We had the most pleasant late-summer storm this afternoon. What was left of Typhoon #14 had blown through the other day, and as always after a typhoon, today was a spectacularly sunny and clear (and hot) day.

Thus, it was with great surprise that we were greeted by a late-afternoon (~4:30pm) short but fierce thunderstorm. It suddenly grew very dark, and the dark heavy clouds rolled in quite low, as if you could reach up and touch them. Then it got a bit lighter, as if it has passed us, but then the sky opened up with a [...]

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Anthony is getting to the age where he'll start preschool soon, so we've started to evaluate a number of them. Japanese pre-school, called youchien (幼稚園) and sometimes "kindergarten", generally goes for three years starting during the school year in which they turn three years old. (In the US, of course, "kindergarten" is generally a half a day for one school year at about age four or five.)

Each school has its own formal uniforms that the kids wear on the way to/from school. Being very formal (jacket, vest, shirt) but for kids (short pants and short-sleeve shirt), they're generally quite [...]

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I 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 [...]

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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), [...]
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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)".
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