General

Giveaways aren’t something usually tackled on Tokyo Times, but for any reader after a fun and free night out with Oliver — albeit the show not the chef — then a quick email may well turn up a couple of free tickets (worth Â¥9,000) for the talented Tokyo International Players upcoming production of the Dickens adaptation.

To have a chance of winning the tickets, which are for this coming Thursday’s (14th) performance at Shinjuku’s Sun Mall Theatre, following these three simple steps is all that needs to be done:

1. Send an email complete with your name and telephone number to [email protected]

2. Write ‘Tokyo Times’ in the subject line.

3. Keep your fingers crossed.

And that’s it. The lucky winner, randomly drawn at 6 p.m. on Monday, will be notified by telephone and email, and the tickets will be available for pick-up at the box office 30 minutes before the performance starts.

Good Luck!

Update: The lucky winner was Yeoh Ming Han. And for those who weren’t so lucky, there are (as of writing) still a few tickets available for performances on Thursday and Sunday Evening.

With their washlets and wonderful array of anus-related attributes, modern Japanese toilets are a far cry indeed from their purely functional and floor-based forefathers.

However, similarly styled ceramic slippers for one’s feet rather than faeces, and a patterned pot for peeing in, arguably offer a place where many men at least would still be happy to spend more than a few pennies in.

Or even one in which women would be prepared to put in some practice with a newly purchased Shewee.

Perhaps.

(old toilet taken from here)

More and more restaurants in Tokyo may well be taking steps to separate smokers and non-smokers, although on the whole, tobacco is still tolerated way more than it is in the West. A fact that without a doubt has nothing at all to do with the government holding half of Japan Tobacco, the world’s third largest cigarette company. It’s merely just a coincidence — it must be.

Still, hugely profitable interests aside, it’s plainly not quite the smokers paradise it was several years ago.

No, not by a long shot, and particularly for those partial to pottering about while puffing on a positively preposterously sized cigarette.

Such comforts now sadly restricted to when one is motionless,

or indeed comfortably consuming a coffee.

For those of you that indulge in a spot of gift giving at this time of year, I sincerely hope that Santa-san brings you a couple of sizeable sacks that will keep you suitably absorbed for some time to come.

Or failing that, a perky pair of puppies perhaps.

Merry Christmas!

With a truly tremendous amount of transportation tracks criss-crossing the Japanese capital, waiting for a train, or indeed for one to pass, is a typical everyday task. A lull that fortunately only lasts for a little while, with most people either just loitering or leisurely looking at their phone.

Although for the odd old woman, it’s apparently a lucky chance to inexplicably lift her leg into a ludicrous and positively painful looking position.