Brollies

Today we caught the tail end (or side swipe?) Of a typhoon. It rained non-stop for about 36 hours. This was not the drizzly, annoying stuff; this was serious rain coming straight down in stair rods. I grabbed a brolly brought from England and scurried to the local supermarket - a girl has to eat!


(This photo is the famous Shibuya crossing)


I should have known that here in the land of protocols for everything, there is a Brolly Protocol. You can't take your brolly into a store dripping with water and shake it over anyone who gets in the way, oh no. You have to turn at the door, mutter, excuse me (sumimassen), shake the brolly, fold it neatly and place in a plastic bag (brolly shaped) thoughtfully provided by the store. You then hang it on your trolley where, at the checkout, a lovely assistant removes the brolly bag (now wet and sticky) and places it in the recycling for you. Now that is service!

No one in Tokyo is without a brolly. The joy of it is that they are on sale every 10 metres or so along the main routes through any sort of shop imaginable - smart beauticians, newsagents, cigarette stalls ... The brollies come in a wide range of colours and circumferences and for £ 3 or
£ 4 you can buy a great looking one - with cats, hearts, plain, see-through, neon coloured - the choice is yours. The great thing is that if the sun comes out and it's a nuisance to carry, you can leave it on the side of the pavement in the knowledge that it will still be there tomorrow - unless of course, it rains - then someone else will recycle it for you! I love this place.