Designing manhole covers

Kathy Sierra, a really smart lady (who Hugh MacLeod wants to marry), wrote a nice post about (well) manhole covers. Actually, it's about aesthetics and design and the differences between the Japanese and the US cultures. She writes:

Beauty and attention to design detail... everywhere I turned during my two week stay (Tokyo and Kyoto), I saw it. Every--and I mean every Japanese restaurant (including the fast-food sushi joints) had an architectural bent. A sense of style. An aesthetic sensibility you just don't see throughout the US!