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Tiles in Tokyo, Day 3 of 37
Jul. 8th, 2006 06:32 pmTrying to stay awake on my stopover between planes, I went walking. While around the hotel was not woods, it was certainly not walker- friendly. I found a sidewalk. Sidewalks don't sound very exciting, but
(1) Really, there was nothing else. Nothing. Concrete. Parking lots. Hotels. Nothing. Not even the equivalent of a 7-11. NOTHING.
(2) The sidewalks had these cool tiles at regular intervals. Each tile had a country on it, with the name of the country (in Japanese, of course, me being in Japan). I had a game of trying to read the country names.
The US, Canada, and Australia were easy, because I recognized the shape of the country. But I was pretty happy at being able to "read" El Salvador, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon and a few other places I cannot recognize by the map or the flag. Yay, reading a foreign language!
I have to wonder why the tiles are there. Decorative? Instructional? For whom?
(1) Really, there was nothing else. Nothing. Concrete. Parking lots. Hotels. Nothing. Not even the equivalent of a 7-11. NOTHING.
(2) The sidewalks had these cool tiles at regular intervals. Each tile had a country on it, with the name of the country (in Japanese, of course, me being in Japan). I had a game of trying to read the country names.
The US, Canada, and Australia were easy, because I recognized the shape of the country. But I was pretty happy at being able to "read" El Salvador, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon and a few other places I cannot recognize by the map or the flag. Yay, reading a foreign language!
I have to wonder why the tiles are there. Decorative? Instructional? For whom?
