Album. Long day. Uphill outh of me to Yamate, train up to Kannai, walking south through a park and then Chinatown. ( Read more... )

I walked up and down through much of Chinatown, had a meat bun, various siu mai, a fried chicken cutlet or "dekatsu". None of the food blew me away, honestly. Oh right, sat down at a place with outdoor seating, ordered various dumplings; the soup dumplings were good.

In my current procrastination regarding actually leaving Japan, I found an attractive place nearby: the upper level of a house, 100 square meters! Japanese and Western style rooms, choices of futon and beds! Figured I had to try it. Was only available for a week. A bit pricey, but pretty cheap for the space -- not that I need all that space, but after an accumulated month in a 20 m2 place, I looked forward to stretching out.

You pay in another way, though: where my first places had been a 15 minute walk from the main station, then a 5-8 minute walk, this was a 7 minute walk to a minor station, two stops away from Fujisawa, on a line with 14 minute headways. (The Enoden line is mostly single tracked, so probably not much choice there.)

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At last, a really good view of Mount Fuji:

It really does help to get up earlier in the day. View taken from the rooftop terrace of Shounan-Enoshima Monorail station.

Later photo, taken from the monorail station, which I like for the mountain-over-plain feeling:

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Finally got into the aquarium. 2800 yen. Sort of worth it. Lots of photos. Dolphin show; types of sand; giant tank; jellyfish room; spider crabs; deep sea recreation tanks (did not photo well); turtles; submersible exhibit. I'm skeptical the dolphins and seals have enough room.

Jellyfish:

Tank video:

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Was out on a walk, not particularly interesting, just getting out. I started counting traffic.

• On a very boring two-way street some distance from the station, with little of pedestrian interest: 7 bicycles, 4 mopeds/motorbikes, 33 cars (and a bus or two). I did not formally count pedestrians, as there hardly were any at first, but it ended up feeling comparable to bicycles. Then I hit a street where there seemed to be a phase transition in traffic.

• Same street, but now closer to the station: 25 pedestrians, 12 2-wheel vehicles of all types, 17 cars/buses/trucks.

• 3-way scramble intersection, very close to the station: 26 pedestrians to 9 cars; 28 pedestrians to 9 cars. (Two different light cycles.) Going the other direction, more casual count, but maybe 18 to 14. I note that much more signal time is given to moving the 9-14 cars than the 18-26+ pedestrians (plus non-counted sidewalking bicycles.)

Some internal counter tipped over to the point of trying McDonald's here. The menu is fairly different; no obvious equivalent to quarter-pounders; different flavors like teriyaki burger or shrimp burger. I tried a potato beef burger ("big beef" patty, potato patty) and shaka chicki (fried chicken fillet, and from the wrapping you're supposed to shake seasoning over it? But I didn't have any.) There was a messup and I was handed a simple bag of fries, which I discovered only at home. Went back (stole one fry; it smelled better than it tasted) to say "chigau!" and be glad I'd kept the receipt. Got my actual bag. It was... okay.

I note that if you're hungry Now, hot fast food from McDonald's or conbini has the advantage of coming in paper wraps. If you get nice cold snacks from conbini or supermarkets, it comes in a plastic tray. Given the total lack of public trash cans, the paper wraps are rather easier to stick into a pocket of your backpack. (Some conbini have trash cans, so you could eat there and throw it out -- but many don't!)

Dunno if I'm over flu yet; since my supply of tests that can actually detect my levels is apparently irreplacable, I'm conserving them. Feel good.

Got out, took train to Enoshima station, thinking of walking around. But there's a monorail I'd found on the map, and its station was right there -- on the 5th floor, not 2nd or 3rd like usual. I went up, found a terrace that should have a good view of Fuji, but it was cloudy.

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This flu continues to be disturbingly minimal. Today I pretty much feel fine, I think. I still have a faint Flu A line on a CordRx covid/flu test from the USA, though.

I've tried several bought-in-Japan tests, and not a single one has registered anything. Flowflex (Japan), Meiji, Kobayashi (Amazon page) / Rabliss (actual box), complete no-name. If I trusted them, I would just have some minor under-the-weather-ness. Am I going to have to try to actually import tests from the US? Feh. (Well, just checked, and I can't, at least not the brands I'm familiar with.)

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Last night's sleep was short, and I tried something that supposedly will improve things after a while, but today sucked, so apart from shopping (yes, I can eat 3 fresh-baked sweet potatoes in a row) I didn't go out. So catch up on random stuff: ( Read more... )

Late start (not my fault I woke up at 4:30 AM), decided to go to Katase-Enoshima and explore the beach. I'm probably paying for (decent) beach access, compared to other places 90 minutes from Tokyo, might as well use it. ( Read more... )