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mindstalkSo I've privately called my downstairs store the world's shittiest Lawson's, but I owe it an apology. Today I checked out several other conbini, and mine is unique in being able to pass for a grocery store.
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On to today's explorations in Chigasaki: ( Read more... )
Yes, I just discovered I can embed Flickr images and Google Maps.
torachanmindstalk"How can you feed yourself with a car?", some Americans and Canadians ask.
As mentioned before, a Lawson's conbini (convenience store) is directly downstairs, though that's admittedly unusual. Despite being rather small, it has milk, oranges and presumably other fruit, ham, raw pork, pasta, olive oil, udon, eggs, and frozen vegetables. This is just from popping in and out of it, without mentally cataloguing everything it does carry (thus the 'presumably'.) You could probably cook a balanced diet just from it alone, if you wanted.
[Edit: okay, so I checked several other conbini today, and mine is unique in passing for a small grocery store.]
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And you know? Most of all this area is detached single-family houses. Two-story, minimal yard, not that far from each other, but houses not sharing walls. Sample, sample, sample, sample, sample, even some two-story apartments/houses in the commercial zone
torachan
mindstalkLet's post something so I don't fall totally behind... last 3 days were mostly spent exploring the area on foot. 10th, I wandered down Rte 467, and over into Shinbayashi Park, which is properly large, and also has lot of steps in one place. Many more steps than I realized. And I didn't even get a good view at the top, just some TV/cell towers surrounded by shrubbery. And then I got to see if I could go down deep steps without injuring myself. Yes, but it felt fraught... apparent safety rope was often too far from the steps to hold! ( Read more... )
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mindstalkSo, you know that Japanese people mask more than Americans or Europeans. But how much more? Some numbers from today: ( Read more... )
So, 40-50% generically outside, and 50-75% on trains. On the "masks and exercise" front, I'd note that many bicyclists have been masked, too.
Further, almost but not entirely all of customer-facing employees have been masked. Train, bus drivers, retail shop employees, the few waiters I've seen. I'd say at least 80% conservatively, 90% likely, maybe not much higher (it takes few outliers to push a ratio away from extremes.) I think Seki said that waiters often aren't, but I dunno.
Now, is this the New Normal after covid? Not necessarily. Japan has been having a bad flu season, huge spike in cases, and a major strain (coming soon to a school or hospital near you) wasn't in the vaccine this year, so I think the government has been urging people to mask again. Also it's winter-ish and some people here may have noticed "masks are like a scarf but better."
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torachanmindstalkSo, yesterday: I worried I'd gotten a germ after all, since I woke up with a slight sore throat and almost-congestion. There was an alternative explanation, "sleeping in a cold dry room", but who knows. I went out for a walk and ended up out for 3 hours, which suggests good health, though I was doing easy pace. ( Read more... )
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mindstalkGonna take a while to get used to these time zones differences again. I realized in the shower that as I was preparing to go to bed before Monday, for most of my friends, Sunday morning was just beginning. Also, that's probably why Oglaf hasn't updated yet -- it's Sunday! My webcomics schedule is in confusion. ( Read more... )
mindstalkAfter three years in friendly Very Cheap Rent houses, I'm back to nomadic life. After bouncing around Philly a few times to get things sorted, I'm now in Tokyo, because (a) Japan is cool and (b) old family of friend is old, tick-tock tick-tock. If you want to follow along, well, keep checking in for the travel2025 tag. Some random observations to start: ( Read more... )
mindstalk - Conbini groceries and Chigasaki beachtorachan - Weekly Readingmindstalk - Fujisawa groceriestorachan - Daily Happinessmindstalk - Fujisawa Dec 10-12torachan - Daily Happinessjames - So weirdtorachan - Daily Happinesstorachan - 2025 Universal Studios Trip #1 (11/27/25) Part 2torachan - Daily Happinessjames - Shawl!mindstalk - Masking in Japan, and Dec 09torachan - Daily Happinesstorachan - 2025 Disneyland Trip #76 (12/8/25)mindstalk - Fujisawa 2025-Dec-08james - Blorgh?torachan - Daily Happinessjames - Turkeys!mindstalk - time zones and foodmindstalk - New travel series beginstimeasmymeasure
