Yesterday afternoon, after arriving and settling in my hotel, I wandered the central city area and caught up on some necessary shopping — a rugby top because it is cooler here than I expected and a small card wallet to replace the one I lost in Shanghai, the cards will have to wait until I return to the UK.

I did my shopping in some of the famous Japanese department stores. The service was something to admire. It reminded me why Japan is an essential visit for anyone studying marketing, and retail in particular.

I tried my luck for dinner at a nice looking restaurant and tried my luck with a set meal and some sake. All went very well despite the lack of language. It seems my buddy’s convention that it is hard to find a bad meal in Japan may be true. The highlight was some sushi roll served a little warm with some warm, sweetish sauce.

The central city area is rather nice, a grid of small streets bounded by much bigger main ones. The small streets are quite narrow and pleasantly busy.

Today was spent mostly waking in the old town, on the edge of the modern central city and one of the only traditional city centres left untouched by second world war bombing.

The district is full of small, mostly wooden houses. People still live in some of there, others are restaurants. I also wandered around the grounds of a lovely hillside park overlooking the city and a temple. The temples have an important history here, being bases for fighting forces throughout the city’s long history.

Wandering through one narrow landway, I chanced upon a sudden scuffle of non-professional photographers (sorry, not sure how to spell the ‘a’ word. I stood back to see what the little crowd was interested in. It turned out to be a procession of female traditional Japanese opera singers in their full makeup and clothing. They entered the rear of a little traditional theatre. The photographers seem to have been waiting, and gave the impression of being quite dedicated fans. One, given his age, enthusiasm and old camera may have been coming each day to this spot for decades.

I also spent some time wandering the shops. I found two specialist second hand camera stores. Japan seems to have quite a vibrant second hand market for expensive but somewhat fashionable goods (as does Singapore). Cameras, watches, pens, etc. I’ve not got the energy to explore why this might be, enough to say its quite intriguing, and an education to see an almost museum quality collection of cameras.

More notable are the artisans’ stores, selling various fine goods developed by the famous merchants and tradesmen of the city over centuries. There include beautiful parasolls and umbrellas, some textiles and fine sweets (at least that I have read about and discovered so far). Given the refined nature of some of the goods I examined (and the price), I was not surprised to learn that, some artisans’ families have been in their field for upto 20 generations.