You'll be pleased to hear that I added it directly above No-Sword in my aggregator last night, then.

There could be no greater honor! Except maybe a knighthood. But only until Charles becomes king. Then I imagine knighthoods will indeed become less highly esteemed than a position directly below a really good blog in people's aggregators.

Japan?"A land of contrasts, where ancient (fill-in-the-blanks) stand next to high-tech (fill-in-the-blanks), and women wearing (traditional clothing) stand in line for (American fast-food) behind high-school girls wearing the latest (trendy designer). And businessmen are samurai."

Reminds me of an essay I read, I think by Paul Fussell, about travel writing in general. He wrote, "Travelese is a place where old meets new."

Christopher Hitchens did something somewhere about the "land of contrasts" school of travel writing.

To paraphrase the Granta article: "Geisha, homogeneity, soiled undy machines: use these."