August 15, 2008

Where Does Water Go?

Yesterday I began walking following the creek near the house with the flow rather than upstream. I happened across this, which would have been a welcome find 2 weeks ago, a Japanese consignment store.

Banal indeed, but his is a very useful thing to find, If you visit Japan for an extended period make a note of the name, they are a chain.

Lots of bargains... absurdly cheap stuff in there.

In a park along the creek I noted this restroom....which is significant only because it is the only time on this trip I have seen kanji used to denote Men's and Women's restrooms.

An interesting flood control system along the creek.

I talked to a fellow named Hoshi at some length here. He said that this drains into several nearby parks that become lakes during major storms. The parks with the baseball fields and tennis coursts are frequently in depressions, I imagine that their flooding during storms is considered an excellent tradeoff since their use during storms is likely limited.

Look! A...er.... Neolithic childrens slide!

I shouldn't complain about where I'm staying, it keeps me dry at night, has running water and a refrigerator....

...but I can't help thinking that  living in this apartment here might be kewell....

In contrast to the cicadas we have in Virginia, the Japanese variety seem a bit smaller, though they are probably a bit louder.

They taste exactly the same though, with an identical amount of blargh*

Around 4, as stormclouds were gathering, I decided to head back. That was when I realized 2 things. I had been walking over 4 and a half hours, and water flows DOWNhill.

Today I did laundry, went to the grocery, cleaned the room and studied Kanji. I have 7 days left and just under a hundred bucks...not bad considering the curveballs. I can still go afield with the railpass and I'm going to make use of that Tuesday & Wednesday of next week. I want to head up to the Mt Fuji area.

If anyone has knowledge of the Kanji or precise kattakana used for the term "region free" please leave it in a comment.

 * as in " Hajimemashite, Watashi w~{bzzzTHUNK!}Blargh! ptooie!!-ptoooie!!"

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 10:17 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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1 Amazon Japan uses リージョンフリー in their listings for DVDs and players.

-j

Posted by: J Greely at Fri Aug 15 10:53:10 2008 (2XtN5)

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