Difficulties in Promoting the Switch to Renewable Energy Sources

Subsequent to the nuclear disaster at the Daiichi Nuclear Plant in Fukushima, recently the Japanese Prime Minister Kan has asked for one reactor (Hamaoka) in Chubu to shut down until it installs more safety measures for earthquakes and tsunamis.  The Government of Japan (GOJ) is also beginning to promote renewable energy such as solar and wind power to make up for shortfalls of nuclear powered energy.  The government as recently as last year was subsidizing solar panels on new home construction, for example, so this is not their first effort.  These subsidies come from tax dollars or rate payers, of course, so they are not always popular with the public at large.  This same situation exists in the United States, creating a serious obstacle for changing over to renewable energy sources to replace fossil fuel and nuclear power.

What with how stubborn or uneducated or just plain fanciful the general public is on such things as the environment and what fossil and nuclear fuel can do to you short and long term, it almost requires such an horrific disaster to prompt some sort of change.  Of course, if the change is mandated by the government in the States, half the people cry "Socialism!", regardless of how it may positively benefit them.  No one wants to pay higher taxes or electricity rates for a benefit that they don't "see" immediately in their own home or wallet.  The homeowner who installs the solar panels sees the benefit, but his neighbor who is paying a higher rate to partially subsidize the solar panels does not see that cash benefit.  He is also unlikely to appreciate the benefit of lowered pollution that he and his family is reaping by having his neighbor install solar panels which provide power substituting for the largely coal powered electricity that most people use.  It's much easier to just bitch about higher taxes and electric rates and vote as such, destroying any and all programs providing incentives for positive behavior by the citizenry.

This nuclear disaster is right in your face every day, so it's easier to use as a cudgel to move the public and the government, frankly, in the right direction on promoting renewable energy sources.  In the title article, the GOJ estimates that wind power along the Pacific coast of Northern Japan could replace the nuclear power currently used, for example.  And how about all those new homes that will be constructed as cities rebuild, not to mention every other building; warehouses, restaurants, hotels, etc.  Imagine the power generated by mandated solar panels on every roof above a certain number of square meters.

Absent such a prolific disaster as the one we are currently facing, it is more often than not difficult to impossible to motivate the public at large to support such efforts if they are not immediately, directly affected.  For example, the people whose water supply is poisoned and lungs are destroyed by mountain top coal mining or strip mining are ready to say yes to renewable energy, but if you don't live right next to such a destructive operation you don't see the incentive in your daily life.  "Sure, the air is getting more polluted every day and the effects of that pollution on the climate and our lungs will surely kill me or my grand, grand, grand, grand children, but hey, what's in it for me today?"  It's damn hard to convince people of what to do for their own good if the effects will not be realized for some years down the line.  Even with such a disaster, the effects are usually only temporary on the country as a whole.  As life gets back to normal for most of the population, they usually experience amnesia about the whole thing.  "Crisis, what crisis?  I don't want to pay more taxes!"

I guess we'll just have to wait until the U.S. experiences their own horrible nuclear or other disaster to see people convinced.  Until then, it sure feels like we're hitting our heads against a brick wall.

Drinking and Driving Cultures

A Japanese friend of mine drove home drunk last night and almost hit a building on his way from where he was drinking.  I guess that's what made me think to write this post doing a bit of comparison between drinking and driving in the U.S. and Japan.

In the States, it always seemed to me that the society is built to encourage drinking and driving.  When you drink, you generally do it in groups of friends who also drink.  This makes it difficult to find a designated driver when everyone wants to participate.  And with the blood alcohol content limit at .08 or so, depending on your state, people are lead to believe they can have "just one or two" and be OK to drive.  Then, there is the almost total lack of public transportation except downtown in the largest metropolitan areas.  All of this contributes to a situation where it shouldn't be surprising to find people drunk driving and doing all sorts of damage and even killing themselves and others.  It always strikes me as so strange to see a bar in the suburbs of Anywhere, U.S.A. with a big parking lot full of cars.  How else do they expect people to get there?  Inside, they are drinking, many of them having driven themselves there after work or whatnot.  One person to a car, that's the American way.  Then, if we find some majority of them drinking alcohol and driving home, why should we be surprised?  None of this is to say that each person is not individually responsible for their actions.  Anyone who does this is the one at fault and responsible.  Not to blame society.  It just seems that things are set up such that we assume everyone will drunk drive and we'll only worry about it if we catch them or they kill someone.

What is surprising to me is that anyone here in urban Japan still engages in this self-destructive activity.  We live in a city with prolific public transportation and harsh DUI and drunk driving laws.  There are trains, buses and taxis literally everywhere, and the bars and restaurants will call you a cab any time, which will arrive in 15 minutes or less in most cases.  If we lived some inaka (rural) place where everyone had to drive or bicycle or scooter around, it would be a different situation, of course.  Even there, however, with the strict .03 BAC limits and the DUI definition being seemingly whatever the cop feels it should be, one would think that people would be effectively deterred from drinking and driving.  Apparently not so, based on my experience last night.

I don't know how true it may be, but I've also heard that the owner of the establishment where the person got drunk can also be fined or somehow penalized.  I do know that other passengers in a drunk driver's car here can get fines and perhaps jail if there is a death that occurs due to the drunk driving.  No passengers in the car last night that I know of, but he was drinking at a friend's restaurant.  If there was additional penalty for that, more people are affected directly than just the individual with the poor judgement.  He lied to us and told us he wasn't driving home.  Then, after we walked outside to go home, we saw his car careening down the alley, narrowly missing a building and an electric pole.  We should have been more responsible friends and taken his keys or called him a cab.  It's kind of sad, but there we are.

No control.

Bar / Restaurant Recommendation

Today, I am recommending Beer Saurus in Ikebukuro.

 

A short walk from the train station, Beer Saurus has a seemingly unlimited selection of excellent beers, both mass produced and micro brews.  We arrived for their 6 - 8 PM Happy Hour which gives 50% off all beers.

The drafts

I tried the Bear Republic Racer 5, the Left Coast Hop Juice Double IPA and the Green Flash Le Freak, all of which were excellent.

California brews available

You can see that the beers are a bit pricey at regular price, particularly the Stone Brewing Company selection.  Thus, the Happy Hour is key.

Food-wise, we had some delicious chicken wings, sauteed mushrooms in oil with bread, and spring rolls.  Outstanding flavor in all of them, and the wings are available in varying levels of heat.  We were pleased with the spicy and with the sweet thai chili variety.

All in all, an excellent venue for hanging out and enjoying quality brew and food.  The environment is chic/cool with lots of risque adverts for drinking to go along with some nudes in the bathroom.  The staff was attentive and friendly.  I'm giving it two thumbs up!

Timing is everything

6 months later...

Due to a trip to the States, we missed the cherry blossoms this year to my great disappointment.  It's always one of my favorite times to head down to Yoyogi Park and take in the sights and sounds of a Sunday in good weather; bands playing, yaki soba, Asahi beer, frisbees, circles of kids performing their choreographed dance moves.

One of the beautiful things here is that seasonal blooming flowers appear to have been part of the city planning.  The sakura roll through the country in the month of April each year.  Then, when they are gone, the tsutsuji arrive with their neon pink blossoms.  They line the streets in green bushes you may not even take note of during the other 11 months of the year, but in early May, they are incredible.  After they fade, the ajisai (hydrangea) arrive in blues and pinks.  There is even a temple in Kamakura that is filled with them.  It's just nice to have a new, colorful bloom appear on a seemingly monthly basis.

Anyone else surprised?

... that Harry Reid is still the Senate Majority Leader?

Rare Earth

Man, I saw those guys back in '74 at the California Jam in Ontario.

I was there to see Sabbath, but they rocked the house!

Peace. Out.

Swedish Cuisine in Tokyo

Today, for fun, I went to a new restaurant. Well, a restaurant that was new to me, in any case. You get the picture.

I have some fraction of Swedish ancestry, so I Googled (Googlimashita?) "tokyo swedish restaurant", and came up with the above link'd Lilla Dalarna in Roppongi. I suppose it's no surprise to find a foreign restaurant in a neighborhood like Roppongi filled with embassies, Western-style discotheques (man, that was tough to spell), and folks from all over the world. However, I guess I was a bit surprised to find a couple Swedish restaurants with my extensive Googling.

It was overcast and periodically raining, but we all had a good time and some good food. It's only a hop, skip, and a jump from the Roppongi station on the Hibiya line, or the Tokyo Subway. Just head toward Roppongi Hills or the Azabu Police Station, if you just happen to know where that is because your friend got a parking ticket at last year's Father's Day brunch in Hiroo. I had the meatball lunch, which wasn't all that different from what you get at Ikea, but it was good. The lunch menu is reasonably priced, and you get salad, bread, and either coffee or tea with the set price. Carlsberg on tap.

Enjoy!

Denver v. Chicago

I don't think there are quite enough statistics available yet to be definitive, however is anyone surprised that Jay Cutler is struggling with Chicago and Kyle Orton is flourishing in Denver?

Orton moved to Mile High and got to air it out to some legit receivers while Cutler came back down to Earth and was given left overs and rookies, as well as a general lack of separation speed. Cutler was also welcomed to the City of Broad Shoulders with 35 sacks last season after only having to endure 11 the prior season in Denver. This season, he's already been sacked 17 times through 4 games. It's only 4 games because the Giants hit him so hard he received a concussion and was knocked out of this week's contest with Carolina, another team struggling to find anyone who can play QB.

My contention would be that the offensive line is the biggest Chicago problem. With a good line, Cutler could get back to his Denver numbers, and Forte would look much better as well.

Eating Your Veggies?

One of the dietary changes I made after moving to Japan was that I began to consume more vegetables. I wouldn't say it was a conscious decision on my part. It just came with the territory.

The title linked article makes many good points about some of the basic factors that traditionally keep Americans from eating more vegetables; convenience, freshness, taste, and cost.

It seems to me that in America, most households shop for groceries maybe once a week or so, stocking up on bulk at Costco and elsewhere to save money with volume. Then, you stuff all these groceries on a Saturday morning in your SUV and bring them home to cram them in your gigantic refrigerator. You put the frozen stuff that won't fit in the main fridge in your extra freezer (which is costing you an arm and a leg in annual electricity consumption, in case you didn't know) that you keep in the garage (Generally speaking, we don't have garages in most of Japan, although I saw that they were present in Hokkaido because of the snowfall).

In Japan, households (usually the lady of the house) shop daily or almost daily. That is driven by several factors. (Or is it the factors that are driven by the historical desire to shop daily for fresh food? I don't know.) In any case, most Japanese don't drive to work, in fact many Japanese do not own cars at all if they live in a large urban area such as the Tokyo-Yokohama metropolitan area. With no car, that means you have less ability to haul a large amount of groceries home. Taking the train to work is the most popular form of commuting, and most train stations have a grocery store inside. Thus, when commuters arrive at their home station after a day's work, they pick up a few items for dinner along with toilet paper, diapers, and maybe a bottle of shochu if it's Friday or Saturday night. This allows one to buy fresh vegetables for that evening's dinner. The grocery stores sell the veggies in much smaller portions than in the U.S. as well. For example, asparagus can be purchased in bunches as small as 4 - 6 sprigs (is sprigs the right word for asparagus?). One sprig for each family member. This addresses the issue of freshness, and also makes accommodation for the relatively small refrigerators that are made to fit in relatively small Japanese apartments and homes.

Thus, the issues of convenience (right in your home train station), freshness (buy just what you need for tonight's meal), and cost (smaller portions cost more per piece, but you aren't going to have a lot of left over wasted and thrown away when it goes bad because you didn't eat that entire 40 pound bag of broccoli you got for such a great price at Costco soon enough).

Another great advantage I believe Japan has is the variety of vegetables available and regularly used in recipes. I have eaten a lot of vegetables here that I never saw for sale back in the U.S. There are a wide variety of mushrooms here that are consumed on a regular basis in everything from soups, to ramen, to battered and served tempura style. In the U.S., you usually have the garden variety white mushroom (which you can't find here normally), and maybe some "exotic" shitake mushrooms that you don't know how to prepare anyway. In Japan, we eat a lot of seasonal vegetables as well, so you intrinsically achieve variety through the changing of the seasons. In Japan, seasonal foods are practically celebrated. They are consumed with joy and vigor and gone in weeks, to be anticipated for the next year. It's part of what makes each season or holiday time special. In the U.S., with the popularity of bulk to save time and money and the addition of lots of preservative agents and large refrigeration units, this may have an affect on the variety ultimately available to the consumer. There may not be an efficient way to distribute such a variety of vegetables across all the States, so it's more efficient for the producers and distributors to deal in only a few, hardy items that will last longer.

The societal factors of less cars per family and smaller living spaces, hence smaller refrigerators make it more practical to consume products like vegetables that rely on freshness. The variety of types and preparations make the vegetables here palatable and enjoyable, which leads to a healthier diet, less national obesity and less diabetes. This contributes to lowering the cost of national health care. So, pitch in and eat your veggies!

Happy Monday

Happy Monday!

I wanted to start the day on a positive note. It's raining here in Yokohama. Nice, cool sleeping weather. In Japan, after about the 20th of September, the weather takes a hard turn from hot to cool. It's pretty amazing how predictable the weather here seems to be. It's a relatively small piece of the Earth to predict on, however it's at least as large as California, and the TV weather there was always pretty far off the mark. If you watch the weather for L.A. on TV, but you live outside the immediate city, your weather was not all that similar to what was reported. Chicago produced similar results for suburban forecasts versus downtown forecasts. Perhaps lake effects and all, but considering the relative proximity you'd think the "professionals" would get it down pretty close to accurate. Living here, all I have to really do is ask my mother-in-law who seems to always know exactly what will happen the next day and which days of the week it will rain, etc.

The title link is to the website I use. It seems to do a fairly good job. The TV weather is kind of fun, tracking the typhoons as they roll in from the South / Southeast. We get maybe 20 typhoons each year, noted by numbers rather than names. Most hit Okinawa, the coast of China and southern Korea, but some do make it up to Kyushu, Honshu, Shikoku, and Hokkaido.

If I'm lucky, I can maybe find somewhere to watch the Monday Night Football game tomorrow morning. Bears - Packers this week, so Go Bears!

Have a great week!

Well, we're coming to the end of yet another baseball season, and things are cruising along as usual; the Yankees are in first (although with their schedule, they may end up as the wild-card), the White Sox choked up the stretch against perennial foe the Twins, and the Yokohama Baystars are still the worst team on Planet Earth. Their bullpen could simply not get any worse. They should fire all of them and pick the top 6 high school pitchers from the latest koshien tournament for next season. Bad, bad, bad.

Bust the Trusts

And then there was one...

So, United and Continental are now one company, as are Delta and Northwest. It is a reality of 2010 America that there are fewer and fewer companies for consumers to choose from. Not exactly a capitalist wonderland of choice, but perhaps the logical consequence of unregulated capitalism where survival of the fittest destroys all competition. Theoretically, the best company got the business it earned and thrived where competitors failed, right?

I would like to know what kind of position that leaves American taxpayers in as a result. It seems to me that in an industry that has been prone to catastrophic failure due to incompetent management, bankruptcy, destruction of retirement plans for its employees, and overall crappy service, we now have very few companies to choose from that are essentially "Too Big to Fail", in the parlance of the day. What happens when the new United or Delta manages themselves into the toilet, AGAIN? Does the government allow them to catastrophically fail as did Lehman Bros., indefinitely crippling air travel in the U.S. and elsewhere? Or does the American taxpayer once again get stuck with the bill for bailing out another huge multinational corporation that fucked up on its own?

It just seems to me that we are allowing this to happen again and again by not enforcing anti-trust laws and not disapproving mergers that leave consumers with no choice and taxpayers holding the bag.

Oh, and if you read the UK Guardian portion of the title link, you can also worry along with shareholders about whether or not United's tulip logo will be lost to history. Oh yeah, and if you have time to care, maybe more job losses. You know, whatever.

Jason Linkins

I do enjoy Jason Linkins of the Huffington Post quite a bit. Here are some of my favorite excerpts from this past weekend's liveblog of the Sunday morning talking heads:

"He also thinks reconciliation would be a ruinous tactic, but I'll point out once again: PASSING BILLS THROUGH RECONCILIATION HAS NEVER EVER PROVEN TO BE A RUINOUS TACTIC! Laws have been passed through reconciliation plenty of times. I made note of four in this here liveblog. The laws may have led to to someone's political ruin, but the reconciliation process did not. Know why? Because only Beltway wonks and media types take that point of view of reconciliation. Out in the real United States of America, if you tell a person that a bill passed 51 to 49, they say, "YEP. THAT'S EXACTLY HOW THE SENATE WORKS, LEARNED IT IN JUNIOR HIGH."

"Rendell and Schwarzenegger say that the GOP will have to compromise at the health care summit, because otherwise the ancient Celts will come over Hadrian's Wall and impose a single payer system on the Gauls, or something."

"And seriously, why is Tiger Woods apologizing to me? I don't care if he wants to plow every IHOP waitress from here to Saskatoon! This is a free country! He can do what he likes. His wife should probably leave him, but if she doesn't want to, that's fine too. I guess what I am saying is that I have lived a full and rich life of not giving a tinned shit about what Tiger Woods and Elin Nordegren do in their homes and in their lives, and I think that Tiger Woods and Elin Nordegren should, with all deliberate haste, retreat to their previous state of not requiring me to have to confront their private lives."

Too funny.

Why Indeed.

This is an article about a subject that I have spent some time thinking about in recent months/years. I cannot fathom the American voting public at times. They are a mystery to me, and I do not imagine anyone will be hiring me to run their political campaign any time soon.

Not Exactly How I Would Have Advertised

If I Had a Hammer...

Dateline Riverside...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Date: Monday, January 11, 2010
Contact: Lt. Chuck Griffitts, Dayshift Watch Commander
Phone: (951) 353-7900

Home Invasion ends with suspect arrested
Juvenile Male subdued by victim’s roommate

Riverside, CA -- On Monday January 10, 2010, a little before 1 o’clock in the morning, Officers responded to the 11100 block of Norwood Ave in the City of Riverside answering a phone call reporting a home invasion robbery.

At the scene, Officers learned that a juvenile male tried to steal a car that was parked in the driveway of a single family residence. The lone juvenile male could not get the car started so he broke into the residence through a window and woke up the sleeping homeowner at knife point.

The suspect ordered the victim into the kitchen and demanded car keys and money while threatening him with a knife. The victim told the juvenile male that he did not have and money and as a result received a cut on the hand by the male juvenile. The victim sustained a minor wound and was eventually treated and released.

The victim’s roommate, a carpenter, heard the commotion and came out of his bedroom. Seeing what was going on and fearing for the victim’s safety, he hit the male juvenile in the back of the head with a hammer. The male juvenile was detained by the victim and his roommate until Police arrived on scene. The knife was recovered at the scene. The male juvenile was transported to Riverside Community Hospital for treatment of the head wound, was treated and released for booking. Officers booked the male juvenile into Riverside Juvenile Hall for home invasion robbery.

The arrested male's identification is being withheld due to his age; he is described only as a male juvenile, 17 years from the City of Riverside.

There is no further information available at this time.

Happy New Year

This is a typical front door decoration (o-kazari) for the New Year 2010 or Heisei 22, as the Japanese have traditionally recorded the year of the current Emperor.


As I have previously blogged, the Colonel's KFC is a frequent Christmas Eve meal, and our family was no exception getting a bucket to go this year. Inside were some fun stickers with which we decorated the calendar appropriately, I think:


Yeah, I don't think I'm going in there.

Me and my sister assembling the kagami mochi decoration for the front entrance. Looks more like a Dalek or a mochi helmet to me, but who am I to say?


Happy New Year!

Emperor's Birthday Photos

Well, we got downtown, and the weather was fine. The palace grounds are really beautiful. Lots of people were running through the park area even though it was crowded with well wishers. It's probably a great place to exercise or just take a walk on a nice day. The part of the castle that is open for the birthday celebration is not open the rest of the year except tomorrow (New Year's Day), however.

First, we entered from Sakuradamon station on the west side of the grounds. Boy and girl scouts were waiting to give us paper Japanese flags to wave. After that, we got in the queue to be scanned and searched by security. It looked like every cop in Japan was out that day, and they appeared to have deployed the best looking female police to the front lines, I must say.

Then, on through the gates with the masses:

Lots of press was waiting for the big moment:

And after 20 minutes of patient waiting, the crowd goes wild as the royal family appears in their little bullet-proof box:

The Emperor spoke for about 5 minutes wishing everyone well and thanking us for coming to celebrate his 76th birthday. Then, we all had to leave so the next crowd could come in. He was scheduled to make 3 appearances that day.


Security was patrolling the moat, as well. Just a beautiful place, though.


And, of course, the Right Wing Nutter fan club was on hand to play their nationalistic music over the speakers in their custom vans.

Apparently, they have palace guards similar to Buckingham. These guys stare straight ahead and do not move or talk. I think they need some big furry hats to complete the ensemble, however. Not quite impressive. Just sort of creepy.

All in all, a fun day in a beautiful part of Japan, right in the heart of Tokyo. I would go again.

Happy Birthday

So, we're headed down to Tokyo to wish the Emperor a happy birthday tomorrow.

In Japan, the Emperor's birthday is always a National Holiday that moves around with each different Emperor over time. There are only two times a year when the general public can go to his Imperial Palace Grounds in Tokyo to view him and his royal family; his birthday and New Year's Day. The current Emperor's birthday happens to be the 23rd, so it's two times in two weeks during his reign.

It sort of reminds me of Groundhog Day in the U.S. Perhaps it's irreverent, but if you've seen photos of the Emperor, it's like he's a little groundhog guy who comes out of his palace to wave for a few minutes to his adoring masses, then goes back inside until next year. Probably not something I'd go and do every year like the Nationalist black van driving wing-nuts, but something I figure a cat ought to do at least once. They hand out little Japanese flags and everyone goes crazy waving them and yelling greetings to the royal family. There is also a guest book which "will be duly forwarded to its highest destination as the expression of your warm congratulations". I guess you can also leave a business card, so maybe I'll do that. He'll probably give me a call to say thanks later. Right.

In any case, we'll see if we can get a few photos that aren't too crappy and far away to post.

What You Didn't See on CNN and NHK

It is wonderful to have President Obama in Japan, and we hope that he will be able to return for a longer visit next time. He has stated that he would like to go to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and that would be an excellent experience.

However, just to comment on the media coverage here and in America, CNN and NHK have largely (and I say largely because I have not watched every minute of coverage) failed to report on protests in Japan accompanying the visit. Some protests have been relatively "positive" in nature, such as protesting to encourage the President to continue promoting the elimination of nuclear weapons and encouraging climate change legislation. Some has been "negative", such as those protesting the move of the base at Futenma.

You can see it here.

And read about it here.

UPDATE: NHK is airing a piece from BBC World News, and they did report briefly on the protests. Good for them, although the focus of the piece is on efforts by the U.S. and Japan to not offend China. For example, by not visiting the Yasukuni Shrine where war criminals from WWII are enshrined and also not visiting with the Dalai Lama ahead of the visit to Shanghai later in this trip.