New Year 2024/2025 trip

[kuro68000]

Thanks for the heads up about Kurobe Gorge Railway, you are right.

 

I use the JP online international postage thing most of the time. Most post offices have it, you fill out the form online and then print the label when you get there. If I am going to package it for shipping I might as well just ship it directly back to the UK.

 

The only downside of posting stuff to yourself is that you have to pay tax and duty on it. Duty is zero on most stuff I am interested in, but the tax is I think 25%, or 20%. And it's on the shipping cost too. If you pack them and bring them back with you, you can bring £390 worth of stuff tax free.

[kuro68000]

21 hours ago, Tony Galiani said:

Challenging decision on the car.  It can be really convenient and I am thinking that in Japan it is probably safe to leave things in a parked car?

How is the cost factor?  There is always some transportation costs one way or another but if the car is not too costly, the convenience factor might be worth it.

The potential downside is that you might buy more than you intended since it would be so easy to put stuff in the car!

Cheers,

Tony

 

Looking at Nissan rentals the cheapest is ¥5,280 per day, without any extra insurance. Does include ¥480 consumption tax, and I wonder if they offer tax free. Doesn't mention it on their website.

 

They offer a drive recorder for ¥330 per rental. I'd take that and save the video from the SD card. It might not be a very good drive recorder, but better than nothing.

 

Anyway, 5k yen/day. More than I typically spend on public transport, but it depends where I'm going, if I need a taxi, and of course it saves time.

 

 

17 hours ago, MeTheSwede said:

 

It's complicated. If the yen gets stronger, that means the export industry and the tourism sector will make less profit resulting in falling stock prices to be expected in those sectors.

 

Well it seems to be recovering a bit now, which is good. ¥180/£ is pretty good, but over ¥200/£ is into super cheap territory.

[chadbag]

On 7/19/2024 at 4:09 AM, mojo said:

There is another big one for Brits which is that you can turn left on a red light, and people do it all the time, even threading between pedestrians crossing over. We don't have that in the UK but I understand that you can do it in the US (but right turn of course). I found it really hard to get used to.

 

 

I didn't know they did "Left on Red" (same as our US right on red) in Japan.  I'd not noticed it.  I'll have to watch for it when I'm there next.  I'd like to try driving in Japan at least once.  Maybe my SisIL will let me drive her car around a little (bringing an IDL on my part -- I got one once before a trip to Japan but never had the chance).

[kuro68000]

3 hours ago, chadbag said:

 

I didn't know they did "Left on Red" (same as our US right on red) in Japan.  I'd not noticed it.  I'll have to watch for it when I'm there next.  I'd like to try driving in Japan at least once.  Maybe my SisIL will let me drive her car around a little (bringing an IDL on my part -- I got one once before a trip to Japan but never had the chance).

 

Hmm, maybe I was wrong about this. This seems to suggest that it's not allowed:

 

https://www.police.pref.hokkaido.lg.jp/foreign/01_english/english-3-3.html#:~:text=Rules for Traffic Signals&text=At the red light%2C you,go straight or turn left.&text=Even at the red light,so cars may not proceed.

 

And so do some other sites. I just assumed it was okay because it happens all the time in Tokyo. I'm often crossing on a green and cars are turning  left on what I assume is a red. Maybe it's not. They thread through the pedestrians, it can be a bit scary.

 

Or maybe it's just how they drive there. I've noticed that my friend who lives in Tokyo drives kind of aggressively. Habitually exceeds the speed limit. The only traffic cop I ever saw was running an alcohol checkpoint (breath into the machine) though, not looking for other bad driving.

 

Come to think of it, some of the taxi drivers can be a bit fast too, but I just attributed that to the universal norm for taxis.

 

Okay, ignore my terrible advice, don't turn left on a red.

[Kamome]

You can’t turn left on red in Japan. However, at most crossroad junctions, when the traffic light turns green, the parallel pedestrian crossing lights also turn green so if you’re turning left or right, you have to give way to people crossing.

 

The biggest issue for me is cyclists and pedestrians. As Japan is so safe, I don’t think residents actually have any barometer on things that could be dangerous, except foreigners. People walking and on bikes will veer out onto minor roads with no crossing light without looking for cars. As a driver you have to assume that all people will not look while crossing. 

 

As for speed limit, I don’t think anyone drives at what is sign-posted unless there are police around. The general flow of traffic unspoken speed rule, in my city anyway, is 20km over what the signs say. Over that and you’re an “abunai driver”

 

My other observations of driving in Japan are,

 

People can very suddenly decide to make a turn and brake and indicate very quickly. This can lead to the lane you’re in grinding to a very sudden halt. Although people have come to accept this and no one uses their horn. 

 

Buses stop at pedestrian crossings whether people are crossing or not. 

 

There are a lot of blind corners, some with mirrors, some without. 

 

The worst things about driving in Japan won’t affect tourists. I had been driving for about 20 years when I moved to Japan. As a British license is standard across the country, you can just transfer to a Japanese license. American drivers would need to take a test as each state laws are different. Anyway, either way, you’re treated like a new driver, have to sit through a 2.5 hour lecture on driving safety, black and white, text heavy slides with other new drivers and those who have lost their license. Fun times.

 

After one year, you need to take another lecture to renew to a 3 year license. My lecture was on cycling safety rather than anything car related. 

[kuro68000]

Ah yes, the bus drivers seem to follow company rules to be considerate drivers.

 

It's a shame so many of the busses are still fossils though. Even hybrids seem to be rare. Even the backwards old UK has EV busses now.

 

The main issue for me is that the seats are too small. I don't fit in them, my knees get crushed. If the bus isn't too full I sometimes use the priority seats which are okay, but the normal ones are bad enough that if it's not too long a journey I'll stand.

[Kamome]

Yes the space between the back of one bus seat to the next is generally shorter than my femur. You have to do a sort of side saddle to fit in the seat, then wedge your knees and lift your feet if anyone should want to sit next to you. Some buses have side facing seats which are more bearable but I tend to avoid buses in any city. 

[kuro68000]

On 8/9/2024 at 8:29 AM, Kamome said:

Yes the space between the back of one bus seat to the next is generally shorter than my femur. You have to do a sort of side saddle to fit in the seat, then wedge your knees and lift your feet if anyone should want to sit next to you. Some buses have side facing seats which are more bearable but I tend to avoid buses in any city. 

 

Yeah I often sit on the sideways seats if I'm not depriving anyone else. They are supposed to be people with special needs, and I feel like "average height gaijin" is probably lower down the list than the elderly and disabled.

 

Anyway, I think I have found some suitable clothing for my next trip. Pearl Izumi make a light jacket with detachable sleeves:

 

https://pearlizumi.ca/products/mens-quest-barrier-convertible-jacket-11132009?

 

Seems ideal for me as I'm always either too hot or too cold, and being able to convert like this gives me plenty of options. It doesn't offer much in the way of insulation, but I can live without that. I'd rather be cold than hot. Their website doesn't show it very well but their customer services confirmed that it has two large inner pockets, and a back pocket where you can store the sleeves, so should be able to carry all the stuff I need.

 

For reference it's the "Quest Barrier Convertible Jacket". Rather expensive at £117, so I'll wait to see if they have a sale. Being a Japanese company I thought I could buy one there cheaper, but I couldn't find it on their Japanese website.

 

Might also get a new mobile battery. The 10Ah one I have proved to be overkill for my needs, 5Ah would be adequate... Except that one time I forgot to charge overnight, and had to charge a bit on the Shinkansen. I have a very compact 20W charger I carry in cases like that. What I really want is a 5Ah battery with charger built in, but those don't seem to exist so I'll probably settle for a slim 5Ah battery. Just trying to reduce the amount I carry...

[Tony Galiani]

I searched for the jacket to see about pricing in the US.  Curious since we discovered our Kia Niro would cost substantially more in the US than in Germany so wondering about UK versus prices elsewhere.  Found it on the Pearl Izumi site for US$65 to US$97 which is a lot less than the UK price.  

Might be worth checking on shipping.  I cannot copy the link out of Safari so will go to my other lap top and PM you with a picture of the ad.  (At least I think I can do that .... )

Cheers,

Tony

[kuro68000]

Hi Tony. Thanks for looking, you are right the prices are much better in the US. To import we get hit with 20% VAT, including on the shipping cost. Plus I'm not sure about what size I need, especially American sizes.

 

It's a similar problem shipping stuff back from Japan. Stuff worth less than £35 you don't pay VAT on if it is a gift, but there aren't many things of that value that are worth sending. Sometimes you can get tax free in Japan, but most Hard Offs don't bother with it, so you pay 10% sales tax and then another 20% when it reaches the UK. That's why I prefer to put stuff in my suitcase because although there is technically a £135 limit, they never check. In theory that's 46 kilos you can bring back, but in practice it's usually the size that is the issue rather than the weight. Which sounds like I should get a bigger suitcase.

[chadbag]

Most countries seem to have a rather low limit of what you can physically bring back.  Luckily the US has USD 800 per person, so we can usually get whatever we bring back in without it hanging over our head.

good luck!

 

[kuro68000]

I found somewhere in Germany that has those jackets for €45, but they don't ship to the UK anymore! Brexit keeps on delivering gifts 😭

[kuro68000]

This is only tangentially related, but I have started ripping the Laserdiscs I brought back last time. I build some special hardware, called a Domesday Duplicator, which produces much better quality output than any Laserdisc player is capable of. It also does VHS and Betamax. I have a VHS deck so this year will be on the look-out for interesting VHS tapes, as well as Laserdiscs. I wish I had got a few more last time now.

 

The Domesday Duplicator hardware takes the raw signal right off the disc or tape, and then decodes it in software. The result is the best possible SD quality, better than any player can produce. It can cope much better with worn tapes and degraded discs too.

 

I have put some example rips of an old Pioneer promo disc up on my YouTube channel. I upscaled one to 1080p, mostly because at 480p YouTube compresses the hell out of it. I am happy to do any discs or tapes for anyone else, if you want a higher quality copy.

[kuro68000]

Got my COVID vaccine yesterday. Felt okay but today my body is very upset. I keep telling that it's better than getting COVID, especially when travelling and couped up with hundreds of other people for 14+ hours, but it doesn't seem to be listening.

[Tony Galiani]

Think it is a good idea that you got the vaccine.  I got mine a few weeks ago (as well as flu and RSV).  No matter what vaccine I get, my body also gets unhappy for a day or so afterward.  I was not a happy puppy for the days after those shots and I think many people have similar reactions.  Though not all - one of my band mates got vaccines as well and was going on about how easy it was and no reaction at all.

Got my Covid shot the day before I had to do a gig - not my best idea ever - loaded up on ibuprofen to get through the session as I was more uncomfortable than I expected.

Cheers,

Tony

[cteno4]

Yes do get the new one, bunch more effective on the current strains flying around. Covid rates keep going up lately but data is not very public anymore and folks just don’t care much it seems. But maybe half of friends traveling in the last few months have gotten it traveling. One couple got it 3 days into a two weeks in a Portugal trip and they spent the rest of the trip in the hotel as they tested positive for 9 days and were down for a week. They had masked on the plane but not the airports where the best transfers can happen. Even with vaccinations and Paxlovid folks are usually not great for a week, so no fun especially if traveling.

 

I’ve gotten all moderna covid shots and the was a lab rat for the moderna RSV mRNA vaccine and got the usual day of ick on the RSV trial identical to all the moderna covid so I pretty much knew I didn’t get the saline dose! Proved true when study was over, I did get the real vaccine. Just got my flu shot as a lab rat testing regular flu vaccine vs moderna mRNA flu vaccine. Normally no reaction to regular flu shots so I figured I could guess this time as well, but I just got a mild reaction two days later so who knows which I got on this one!

 

jeff

[kuro68000]

Agreed, it was well worth a day of suffering to get that protection. First time I've had Moderna.

 

I took a CO2 monitor on the plane one time, a proper Aranet one. CO2 is a good proxy for risk of picking up airborne viruses, because if the air is being cycled it stays low, and it goes up when it's stagnant. The danger times are at the airport and when boarding and disembarking the plane. In flight is generally okay, although I've found Moldex 3505 masks are comfortable enough to wear for hours on end anyway.

 

Incidentally, that's why you often feel sleepy after getting on the plane. High CO2 levels, since the cabin air is bled off the engines which aren't running yet.

[kuro68000]

I now have a VCR and have tested decoding VHS tapes. The first pass results seem decent, certainly the best VHS recording I've ever seen. It's a commercial tape though so I won't post a clip here.

 

 

Anyway, that means that interesting VHS tapes are on my list of interesting stuff to snag now. Sometimes you see some old train stuff, even things people have taped off the TV.

[kuro68000]

Only a couple of weeks to go.

 

Google said they are going to stop putting location data on your account and instead keep it on your device only. Probably got fed up with all the law enforcement requests for it. This is an issue though as so far there is no way to export that data from your phone, or at least not my phone. And even if you can export it, you can't just import it into Google Maps, which was how I like to review my trips.

 

It's not happening until May so I'm okay for this trip, but I've been considering alternatives in the mean time. There is an open source app called "gpstracker" that can record the data, and it claims to be easy on your battery, so that will probably be the first option.

 

Meanwhile the Pound/Yen is down to 194, not a disaster by any means but psychologically I feel better when it's over 200...

[kuro68000]

Setting off later today. I'll post photos and updates in my photos thread as usual:

 

I think I am fully packed but there is usually at least one think I forgot!

 

In the ended I decided to take an old Uniqlo hoodie with lots of big pockets. The zip broke so I figure I'll wear it until I can get to Uniqlo to buy something new, and then throw it away. Got some old jeans to chuck as well, taking advantage of stuff being cheap in Japan at the moment. Suitcase is only about 50% full, plenty of room for 中古品.

 

My EDC has actually increased a bit. I have a Roland sound recorder I want to carry as well now. I also picked up a folding 20L backpack which seems like it will just about fit in a big pocket. Hopefully it can all be offset by a lighter jacket.

[Tony Galiani]

Enjoy and safe travels.  Looking forward to some video walks.

Cheers,

Tony

[Kingmeow]

Yes, like Tony said, keep us posted.  We will be living vicariously through you!  😀