The Road Less Traveled

Energy Conservation

Friday, September 26th, 2008 | Lifestyle | 1 Comment

Here in Japan, energy costs are very high, so Japanese people are very big on energy conservation. For example, the master AC and heating for our dorm are set to 28C (82.4F) and 22C (71.6F) respectively. Yeah, that seems a bit backwards, but those numbers are right.

Of course, each dorm room has its own individual air conditioning control, also, and students are strongly encouraged to use the numbers above and turn the unit off when they leave the room. Maybe I’m just spoiled, but after a long day sweating in the heat and carrying a heavy bag full of textbooks around, I want to come back to a room that’s cool. However, I’m told by the nice people in the Center for International Programs that the dorm managers, Mr. and Mrs. Gotoh, have come to them with the electric bill before and complained that people are using too much power. Of course, I’m sure our computers being on about 24/7 doesn’t help, either.

Another place you can see energy conservation in Japan is in the cars they drive. Students often drive these’s little motor-scooter-like vehicles that get great gas mileage, but max at about 35mph or so. Everyone else in Japan seems to drive these tiny little toy-like cars, SUVs, and trucks. It’s pretty ridiculous, actually. However, gas prices here are about 165￥ per liter, which is about equal to $6.00/gallon, so they need vehicles that get better gas mileage. Going smaller and lighter… is certainly one way to go about that.

Now, this is all well and good, but there’s a problem hiding in all of this. Of course, I’m referring to the blatant, rampant waste of energy all over Japan. Chubu University is in Kasugai, which is a little town near Nagoya… and even here, pretty much every restaurant, car dealership, supermarket, and convenience store has not only super-ultra-bright lights inside the store which blind you as you go in, but no… they also have FLASHING LIGHTS out by the street just in case people weren’t aware from the blinding light coming through the windows that there’s some kind of shop there.

You think that this is an exaggeration… well, unfortunately I don’t have any pictures (I would’ve taken some today, but it was raining), but here’s an example (I know there are more out there… I’ll post them when I find them):

You may think this would only be in big cities... but no, there are several buildings like this even in Kasugai.

So yeah… energy conservation seems to be a dirty lie. That or the entire reason that energy is so expensive is because of all this waste. Who knows…

My First Full Day…

Tuesday, September 16th, 2008 | Lifestyle | No Comments

So, my first full day in Japan was completed successfully. Everything went well. The placement test went well, the campus tour went well, the fingerprint registration for the dorm went well… heck, even walking all around town for hours and destroying my feet went well. So well that I think I might never be able to walk again… New shoes + tons of walking = pain.

Other than that, though, I’m having a good time so far. Since it’s late (not actually, but I’m a bit jet lagged), I don’t feel like writing anymore. Instead, have some unexplained pictures!

I’m finally here.

Tuesday, September 16th, 2008 | General, Lifestyle | No Comments

So I’m in Japan. We got here last night about 6pm local time (that’s 5am EST), and got to Chubu University at about 8pm. By the time we got into the dorms and everything, it was pm, and I was in bed by 11. I didn’t sleep on the flight so that I wouldn’t be jet lagged. This strategy actually seems to have worked a bit… hopefully it stays that way. Anyway, as I write this post, I still don’t have internet access. I have to register my computer for access, or something, here in the next few days. There are computers upstairs in the lounge which I can use, though, so hopefully I’ll be able to post this before I have access on my laptop.

In any case, everything seems to be going well so far. It’s about 6:45 am as I write this. I’ve been up since about 5:30am, but that’s not too bad, right? Breakfast, if I recall correctly, begins at 7:30am, and at 9:15am, I have my placement test for what level of class I’ll be in. Fun stuff, right? I wish they could’ve put it at least another day later or something… Whatever, I guess. It shouldn’t be too bad.

So my schedule for the day looks something like this:

9:15am – 12:00pm : Placement Test
1:30pm – 3:00pm : Campus Tour
5:30pm – 6:00pm : Dormitory Fingerprint Registration

I don’t know what we’ll be doing in the off times (probably eating), but that’s all that’s scheduled for today. Tomorrow I have interviews (the final part of the placement test) and orientation for the university.

The rest of the week looks pretty similar. Then next week, on monday, classes start. Yay for that. In any case, that’s about all for now. I’ll post more as it happens. Oh yeah, here’s some pictures of my dorm… (The comforter on my bed, by the way, is awesomely comfortable. I love it)

Packing

Saturday, September 13th, 2008 | Lifestyle | 1 Comment

I finally got around to packing tonight. All in all, it took be a bit over two hours. My biggest concern is that I will forget something… from past experience I’ve come to the conclusion that when you go somewhere, you always forget something. And this is doubly concerning to me now, because as I was crossing things off my checklist, I thought of something else that I should take… then when I went to get it, I forgot what it was.

So for the moment, I’m sitting here hoping that I’ll remember what it was, if it was important… but altogether not actually thinking about it very much. Instead, I’m watching Stargate: SG-1 and winding down.

I don’t know what the plan for tomorrow is, but I know Thomas wanted to hang out, so I’ll probably do that… I also need to go somewhere and get a new pair of headphones, since mine are broken (again). Oh yeah, and Erik Singer is going to be in town, so plans will probably include him as well. But whatever, I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it, I suppose. Unless somebody knows of something else I need to be doing tomorrow…?

Tags: packing

Insomnia and Jet Lag: Outlook… Positive?

Thursday, September 11th, 2008 | General, Lifestyle | 2 Comments

So I originally thought this jokingly, but I’m beginning to agree more and more with this (originally) insincere idea.

I get hit hard by insomnia occasionally (such as tonight and the past couple days), and so my sleep schedule often gets rather screwed up rather quickly. Recently I’ve been sleeping between like 5am and 1pm or 8am and 4pm or so, give or take depending on the day. But then I thought, “Heck, this is perfect! Once I get to Japan, it’ll be 13 hours different, and I’ll be on a PERFECT schedule.”

Of course, I was joking… but now, as I lie in bed trying to sleep (for the past 3 hours), I’ve been becoming more and more resigned to the idea that since I’m only going to be in the States for another, now, 3 days… I may as well just accept that I’m not going to get any sleep at any decent time and just live with it so that I can be on a “normal” schedule immediately upon my arrival to Japan.

Of course, I’m a bit pessimistic about the whole thing, as well. I’m not entirely convinced, given my luck and my previous track record, that as soon as I get to Japan, my sleep schedule won’t flip around again to match what it currently is in my insomnia-plagued state. What do you call that, anyway, reverse jet lag? Who knows…

Anyway, here in a few minutes, I guess I’ll just close my eyes and pray for sleep. Who knows, I might even get it.

But before that, as a side note, I’ve been reading the (rather few) blogs for other people from OU going to Japan, and Ike Hurst’s most recent entry, Notes on a small town, made me realize… I never actually turned in a topic for my elementary school presentation. Woops. I should probably mention that to somebody, sometime, to figure out what I should do about it, but whatever. I’m sure if it’s gone this long, it can’t be that much of a problem… can it?

Meh, could be worse, I guess. I could be awake at 4am writing a blog post about it.

…

Wait, what?

Tags: ike, jet lag, Sleep