To the ride of a 1993 guide

There say the people that those who do not have a dog hunting with cat and I sometimes cannot travel, I entertain myself with a walk through the pages of a book. I open my 1993 Fodor’s Guide – « Honest, rigorous and updated by minute » – and at the same moment I am in the busy center of Tokyo, without having to go through airports or boring lines for luggage magazine, not to mention a twenty -time hours in a tight place.
And what a better place to start a walk through the Japanese capital than Shimbashi, the old neighborhood of Gueixas?
Having known its golden period in the late nineteenth century or principles of the twentieth -when there were about 80,000 geisha in the country -« his reputation as a pleasure neighborhood is even older, » says my guide. «In the period Edo, when there was a channel and waterway network here, the cumulation of luxury was to rent a covered boat (…) for a cruise in the river; A local restaurant would provide food for the excursion and a geisha house would provide the company. One of the great enthusiasts of these cruises was Kinokuniya Bunzaemon (1669-1734), the eccentric millionaire and trader of wood that did not get tired of either food and drink or prostitutes. Some say they died in misery, but may not be a rumor that he himself fed.
I read in my guide that even today, « from time to time, the newspapers delight to report that a distinguished widower, politician or industry captain, married a shimbashi geisha-in the vain expectation that he will be treated at home as he was in the restaurant »……
Two steps from the geisha stronghold is the famous Tsukiji market, where at the day of the day, excited Atuna auctions, which reach fabulous prices. In 2019, a large tail tuna was sold for three million dollars! Another delicacy much appreciated by the Japanese is the whale beef, which the understood like to eat raw, cut into thin slices.
Leaving the market towards the Northeast, above the S. Lucas International Hospital, we find the old neighborhood of the Expatriados. It was here that, in the late nineteenth century, a Scottish missionary and doctor named Henry Faulds made a surprising discovery. The reports differ. According to my guide, « intrigued by the Japanese custom of using fingerprints to authenticate documents, it started the research that it first established that there are no two people with identical fingerprints. » In another place I read that Faulds realized this on a visit to an archaeological excavation, noticing that the fingertips of the fingers of the leiros had been recorded forever in the clay pots.
Whatever, the Scottish doctor realized that even if it was a distinctive brand and that even if it cut the skin on the fingertips, the standard remained the same. The opportunity to test his thesis came when his hospital was robbed and the suspicion fell on his acquaintance that he believed he was innocent. Compared the fingerprints and did not correspond. A second suspect was arrested. Once again there was no correspondence. To the third suspect, fingerprints hit the crime scene. The man confessed everything.
In 1880 Faulds wrote an article for the journal Nature entitled ‘about the Skin of the Hand Skills’, where he realized his discovery. Six years later, due to a disagreement in the hospital and woman’s illness, he returned to Britain, and offered his innovative method to Scotland Yard, who rejected him.
Well, and here we are back in Velha Europe, after a walk through the Guelas neighborhood, the Tsukiji Fish Market and the Tokyo Expatiated neighborhood, to the 1993 tour guide ride.