Well I took a couple of weeks holiday, packed my bags and headed off for a break from work. While I was away I went on a short walking tour of the lesser known parts of Kyoto. I guess it was too much to expect to escape entirely from video games in the home city of Nintendo because, as we rounded a corner, our guide pointed out a rather elegant art deco building, which turned out to be the original location for Nintendo, back when they were a playing card company.

When the company was founded back in 1889 there was just a wooden building on the site and, even after the new office was built in the 1930s there was no workshop there, as all the playing cards were made by hand in local homes and it was from this humble cottage industry begining that the company we know today grew. Guess I will have to go to the antarctic for my next holiday if I really want to escape from work.