Here's a travel tip for those of you who will be spending more than a day or two out of your home: bring along a trash bag for dirty clothes, a ziplock freezer bag for electronic miscellany, and a manila envelope for paperwork. Your sanity will thank you later. Additionally,...
I've got a stupid day set up for tomorrow. In preparation for my flight on Sunday, I'll be waking up butt-ass early tomorrow (4am? maybe 5am) and will be checking out of my hotel. I'm going to drop my bag into a locker at some train depot and will be...
This is the 500-series Shinkansen train set, which is reportedly the fastest train in the whole lineup. I haven't (and won't) had a chance to ride on one of these, since they're reserved for Nozomi service, which my rail pass doesn't cover. I've spent a lot of time on the...
Spotted on the surprisingly modern (and completely automated) Linimo line between Nagoya and the suburb where the Toyota Museum is located: Should you drop something on the track, please inform a station attendant through the interphone. I know exactly what word I'm using to refer to my VOIP phone from...
Spotted at the Toyota Automobile Museum: the Flying Feather, a microcar produced in the 1960s. It's built for lightness, as evidenced by the oversized bicycle-like spoke wheels. Between the dubs and the chopped roof, it's surprisingly modern in its stance. Hummer Microcar, anyone? Oh wait, no more Hummer....
It's difficult to tell in this photo (sorry) but Mazda built and sold Mitsubishi-branded motorcycles for a brief period when first getting started. The reason? Mazda had no dealer network and relied on Mitsubishi showrooms to move product....
This is the Mazda 787B racecar, which won LeMans in 1991. It's the only rotary-powered car to ever win at LeMans, and that win got rotary engines promptly banned the following year. Even among rotaries it's notable: it has a four-rotor engine, which was once thought infeasible due to the...
One of the more interesting vehicles on display at the Mazda Museum was the Autozam AZ-1, a mid-engined turbocharged two-seater with gull-wing doors, produced by Mazda but branded under the then-new Autozam brand. Fascinating little car. It's like a Japanese DeLorean....
This is one of the more remarkable engines on display at the Toyota Automobile Museum. I believe it's in an early 20th-century Isotta Frachini car, and it's an inline four with two separate cylinder blocks. I couldn't tell if the crankcases were separate, too. In the background is a fantastic...
What next? P.S. This is actually a Toyota bus built for the 2005 Aichi World's Fair....
Priority Seat is reserved for, from left to right:people who are wearing their belts too tightly fat people people carrying sacks of softballs anyone carrying a huge hypodermic needle Care Bears or the Grinch—but only if he has had post-Christmas heart inflammation...
I got into an argument with my coworkers last week about the Toyota product line and where the Century fits in. Americans (and in fact, some Japanese) expect that the top models built by the Toyota corporation would be branded and sold as Lexus vehicles. And for the most part,...
Yesterday I took a detour from my Kyoto —> Nagoya route to stop over in Himeji to see Himeji Jo (castle). Spectacular sight, and it's one of the best in Japan. Apparently it's one of the only castles left that still towers above the neighboring buildings. I actually went all...
I went to the Toyota Automobile Museum (TAM) earlier today. In contrast to the Mazda Museum, which is more Mazda than Museum, the TAM is more Automobile Museum than it is Toyota. They do have a good number of Toyota models, but much of the collection is comprised of other...
My experience from my trip to Europe in 2004 was that unlimited tourist rail passes (like the Eurail pass) are worth it if you're on a whirlwind tour and are making heavy use of the public transit system, but if you're only traveling between two or three cities you'll be...
For some reason I'm in Nagoya tonight. I'm staying in a smoking room of a business hotel outside of the Kanayama station, and it's quite a bargain for providing a full non-capsule room (¥6800) although admittedly, the internet connection is way wonky and every 30 seconds refuses to allow me...
You can't really get much better than this: sushi rolls and pocky, all ready to go for the Shinkansen ride to Nagoya. Nom....
The first is this Lancia Delta race-car, parked in the middle of an almost-dead Geisha district. The second was the conversation I had with a VA pharmacist about how the US government has a difficult time retaining employees who jump ship to the private sector. Of the two, the Lancia...
Top-left: Mazda Biante display at the Mazda Museum Top-right: Whity, a big department store at Osaka Eki Bottom-right: Asse, another big department store (this one is at Kyoto Eki) Bottom-left: Goofy sign at a railroad crossing in Hiroshima...
It's incredibly difficult to tell in this photo, but the lady with the red hair and the green outfit directly in front of this guy is wearing a kimono and carrying an accordion....
I took the recommended English walking tour by Hajime Hirooka (Johnny Hillwalker, get it?) through the streets of Kyoto yesterday. Among many other things, we saw the world's largest wooden building, a Buddhist cemetery, an almost-defunct Geisha training/tea house, and a 150-year-old pastry shop. Great tour (and a great deal:...
I end up having a lot of conversations that go something like this. Me: 今、温泉え行きたいです。そちらは部屋から温泉まで身ってください。 Japanese hotel staff: Sure! I can show you the way. Me: ありがとうございます。 Japanese hotel staff: I'll be over in just a second....
That's right—I stayed in a capsule hotel (ｶッﾌﾟｽﾙﾎﾃﾙ) last night. Where to begin, really? I suppose I'll give a list of what the hell this experience was like.First and foremost, this particular hotel was damned difficult to find despite being in the middle of Osaka: I had to have two...
I took some video1 earlier of the crazy electronic music-box-style chimes used to signal when the train's conductor will be announcing something to the passengers. Apparently a simply bell would not suffice. Anyway, I took the Mazda Museum tour today and had a chance to watch the assembly floor as...
So I'm sitting in Hiroshima Eki waiting to catch the next Shinkansen to Himeji, and for the first time since I've been here, one of the trains is late. And not just local-commuter-train-is-5-minutes-behind-schedule late; on no, this is full-blown 16-car-Nozomi-bullet-train-is-parked-for-an-hour late. Given that most of the major lines only have...
I'm in Hiroshima tonight. I bet many Americans would feel a little weird traveling to this city; I think I feel extra weird since I grew up in Los Alamos. But whatever—the people here seem to have gotten over the weirdness, so I can too. On a completely unrelated note,...
Rob W. made an accurate observation about a not-quite-so-obvious fact: anyone in Japan performing any manner of physical work wears a hard hat. Once you know to look for the hard hats, you see them everywhere. Exhibit A is this particularly safety-concious farmer, who is riding some manner of tilling...
This is 天橋立, a narrow strip of land stretched across a "bay" on the northern edge of Japan. This land is over a mile long but in places it's only a few hundred feet wide. I'm only about halfway across at this point—I actually only hiked about 2/3rds of it...
Top Engrish of trip so far! Apologies for the fuzzy photo. The text here reads: Changer Glory Model ER SeriesThe machine represents pleasant feeling with straightforward and bright pattern. Glory produces machines by respecting convenience of users and others. This is a bill —> coin changer at Kyoto station. I'm...
I took this photo a few seconds after jumping onto platform 31 at Kyoto Station, and apparently about a minute after the 9:24am train to Amanohashidate left. In fact, you can see if pulling away from the station on the left-hand track. This sortof sucks, since the next train doesn't...
The whole bowing thing and all of the apologizing profusely that happens around here? It's a little more work, but it's way better than what I see on a daily basis in the US. I have to admit that I tend to err on the side of politeness in most...
I would be astounded enough to take a picture of this gold-plated 1980s Cadillac even it were found in the fantastically funkalicious U-S-of-A. But in Japan? I nearly wet myself....
I'm crashing in Otsu tonight, mostly because I don't have the energy to trek across Kyoto looking for someplace decent (and not outrageously expensive) to sleep. On my way here from Shigaraki, I ran into an old guy on the train who happened to speak far better English than I...
We stopped over in Shigaraki today, where local artisans make bushels of ceramics. They also seem to make an awful lot of these tanuki statues, often chubby, smiling, and sporting hilariously large testicles....
Two more shots from yesterday: ancient Ninja Wolverine-like claw things, and a foldy boat! Ninja! Click the boat photo to see the poster of the boat in action....
Only two real differences between this and the last automated toilet: pink bunny toilet slippers, and a stinking remote control. The remote control even has a clock....
I didn't get my camera out in time, but there's a group (maybe a sports team?) just south of Tokyo called the "Red Rockets." They have their name and logo painted in huge letters on the side of a warehouse. P.S. I took this photo a while later in the...
Here goes a shout out to Akira (Ninja name: Takegumi no Shirewage) for being a completely kickass host for us at the Koka Ninja Village. If you're ever in Koka, I recommend the Ninja Village for an awesome time. Me and my buddy Ashay had a tour of a ninja...
Spotted this in the back alleys of Shinjuku this morning. This place1 is suprisingly empty at 7am. 1 P.S. Shinjuku, not Denny's....
I took this last night right before crashing. This is approximately the same view as yesterday. Oops no that's wrong. Apparently it's harder than I expect to grab the right photo from the thumbnail....
All manner of totally awesome vans. Pictured are marginally-less-than-sweet bigger vans (the one in the center is a second-generation Previa) but there are plenty of kickass box vans all over. Fancy parking....
...although, I was expecting far more automation from the commode in my hotel room. The automatic unit is actually strapped onto the top of the toilet (it's not built in) and it only features two extra functions, both of which involve shooting water at parts of your body that don't...
Competent public transit does a lot to support the growth of a major metropolitan area. Really good public transit—like the transit in Tokyo—plays a big part in shaping the city as it develops. The trains here are stinkin' fantastic. I haven't yet ridden on a shinkansen but even the regular...
That's good morning, Shinjuku! I'm running on 5 hours of sleep after 26 hours of being awake (long story), but my body is rejecting the idea of sleeping more, so I'm awake at 7am. In the next two hours I'll be headed to our regional office in Chofu to handle...
Despite sites like Engrish.com and Engrish Funny, I sortof expected Japan to be largely free of mangled translations. After all, the Engrish meme has been around since the 1980s and surely the Japanese can find enough native English speakers to weed out all the nuttiness. But I was 100% completely...
I drank this on the train from Narita. It cost me a jillion yen and tasted nothing like carrots (closer to Sunny D)....
There's a guy who lives somewhere in my neighborhood who apparently drives his crappy first-generation Altima1 without his headlights on at night. I've seen him driving around twice (last night, and a few months ago) cruising down a relatively well-lit road at 35mph without any headlights or even marker lamps...
I think it's important to distinguish between an economic meltdown and a financial meltdown. Much of the media I've listened to over the last month doesn't seem to do so. Actually at this point it's becoming more of the former, but it certainly didn't start that way....
It's been a while since I mentioned the 914. I thought the car had a shot passenger-side ball joint but upon pulling the suspension a bit apart, it looks like it's actually the wheel bearings. So I bought a set of new bearings and have parked the car in the...
This is the first year I've started running outside in the winter. Today I did a (reasonably short) 2.5 mile loop in the dark. It sucked. I don't like running in the dark. Washington is so full of trees that the moon and streetlights aren't very useful. But, it's still...
Outside of macho sports1, I can't recall any other situations where two grown men bicker to claim the honor of being the most disagreeable. But in tonight's debate, both Obama and McCain spent a good deal of time outlining exactly why they don't follow their respective party lines. 1 E.g.,...
The smear ads for local political races have really picked up steam. It's like fast food—we say we hate it, but we still eat it up....
Instead of leaving a car at the airport or trying to mooch a ride off of a friend, I've lately been getting a town car to drive me to and from the airport. It's way more comfortable than being stuffed in the back of a Prius taxi, and is cheaper...
When was the last time you heard a watch set to beep on the hour? Seems to me like that went out of style right around 1995 or so. P.S. Egads! That image came out larger than I thought it would....
The WSJ carries a list of stocks which hit 52-week highs and 52-week lows in the preceding trading day. This morning's paper contained this list...which stretched over a full page of newsprint. Congrats to RGLD?...
I'm making up for all of those weeks of bus riding by driving the truck for the last few days....
Often during the day I'll think of something totally sweet to post about, but have to back-burner it because I'm busy and don't really have time to post. And then I get home from work and my mind goes blank. This happened today, in fact—you'll have to believe me when...
We have factory-installed tire pressure monitors in the RAV4. I believe these are government mandated after the whole Firestone debacle. Anyway, these things are probably useful primarily to people who can't recognize low pressure driving dynamics, and who don't check their tire pressure regularly. But it turns out it's useful...
The Presidential debate tonight highlights an important (and overdue) point: both Obama and McCain openly support the development of nuclear power as a solution to our energy and pollution woes. ...and the Vice Presidential debate last week highlighted that Palin supports nucular power. P.S. This is unrelated, but this quote...
I opened the hood of the Jeep rental mobile and found ... well, this. It's a good engine, but it's just so V6ish. Eww. The JK model (serious) is equipped with a Chrysler V6, not an evolution of the venerable (but admittedly ancient) AMC 242. Damn. I like straight sixes....
Lest you think all is wonderful on the beautiful island of Kauai, here are some shots to remind you that even the garden isle isn't out of reach of nuttiness. The one on the bottom left is particularly awesome....
I finally watched Eraserhead. Well, that was ... different....
This chopped 8x8 Tatra T813 was parked right next door to Scotty's. Last I checked, you could get one of these 8x8s trucks (with an 18L V12 diesel engine) for around $20k. Sweet!...
I've never seen anything advertised as "fun for the whole family" to actually be that. "Fun for kids and inoffensive for everyone else," would be more accurate. Or maybe, "not fun for any teenagers because that's just how they are."...
After our visit to Waimea Canyon on the west side of the island (and right before our second trip to Kauai Coffee) Layla and I stopped off at Waimea Brewing Co. for a beer and burgers. Apparently I had been drinking entirely too many fruity drinks while there because I...
