文書は英語ですが、写真は共通
(though I'm taking a break from blogging for a while)
Archive for August, 2005I really love my new place, but there's one thing I'll miss: my old toilet. Both the old and new places have an INAX brand "Shower Toilet" (yes, that's the name). But the two are quite different; apparently, INAX names all their toilets "shower" toilets. The old place apparently had a "K Series" model, while the new place has an "Satis S5" series model. Anyway, they are the same in that they have all the standard controls: bidet, "wash", blow dry, water temperature control, water pressure control, air temperature control, and seat temperature control. The new one [...] 
View full post » I noticed the other day when I filled up with gas that I was paying more than before. At 127 yen/liter, at today's exchange rate, that's about US$4.37/gallon. Considering, though, that 10 years ago the price was about 99 yen/liter, at the exchange rate at the time it was $3.84/gallon. So, in 10 years, gas prices here have gone up about 30% in local (yen-priced) terms, and 11% in global (dollar-priced) terms. Now consider America: gas at the station near our Cupertino house is currently $2.71/gallon. I don't know what US gas cost 10 years ago (I was in Japan), [...]
When Seth Godin, a famous marketing guy, joined Yahoo in 1998 when Yahoo! bought his company, he was just another new guy to me, so I didn't make any special effort to chat with him when I'd see him around the office. I ran into his blog today, and now I regret not engaging him in conversation when I had the chance, 'cause he seems to be quite a clueful guy. Here's how one of his recent posts begins: There are two ways to catch a plane. The first, which happens to be the most common, is to leave on [...] 
View full post » Chatting with Anthony while he played with a dump truck toy, and trying to expose the idea of Japanese and English as being two separate languages (a concept I'm told that he'll not necessarily truly understand for many more years), I said: Daddy calls that a "dump truck", and Mommy calls it a "ダンプ (danpu)".He then responded (in English): Daddy say "dump truck". Mommy say "ダンプ". Anthony say "ダンプ". Only one people say "dump truck". Only two people say "ダンプカー (danpu ka- -- longer version meaning the same thing)".View full post » So, the movers came on Sunday morning to pack things up. Someone delivered a bunch of boxes and such at 8am, and two ladies showed up at around 10am to do the packing. They left big things (furniture, etc) untouched, but packed away all the dishes, books, toys, and other crap (err, "fine things") we have. I spent my time tidying up, and putting felt pads on the bottom of all the furniture. The new place has wood flooring, which, I'm worried, scratches easily. (The old place had a kind of padded roll flooring, on top of which we'd put [...] 
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