Tokyo Technology!

We've been in Tokyo for about 40 hours now, and already I am incredibly impressed with Japan.

Most importantly, there's the most wonderful invention ever- heated toilet seats.  It's really friggin' cold here (mostly this is our fault- the temps are only in the 40s-low 50s F, but we skimped on stuffing warm clothes into the limited space in our bags since everywhere else we're headed will be warm or downright hot).  Yesterday I visited the public bathrooms (really clean, by the way) located within the Hama Rikyu Garden while we waited for our river boat cruise to arrive.  I was wearing several layers of long sleeves, my North Face soft shell jacket, a new hat (bought the night before in chilly desperation), and Mohit's gloves (what a gentleman, he must have been freezing), and was thankful most of these items were black, allowing me to soak up the sun's warmth to the extent that I could.  I cannot describe the sheer delight of sitting down upon a blissfully warm toilet seat- I could have stayed there for hours.  I told Mohit we're getting one of those at home.  

The subway seats are gloriously heated too- the ones upholstered in red, at least.  If the subway is crowded, all of the red seats get taken, and the only ones left are blue-upholstered seats, which are not heated.    

I am also enamored with another heating marvel- the bathroom mirror.  I completely fogged up the little bathroom in our hotel room this morning (which is about the size of the bathroom you get in a cruise ship cabin, which is to say, tiny).  There's a perfectly square heated spot on the mirror that doesn't fog up- ingenious!  Only problem is that it's about chest height, and not face height.  Good to know they don't get everything right here, otherwise I'd develop a serious American inferiority complex.