Tomorrow morning is my last day in Japan for 3 weeks! No more humidity! 32 hours later (looooooong layover in Hong Kong) I will be landing in LA. See most of you in a week or 2!
As a parting thought, it's a good time to leave Japan because it is election time again. During election time, trucks and cars with speakers on them drive up and down the streets yelling for people to vote for them. It is VERY annoying since it sounds like they're right in your living room. Finally, election day comes and you're SO thankful it's over. Then the next thing you know, the winner is driving up and down the streets with their speaker saying "ARRIGATO GOZAIMASU!" Oh, election time in Japan.
(I caught the tail end of this guy as he passed my apartment)
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Friday, July 27, 2007
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Natural Disasters
Thanks everybody for checking if I was okay after the earthquake that hit Japan. I was in Kyoto and had no idea it happened. Everybody on my island is alive and unharmed. The earthquake, luckily for myself, was up on the northern part of Japan.
While we're talking about natural disasters, there was a typhoon that came through Saturday night. It was the talk of the town for about 3 days leading up to it. During those 3 days, if you wanted to talk to somebody, your conversation had to start with "So, there's a typhoon coming soon." I was ready for some action. Unfortunately, it ended up only being like a really bad rain storm. It rained for most of the day and when we were near the eye of the storm, it rained really hard and the wind blew pretty hard (according to the web, it was around 55+ miles per hour wind). What a bummer.
While we're talking about natural disasters, there was a typhoon that came through Saturday night. It was the talk of the town for about 3 days leading up to it. During those 3 days, if you wanted to talk to somebody, your conversation had to start with "So, there's a typhoon coming soon." I was ready for some action. Unfortunately, it ended up only being like a really bad rain storm. It rained for most of the day and when we were near the eye of the storm, it rained really hard and the wind blew pretty hard (according to the web, it was around 55+ miles per hour wind). What a bummer.
Friday, July 13, 2007
Nice weather dude
Here's the forecast for Friday. Verbatim from the website:
"Tons of rain. Mostly cloudy. Mild, Humid. Temperature of 24°C. Winds 14km S. Humidity will be 89% with a dewpoint of 22° and comfort level of 25°C. There is a 100% chance of precipitation."
Here's the forecast for Saturday:
"Tons of rain. Mostly cloudy. Warm, Humid. Temperature of 26°C. Winds 20km SSE. Humidity will be 89% with a dewpoint of 22° and comfort level of 28°C. There is a 100% chance of precipitation."
If you are finding commonalities, that's because that has been my weather for the past week and it looks like it isn't changing in the future. However, the humidity has dropped. Last week it was 100% humidity. It feels like you just came out of the shower everywhere you go. High 90's SLC weather sounds like heaven right now.
That's the weather update for now. Oh ya, a typhoon is scheduled to hit Japan on Sunday. Hang on to your butts.
"Tons of rain. Mostly cloudy. Mild, Humid. Temperature of 24°C. Winds 14km S. Humidity will be 89% with a dewpoint of 22° and comfort level of 25°C. There is a 100% chance of precipitation."Here's the forecast for Saturday:
"Tons of rain. Mostly cloudy. Warm, Humid. Temperature of 26°C. Winds 20km SSE. Humidity will be 89% with a dewpoint of 22° and comfort level of 28°C. There is a 100% chance of precipitation."If you are finding commonalities, that's because that has been my weather for the past week and it looks like it isn't changing in the future. However, the humidity has dropped. Last week it was 100% humidity. It feels like you just came out of the shower everywhere you go. High 90's SLC weather sounds like heaven right now.
That's the weather update for now. Oh ya, a typhoon is scheduled to hit Japan on Sunday. Hang on to your butts.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Pee Pee dance
Japanese bathrooms could be devoted to an entire different blog, but we'll keep it to this one post.
First, the important thing. There are 2 types of toilets in Japan. The good 'ole fashion western style toilet we all love to relax on while reading magazines. The good 'ole fashion Japanese style toilets make reading a little more difficult. Here's a picture I stole off the internet of one.
To use it, you must squat and do your thing. These are mostly located in public places like restaurants, stores, and the worse place of all, bars. Towards the end of the night, it tends to be a mess around the porcelain. Girls help other drunk girls (at least foreigners) go because they have trouble staying upright while releasing their 'beer'. Oh yes, these are also found at SCHOOLS (two thumbs down).
Next, we have our favorite western style toilet. These are found in most homes and hotels. However, there is a twist at some homes and a lot of the hotels. Here's a picture of my hotel toilet at Tokyo orientation.
As you can see, there are some nifty buttons on the side. The two we want to focus on are the one with the butt and the one that looks like the guy just struck oil. So out of curiosity, I pushed the button. I had a nice surprise of water that squirted where it shouldn't. I actually felt 'dirtier' after I pushed the button. However, I tried it again at a different hotel and it wasn't that bad. I would rate that toilet squirt a 6 / 10. Just make sure you don't push the button if you're not sitting on the toilet.
Let's move on to the public bathrooms. When we are out in public trying to find a bathroom, we have to go from bathroom to bathroom looking for ones that have soap. We have mental notes of which ones do and don't. (Usually train station bathrooms don't). I would say 70% of bathrooms here don't have soap. I suppose it's because they must think only wetting the germs is good enough. And drying your hands... this is the hand / towel drier.
No, not the rooster's tail. Your pants are your hand towel. Most people walk around with a little towel that they use to wipe their hands off with. Occasionally there will be a paper towel dispenser or a hot air drier for your hands. (By the way, that picture is from a 1 day road trip south of our Prefecture).
And washing your hands with hot water?? Remember my previous post about hot water heaters. Well, hot water is used for tea, not for washing your hands. It is VERY, VERY rare to find hot water in the bathroom.
One other interesting thing is that Japanese girls are shy. They would flush the toilet while going to the bathroom so other people wouldn't hear them going to the bathroom. (So I heard. I haven't snuck in any girl restrooms yet). Therefore, they often have a pressure sensor on the toilet seat so when you sit on it, it makes the sound of running water so water doesn't waste by meaningless flushes.
Oh ya, toilets also have 2 flush options. Turn the handle one way for a 'Big' flush and the other for a quick 'short' flush to save water. I don't think I need to go into details on the big flush.
Something else interesting is that some toilets here have a faucet above the back of the toilet water reservoir. Water runs from the faucet into a hole in the water reservoir and you can wash your hands with the running water. It's a good way to save water.
So they save water by doing all these things. Then in the men's restroom, the automatic urinals flush before you use them and after you use them. I have no idea why. If it is a manual flush urinal, some people flush them once before they use them.
Oh and apparently men going pee isn't the most discrete thing. Often there isn't a door going into the men's bathroom and anybody can just look in. The door is a straight shot to the urinals or the windows will be open right next to the urinals. The boys school restroom doesn't even have a door on it.
Lastly, I forgot to mention the 3rd kind of toilet here. Any wall you can find when you're drunk or when it's late. In Japan, a lot of guys think it's fine to 'write their name' on the side of wall when it's late at night, or sometimes in the day too. We were walking to our hotel in Osaka and some guy in a suit was relieving himself on the store wall next to the hotel. When you gotta go, you gotta go. No need dirtying a perfectly fine suit.
That's it for toilets. I believe that's the most anybody has every written about toilets in the history of the world.
First, the important thing. There are 2 types of toilets in Japan. The good 'ole fashion western style toilet we all love to relax on while reading magazines. The good 'ole fashion Japanese style toilets make reading a little more difficult. Here's a picture I stole off the internet of one.
To use it, you must squat and do your thing. These are mostly located in public places like restaurants, stores, and the worse place of all, bars. Towards the end of the night, it tends to be a mess around the porcelain. Girls help other drunk girls (at least foreigners) go because they have trouble staying upright while releasing their 'beer'. Oh yes, these are also found at SCHOOLS (two thumbs down).
Next, we have our favorite western style toilet. These are found in most homes and hotels. However, there is a twist at some homes and a lot of the hotels. Here's a picture of my hotel toilet at Tokyo orientation.
As you can see, there are some nifty buttons on the side. The two we want to focus on are the one with the butt and the one that looks like the guy just struck oil. So out of curiosity, I pushed the button. I had a nice surprise of water that squirted where it shouldn't. I actually felt 'dirtier' after I pushed the button. However, I tried it again at a different hotel and it wasn't that bad. I would rate that toilet squirt a 6 / 10. Just make sure you don't push the button if you're not sitting on the toilet.
Let's move on to the public bathrooms. When we are out in public trying to find a bathroom, we have to go from bathroom to bathroom looking for ones that have soap. We have mental notes of which ones do and don't. (Usually train station bathrooms don't). I would say 70% of bathrooms here don't have soap. I suppose it's because they must think only wetting the germs is good enough. And drying your hands... this is the hand / towel drier.
No, not the rooster's tail. Your pants are your hand towel. Most people walk around with a little towel that they use to wipe their hands off with. Occasionally there will be a paper towel dispenser or a hot air drier for your hands. (By the way, that picture is from a 1 day road trip south of our Prefecture).
And washing your hands with hot water?? Remember my previous post about hot water heaters. Well, hot water is used for tea, not for washing your hands. It is VERY, VERY rare to find hot water in the bathroom.
One other interesting thing is that Japanese girls are shy. They would flush the toilet while going to the bathroom so other people wouldn't hear them going to the bathroom. (So I heard. I haven't snuck in any girl restrooms yet). Therefore, they often have a pressure sensor on the toilet seat so when you sit on it, it makes the sound of running water so water doesn't waste by meaningless flushes.
Oh ya, toilets also have 2 flush options. Turn the handle one way for a 'Big' flush and the other for a quick 'short' flush to save water. I don't think I need to go into details on the big flush.
Something else interesting is that some toilets here have a faucet above the back of the toilet water reservoir. Water runs from the faucet into a hole in the water reservoir and you can wash your hands with the running water. It's a good way to save water.
So they save water by doing all these things. Then in the men's restroom, the automatic urinals flush before you use them and after you use them. I have no idea why. If it is a manual flush urinal, some people flush them once before they use them.
Oh and apparently men going pee isn't the most discrete thing. Often there isn't a door going into the men's bathroom and anybody can just look in. The door is a straight shot to the urinals or the windows will be open right next to the urinals. The boys school restroom doesn't even have a door on it.
Lastly, I forgot to mention the 3rd kind of toilet here. Any wall you can find when you're drunk or when it's late. In Japan, a lot of guys think it's fine to 'write their name' on the side of wall when it's late at night, or sometimes in the day too. We were walking to our hotel in Osaka and some guy in a suit was relieving himself on the store wall next to the hotel. When you gotta go, you gotta go. No need dirtying a perfectly fine suit.
That's it for toilets. I believe that's the most anybody has every written about toilets in the history of the world.
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