Traveling from place A to place B in Japan takes more energy and effort than in suburban US (I’m comparing non-rural Japan to the SF bay area and mid-Michigan). Here’s a typical comparison. In each case I’m traveling somewhere 10 miles away:
- Bay area:
- Step 1: Get in car. < 1 minute
- Step 2: Drive to destination: 13 minutes
- Step 3: Get out of car and walk to destination: < 1 minute
- Total travel time: 15 minutes
- Weather exposure: minimal – less than 1 minute of walking outside
- Japan:
- Step 1: Walk to bus stop: 3 minutes
- Step 2: Wait for bus to arrive: 4 minutes
- Step 2: Take bus to station: 5 minutes
- Step 3: Wait for train to arrive: 5 minutes
- Step 4: Take train to destination station: 23 minutes
- Step 5: Walk from station to destination: 5 minutes
- Total travel time: 45 minutes
- Weather exposure: 12 minutes of walking or waiting outside
- Practical Impact
- During cold weather or rain, the feeling of difficulty in traveling is increased due to increased exposure to the elements.
- Due to having to make more transfers and wait at each transfer, the feeling of distance and length of going somewhere is greater, even for the exact same distance in the US.
- When trains are crowded, constant physical exertion is required just to stand on the train. This has a non-trivial mental and physical cost.
- In find that in Japan on days off, I feel like staying home all day and not going outside much more than when I’m in the US, in order to get rest from the increased mental/physical cost of traveling.
- All that being said..
- I like taking the train, because it gives me plenty of time to read. I read much more in Japan than I did in the US.
Posted in Japan, Travel | |
As I’m currently in Tokyo, I decided to make a trip into downtown early on a Monday morning to watch the Super Bowl. That’s right, it was on a Monday morning here Japan time!
Here are some thoughts from watching it here in Japan
- I had to leave home at 6:40 AM and travel an hour and 10 minutes door to door to the place where I watched the game, Tokyo Sports Cafe.
- When I arrived, there was a line about 100 feet long of people lined up to go in! I was nearly last in line, arriving just before 8 AM.
- There was a handful of Japanese fans there who really got into the game! However one guy mixed up the team names and was cheering for the “Colts” even though he meant the Saints. He did this the whole game and never realized it.
- Totally weird to see game commentary and stats in Japanese! (the main commentary was in English, but switched over to Japanese during commercial breaks, which leads me to…)
- No commercials! NHK (Japan’s biggest TV network) syndicated the broadcast from NFL Network but decided not to have commercials. This was the most beautiful part. I hate commercials, Super Bowl or not.
- Crowd was probably 2/3 American and 1/3 Japanese. Not surprisingly, didn’t see any Europeans or Australians.
- Very few Colts fans. Probably 95% Saints fans at Tokyo Sports Cafe.
- Way too smoky. I hate the smell of cigarette smoke, but now it’s all over my clothes. I miss California’s no smoking laws.
Posted in Japan, Misc | |
It’s Christmas day here in Japan, and I’m on the train heading home from Gunma prefecture in the mountainous middle of Japan, where I enjoyed an overnight stay at a place famous for hot springs called Kusatsu. It’s about 4 hours from Tokyo by train.
Downtown has a giant hot spring in the middle of it
I stayed in a traditional Japanese inn, which also had it’s own hot springs inside which you could enter, as well as a pretty good dinner. Here’s a (bad) picture of dinner on Christmas eve night
Christmas Eve dinner at the Japanese Inn
It was good to get away from Tokyo, but at the same time I’m glad to be heading home, as I started to get a little bored faster than I thought. However, I got to enjoy my favorite grilled fish, which made the trip worth it. I had ayu, my favorite, and niwa, which I hadn’t had before, but which is similar to ayu. The blow is ayu.
Ayu, my favorite grilled fish. Made fresh at this street vendor right in front of you. Maybe the highlight of the trip.
More to come later. Merry Christmas!
Posted in Unused | |
日本のポップカルチャーがもっと知りたいと思う。私はかなり歴史や社会学が好きなタイプなんだから、何でも分析的に考え込むきらいがある。なので、もっと大衆向きのことを理解しようとしたい。そうしないと一般の人々と連絡できなくなるしまつだ。
だから、何週間前「ナースのお仕事」という映画を見た。結構面白かった。一番気がついたのはナース達の行動や表情がすごく劇的だった。その映画は今はやってないかもしれないが、いつもの「ざとういち」や「子連れ狼」のような映画にひきかえ、もっと多くの人が分かるでしょう。これから何かおすすめがあるの？
本は、少子化現象についての「少子社会日本」という本を読んでるけど、もっと大衆向きのを読みたかったので「卒業式まで死にません」という本をアマゾンジャパンで中古で買った。筆者は「南条・あや」(筆名）という女子高生で、本の内容が彼女の記事です。最後の記事が書いてから、卒業の日のすぐ後、ついに薬を飲みすぎて自殺した。全体としてそうですが、特に南条さんのお父さんが書いた序文が悲しいといったらなかった。なので、少しずつしか読めない。これも、本当に普通の人が分かるものであるかどうか、分からないが、いつもの社会学や歴史についての本より。。
日本語の勉強は順調に進んでる。宿題がたくさんあるからだいたい毎週の準備が５時間か７時間かかる。火曜日、ミスドで昼ぐらいから晩までですね。日本語能力試験１級に目指してるけど試験に合格しようがするまいが、いい勉強になるので、こんなに努力するにたえると思う。
私の一番好きな日本食の秋刀魚の季節だね。終わったら、お鍋の季節になるね。
じゃ、何か本か映画か何でものおすすめがあれば、よろしく
＊言葉の間違え等を我慢してくれてありがとう！＊
Posted in In Japanese, Japan, Misc | |
