City Kitty: Chillin on the Roof

My Alarm Clock

There's one thing about Japan that keep bugging me, I can't sleep in... ever. The days of sleeping till 10 are long past. Typically the culprit is the sun, it comes up absurdly early and my pathetic excuse for curtains are of little help. The other day it was actually raining though, so the sun wasn't an issue. Instead, the construction next door was.

Mt. Fuji and Clouds

Yep, another Mt. Fuji picture. This time with the clouds in the picture and the sun reflecting off them. BTW, I've got a lot of these pictures.

The Sun! Opportunity!

Very few of the Japanese use dryers so on nice sunny days you can see lots of clothes/comforters/futons out to dry.

Mt. Fuji at Sunset

Drill Baby Drill

That's the biggest drill I've ever seen.

富士山

The weather has been spectacular here recently. So spectacular that you could see Mt. Fuji from my apartment. Typically the sky is not clear enough to see Mt. Fuji but this past week has been the longest stretch of great weather since I've arrived. I managed to get some great pictures. Here's one at dusk with the twilight behind Mt. Fuji. Unfortunately it is not quite as impressive in a picture, but it really is cool to watch Mt. Fuji rise up behind the cityscape towering over everything around it. Mt. Fuji is about 3700 meters tall (12,000 feet), and is approximately 60 miles west of Central Tokyo.

Doumo Arigatou Mr. Sign-o

The construction outside my apartment got even more interesting.

Trick or Treat

I Encountered these guys about an hour ago. Halloween isn't a very big in Japan yet, but it seems to be picking up steam. Japanese retailer Tokyou Hands has a rather large Halloween display, and more and more people seem to be talking about it. After Halloween conquers Japan we'll need to start working on St. Patrick's day.

City Kitty

Superfluous?

Ever since I moved into my apartment there has been construction going on nearby. Sometimes they have to close down one lane of the road. Today this was the case and there were eight crossing guards on dutry, or as I want to call them, "traffic flow coordinators". I couldn't help but think that this was overkill. You can only see 6 in the top picture, one is around the corner and the other is on the far side of the bridge. The gentleman under the yellow arrow was even so kind as to gesture me across the street... after I had already begun to cross. Which, I must admit, sort of irks my American sensibilities (it apparently also irks Finnish sensibilities).

Something that I try to keep in mind is that every country is different, and each has it's own unique approach to things. After all, this sort of points to something Japan does much better than the United States, service. No doubt there are quality salesmen and service providers who will bend over backwards for you in the states, but Japanese service tends to run circles around American service. In this particular case though eight seems a bit much.

The picture below is the same site from the other side of the bridge.

NOUNS NOUNS NOUNS!

I'm trying to figure out exactly what business they are in.

Tight spaces

This small side street run next to Nakano Broadway (a large shipping center in Nakano) down towards Nakano Station. On the right you can see Seiyu, Wal-Mart's Japanese subsidiary. As you can imagine, riding a bike in Tokyo can be quite an adventure.

ほんとに便利です

This is a picture of the 7-eleven store across the street from my building. One thing Japan has down are convenience stores, they really are super convenient. They're everywhere, and all are open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. But don't mistake them for a convenience store like you know in the US. They have a large and delicious variety of food, you can do your banking, pay your health insurance and many utility bills, and even pay for orders from Amazon Japan.

私の自転車

This is my bike, 自転車 (jitensha), which literally reads "self revolve vehicle". It's not a great bike, but it has one very important feature, a basket. The bike helps me get around my neighborhood faster and is a boon to grocery shopping. Riding a bike in Tokyo can be adventuresome too, trying to avoid the many pedestrians while keeping your eyes open for cars. This bike is actually a little too small for me even with the seat at max height. I guess you get what you pay for, but at least it came with a basket.

I've got a fever and the only cure is more festival.

So there was a second night of the festival tonight. Since I got off earlier I was able to get there in time for some of the festivities.

From Festival 7182010

From Festival 7182010

From Festival 7182010

From Festival 7182010

From Festival 7182010

From Festival 7182010

From Festival 7182010

From Festival 7182010

Local Festival

Just a quick entry tonight. When I got home from work someone in the building informed me that there was a small festival going on up the temple/shrine (I’ll confirm exactly which it is later). Sadly, by the time I got up there at 9 (I got home at 8:30) it was already wrapping up so I missed the people beating on the drum and the people dancing with fire. It was still a really cool site. The little girls looked adorable in their yukatas. I turned off the flash so as not to bother anyone.

From Festival 7-17-2010

From Festival 7-17-2010

From Festival 7-17-2010

From Festival 7-17-2010

From Festival 7-17-2010

From Festival 7-17-2010

From Festival 7-17-2010

From Festival 7-17-2010