing back to Japan after leaving the ranks of 'les Képis Blancs', and so he ended up working for Cyprus-based Hart Security Ltd, which sent him to Iraq. There, he was involved in an ambush near a US military base and seemingly taken prisoner by a previously unknown bunch of terrorists calling themselves the Ansar al-Sunnah Army. This bunch of murderers (having a political motive doesn't make murder any better) said in a message on its website that it captured Mr Saito after attacking a vehicle convoy coming out of a US military base in western Iraq. They also said that Saito was seriously injured in the gun battle, in which they allege that they killed 16 of the 17 people in the convoy. His brother reported that he hadn't seen him for over 8 years, and that the family had been surprised when the Foreign Ministry informed them that Akihiko was working in Iraq. Hart Security, a company set up in 1999 with offices in London, New York, Singapore, Moscow and Kuwait, informed the Japanese Consulate General in London that Saito, whom they called a consultant at the firm's Iraq branch, had gone missing when his convoy was attacked after completing a mission to transport materials to a US base. They described him as being a chief officer at their Iraq branch in charge of guarding officials of companies contracted for Iraq's reconstruction projects. The company has a record of operating in secure bases in Baghdad and Basra, as well as protecting 350 kilometres of power lines and handling the employment and training of soldiers in the Iraqi army. According to the Japanese government and Chiba prefectural police, Mr Saito joined Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force in January 1979 and went on to serve in the GSDF's First Airborne Brigade, Japan's only parachute unit. He left the GSDF in January 1981 and travelled to France to join the Legion. Now Saito-san isn't the first Japanese to be taken in Iraq, and it is extremely doubtful that his fate will change Japanese policy in that sad country. However, knowing the kind of men that emerge from the 2e REP (I see one in my mirror every morning), I can't imagine him appearing on a video begging for his life, and so I sadly don't expect him to see Japan ever again.

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Gaijin's Tip:

'I recently had to take a friend to hospital and I was puzzled to notice 'consulting room 3' being next to 'consulting room 5' -- what happened to room4? Well, I later discovered that 'Four' in Japanese is pronounced the same as death and is therefore considered unlucky. Indeed, hospitals and apartment blocks often have no 4th floor. Sounds quaint, ah? Then when was the last time you stayed in an American hotel room on the 13th floor?'
(For more like this, please visit the 'Gaijin's Guide to Living in Japan')

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Gaijin's Where-to-Go

'With the sunshine becoming less of a stranger now that spring is here (until the onset of the rainy season, that is), you might like to get a bird's eye view of this city. Well, there are many high up vantage places you can visits, including:
* The Shinjuku Center Building, with its free 53rd floor. For more information, call 3345-1281.

(For more suggestions, check out the 'Gaijin's Guide to Enjoying Tokyo')