Rich and Strange Aeons

parks, egrets, and clothing

2026-03-30T13:47:40Z

I said before that the neighborhood parks here seemed nicer than the usual ones in Japan. That was with two data points, and now I have 7.

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Taiwan, traffic, and Trader Joe's

2026-03-26T11:24:18Z

Guess what I've seen two of in Taipei: Trader Joe's shopping bags. My host brought some kitchen stuff in one, and tonight a woman on the escalator had one (bright pink logo), a bag with end pockets. Is there a TJ in Taiwan, or anywhere outside of the USA? No. Are people bringing them back from the US? Yes, at least somewhat: my host says her friend brought that one back for her. Is someone making knockoff bags locally? Wouldn't surprise me... An 'askai' web page said TJ is 'hip' in Taiwan, with imported products and people asked to bring stuff; it's obviously unreliable but I suppose something might have fed into that.

Makes me wonder if I could sell my bag for anything. It's very very old, possibly back to the 90s, with no structure -- it's just a sack, great for stuffing in my backpack. Don't particularly want to sell it, and I doubt an ugly old bag has much value, but it'd be amusing.

A few days ago I got looking into traffic mortality statistics. Wikipedia, World Population Review, World Life Expectancy, Our World in Data. The weird thing is that some countries have wildly different numbers across these sites: Vietnam is 30.6 deaths/100,000 people, 17.7, 29.8, 23.4. Granted the years are different -- 2019, 2021, 2020??, 2023, but still a big swing... though I guess 2021 being really low could actually make sense (covid lockdowns?). OTOH, the 2020 is high.

(Our World lets you examine earlier years, but doing so still doesn't match the other sources.)

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Taiwan minor update

2026-03-25T14:24:00Z

Haven't been doing much exciting, largely staying home and reading Cherryh. Had an illness scare a couple days ago, throat feeling off and me preferring high temperature, but it broke after a day.

I was running low on cash, went out to ATMs tonight, and discovered not all convenience stores here have ATMs, neither the Family Mart nor the 7-11. Other branches may, but not those. Used Hilife, later found my supermarket has the same ATM, closer.

At the supermarket I saw someone bike up, simply prop his bike against the wall, and go in. This shouldn't be surprising given all the unlocked bikes I've seen, but still.

Science! I'd suspected my old fridge was warm, confirmed it with my Aranet (and found that Bluetooth can penetrate the fridge walls), and reported the 10 C temps to my host. Yesterday I got a new fridge, with a warning to let the compressor oil settle for 4 hours before turning it on; I'd have liked a warning about that so I could run down my food. But it's on now, and indeed much colder, I've measured as low as 1.5 C near the bottom on max power, though it's a bit warmer right now. Warmest on the upper shelf of the fridge door, as high as 7 C there. I've supplemented the Aranet with some cups of water at various levels in the fridge, so I can stick my instant meat thermometer in and measure them.

I bought a package of Taiwanese sausage tonight, only realizing at home that it's raw. I started microwaving a couple, then switched to the rice cooker's steamer basket; less likelihood of explosion. I may finally break out the hot plate for the rest.

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Taipei notes

2026-03-19T12:37:36Z

Guess I haven't had a Major Outing since the museum visit of the 11th. Keep dithering and getting out late, or having an online social event in the morning, or (yesterday) actually waking up after noon because I guess my body needed it. I've been out, but it's been small things like reading in the nice park, or going out for sushi... actually, I guess the 16th did add up to an Outing; I went to the Sushiro east of me, then walked north through a wet market, then a not-yet-open night market, to the river. ( Read more... )

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Taoist event

2026-03-15T14:58:04Z

Have I mentioned that I'm around the corner (and across an intersection) from a Taoist temple here? Yesterday (Saturday) at 6 AM I'd heard some music, and later fireworks, but hadn't gone out. Tonight around 8:40 PM I heard it again, and quickly went out. Album

I don't know if a procession had actually marched around some distance, but what I saw when I got there was like the end of a small parade, with people in giant costumes, the portable tabernacle or whatever, a barrel of fire (did not photograph well, there's just a glow). Also a brief attack of fireworks, some line of things on the ground that were set off, loud bright and smokey.

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Taipei bikes and balconies

2026-03-14T11:29:30Z

I looked at more bicycles today, and saw some with Japan's over-wheel center kickstands. At first I thought they had O-locks too, but I didn't see any more, and now I wonder if I mistook rim/caliper brakes for an O-lock. I saw two bikes that were locked to something, but most are freestanding; maybe half have a cable lock through a wheel, so someone can't trivially ride off with it; the rest have no visible lock, maybe just counting on low crime and looking like rusty pieces of shit.

I went to a pho stall and pointed at a photo that looked nice. It turned out to have "duck blood tofu", blood coagulated into big cubes with a consistency like that of tofu. I ate one cube and part of the other. It was not deeply repulsive; if I hadn't known it was blood I might have eaten it without blinking. Knowing... I decided to stop and see if my stomach would revolt from new food or a surplus of iron.

I forget if I've talked about it in the travel series, but a distinctive feature of Japanese housing is balconies. I think basically every unit above ground level has one, even if it's shallow, a space (1) to hang your laundry outside and (2) so someone can install and maintain your heat pump compressor without risk of death or needing special safety equipment.

I haven't been looking up much, distracted by traffic and shops, or blocked by covered walkways, but today I did look up (starting from a park.) Album. And no, balconies are not ubiquitous here, and compressors are often just extruded from walls, with no obvious access.

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more Taiwan notes

2026-03-13T14:54:27Z

Japan drives on the left, so in streams of people, they tend to walk on the left. Unless they're walking on the right to face oncoming traffic, or are standing on the escalator in Osaka (which for some reason went to the right), or randomly ended up on the right. But mostly they're on the left.

Taiwan drives on the right, so people walk on the right, and after 3 months of doing things the Japanese way, it takes effort to adhere to local custom, and I still find myself going on the left "to be polite."

You might wonder why I just don't fall back to US habits. But the US rarely has pedestrians dense enough to need stream efficiency, outside of some escalators and airport slidewalks. Even where sidewalks are congestion, like in Manhattan, my impression is mostly of interleaved chaos.

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tofu and non-vegetarian dishes

2026-03-12T07:35:12Z

Discussion on Youtube opened my eyes to something: the US, tofu is largely considered an alternative to meat, something used by vegetarians and vegans. But in Asia, according to the comments, it's often complementary to meat. Most famous example in the US might be ma po tofu, recipes for which are often "2 parts tofu, 1 part ground pork." At Philly's SE Asian market, one of the skewers I bought was a mix of fish cake and tofu. And just now, I had some miso noodle soup, that was pork slices, meatball, fried egg, and tofu (not much tofu, less than anything else).

Whether Asian cooks are motivated more by "meat is expensive, stretch with tofu" or "tofu is good for you", I don't know. Today's tofu didn't seem abundant enough to count as stretching...

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Taipei, Mar 11

2026-03-11T14:45:07Z

Went to the Taiwan National Museum. I failed my research, I thought it was going to be a big art museum. It's a natural history and anthropology museum. Big hall on Taiwanese butterflies and moths, one on fossils especially rhinos. I went to skim-mode after that: 2nd floor has an indigenous peoples hall, and more fossils + geology. 3rd floor is "Discovering Taiwan", the history of local natural history studies, with a lot of Japanese role there. Basement is children's section, which might have stuff worth checking out; also has the normal toilets, vs. the squat toilets above.

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Taipei, March 10th -- shopping, rice, Kura sushi

2026-03-10T11:52:59Z

Train back to Taipei Main, wandered and browsed shops.

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When I lived in Osaka in 2019, my minisplit had a dehumidifier mode that puzzled me. Later research suggested it's supposed to dehumidify the air (duh) with minimal effect on temperature. What is actually did was function as a super-duper air conditioner mode: despite being fairly quiet, it would quickly push the temperature lower than my remote control allowed me to specify. It also seemed to help dry my clothes.

This time around, I was more interested in the heating function of minisplits, but here in Taiwan I've been using the A/C again... and the dehumidifier mode. And it behaves the exact same way. After not that long, my room has gone from 20 to 15 C in temperature, and 80% to 55% RH, or dew point from 16 C to 6 C.

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Taiwan, March 8, Peace Park and Ximending

2026-03-09T10:29:05Z

I decided it was time to leave my walkable radius. Took train to Taipei Main, as that seemed quick and promising. Main is rather large and confusing but I eventually made it to the surface. Walking south a bit took me to 228 Peace Park; the '228' refers to something in Taiwanese history that I should look up. Park includes the National Museum, which is said to be really good and is cheap (NT$ 30, basically US$1) but I need to get up earlier for it. Park was nice. Album! ( Read more... )

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some Taiwan notes

2026-03-09T10:14:03Z

Various notes:

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Taipei, a more positive day

2026-03-06T15:26:17Z

I made the previous, grumbling, entry this morning. I could have mentioned that despite various noises, I got passable sleep 2 nights in a row, but didn't think of it.

This afternoon I got out, and had a pleasant time, perhaps because I mostly avoided traffic. ( Read more... )

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Taipei travel and impressions

2026-03-06T03:36:27Z

Skipping a backlog of Japan posts, to write this fresh... ( Read more... )

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Autism about apartment types

2026-03-03T11:51:07Z

In the US, small apartments are divided between '1BR' (one bedroom, separated from anything else especially the kitchen) and 'studios' (one big room, apart from the bathroom; fridge noise and cooking grease can waft to your bed.) Japan has finer grain: '1R' (studio), '1K' (door between bedroom and kitchen; kitchen is probably a kitchenette in the entranceway; you take food to your bedroom or eat standing), '1DK' (the kitchen area is big enough for a dining table), '1LDK' (I suspect blurry boundaries, but notionally an even bigger common area -- room for a couch? -- and maybe a counter walling off the kitchen.) I had the impulse to classify my housing. No promises of this being interesting to anyone but me.

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The death of kaitenzushi has been somewhat exaggerated

2026-02-20T10:34:46Z

There was a Kura Sushi near me in Yokohama, so I tried going. And lo, not only did it deliver orders do you, but there were plates circulating to be taken! Almost nothing on the plates... because it was 16:30, with like 3 people in the store, so I guess they weren't going to waste food putting it out. But there were some tuna salad and shrimp mayo rolls still on the belt. (Even if I liked them, I would not have taken those particular items after unknown circulation time.) So I ordered everything anyway. But in theory.

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Feb 14: Yokohama and Chinatown

2026-02-17T13:35:21Z

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.

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The big lie of rotisserie chicken

2026-02-15T06:03:19Z

(Disclaimer: title is an exaggeration)

It's commonly said, particularly on Bluesky right now, that US supermarket rotisserie whole chicken is as cheap or cheaper than buying a whole raw chicken, with many people wondering how that's possible. A common reason suggested is "loss leader". More cynically, one might suspect of chickens about to expire, thus providing basically free input. (There's an independent grocer-deli in Montreal that I suspect did exactly this: their cooked drumsticks that I bought had a suspicious whiff to them.)

But why do people believe cooked chicken is cheaper than raw? Apparently because they compare the cost of cooked and raw chickens... as if all chickens were the same size. Or as if stores drew randomly from the chicken supply to cook. But really, given that raw chicken is sold by weight, and cooked chickens are sold by chicken, why wouldn't a store pull the smallest chickens to cook and sell at a markup?

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As for the "Big Lie" in the title, that's not the stores lying, per se. They offer you a chicken, and they sell you a chicken. But the belief circulating that it's comparable to a chicken you'd buy to cook on your own? That's generally a falsehood, if not a lie.

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Feb 6: new Fujisawa home / Feb 10: ebike / Feb 12: Sushiro

2026-02-14T14:43:40Z

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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Feb 4, Fuji and Enoshima

2026-02-14T13:00:55Z

Guess I'm doing these out of order... Album

Took the train to Katase-Enoshima, to test my post-Odawara hypothesis of "see snow on Fuji if you get out early enough." Success!

(Yeah, so this happened before my Fuji-Ofuna entry, oops.)

After that I decided to walk to Enoshima island for the second time and see if I'd missed stuff. (Yes.) ( Read more... )

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Feb 9, good Fuji photos and Ofuna

2026-02-14T12:45:53Z

Album

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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small Japan entries

2026-02-14T12:17:40Z

Quick entries: ( Read more... )

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Jan 30: Enoshima Aquarium

2026-02-10T10:25:13Z

Album

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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Jan 26: Odakyu to Yamato

2026-02-10T10:07:34Z

Album

Went for a walk to the station, on a whim took the Odakyu line north toward Sagami-Oto, rather than south to Enoshima. I figured I'd see stuff from the tracks, maybe come back. Then we pulled into Yamato station, and the name was provocative (old name for Japan), and I thought I saw something interesting, so got off.

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Jan 23, Enoshima monorail

2026-02-10T09:59:59Z

album

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