Immediately after I returned from Japan last year, I was really happy to find these fruit flavoured, gummy chews also available in SF. Weirdly addictive, and I’ve made specific trips out to buy more from the only shop I know that sells them in SF.

In the same week that I returned to California, someone else (who shall remain nameless by request!) brought the following back from his trip.

These tasted awful, and the flavour lingered for hours, despite vigorous toothbrushing

Just around the corner from my home is one hydrant that DID work. Because of this hydrant, refugees in Dolores Park were safe, and houses beyond this point were protected from the inferno, so the neighborhoods have lots of houses from before 1906. More details here. Nicknamed “the golden hydrant”, it gets a new layer of gold paint, and some flowers, in a ceremony at 5.12am every year on this day.

• it was one of the top 10 biggest earthquakes ever recorded
• the main island is now 8 ft to the east
• the axis of planet shifted 4 inches
• an Earthquake Early Warning system gave Tokyo ~60seconds advance warning
• over 10,000 confirmed dead, with another 17,000 still missing
• a 4month old baby found alive in the wreckage
• a 60 year old man rescued from his floating house roof, 10 miles out at sea
• a dog rescued from sea after 3 weeks on floating house roof
• and a dolphin rescued from a paddy field a mile inland

Its great to see Wikipedia and GoogleCrisisResponse spreading timely information, which is really important in situations like this.

This is two weeks later.

We get earthquakes here too, which raises the question: if an earthquake happened here in the bay area, could you be fully self-sufficient for at least 72hours? San Francisco Dept of Emergency Management has setup http://72hours.org to help people prepare.

UPDATED: added today’s story about the dog. Searching building wreckage is dangerous, more so when its floating at sea, so I’ve lots of respect for the people continuing to do this day after day. joduinn 02apr2011.

Last time I was here, I was surprised to find I actually liked Strawberry KitKat, and RedBean KitKat, so was lulled into a false sense of confidence when I bought these.

Turns out they are white-chocolate-combined-with-cheddar-cheese flavor. Vote: Instant Yuk. Tried a couple of times over the next few days, but there was no way I could make these palatable, so had to toss the rest of the pack out.

‘nuf said!

UPDATE: More details on this car from Daihatsu here.

Oh, that’s right. They get earthquakes here too.

Um. Wait. I’m on the 12th floor. In a city where I don’t speak the language. For lack of any better plan, I quickly finish getting dressed and put on my shoes. By then its all over. So I sit back down and finish my coffee.

(ps: usgs.gov reports it as 6.6, while the Washington Post reports it as 6.9, which would make it equal to the 6.9 earthquake that hit Loma Prieta in 1989.)

Quite an unusual experience. Small little boat, with one low cabin of all glass windows. Freezing cold outside. Roasting hot inside. Crowded, with groups of 4-6 seated on the floor around a small low table, all packed close to each other. There was a cooking surface in the middle of the table. The cooking surface was gas powered (you could see the flames), with a plastic hosepipe heading under the mats – it looked like we were all sitting on stockpiles of fuel. The crew politely warned us to not put anything under the table as it got hot and would burn. Once everyone started cooking, the cabin heated up *fast*.

You cooked the meal yourself with bowls of ingredients that the crew on the boat gave you. The joke was that no matter how you cooked it, or what ingredients you were given, it all tasted the same! It was all the food you can eat, and all the beer you can drink – but you dont get any more until you have proven that you have finished what they gave you already. It was oddly yummy, and lots of fun. At our table, most of the cooking was done by Gen and his wife, but I managed to cook one without burning it – anyone who knows my cooking skills understands the enormity of that!

The conversations were great, and it was really interesting to meet others in the Tokyo software business, including some expats. The background of the water-level views of Tokyo made it even more wonderful.

Randomly while we waited for our boat, there was a guy standing there blindfolded, with his hands tied behind his back – in a giant chicken costume! Turns out he was on our boat. Something weird about watching a guy nervously being walked down the gangwalk to a boat at night tied up in a chicken suit. His group were taking good care of him but we never figured out if it was a birthday party, some work initiation/promotion party, or the beginning of some bachelor party.

(Here’s a quick photo Gen took of us all heading back to the train afterward – with Gen invisible behind the camera!)

Great great evening, and many thanks to Gen for making this happen.

My personal favorite this year was the brightly colored stuffed-bean-bag-pigs cascading down from the ceiling. Sorta like what some travelers bring as neck pillows on airplanes, only…worse? better?

Last year while I was in the same store, my favorites were

• the AA battery that you could recharge by plugging into a USB port

• the USB plug-in fragrance dispenser
• the savings bank with motion-sensor activated mouth
• the full-size R2D2 robot-trashcan – press either pedal to open its head!

Really spectacular, especially in this setting of narrow streets where even the delivery vans are super-compact. For anyone curious for more details about this Morgan +4 car click here

Both approaches use yellow (slow traffic) and red (stopped traffic) indicators, so they felt very similar to each other. Having the info displayed on traffic signs seems safer – after all you don’t have to look down at your phone while driving. But I wonder how the Tokyo signs display info about traffic outside the immediate area.

Anyway, the differences and the similarities, struck me as noteworthy. Click the thumbnails for more detailed photos, and let me know what you think!!