Archives for September, 2007

Subways of the world




Things I rode

Originally uploaded by Durf

There’s an interesting page that shows the subway networks of the world’s major cities, all at the same scale. These are the ones I’ve been on. Tokyo’s network is overwhelmingly packed with people and convenient, so it has a sprawling feel, but compare it to BART and you get a sense for just how spread out the Bay Area is, and the surprising compactness of Japan’s capital.

09/19/2007 | general, travel | 1 Comment

Twitter: 2007-09-15

  • Finished doing laundry in our new washing machine. #

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09/15/2007 | web | Comments Off

Getting clean

NA-VR1100.png Our washing machine was getting on in years, and tended to leave bits of black mold stuck to our clothes after a wash. Not good, especially with a baby in the house and load after load of baby-related things going through the cycle each day. So we went to the neighborhood Laox last weekend and dropped ¥150,000 or so on this thing: the National NA-VR1100R. (The “R” signifies that it opens with the door swinging out to the right, rather than the left like most front-loaders in this country.)

It’s got a dryer built in, which will be nice in the winter when we want that hot air blowing out into the apartment. It has a water heater, so we can do warm-water loads of whites (most Japanese homes only have a cold-water tap in the area where you install a washer, so having this onboard is good). It has a child lock function so we can keep inquisitive toddlers from crawling into the machine, like my brother no doubt would have tried as a youngster. It talks to us when we press the buttons, which is nice, because there sure are a lot of them. Good to have a sherpa here.

09/15/2007 | general, life | Comments Off

Fukuda up?

I wrote earlier that I wasn’t so sure about Aso becoming the next prime minister. The papers yesterday had lots to say about the LDP’s wrasslin’ match—particularly the evening sports rags, which were filled with exciting stuff from LDP faction bosses (Aso? Not on our watch) and Koizumi (”I am 100% certain that I won’t be running for the presidency,” a disappointing message for the Koizumi Children who are enjoying their first terms in the Diet courtesy of his expansive coattails).

No time to write much today, but there are good posts talking about Aso’s waning chances at the prime ministership and Fukuda Yasuo’s rising fortunes at Shisaku, Observing Japan, and GlobalTalk 21.

09/14/2007 | Japan, politics | Comments Off

Twitter: 2007-09-13

  • Up way too late . . . time to sleep now. Zzzzzzz. #

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09/13/2007 | web | Comments Off