This story is really depressing: a capsule hotel converted into an apartment building. I thought it was bad to stay overnight in a capsule hotel; imagine living in one. I suppose that it is an alternative for those who really, really need to live in Shinjuku, have few or no possessions, and are on an incredibly tight budget. The ¥59,000 rent includes utilities (it would have to, when you think about it), and there’s no shiki-kin (deposit) or reikin (gift money) which some people may not be able to put up all at one time. And it is better than being homeless (depending on your tastes, I suppose).

For Atsushi Nakanishi, jobless since Christmas, home is a cubicle barely bigger than a coffin — one of dozens of berths stacked two units high in one of central Tokyo’s decrepit “capsule” hotels.

“It’s just a place to crawl into and sleep,” he said, rolling his neck and stroking his black suit — one of just two he owns after discarding the rest of his wardrobe for lack of space. “You get used to it.” …

Still, it is a bleak world where deep sleep is rare. The capsules do not have doors, only screens that pull down. Every bump of the shoulder on the plastic walls, every muffled cough, echoes loudly through the rows. …

Most possessions, from shirts to shaving cream, must be kept in lockers. There is a common room with old couches, a dining area and rows of sinks. Cigarette smoke is everywhere, as are security cameras. But the hotel staff does its best to put guests at ease: “Welcome home,” employees say at the entrance.

First Freeters, then stays at Internet Cafes, now this. Yikes.

Remind me: why do we even have a Senate?

Oh yeah, it was one of those archaic compromises made at the time of the revolution, when individual states had more relevance than they have today. Back then, there were separate colonies, almost like separate nations, which jockeyed for power in the newly formed union. Originally, the plan was for both houses to be proportional to population, but the smaller states threatened to pull out if that were the case. Thus we were saddled with the “Great Compromise,” giving disproportionate power to conservative inhabitants of low-population states–a compromise which was the twin sister to the infamous Three-fifths Compromise, which degradingly counted blacks as 60% of a person each (and itself was a further power grab by the slave-owning conservatives, who hypocritically tried to claim that slaves should both be property and should be counted as people with political representation). And we’ve been “compromising” to the conservative minority ever since.

In the U.S., there has always been a disproportionate amount of power in the hands of the low-population states, which tend to be the most backward and conservative; we still suffer from that today. There is no good reason to give these states more power, at least none that make up for the harm the setup causes. Add the warped and demented way that the conservatives are now using the filibuster (they’re breaking records in abusing it, again), and we see an incredibly disproportionate and most decidedly undemocratic tilt in favor of right-wingers. If you live in a small state, your vote counts much more than that of a person from a large state. How is that fair or Democratic? Answer: it’s not. Never has been.

So much could be improved by electing the president by popular vote and by either repealing the Senate or changing it to reflect actual population. But that will never happen, because doing so would require three-fourths of all states to agree to it–requiring most of the low-population states to agree to surrender their disproportionate power. Which is why it’ll never, ever happen. Like it or not, this power imbalance is locked in, but good.

So we are stuck in a system where a conservative minority can wield an unreasonable level of power, despite only 21% of Americans identifying themselves as Republicans, and even beyond what can be explained by their arrogant hypocrisy and the Democrats’ willingness to give in all the time. Wheee!

In the fallout from the failed crotch-bomb plot over Detroit, many have pointed out the fact that right-wingers have been particularly dishonest and hypocritical. Conservatives have been putting outright blame on Obama for the failure to catch this beforehand, whereas they blamed Clinton for the 9/11 attacks, not Bush; where Obama is to blame for an intelligence agency ignoring the father’s warning, Bush was somehow not to blame for ignoring a plethora of warning signs, several of which were delivered directly to him. Where Bush was hailed as “keeping us safe” even while the Shoe Bomber, in almost identical a fashion to the Crotch Bomber, attempted to blow up a plane to the U.S., Obama is criticized for not keeping us safe. And while Republicans excoriate the Obama administration for the lack of security, they brazenly ignore the fact that they themselves voted down more funding for airport security. Not to mention the fact that criticizing Bush on terror or security was seen as near-treasonous, while criticizing the president today is apparently not at all a problem.

I look at these criticisms and reflect on why I don’t blog on politics quite as much now: it’s all trite. Of course they’re acting like that. Of course the facts don’t matter one bit. Of course Republicans are being hypocritical, lying bags of scum; hasn’t that been all too well established? Just like it’s been established that Democratic politicians are generally weak-kneed sissies afraid of their own shadows.

The pattern is pretty simple: anything a conservative does: good; anything a liberal does: bad–even if the two acts are identical. Just claim they’re different somehow, ignore logic and consistency, blame any evidence to the contrary as an artifact of the “Liberal Media,” and there you have it. The neoconservative narrative. Throw in some social religion for further control, a few more tax cuts for the rich, disregard a few more civil liberties (while always steering clear of the control-irrelevant gun ownership), deepen the dependence on corporations, and you’re getting close to seeing the overall sheep-herding architecture of the New Conservative Society. Within that twisted framework, even Sarah Palin makes perfect sense.

Strange fact: there seem to be no medium-weight rubber bands in Japan, at least not for sale. You can get scrawny, stringy ones, or you can get massive, inch-wide ones, but you can’t get anything in-between. I have no idea why that is. But it is.

So when I went to the U.S., one of the items on my shopping list was, strangely, rubber bands. I happened to stumble upon a rubber band ball at Fry’s Electronics.

Certainly one of the strangest things I’ve had to import….

I fell asleep at about 10:30 pm last night, on my way to the usual accelerated westbound jet-lag recovery. Which means that I woke up around 5 am this morning, and was able to catch the early dawn light.

My dad’s tennis coach and long-time friend was very kind to us, driving us to the airport yesterday morning, and coming over for pizza the night before. A special treat: we got to meet William, his Border Collie. You hear about the intelligence of these dogs, but meeting one brings that reputation into focus, makes it palpable. William has such focus and purpose, it’s amazing. Even if it’s something as simple as “catch the ball,” he is there, a hundred and ten percent. As long as the ball was out, he was in a fore-paw crouch, eyes focused intently, ready to spring. Not hyper, unable to contain himself, like many dogs in that situation, but powerfully concentrated, even as he seemed at ease, almost relaxed, though ready to spring. After catching the ball, he would not necessarily bring it back to the thrower, but would drop it at a new person’s feet, as though he was being careful to include everyone.

I swear, the dog just radiated intelligence. The way he would look at you, you would swear he was indicating the appropriate human emotion in considered reaction to what was being said. Driving to the airport, I mentioned the considerable slobber he imparted to the tennis ball; when I glanced at him there in the back seat, he was giving me a low, sidelong look that for the life of me expressed suffered disdain at my lack of understanding and tact, holding it for just the right amount of time before settling down on his blanket to ignore me. At times, I would not have been at all surprised had he suddenly started speaking English.

So, how was the security situation when Sachi and I traveled back to Japan yesterday? Virtually unchanged.

At SFO, security was hardly any different. Lines were short when we arrived at 8:45 am. We could have come an hour later and still have arrived early. The only real changes I noticed from the past was (a) a TV news van outside the arrivals area, and (b) one extra person checking documents a bit more carefully at security. You know how they have the amusement-park tope lines? A person checked our passports and boarding passes at the beginning of the ropes, and another person checked them again–checking off each of three or four items–at the end of the rope line. But at the metal detectors, all was pretty much the same–shoes, belts, jackets off, computers separate, walk through the detector, out you go. In fact, there was no one checking random passengers at the gate this time. Sachi and I arrived at the gate more than two hours before the flight began.

Fortunately, nothing had changed on the flight itself–no nonsense about being welded to your seat for the last hour of the flight. We were allowed to walk around and do carry-on stuff until just before descent. And really, that’s how it should be. Security should be more on the ground–watch lists, background checks, better equipment and training for security checkpoints, that kind of stuff. We landed, waited 30 minutes for the luggage to come out, and were passed through customs.

I am glad we upgraded to Economy Plus; while it still irks me to pay extra for what used to be free, it was nice to have the extra space. It wasn’t a whole lot of extra space, but compared to having your knees crammed up against the seat in front of you, it was much better. As I mentioned before, it’s what Economy used to be for the whole plane before they started charging for not being squeezed into the tiny spaces they sell now. I think I might make it a regular thing from now, if I can’t get an exit row in regular Economy. However, since I did it so late this time, there were no aisle seats at first, and then only a bulkhead aisle seat opened up–not enough room to fully extend my legs, a big deal for me. Sachi got that seat while I took a middle seat 6 rows back. On boarding, we were able to swap with the guy sitting in the aisle next to me, so it all worked out.

But the magical Luis Effect happened yet again: the person directly in front of me was the very first in the whole section to recline back, immediately after take-off, and stayed that way until just before landing. And again, only about 20-30% of the cabin reclined back. It never fails for me.

I must say, my backside is glad to be back in Japan. Not that American toilets are terrible, but they pale in comparison to Japan’s. Especially in winter. The heated toilet seat is one of the greatest inventions ever. I can’t say how many times in the past few week I had to either pre-sit on the seat, clothed, to warm it up a bit, or else take the cold plunge right off the bat. Back here in Japan, the seat is nice & toasty whenever you need to use it.

Another difference, although strange: American toilets are lower and smaller. That’s the opposite of what I’d expect, but–at least with the units I used–that’s what I found. The seat itself is smaller in America, more round I think, making it harder to reach in while sitting; in Japan, the seats are more comfortably elongated, plenty of room. Also, I found myself sitting close to the floor in the U.S., while Japanese toilets are comfortably higher.

And the thing I missed most: a built-in bidet. Many Japanese toilets have them, with electronic controls on the side. Push a button, and a retractable arm comes out and then washes your backside with warm water. I resisted using these for year, being wary of anything that did something like that, but Sachi got me using it–and I came to depend on it so much that I very much noticed the lack of this feature while in the U.S. Not only does it keep you cleaner, but it saves a considerable amount of toilet paper. Why this has not caught on more, I don’t know. But it’s fairly common in Japan, and has been in use for decades.

Finally, there are public restrooms. I have noted this before on this blog, but public toilet stalls in America are horrible for privacy. Not only do the partitions start a foot or more from the floor, but there are half-inch-wide vertical gaps between the stall doors and the adjacent walls. How many times have you sat down in a stall in a crowded public restroom only to have more than one person press their eyeballs up against this crack to check on who’s in there? In Japan, public toilet stalls are more or less sealed. While there is a gap between the partition and the ceiling, everything else is closed. No gaps at foot level, no gaps in the door–you have actual privacy (visually, at least, although it helps with smells, too). In case there’s an issue about whether or not a stall is occupied, either the doors swing open when not locked, or there is an indicator outside showing if the lock is engaged.

That said, one still finds, all too often, “Japanese style” toilets in public stalls–that is, the weird, old-fashioned, hooded trenches which require one to squat down. Disgusting for several reasons, which I will not go into here. Why these are still used is beyond me–people who hate sharing a seat, or a concession to older people, perhaps. However, you rarely find a public bathroom which does not give you an option–though often times, if there are both types, the Japanese-style stall will be the only one unoccupied.

Here are some birds that I completed expected to see–very standard issue for the Bay Area at this time of year:

That’s the White-crowned Sparrow above, common in these parts. Below is the American Coot, a relatively humdrum shorebird, more tame than many others.

The Green-winged Teal is a beautiful, if fairly common bird.

You see egrets quite a bit as well.

The Ruddy Duck stands out mostly because it is smaller than other ducks, but also because of its bright white cheek and the fact that it keeps diving under the water, like a grebe.

Black-necked stilts were easy to spot–nice birds.

But the American Avocet is one of the nicest shorebirds high in population. Very pretty indeed.

More birds soon…

This is the first in a series of posts on the birds I spotted in the last three or four days. Starting on the 24th, I went to various local birdwatching spots, including Radio Road in Redwood City (right next to the Foster City landfill areas), Bayfront Park at the end of Marsh Road in Menlo Park, and the Shoreline walk at Mountain View Park.

The first images, however, come from a local tree near my parents’ home–specifically, a persimmon tree with the fruit ripening, filled with birds eating the yummy treats. This kind of tree attracts one of my favorite birds: the Cedar Waxwing.

A few extra passerines to finish up this first post. There are tons of sparrow-like birds, and I have given up on trying to figure out which is which. They’re just far too similar for the trouble.

These are House Finches, the male with the notable red coloring:

Here’s a Brown Towhee, a basic “brown bird” for the SF Bay Area:

Some interesting birds with yellow patches (you’d be surprised how many of those there are):

There were several Black Phoebes around, often flying crazily about. This one perched between us and an American Coot.

More coming soon!

Whenever I come back to the U.S., one things that is quickly apparent is the amount of panhandling going on. There are people in the street, of course. When Sachi and I visited the city, there was the usual contingent–the one who sticks in my mind was they guy who, as we approached, loudly asked for thirty-seven cents. I instantly recognized the scam–make someone stop and at least think about why the odd and/or low number, work on them more to give something, and if they fall for the pitch and start to reach for their pockets, up the request again and again (the one time I was foolish enough to give a quarter, the guy tried to work me up to twenty dollars, giving the odd sob story that he was just released from prison and needed money for food, promising to pay me back if I would give him my home address). So we passed without a glance, after which the guy added, “Or at least you could look at me!”

The traffic-light street-divider panhandlers are getting a bit more audacious around here as well. There used to be just one guy at this one intersection holding up a sign, standing at the center divider just in front of the turn signal traffic light; when traffic stops, some people give money. Now they’re at several traffic lights all around, and some of them step up to work the line of cars whenever the red light goes.

Still, I’m familiar with all of that. What I did not expect was to have panhandling at the checkout counter. Yes, the people ringing the bell outside the doors I am used to, but never have I been asked by the store staff. I first encountered it at a Pottery Barn at Stanford Shopping Center (Sachi loves stores with home furnishings). When we paid for a few dinner napkins, the cashier asked me if I wanted to donate money to such-and-such a cause. Personally, I don’t like that at all–you are forced either to donate or to look like a cheapskate in front of other people in public. But I thought that it was just this one upscale shop, and that one specific charity. But no–I was next asked for a handout at Sears when I bought a piece of clothing: “care to add a few dollars for the families of brave fighting men and women overseas?” I have nothing against charity or causes–Sachi and I do give sometimes–but to be publicly blackmailed like that is galling.

When did this start? Does it go on all year, or is it just a holiday thing? Is it just in the Bay Area, or is it nationwide?

I am currently assigned to seat 19B on the flight home. Yikes.

I’m being snarky, of course. And I’m probably changing my seat, but not because of the meaningless numerical coincidence. It’ll be because 19B on my flight is the bulkhead seat, and I paid an extra hundred for more face and leg room. Having a wall in front of you actually decreases the amount of leg space you have.

So we get another lame dickhead like the shoe bomber, and, as I feared when I first saw the report yesterday, countless air travelers now have more useless, meaningless hassles when traveling because the government and airlines desperately want to look like they are doing something, when actually these “safety” measures do exactly squat.

The New York Times is reporting that now, for the last hour of the flight, passengers will not be allowed to move around the cabin, and will not be allowed to have anything on their laps during descent. Really? What difference will that make? Honestly, it’s as if one bozo in his car in Cleveland runs a stop sign, and as a result, every driver in the United States is forced to slow down to 5 mph 100 feet before every single stop sign in the country. Useless, meaningless, aggravating–which was probably exactly what the secondary point of the exercise was–that if they could not blow up the plane, at least they could make as many people miserable in the heavy travel season as possible.

That’s the most frustrating thing here–the stupid security stuff they will now require just so the government and airlines can make a show of things is a nice consolation gift for whomever did this.

How about this: hire more frakking people at the X-ray and baggage check so people don’t carry frakking bombs onto the aircraft. I would think that something along those lines might be a little more productive. But that would also be a little more telling of where the responsibility for yesterday’s fiasco lies.

And Sachi and I fly back home the day after tomorrow. Swell.

Finally! Although, it’s not exactly promised–but Apple seems to have a big event scheduled for January 26:

The company has rented a stage at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco for several days in late January, according to people familiar with the plans.

Apple is expected to use the venue to make a major product announcement on Tuesday, January 26th. Both YBCA and Apple declined to comment.

There’s no guarantee that it’s the tablet, but really, it’s gotta be the tablet. For too long, we have had too much news, too many patents filed, too many leaked bits and pieces, and now a NYT blogger has this:

But the icing on the cake comes from a current senior employee inside Apple. When one of my colleagues here asked if the rumors of the Apple tablet were true, and when we could expect such a device, the response from his source was, “I can’t really say anything, but, let’s just say Steve is extremely happy with the new tablet.”

Yet another recently departed Apple employee tipped me: “You will be very surprised how you interact with the new tablet.” [possible clue to the interactivity here]

Indeed, magazines and newspapers have been hinting, some more outright than others, that they are preparing their content for some kind of tablet, such as might possibly come from Apple. Now we are getting reports that Apple has asked iPhone app developers to supersize their apps, which would mean that the tablet might be another closed system, and could interact with the iPhone. Other rumors suggest that the tablet could deliver multimedia and that, with the Apple TV, Apple could be set to make a move on the cable TV industry, with a cheaper and more flexible TV content distribution model.

Estimates are that the tablet would reach shelves in or soon after March. But before it’s announced (hopefully) about a month from now, expect a storm of rumors and a wide range of stellar expectations. Will it be 3G? Will you have to get a new account or sign on for yet more years of contracts to get it? Will it cost more than $800? What kind of multi-touch gesturing will it have? What kind of battery life? What resolution screen? What CPU? How much RAM? AT&T or Verizon? And so on and so on….

John McCain:

“[Obama] said there would be a change in the climate in Washington,” McCain said. “There’s been a change. It’s more partisan. It’s more bitterly divided than it’s been.”

McCain, when prodded by host Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday,” said that the administration “in some ways, of course” more partisan than the White House under President Bill Clinton.

Yes. All Obama’s fault. He hasn’t tried one bit to appease Republicans, while the GOP has been breaking its back trying to lean over backwards to give Obama everything he wants.

As evidenced by Republicans using the filibuster twice as much in the first half of this session of Congress than ever used before. See how much they’re trying?

Invited by talented artist Chrisann Brennan, Sachi and I visited a local health sanctuary touching on spirituality as a means of catalyzing the healing process. Sachi and I were very impressed by the center. It is a beautiful retreat that we both wished we could stay at for a few weeks or months.

The institute is situated on Skyline boulevard, in the forests of the mountains separating the San Francisco peninsula valley from the ocean. It’s a beautiful area, and a beautiful drive up (though the mountain roads require as much time to travel as from Palo Alto to San Francisco, almost). Intended for educational purposes as well as healing, it focuses on alternative healing methods. The center has many rooms with twin double beds in simple, elegant rooms:

Surrounding the main building are the “treehouses,” buildings on stilts with two apartment rooms per structure (one above the other), surrounded by the trees (alive with birds!). Imagine waking up here in the morning:

You can see what I mean by wanting to stay there for weeks on end: the facility is solidly built, casual yet luxurious. It doesn’t cater to whims as much as it simply lets you relax, unimpeded, unpressured. There is a spa with message rooms, meditation rooms, and a saline pool:

Upstairs is the “Great Room,” with wonderful hand-blown glass chandeliers and a very comfortable, no-shoes, lodge-type feeling.

Sachi and I envisioned this as a potential tie-in with her desire to teach Reiki healing. She would get together with friends involved in Zen healing and hypnotherapy, or other like alternative healing philosophies, and offer a week-long seminar that would cover everyone’s room fees for the center, using the week to educate their clients in the various arts they have to offer. The fees are not cheap, but for people wishing the best environment in which to learn such things, I couldn’t think of a better location.

That’s the very large quartz crystal at the foyer, by the way. Some local bird life from the few minutes I had to whip out the zoom lens:

So, Apple has killed Psystar. isn’t that for the second or third time? I forget. But whatever the case, Apple has again successfully prevented third-party Mac clone makers from getting a toehold.

In some ways, you could see this as bad: it means that Apple has a monopoly over its domain, that there is no competition to drive down prices, no alternate choices which could lead to great Apple software running on much cheaper machines.

But the more you look at it, the more you have to admit that Apple is right to do what it does. The mistake comes from seeing computers and OS makers as being separate, which is the Microsoft model, also followed by other makers of OS software. And maybe if Apple had the 90~95% worldwide market share that Microsoft has, it would be more of a monopolistic concern.

However, that’s not the case. Apple never intended to sell software and hardware separately; it is designed to be an integrated system. Think about other makers who do similar things: what if I made a new DVR, but took the OS software from Sony’s DVRs to make it run? Sony would shut me down and nobody would think Sony was out of line. Hardware makers do that kind of thing all the time: create closed, integrated hardware and software systems. In fact, everything that’s not a PC sold as a PC is designed exactly that way, from cell phones to cars: the manufacturer creates the operating system to run with the hardware, and they see both as something they own. If a user wants to tweak the system after they buy it, then fine–but if a for-profit company wants to tweak it and then sell it for a profit, potentially robbing sales from the original designer by using their designs and concepts–that’s different. As far as I know, Apple has never tried to go after any private users, even for things like software piracy–Apple has far fewer safeguards and hurdles against such things relative to Microsoft.

So while the freedom-to-tinker part of me wants to see clone makers succeed, the I-made-it-I-control-it part of me sees how it’s the right of the creator to prevent someone else from making money selling hardware based on Apple’s work. (I don’t think that the “I own Apple stock” part of me is really influencing what I think here, but that’s harder to say.)

So, what to think of the health care bill? Perhaps it could best be summed up by the word, “meh.” Having been disgusted with the bill’s progress, and, like so many other liberals, in contempt of the Democrats’ weakness and ineptitude in getting the bill passed, I have stopped paying close attention to it all. It should have been much stronger to start with. It should have been “Medicare for all” and the negotiations should have started from there. Obama should have put forth two versions, one for “bipartisanship” and the other in case Republicans didn’t want bipartisanship, and when Republicans of course showed no interest, Obama could have switched to the stronger bill, declaring that the GOP had rebuffed his bipartisan outreach. Democrats should have strong-armed the Blue Dogs more instead of begging at their feet. Democrats should have began with reconciliation instead of dumping it.

Coulda, shoulda, woulda. So how about now? As far as I can tell, the bill stinks. However, compared to the fetid, steaming pile of insurance the country now has, it stinks somewhat less. But I see no way to really keep down costs for the consumer, something even more important now that coverage will be more or less mandatory.

A big question will be, if and when it is passed, then what? Politically, I mean. Will Democrats reap the rewards? Well, they pretty much shot themselves in their collective feet on that one: everyone, including (especially!) Democratic voters, now see them as weak and ineffective. The only thing keeping Democratic voters on their side is that the alternative is to go with the batshit insane people who spent the last eight years destroying the country. I can imagine centrist voters being like Bugs Bunny in that cartoon where he opened one of two exits and sees a monster; screeching in horror, he runs for the other exit, opens it and sees another monster; screaming again, he closes that and runs to the first exit; when he opens it and sees the first monster, he rubs his chin and say, “Oh, yeah…”

The real problem here is that while Democrats have spent the last several months disheartening their own voters, the Republicans have spent the same time firing up theirs. There is that Kos poll from a few week s back which showed that while Democratic voters were not interested in voting in the midterms, right-wing voters couldn’t wait to do so. Not a good sign.

The irony is, if Dem voters got their act together and came out just as strong and voted aven more Dems into office, that would probably break the barrier needed to bypass even the Blue Dogs and get stuff done. But the way things are, Republicans will probably gain seats, and things will just go straight to hell from there. Which is frightening, as this pretty much looks like hell now.

Sometimes I am glad I live in Japan. Makes it a bit easier to ignore this stuff. Just a bit.

Sachi and I had a quick dinner at a Mexican grill in town tonight, and something I saw there made me realize something about Japan. A uniformed cop came in, had a drink, and left. And it made me realize that you never see that in Japan: uniformed police officers never come in to eating places as customers. You don’t see them sitting at tables eating food. Even donut joints.

Our New Year’s Card design for this year. It’s a lot harder than you might think to put convincing tiger stripes onto a Shiba Inu puppy. I had to use several different tiger photos to get just the right stripes, and spent a lot of time with color, brightness, and contrast correction. But I got it done, and Sachi printed out and sent the actual cards.

Happy Holidays!

P.S. — when we made the design, we hadn’t yet heard of the Tiger Woods embroglio.