1:1 Scale Gundam
Saturday, June 13, 2009
The life sized Gundam being assembled in Odaiba, Tokyo is almost complete. Pew Pew!
(photo via Ken Lee)
Showing posts with label Life in Tokyo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Life in Tokyo. Show all posts
Lawson convenience store
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
When I was a kid growing up here in Ohio I remember my father many times talking about going to the Lawson Store one the way home from work or to pick up the Sunday paper. The stores all but disappeared after as series of corporate buyouts and mergers in the 70s and 80s.
In Japan Lawson is the number 2 convenience store chain behind only 7/11. I was pleasantly surprised to find one right across the street from our hotel. I made it a point to go over there every night to get snacks or pop. Fond memories of childhood combined with the customer centric Japanese service was wonderful.
Shibuya246 has a good write up with nice pics of his local Lawson store. (Which inspired this post)
Wiki has a good writeup (albeit brief) of the history of Lawson. (The above images are from there)
I was disappointed that the closest convenience store to our hotel in Kyoto was a Circle K.
Street Life in Shimokitazawa
Saturday, May 16, 2009
We went to the 440 Club in Shimokitazawa to see the Sooners play. There was a three act show playing acoustic with the Sooners as the middle act. Finally got to see the Sooners play live ... Wow very good. Wish I knew what the guy's name who played in the last act, he was also very good. His name was in kanji and the pronuciation is beyond me.
I loved the Shimokitazawa area. It had such a bohemian feel, so vital, so familiar. I would love to live there. I recorded a video on a corner to best capture the feel of the area:
using the trains in Tokyo
Sunday, May 03, 2009
Aggghhh, I looked up directions in Google maps to get from one place in Tokyo to another and all that kanji broke my brain. I wish there was more hiragana in use for the names of the trains and stations. I am afraid of missing a station and getting all fouled up in Tokyo. I have barely begun to decipher kanji. This video helped me a lot in deciphering what was going on. Thank you IES and YouTube uploader ... (gotta love the GIJoe reference he throws in at the end ^_^)
(I also love this time lapse video of riding the Yamanote loop in Tokyo, thanks to J Train Freak on dannychoo.com)
oh ok, i got it now ... thanks to this Wiki entry that explains the Odakyu-Odwara train line. I can even count the number of stops we would need to watch for. What did people ever do in the days before Wiki?
Read more...
Japan zookeepers train to fight rampaging rhino!!
Thursday, February 26, 2009
ummmmm, ok, ummmmmm yeah thats great training, seriously they are gonna be so prepared
(via Tokyo Times)
a day in the life of a yoyogi park greaser
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
This is an interesting music video from Peter Bjorn and John following a 50's styled greaser/dancer who hangs out with his buddies at a park in Tokyo. These dancers in this park have been doing this for years. The video follows one through his day from doing his big hair in the morning to laughing with his buddies as the sun sets. Great stuff... (via Japan Probe):
Housing in Japan
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Was browsing through Danny Choo's Living in Japan Guide articles when this passage caught my eye in the Tokyo Property Purchase article:
- The average life span of a house in Japan is 25 years which is just one of the reasons why folks dont make these sort of purchases as an investment. Generally speaking, when people buy property in Japan, they usually plan to live there until their time is up.
I could not understand that when I read it and it still throws me for a loop. How the heck do you build a multistory house that only lasts 20 years?
check on Wikipedia got me this:
The taxable value of a house is controlled by its building material. Wooden houses are considered to have a lifespan of twenty years, and concrete ones to have a lifespan of thirty years
Color me confused. How do you build a huse out of wood that is so deliberately shoddy that it falls apart after 20 years? Build load bearing walls out of 1x2 studs deliberately 22 inches on center? Use brads in stead of nails? I want to know more ...
found this in a Tokyo Real Estate blog:
------I've always been taught that the average life span of a wooden framed house is about 30 years. Very short compared to houses in the US. The building materials used and the severe humidity has a factor in this. If you have the budget I recommend building an RC house. You can expect the cost to be twice that of building a wooden framed house but they last over twice the life span, are much safer (especially in an earthquake) and the fire insurance is a fraction of what a wooden house would be!!
oh ok, humidity rotting wood and other materials out. It gets to the point of being cheaper to replace it than try to maintain and repair it.
addendum: this also makes sense from a cost perspective, since the land is by far the most expensive thing, once your cost to repair or replace goes past a certain point then it would be easier and cheaper to replace the whole house than be nickel and dimed to death.
Kevin Cooney on Japanese Baseball
Friday, January 30, 2009
From TokyoCooney's YouTube blog Life in Tokyo
Life in Tokyo #59: Baseball
the look on Cooney's face after the insane cheering japanese fan says it all:
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