peterludemann.bsky.social
Retired from software {Google, Yahoo, start-ups, IBM, BNR}; sometime bicyclist, sailor, & non-gardener; easily amused by PL design and type inferencing.
Los Altos, California (previously Tokyo, Osaka, Toronto, Ottawa, Victoria, Vancouver)
105 posts
57 followers
109 following
Discussion Master
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In Japan, bikes often mix with pedestrians on sidewalks but I wonder how well that would work in other countries (technically it's illegal in Japan, but the bike infrastructure on roads isn't great). And a mother in a hurry with 2 kids on an ebike vs a moderately crowded sidewalk does not spark joy.
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The bike symbol is rather faint on my phone.
But worry not - I only occasionally go to the greater Victoria area and usually my sister drives me around.
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I doubt that he saw that tiny sign, not that it would matter - in my neighborhood I've seen cars parked in the bike lane next to a much larger sign saying: no parking / bike lane.
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How do you know that I wasn't being ironic?
Anyway, back to your original post -- if kids have to do cleaning chores instead of recess, I agree that's not good. But doing cleaning chores by itself is not necessarily a bad thing and could even be a good thing (teaching responsibility, etc.)
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Japan changed to 5 days of school a week decades ago. If you haven't seen/experienced Japanese elementary school, don't knock it.
Anyway, I once told my daughter that doing <undesirableTask> would "build character" and she replied: "Are you sure you want the kind of character that would build?"
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I don't recall bins of rotting food at my elementary school. Why are there bins of rotting food?
Also: elementary school kids in Japan probably get more activity and play time at school than kids in BC, despite cleaning the floors (they don't wear outdoor shoes inside the school, of course)
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Or: teach kids to take care of things instead of acting like rich spoiled brats who expect the hired help to clean up their mess.
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In Japan, it's standard for kids to clean floors, serve (hot) lunch, etc., starting from grade 1. Seems to be good for the kids ...
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Cheaper and better: coffeegeek.com/blog/beginne...
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But passengers do say "thank you" to the driver when they get off. 😎
(If you visit Japan, you probably won't be annoyed by all the announcements because they're not in English)
Also: gakuran.com/36-iconic-to...
Also:
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It would have been worse if she had left her shoes on.
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Please don't fetishize Japan... I've seen plenty of bad behaviour. And they have to make announcements to remind ppl to not annoy others 🙄
On the flip side, it seems that every escalator has an announcement reminding you how to use it properly, which can get pretty annoying.
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You'd love Japanese transit ... there are signs (and occasional announcements) that roughly translate as "please do not speak on your phone on the train because it annoys the other passengers".
A muted cell phone is said to be in "manner mode".
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Not Europe, not really a law ... in Japanese cities, there's almost no street parking (just private ¥¥¥ off-street) and wide protected sidewalks. Nice to not see cars everywhere.
In a collision between car and pedestrian/bicyclist, the presumption is that the driver is at fault.
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If you like falling sakura blossoms, try Aoyama Reien. One year, I rode my bike through it and it was like going through pink-white snow falling from the trees. And not many people.
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Escaped from Inokashira?
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Where I lived as a kid in Saanich, it was a 15 minute bus ride to downtown (I took the bus to kindergarten, walked to elementary school, and rode my bike to high school). There's Saanich and there's Saanich.
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Just pile one exquisitely carved stone upon another and soon you'll have a cathedral. /s
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That's what Alan Kay was saying in 1989. (He gave a talk at an internal IBM conference on OOP)
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So, they've never heard of tf-idf?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tf%E2%8...
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Pensioners' monthly payments and deductions (for Medicare) are determined by those laws. And it's not just US laws; there are about 100 tax and pension treaties.
Maybe 90% of the computations are simple but the rest are crazy complicated.
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It'll be interesting to see how they get the legislators to change the laws, to simplify the system. 😬 I've had to ask for help from SSA employees a few times, not because the forms are complicated, but because the rules (written into law) are complicated.
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My apartment in Tokyo had a city library branch in it, also a supermarket and a daycare centre. (And bike parking, of course)
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I think that's the same place I happened across a yabusame 流鏑馬 contest (didn't have my camera, sigh). Serendipity, indeed.
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In general, Japanese websites and advertising give much more specific details (pricing, schedules, room layouts, etc); American websites give mostly marketing fluff
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I've found that I get much more info (including breakfast times and cost) for Japanese hotels if I use the Japanese language site (for chains like Hilton, this is often a completely different URL). Maybe this trick works in other countries as well?
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Obviously an AI image because the sky's too clear. (Well, maybe on one day in January it's that clear)
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Not in Tokyo or other big Japanese cities
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A 50-storey luxury tower, next to 20-storey public housing, next to a few streets of single-family homes - in one of the most desirable (and expensive) parts of Tokyo. It's very livable and peaceful. (StreetView doesn't show this well)
maps.app.goo.gl/nq9fWzwRJZc7...
maps.app.goo.gl/qDZy2dwn8fv2...
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There are 23 "wards" and umpteen cities in greater Tokyo, so you can list those.
But don't forget to say that San Francisco is overrated.
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If they're so concerned about the environment, they'd be all in favor of transit-oriented and infill development, but I suppose there's no way to tell them that and they wouldn't believe it anyway. (Of course, they aren't making a bad-faith argument 🙄)
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It wasn't irony/satire?
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I lied - Tokyo does have a kind of congestion pricing: the expressways (mostly elevated but some underground) have tolls. And there's almost no street parking, free or otherwise.
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And it seems that places with good transit often are bike-friendly and pedestrian -friendly. And, ironically, if lots of people take transit, driving becomes easier (Tokyo doesn't need congestion pricing).
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Both are correct, depending on whether you're thinking of the group as a unit or the group as a number of individuals. (This distinction tends to be more common in Britain than in USA)
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"Patching" used to mean a small change to the machine code, as a temporary fix to a critical bug, with a proper fix delivered later. The notion of "proper fix" seems to have disappeared over the years.
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Not quite everyone:
www.ap.org/the-definiti...
www.ap.org/the-definiti...
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For me, the legroom alone makes a huge difference. The leisurely boarding is rather nice, also. Too bad it's not even close to world-class in speed or frequency.
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Bucycle umbrella holders are common in Japan... do a search for
ママチャリ 傘立て
or
自転車傘立て
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BTW, those names in the original are
Umeda 梅田 (in Ōsaka 大阪 [Big Slope]); Sumiyoshi-taisha 住吉大社; Ginza 銀座; Shinjuku 新宿; Shibuya 渋谷; Ikebukuro 池袋; Yama-no-te Line 山手線
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You'd love Japanese station names in translation... Plum Paddy, Good Living Grand Shrine, Silver Seat, New Hotel, Bitter Valley, Pond Bag ... the last are on Mountain Hand Line.
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Remembering Kyoto without the crowds ...
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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/23_Thin...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=whVf...
(I also liked "Economics: The User's Guide" by Ha-Joon Chang.)
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Their reporting on the buildup to the Iraq invasion got them ... what? (As part of Knight-Ridder IIRC)
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When I visited Bangalore on a business trip, the first thing the people in the office taught me was how to cross the street (the office was on MG Road and the nearest crosswalk was about half a mile away ... not that it was any easier to cross there).
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"Progress"
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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work-to...
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SON hubs are quite good. And I like to think that having lights on all the time makes me slightly more visible to cars.
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www.losaltoskiwanis.org/activities/P...
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By "other nations", I assume you've never heard of Japan.