A Short Post

I was awoken this morning about 2 am by my iPhone going off with a klaxon sound.  Another J-Alert message.  As I turned to check my phone I groggily thought to myself, "What have the North Koreans done this time?".  As it turned out, the alert was a mudslide warning.  Our region was experiencing heavy rains thanks to Typhoon No. 21 which was skirting the eastern coast of Honshu in the vicinity of Fukushima and southern Miyagi prefectures.  These heavy rains had in turned increased the odds of mudslides taking place in the mountainous areas on the outskirts of town.

I checked the news at lunchtime and read an article about yesterday's general election.  Prime Minister Abe's side had won a "super majority" of two thirds of the seats in the lower house of Japan's Diet.  Ah...landslide...mudslide...interesting coincidence....

One more thing....Happy Halloween.  A bit early but heck, Halloween decorations have been up in stores since mid-September over here.  The stickers featured in the photo below are imports from Canada, courtesy of my mother and sister. (^_^)

Psst! Wanna buy some rice paddy fish?

Last month I unfortunately (from the perspective of my attempt to cut back spending) registered an account on the Yahoo! Japan auction website.  After a month I've built up the will power not to hit the button on everything that tickles my fancy.  I've resorted to using the button instead.  After all, I just want to see what prices people are willing to pay for some of the stuff that gets flogged on the site.

One auction I didn't bid on was one for a pair of fish.  Live fish.  Specifically, rice paddy fish, which are known as "medaka".  Okay.  That took me a few seconds to get over my initial disbelief.  I checked the description of the "product" and it stated that the fish were six months-old.  I see.  So someone really was selling live fish on an auction site.

A bit more checking revealed that there is a fair amount of interest in breeding these fish.  The goal is to breed more colourful varieties.  Some breeds are in the "glowfish" branch of fish keeping.  Myself, I haven't kept fish in a home aquarium since my early university days.  So the idea of "glowfish" was a bit too newfangled for me to wrap my mind around.  I don't believe the fish actually glow in dark.  Instead, they're one of several bright neon-like colours which do not occur naturally on fish.  As a fish, it may be okay to bright coloured if you're swimming around a coral reef but probably not very advantageous in a rice paddy.

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...Yes.  For ¥2000, plus delivery charges, you too could take a chance on getting a pair of live fish delivered to your home.  I don't think you'd get any compensation if one or both were to die in transit.

Makes Me Feel Old....

I took my car in for its biannual car inspection.  It's a government requirement and most people view it as a means to try and get older cars off the road (the inspection costs increase as ones car ages).  Anyways, I opted to get a courtesy car this time and has handed the keys to a Daihatsu Move Canbus...well, actually I was handed the remote key that unlocks the door.  There's no physical metal key attached to the unit.

When the fellow from the dealership walked me through how to start up the car and use the remote control I felt a bit out of place.  The car's engine is started with the press of a button: put pressure on the brake pedal and push the "Start" button (gosh...writing that makes this sound like a review of the latest version of Microsoft Windows).  I commented to the fellow "Sorry if I sound like some old man trying to get my head around the car...".

I sussed out on the weekend when I got a ride up to Yamagata why I've recently heard so many car engines being started up when the light goes green at intersections.  Most new cars have an auto-idling feature.  Once the on-board computer senses the car is stopped and the brakes are engaged, it shuts the engine off.  The courtesy car I got has the same feature.  I've noticed it's quite sensitive.  The computer won't shut the engine off until one has come to a complete stop and stepped on the brake pedal firmly.  Interesting....

Postscript:  A photo of the above mentioned Daihatsu Move Canbus.