[LINK] Charlie Stross on Japan

[rfmcdonald]

Charlie Stross has a very readable travelogue up at his blog about his experiences on a recent trip to Japan ("Japan: some impressions").

They've got our future, damn it.

It's not the shiny future of jet packs and food pills--oh no, that's not what Japan is about. Nevertheless, they've got it and they're living in it, damn them. They've got express trains that run on time and accelerate so fast they push you back into your seat like an airliner on take-off. They've got skyscrapers with running lights, looming out of the sodium-lit evening haze--a skyline just like the famous nighttime scene from Blade Runner except for the shortage of giant pyramids (and they're building one of those out in Tokyo bay). And they shave their cats.