'From any angle'

Since I'm very much renowned a a man who has his finger firmly fixed on the fiducial pulse, I'm aware that many of you are looking to me to give you the lowdown on how the Great Recession is affecting Japan, particularly in light of the Japanese government's recent pronouncement that the economy contracted by 12% in the final quarter of 2008, with the prospect of even more gloomy and media-friendly figures to come. As an outsider, it's difficult to gauge the national mood, but judging from the pictures on the otherwise unfathomable TV news, people seem to be altogether more preoccupied with the rediscovery of a long-lost statue of Colonel Sanders in an Osaka river. Everyone's still wearing suits, that's about all I can tell you - and if that isn't a surefire sign of career success, I don't know what is.

Also, there still seem to be a fair number of people going to theme parks. We went to one, Tamatech, with Jeremy, Rachael and the children on Sunday; after all, it's a good two months since we were last in an amusement park, and we were starting to feel considerably less amused. There was only really one big ride, but it was thrillingly reminiscent of Dr Doom's Fearfall at Islands of Adventure, so that was fun.

On the expressway on the way there we caught a heart-stopping glimpse of Mt Fuji in all its symmetrical glory. It's so much higher than everything else on the horizon that it takes a couple of seconds to actually comprehend what you're looking at - initially I thought it was a misshapen cloud. It's a pretty breathtaking sight, albeit one, typically for Tokyo, framed by electricity pylons.

The weather has suddenly improved considerably in Tokyo. Today we revelled in the sunshine and went to Meiji Jingu, the biggest Shinto shrine in the city. It has generated some controversy in the past, as it was originally built in the intensely nationalistic period prior to the Second World War in order to lionise the Japanese people over all others. Fortunately, we detected none of that stuff; it was just extremely peaceful. There were a lot of people in the shrine itself, but the surrounding grounds were nice and quiet - possibly because you had to pay to get in those. Worth it though. Following that, we made a trip, via an unremittingly busy Shibuya, to Happoen, which our guide book described as the loveliest garden in Tokyo, and it wasn't lying.

Tomorrow we're going to a kind of real-life Tomorrowland in Odaiba, a reclaimed island in Tokyo Bay, before venturing out of the city again on Wednesday to Kamakura. Watch, quite literally, this space.

- Adam