NoFakie

In a lot of well-off neighbourhoods, the residents' association will not let you hang your washing out to dry outdoors, in case it lowers the tone, and by extension, local house prices. So you can't use free sunlight and breezes either. I haven't seen many of them, but the Penn and Teller bullshit about lawns shows one guy who was thrown in the slammer by the residents' association for having a shit lawn.

In some parts of the USA, you're not allowed to collect it. Its considered diverting water without water rights.

I doubt I know the the normal conversational way to say loads of everyday stuff in English anymore. I also don't know stuff I would have learned but haven't because I'm here, like how to describe what my kids are like or what they get up to at school. I might know a newspaper way of saying stuff, but I don't know the normal person way.

It's Ebay, but Japanese, so you're dealing with mainly Japanese people, and it's pay to play, so maybe fewer timewasters/scammers/idiots. The vast majority of auctions have an auto-extend on them, so you don't get someone's computer automatically coming in and swiping the auction with one second to go. You'll get five minutes to respond to any bid at the death. But yeah, shopping. Buying stuff. Retail therapy.

Good luck with cutting down on the non-Facebook dross too! I don't mind Facebook, but I don't have a smartphone so its not there all the time. I think I spend the most time on Yahoo Auctions.

Mister Donut's take on the Cronut is pretty good!

Wiki says freight stopped through Hakuba in 1967. The part of the line north of Hakuba has had to close during the past two winters for avalanche danger, so it's probably a goner anyway. In 2012, it was for two months. Fwiw, wiki also says that Kamishiro, the closest station to Goryu, got a mighty 58 passengers a day in 2012. That's even with the Azusa express stopping there.

Yeah, only 300 a day on average for Myoko Kogen, Nozawa/Togari, and indeed for Hakuba Station. You then have to subtract the number of kids going to school in a neighbouring town or city and oldies going wherever to get the number of tourists. It won't be very many, esp when counted in coach loads. The line through Hakuba running north of Hakuba to Itoigawa is a total waste of money and should be replaced with minibuses running along the road that is, err, parallel to the train line. Keeping the line open for nine largely empty two-carriage trains a day must cost an absolute fortune per pa

Maybe I have a "scale of dreams" problem. Mine only cost 3 million for the car in decent nick and 2 million for the garage, not 40-50 million for a Lambo and however much a warehouse costs! For those who don't know, the Fairlady Z is basically a made in Japan E type Jag. Super iconic.

Maybe its when Google Earth updated their Iraq images and it was finally confirmed that Coe-lin Powell's missile silos were actually a hen house, a Mr Whippy ice cream van, and a 6 foot by 3 Pot Black snooker table.

If I came into a load of dosh, I'd work my way through a few old classic cool cars, one at a time. Maybe start with an early 70s Fairlady Z. And build a garage to put it in.

There are critiques of this on kotaku and medium.com where they say its basically staged and is some attempt by the ad agency at making something viral for their own and not necessarily their client's benefit. It has gone semi viral outside Japan, where folks lap up the "isn't Japan weird?" angle, but that's not much use to an upmarket bar in Tokyo with Japanese customers.

Lock up the understayers!

It must have been the accent then. "See you big man, ahm jest hear for a wee trip. A few months like, Jimmy"

I'm sure it was all very corrupt. The same dude, Tanaka Kakuei, made it so that the tolls from the highways would all be pooled, so the popular ones would pay for the non-popular ones. According to their original charter, the Tomei, Chuo etc. would all become toll-free once their construction costs had been covered, which happened years ago. As it is, they end up subsidizing lots of great big highways through inaka with huge long tunnels and no traffic going through them. Hokuriku getting a shinkansen in the masterplan was possibly part of the deal to get Niigata one early on. The large number

It looks like most of the Niigata stations on the Joetsu Shinkansen are a similar distance apart. Wiki says the masterplan for the Hokuriku Shinkansen is from 1970, so don't be surprised if the number of passengers isn't quite what was in the projections. I guess they are competing with buses from Nagano station, but the existing Myoko Kogen and Togari/Nozawa stations both only get about 300 passengers a day on average.

Same thing happened for koshiabura found in one part of Nagano City last month. Other sansai tested with very low levels, so it sounds like there are some hot spots. Due to some mechanism way beyond my understanding, koshiabura may be an accumulator for this particular substance. fwiw, koshiabura the "food" is a large tree bud with shoots eaten in spring, usually as tempura. Its really really good. I get it growing in the woods behind my house. To be honest, when I heard the news about Nagano City, I was surprised they even test tree buds, a minor and very seasonal product. It sounds like

Detained overnight?! The bastards.

I can't answer your question, but as things stand, discounted day trips between Nagano City and Tokyo on the Shink cost a minimum of 8,000 yen return. Iiyama is further and you'll need a lift ticket and shuttling too, so maybe cost will be the problem, not time.

Hoegaarden itself is a happoshu under Japanese rules.

I've just tried it and its pretty good! Noticeably fragrant. It says it's made with coriander and orange peel, like Hoegaaten is, but isnt cloudy or wheaty. Its just a clear, whitish lager that light and quite summer-y. I'll buy six not two next time!

Sounds very resourceful to me! I only got into smoking because my neighbour taught me about it. I sometimes barbecue indoors. We've got in IH cooker so its flat and its easy to put a little gas grill on the top under the extractor. Its one of these by Iwatani. It uses the same gas cassettes as the single burners you use for nabe. We've got one of them grooved frying pans too, but proper grilling gives you the best taste. Our charcoal barbecue gets kept back for full pig outs. Even with the extractor on full, we still get a bit of smoke in the house. Especially with fatty meat like

There are good and bad otaku. The ones with computerized girlfriends or whatever get the most media coverage.

We have a woodstove and I gather the wood myself. I've not had so much work this year, so I got most of it done in April. First time ever. I reckon it takes three times as long in summer.

Wear a t shirt under a shirt to soak it up. For stuff you can buy, you can get a thermos flask for keeping an oshibori style cold wet towel in. Those mist spray/battery fan combo things might be quite nice too. On days off, try to get up as early as you can when its cooler. Try not to do much in the afternoon.