For the next two hours this is my office – a sofa in the Lotus, located in a Omotesando back alley. I’ve spent the day criss-crossing Tokyo by bicycle – a reflection of my preference to brave rainy season showers over the damp-from-the-rainy-season subway passengers, and the need to fit more meetings than there are available time slots in the calendar. The telco with design studio colleagues from LA and Helsinki is scheduled to start in ten minutes. Just enough time to order coffee, find the quietest spot in the cafe with decent cellular reception and settle in.

This is the kind of place where taking out a laptop is. not. appropriate, and it stays open long enough to retrieve the information required for the next hour. A coffee arrives. 5 minutes before the call starts.

A hand cupped around the headset helps keep more of the conversation to myself and cut out some of the ambient noise. Or does it? The psychology of justification. Copious use of the mute button helps keep things sane, but I get the impression I’ve annoyed the hell out of my calling partners. Sorry. An hour later, we’re done.

If mating beasts were drawn to one another by the ergonomic constraints of their clothing no doubt we’d see the stick thin boys with their lowest of low-slung jeans shuffling in romantic harmony with kimono clad girls. Omotesando makes for a decent enough office if you’re after inspiration but it’s difficult to focus. Next meeting starts in 30.

China on Tuesday.