Brandon DonnellyCanada must become a global superpower
The silver lining to the US starting a trade war with Canada and regularly threatening annexation is that it has forced this country out of complacency. Indeed, I'm hard pressed to remember a time, at least in my lifetime, when patriotism and nationalism has united so much of Canada. According to a recent survey by Angus Reid, the percentage of Canadians expressing a "deep emotional attachment" to the country jumped from 49% in December 2024 to 59% in February 2025. And as further evidence of...
Brandon DonnellyThe bank robbery capital of the world
Between 1985 and 1995, Los Angeles' retail bank branches were robbed some 17,106 times. In 1992, which was the the city's worst year for robberies, the number was 2,641. This roughly translated into about one bank robbery every 45 minutes of each banking day. All of this, according to this CrimeReads piece by Peter Houlahan, gave Los Angeles the dubious title of "The Bank Robbery Capital of the World" during this time period. So what caused this? Well according to Peter it was facil...
Brandon DonnellyThe story behind those pixelated video game mosaics in Paris
If you've ever been to Paris, you've probably noticed the small pixelated art pieces that are scattered all around the city on buildings and various other hard surfaces. Or maybe you haven't seen or noticed them in Paris, but you've seen similarly pixelated mosaics in one of the other 79 cities around the world where they can be found. Or maybe you have no idea what I'm talking about right now. Huh? Here's an example from Bolivia (click here if you can't see...
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Brandon DonnellyCanada must become a global superpower
The silver lining to the US starting a trade war with Canada and regularly threatening annexation is that it has forced this country out of complacency. Indeed, I'm hard pressed to remember a time, at least in my lifetime, when patriotism and nationalism has united so much of Canada. According to a recent survey by Angus Reid, the percentage of Canadians expressing a "deep emotional attachment" to the country jumped from 49% in December 2024 to 59% in February 2025. And as further evidence of...
Brandon DonnellyThe bank robbery capital of the world
Between 1985 and 1995, Los Angeles' retail bank branches were robbed some 17,106 times. In 1992, which was the the city's worst year for robberies, the number was 2,641. This roughly translated into about one bank robbery every 45 minutes of each banking day. All of this, according to this CrimeReads piece by Peter Houlahan, gave Los Angeles the dubious title of "The Bank Robbery Capital of the World" during this time period. So what caused this? Well according to Peter it was facil...
Brandon DonnellyThe story behind those pixelated video game mosaics in Paris
If you've ever been to Paris, you've probably noticed the small pixelated art pieces that are scattered all around the city on buildings and various other hard surfaces. Or maybe you haven't seen or noticed them in Paris, but you've seen similarly pixelated mosaics in one of the other 79 cities around the world where they can be found. Or maybe you have no idea what I'm talking about right now. Huh? Here's an example from Bolivia (click here if you can't see...
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>4.2K subscribers
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Space comes at a premium in Tokyo. So today, let's take a look at our hotel room, including some of its dimensions. The smallest room in our hotel is 12 m2 (~129 ft2). But we sprung for the 20 m2 (~215 ft2) room given that we have two big ski/snowboard bags with us.
When you walk into our room, there is a foyer where you naturally remove your outside shoes and put on your inside shoes. There's also a continuous hook for hanging coats, which seems to be a common detail throughout Tokyo. This area measures 1060mm (3'5") wide by 2119mm (6'11") deep and has a clear height of 2170mm (7'1").
You then step up to the main room area, which has tatami flooring throughout. It's obvious that you shouldn't cross this threshold with your outside shoes on. Here the clear height compresses down to 2069mm (6'9") because of the raised floor and because of some HVAC above. I wonder if there are any services running under the floor. Presumably they made use of the space.
The toilet/shower room is 1886mm (6'2") wide by 1235mm (4'0") deep and has the same ceiling height as above. As expected, the toilet is very fancy, it has a heated seat, and it will do whatever it takes to ensure that you leave this compact room with a tidy bum. The control pad is also fairly intuitive to use.
The main living/sleeping area of the room is 2783mm (9'1") wide by 3351mm (10'11") deep, which is roughly the size of a Toronto apartment bedroom. This room also has a TV, desk area, and the bathroom sink. The ceiling height opens up to 2395mm (7'10") in this area.
It's worth highlighting that the desk height is just under 24" and the vanity countertop height is about 26". These are very low compared to Western standards and I can certainly feel it in my back.
In my view, it's this vertical dimension which represents the biggest design difference compared to what I'm accustomed to. Surfaces are low and the ceiling heights are compressed. Because otherwise, I've stayed in even smaller rooms in Paris and in other places. It's very comfortable and we would certainly stay here again.
Space comes at a premium in Tokyo. So today, let's take a look at our hotel room, including some of its dimensions. The smallest room in our hotel is 12 m2 (~129 ft2). But we sprung for the 20 m2 (~215 ft2) room given that we have two big ski/snowboard bags with us.
When you walk into our room, there is a foyer where you naturally remove your outside shoes and put on your inside shoes. There's also a continuous hook for hanging coats, which seems to be a common detail throughout Tokyo. This area measures 1060mm (3'5") wide by 2119mm (6'11") deep and has a clear height of 2170mm (7'1").
You then step up to the main room area, which has tatami flooring throughout. It's obvious that you shouldn't cross this threshold with your outside shoes on. Here the clear height compresses down to 2069mm (6'9") because of the raised floor and because of some HVAC above. I wonder if there are any services running under the floor. Presumably they made use of the space.
The toilet/shower room is 1886mm (6'2") wide by 1235mm (4'0") deep and has the same ceiling height as above. As expected, the toilet is very fancy, it has a heated seat, and it will do whatever it takes to ensure that you leave this compact room with a tidy bum. The control pad is also fairly intuitive to use.
The main living/sleeping area of the room is 2783mm (9'1") wide by 3351mm (10'11") deep, which is roughly the size of a Toronto apartment bedroom. This room also has a TV, desk area, and the bathroom sink. The ceiling height opens up to 2395mm (7'10") in this area.
It's worth highlighting that the desk height is just under 24" and the vanity countertop height is about 26". These are very low compared to Western standards and I can certainly feel it in my back.
In my view, it's this vertical dimension which represents the biggest design difference compared to what I'm accustomed to. Surfaces are low and the ceiling heights are compressed. Because otherwise, I've stayed in even smaller rooms in Paris and in other places. It's very comfortable and we would certainly stay here again.
1 comment
Enjoying your Tokyo posts, Brandon! My wife and I had the priviledge of touring Japan for 2.5 weeks in 2018, and came away with a lot of amazement, appreciation... and perhaps wonderment about why things are the way they are there. Their unique process and thought structure may likely have been due to them being relatively untouched by european colonialism, and also going through a period of isolationism. The low furniture - I feel that it perhaps started from the custom of sitting/laying on the floor for most domestic activities. Transitioning into modern living though, I felt that it may have also started to create the sense of open-ness as things were generally impeding less into the space... which works well with the small size of most homes. Also allowing for a more compressed ceiling height. Of course, you are likely taller than most people there so you will certainly feel it more, but the contrast from North American or European standards is noticable. And the toilets? We could not see how we could live a life knowing that such amenties exist... so we had to get one for our house. And we love it!! And then I saw this South Park episode... and laughed, and laughed. And still love our purchase! haha https://youtu.be/uRL4l2GOqXk?si=RzU8IrEbZjJADBYX