I turned down a trip to Macworld Tokyo.

This wonderful post made me regret that. I’d heard about capsule hotels, and pictured hives of sewer pipe-shaped rooms. I was so wrong. What beautiful language. What evocative images. And how they made me wish I’d visited Japan when given the chance. This is art, man. This is using the medium.

February 22, 2001: Apple needed a writer to cover Steve Jobs’s Macworld Tokyo keynote. I was a writer at Apple and had covered Mr. Jobs’s Macworld keynotes in San Francisco and New York. So why not Tokyo?

One word: sushi. I didn’t dare eat raw fish. Since then I’ve tried it and gagged on it. But that’s OK. I’ve learned there’s more to Japanese menus. Note to self: keep an open mind, idiot. And don’t obsess over food.