A few minutes ago, I was sitting in my new room and felt a few small tremors. I was going to shout, “quake!” to Sachi when BAM, the building shook hard, but only for a second or two–then it stopped. A quick, sharp jolt like that often indicates a small quake with a close-by epicenter, and that’s what this was. Early reports have the quake striking at 1:33 pm, the epicenter under Nishi-Ogikubo (revised epicenter: Takaido), with an intensity of 4.0 on the Richter scale.

290,000 jobs added in April. With adjusted numbers for February, the fourth straight month of job growth. The best jobs report in 4 years. Even the uptick in the unemployment rate–from 9.7% to 9.9%–was good news in disguise, as it reflected people who had given up the search for work rejoining the ranks of applicants. And the job numbers for February and March were both adjusted upwards. The new chart:

Republican attempts to (a) credit Bush and/or themselves, (b) deny that Obama had anything to do with it, and/or (c) blow this off as insignificant, in three, two, one…

What is encouraging is how the trendline is holding steady. It may be unrealistic, but the current trendline has us gaining roughly 750,000 jobs per month by the midterm elections. That trend will, of course, max out at some point, likely before 500,000, but still, the regularity of the trend so far is very encouraging.

With the iPad international release date finally set (May 28), Softbank has beat even Apple to the punch, and is now advertising the iPad for sale–from ¥48,960 ($535 by today’s exchange rate) for the 16GB WiFi model. That price was pretty much expected, but Softbank’s 3G data plans were the real question mark.

Softbank is doing it two ways: you can get a monthly data package, or sign up for a two-year contract. If you go by the month, it’ll cost ¥4410 ($48) for 1 GB of data per month; you go past 1 GB or if the month runs out, then the deal ends. The other way is unlimited data for ¥2910 ($32) a month–and while the details are a bit fuzzy to me (I can’t read the Japanese well enough and the English reports seem unclear), I think it breaks down to the fact that you have to buy a 2-year contract along with a 3G iPad in order to get that pricing.

Clearly, this is very inferior to the plan offered in the US, where $30–no contract, just a monthly payment–gets you unlimited data for the month. Softbank is charging twice that much for a limited amount.

Glad I don’t have to deal with that. Our data plans for the iPhone are already way too pricey.

Grover Norquist, noted arch-conservative, on President Obama reportedly using the term “teabagger”:

This remark is the equivalent of using the ‘n’ word. It shows contempt for middle America, expressed knowingly, contemptuously, on purpose, and with a smirk. It is indefensible to use this word. The president knows what it means, and his people know what it means. The public thought we reached a new low of incivility during the Clinton administration. Well, the Obama administration has just outdone them.

Um… yeah. Right. This from a guy whose entire political movement has made it virtually mandatory to twist and create an epithet from the very name of the opposing political party, so much so that the previous president and the party’s succeeding candidate for president used the term constantly. This from a guy whose own movement incessantly calls the president a “communist,” “socialist,” “fascist,” “traitor,” and much worse, comparing him regularly to Hitler, even suggesting he’s the antichrist, daily accusing the president of horrific conspiracies and crimes.

But no, Obama is reaching “a new low of incivility” by using a term that the Tea Party themselves coined for their own use, and only realized after months of open laughter was perhaps not the most effective term to use.

Yeah. Right.

Something I’m hearing a lot is people excusing Republicans for the Arizona immigration law because a few Republicans are speaking out against it. For example, take this diversion by Jake Tapper from This Week:

To be fair, to conservatives, Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, a conservative Republican, and Florida Congressman Connie Mack have had some tough words about parts of this law … these are conservative Republicans, nobody would question Bob McDonnell’s bona fides as a conservative, and they are voicing serious concern about those laws.

Tapper, who leans to the right himself, said this as the conservatives at the table nodded sagely and voiced assent. But the whole claim is BS, frankly. Think about it: if a Democratic legislature in a Democratic state passed a bill banning guns, and a Democratic governor signed it into law while a large majority of Democrats across the country approved, would conservatives agree that Democrats were not responsible just because Brian Schweitzer and Jim Webb spoke out against it? Please.

Republicans thought up this law. They passed it, against a solid wall of Democratic votes. A Republican governor signed it. 75% of Republicans who have heard of the law approve of it, and are the only ones I hear defending it. That there are a few right-wingers who see the true ramifications of the law and object hardly make this not a Republican matter. This may be the right wing of the Republican Party, but it is the Republican Party which produced it, and most Republicans approve of it.

What we’re seeing is Republicans trying to disavow the more radical actions of what is frankly the majority of their party while not really doing anything to stop or reverse those actions, so they can appeal to a broader base and not be taken to account for what the party is as a whole. Good midterm election strategy, but not the truth.

Bill Maher, in that same round table discussion, made a few excellent points about the racism inherent in the law. Imagine a law, maybe based on militia activity, that would pressure the police to pull over white males in pickup trucks indiscriminately, asking them for their papers and jailing them if they fail to produce. Like they’d be OK with that, wouldn’t scream “reverse racism” or some government plot to oppress them, and create widely-believed conspiracy theories about Obama and this is what happens when you put a black guy in the White House. The Tea Party crowd would be in an uproar about that, unlike now, when we’re not hearing a peep out of most of them. No, only when it’s people of another color whose rights are trampled when 3 out of 4 of in the party as a whole give hearty applause. As Maher pointed out, if the large masses of hysterical, gun-toting radicals calling for government overthrow were almost all black, you think they would be treated like the teabaggers are? Would Fox News be organizing for them and upholding their Second Amendment rights? Hell no.

But, remember: IOKIYAR. And being white helps a lot. Not that the two are different data sets, mostly.

Sorry to be offline for so long. We’ve been busy, understandably. The move went pretty well, and the movers we chose, Ark, seem to be a good outfit. I explained before how their rep handled himself well, and the moving staff did the same. They arrived a half hour earlier than their estimated start time, did a good job of familiarizing themselves with the plan, and got to work right away. Any request we made was instantly carried out. They wrapped everything up well, and nothing was damaged or lost (at least as far as we can determine so far).

The day before the move, their air conditioner guy had come over and uninstalled our two units, setting them on the floor for moving, so that was all ready to go. On the day of the move, everything got transported, no problem with space in the trucks, and no difficulties in terms of logistics. (The Heart guys in Inagi were almost churlish about squeezing all of my stuff in the truck.) Within three hours, they were all packed up and ready to go. Sachi stayed behind to clean up while I scooted over to the new place so I could let them in. This is what it looked like the last time I saw it:

Now, the last time I moved, when we finished getting the trucks packed up and moved to the new place, the movers (an outfit called “Heart,” as I recall) were slow; on my scooter, I stopped by work on the way back, and still the movers did not get there until about a half hour after I did. This time, though, even without a delay more than a quick gas station pit stop, the movers got there within minutes of me–taking normal roads, no less. The Heart guys also were poor at installing stuff; they just dumped our washer-drier in its space, and said they didn’t do connections, leaving us in a pinch, as the hoses didn’t match the new setup at the time. But the Ark guys this time took care of everything, and made sure we were set up.

By the time Sachi finished up and got to our new place, the movers were mostly finished. But the place was cluttered with stuff, mostly boxes–it seemed like there was way too much stuff. It just looks like that when all your stuff is out and boxed, I guess. After the movers left, we had other visitors–delivery people, cable TV people, and a few others, to help us get started with everything. By the end of the day, we had phone, Internet, and cable TV in addition to the necessary water, gas, and electric. We were way too tired after that to do much unpacking.

The next two days were torrents of comings and goings. Two different air conditioner installers came; one to reinstall the ones we had previously, and one to install two new ones we just bought (for a bargain 35,000 yen each, a sale we found a few weeks ago). Another guy came to install the heated toilet seat with bidet (can’t do without that), and a variety of other goods were brought to us–a 6 x 3 foot shoes cabinet for the foyer (which I spent most of yesterday putting together), shelves for a kitchen spot, lamps for two rooms that needed them, and I forget what else. Oh yeah, a gas stove/range, which I installed. Later, while I installed lamps and laid wires, Sachi laid new topsoil for all the potted plants, which we hope will do away with the infestation of fungus gnats which we believe breed there. They’ve been in our faces for two years now; I hope we got rid of them. And then there was the unpacking, which we’re still only about 80% of the way through–but enough so that we don’t have to dodge boxes wherever we walk so much anymore.

So today we went out to visit home centers, hoping to find little “furniture” items that could help hold all the stuff we want to put in certain places, and take advantage of otherwise blank spaces in the apartment. Like this large counter space behind the toilet that would just be a big, empty, wasted space, or the ledge next to the washer & drier which we need to hold much more stuff. The kitchen pantry is great, but has way too much wasted vertical space, so we’re trying to find smaller shelving and boxes to add to it. We found some good stuff, but decided that it’d be cheaper, faster, and much easier to buy it online. But hey, home center stores are great fun anyway.

After that, we did the obligatory visit to the neighbors with little gifts, what you’re supposed to do in Japan when you move in somewhere. Two people were home, another two were out, and the last place seems to be in mothballs. Still, the neighbors seem like decent folks. Over the next week or two, we’ll have to finish up notifying all businesses and government offices of our new address.

The apartment: we’ve only been here for 3 days, but already several points are becoming apparent. First, it’s a big place. Great for spreading out, bad for trying to find Sachi to talk to her about something. Closet space is fantastic–we have five full-sized closets, and one small one. The small one is in the toilet-bath-laundry area, which is contrarily lacking in storage space, a lot less roomy than our old place–ironic, because it seems to take up more space in the new place. So while we’re struggling to figure out where to jam stuff in the bath area, we’ve got tons of closet space elsewhere.

The water pressure is so-so, and we’re back to having a system where we have to turn on the gas heater to get warm water. My solution back in inagi was simple: leave it on all the time. Sachi originally thought about turning it on and off every time we used warm water, but I balked and so now we turn it on in the morning and off at night or when we both leave for a few hours. The toilet room is OK–more isolated from the rest of the place, though not as well soundproofed–but it kinda has that new-apartment mildew smell to it, which I think this building is prone to. I’m not worried, Sachi has an innate (neurotic) sense for fighting stuff like that.

The soundproofing for the whole place is rather weak. Internal walls and doors are easy to hear through, and we could even hear stuff that neighbors are doing at their loudest–a switch from our last place, which was built more fortress-mansion-like. Still, it’s not so bad. However, I would not want to live with more than my wife here with the noise like that. Interestingly, the place could potentially house a family of five easily, six if you use what seems to be the foundation for a partition to make part of the living room a small extra room. If every room had two people, that would mean as many as 10 people in the place. I’m actually a bit surprised that poorer East Asian immigrant tenants, sometimes known for loading up in apartments, haven’t moved in to one of these units (people who don’t mind living in other people’s noise); rent would work out to about $150 per person, a steal for Tokyo. I only mention it because it almost seems like the place was designed for that. Or at least a large (for Japan) family with grandparents shacking up with them.

The sunlight is not too bad, but nothing direct enters the apartment. Most of the time it’s bright enough, but the dining room does get dark in the daytime sometimes; Sachi commented that a skylight would be perfect for the dining area, and I agree.

The neighborhood is pretty good. There’s a fantastic yakitori joint across the street from us which has terrific chicken on a stick, and they do take-out. We ate from there the first two nights. It’s 100 yen per stick, and they’re not chintzy on the meat.

Unfortunately, there don’t seem to be too many other eateries too close, but I’m sure we’ll unearth some good places nearby soon. Denny’s is right across from us, and they’re not bad. As I think I mentioned before, there’s a big supermarket with large drug store and dollar shop around the block (a rather large block), open till 9 (the market until 10:45pm), and a smaller 24-hour supermarket much closer, almost across the street.

And there seem to be four home centers within a 20-minute bike ride, a long with a lot of other stuff.

One more nice point: while our south-facing windows mostly look out on a 15-story bank of danchi, when we leave the apartment, the hallway overlooks a nice park, seen in panorama below. Down point: lots of kids making noise during the day, and a hangout for older kids later in the evening (which has me worried about the bicycles and the scooter). But nice to look at most of the time.

Overall, it’s a good move. We miss some of the nicer appointments of Vanguard Tower, but for a place that’s saving us a relative thousand bucks a month, we haven’t traded down nearly so far as it might sound.

Ah, Vanguard Tower. 21st floor. Great view. Almost 3 years. Way too much rent money. We’ll miss it all. Especially the rent money.

Gotta pull the Internet cables now. See you in Hibarigaoka.

I got it! Finally! Thanks to the efforts of a generous coworker, who not only got me the gear on their vacation back in the U.S., but brought it even with a broken wrist (there’s a friend for you), I’ve got my iPad–a month earlier than the Japan release, a month after the U.S. release, and about two years after I started wanting one <snark>.

First impression: damn, this thing is heavy. Second impression: OK, maybe not so heavy. Third impression: damn, this screen can get bright.

Well, there are just too many impressions to number them like that, but those really were the first things that ran through my head, at least after I got it set up.

Getting it set up was not very hard, especially if you don’t need to sync much, but there were a few small quirks. First off, if you own an iPhone, get ready to sort through all your apps. And I mean all of them–they are all added to the sync list automatically, every last one of them. You have to sort through to guess which ones you’ll want to have, and in the end, it probably won’t be too many–what they say about the pixelization when you double-size them is true. That said, there are at least a few where I don’t mind–more on that later. Another small thing is that adding photos takes a long time, as each one has to be optimized (I presume resized) for the iPad.

Once you get going, though, it’s just as sweet a machine as everyone says it is. Find the right apps, and you’ll be happy as a clam. (By the way, why exactly are clams happy? That never made sense to me.)

First item on the Wish list: arrow keys. It’d be nice not to have to place the cursor with the loupe every time I want to place the cursor inside a word (tapping will always place the cursor at the end of the word you tapped on). The original Mac back in 1984 didn’t have them either, but that was eventually fixed; hopefully, it’ll get fixed in the iPad as well.

Anyway, it’s late, we’re moving the day after tomorrow, and it’s bedtime. More later. LOTS more, you betcha.