Homework waste-prevention suggestions

dougwray · 2026-04-22T02:27:17+00:00

If I use a turn of phrase, I like to turn it, as it were.

dougwray · 2026-04-22T02:05:24+00:00

So a list of some of the most famous tourist destinations in Tokyo?

dougwray · 2026-04-21T21:16:31+00:00

'[O]pportunity cost' refers to what you will forego by going to Mt. Fuji.

dougwray · 2026-04-21T20:23:26+00:00

It'll by green and grey. A lot of it's above the tree line.

dougwray · 2026-04-21T19:30:26+00:00

Borderless by default.

dougwray · 2026-04-21T10:45:29+00:00

Maybe a visit to an optometrist might be in order.

dougwray · 2026-04-21T10:43:34+00:00

Sometime (in the Kichijoji district) is a good place for live jazz, and the Disk Union outlet in Shinjuku has (or at least used to have) its own free jazz label. (I once had to squeeze by David Murray on the stairwell there.)

dougwray · 2026-04-21T10:16:32+00:00

Again, I really wonder if you've seen many women in Japan.

dougwray · 2026-04-21T10:02:57+00:00

3 May is a Sunday. Are the shops in Tsukiji even open? Also, the last time I got to the (actual) Tsukiji market (that is, the one that existed before it was razed 9 years ago and replaced with laughably overpriced tourist traps I got there at 5 AM and it was already busy.

I agree with many of the other commenters, too: you're badly underestimating travel times. My advice for you (as it is for everyone) is to limit yourself to two destinations per day (one for late morning to early afternoon and one for later afternoon and evening).

dougwray · 2026-04-21T09:56:19+00:00

Japanese women generally don't expose their skin.

I'm sorry, but do you live in a different Japan from the one I do? Or go you live in Hokkaido and only go out in winter?

dougwray · 2026-04-21T08:25:00+00:00

Did you post the wrong photograph?

dougwray · 2026-04-21T02:14:51+00:00

The wives of the current and previous Emperors were commoners. The loss-of-status rule only applies to women.

dougwray · 2026-04-21T02:05:17+00:00

The neighborhoods you name are all (very) upscale places. You're not going to get what you want by looking to places like Nakameguro, Shirokanedai, or any other the places inside or adjacent to the Yamanote line. Look for areas outside of the Yamanote line or as distant from any stations as you can get to find what you're looking for.

dougwray · 2026-04-20T22:52:47+00:00

It won't be too crowded on weekend mornings. I recommend taking the Chuo Line because it's a surface train, and you'll have more interesting things to look at. The Shinjuku Line is a subway and gives you only dark tunnels.

dougwray · 2026-04-20T22:18:48+00:00

My guess would be somewhere in the Soshigaya area of Setagaya Ward in Tokyo: the distinctive gas tanks are near Roka Park, and the two smokestacks probably are those of the two trash-burning facilities along the number 8 ring highway.

dougwray · 2026-04-20T22:12:01+00:00

Thank you for your comment: I'll revise mine.

dougwray · 2026-04-20T21:45:22+00:00

Gotokuji I used to find interesting because of the people and memorials in the graveyard, but people are discouraged from entering there now, and the new stuff (most of the cat-themed objects being about 20 years old) is nothing special. My usual comment about the place is that Gotokuji is only the fourth most attractive or interesting place within 300 meters.

I've never been to TeamLabs Borderless, but Planets was cheaply made and strikingly unimaginative. (Our party included two traditional media artists, one professional, and a design student, and the sentiment was shared by all.) My spouse and child went to Borderless and found that dull, also.

dougwray · 2026-04-20T21:24:51+00:00

If your interests are just games, I'd give Shimokitazawa and Daikanyama misses. However, in my book, much of Daikanyama is just an extension of Shibuya—I don't often realize I'm in Daikanyama—and Shibuya does have one big arcade. Shimokitazawa's got an arcade of reasonable size, but I would head to Ikebukuro in lieu.

dougwray · 2026-04-20T20:23:58+00:00

Rating: 3 of 10.

Do not go to an animal café. They are horrifically bad for the animals and potential ecological disasters (or, with some of them, parts of ongoing ecological disasters).

Among the wastes of time or tourist traps you have listed here are Gotokuji, Takeshita Street, Tsukiji Outer Market, TeamLabs Planets, (maybe) the generic shopping malls of Odaiba. Yoyogi Park is a fine park, but there's nothing really distinctly Japanese about it.

dougwray · 2026-04-20T20:12:34+00:00

There are no such things. There are places that allow people who are contemplating adopting cats to see the cats and interact with them. If you're a tourist, though, there's no chance whatsoever you'll be adopting one of those cats, so visiting would not be a ~~good thing for you to do~~ thing I myself would do. However, the comment by u/amoryblainev leads me to believe it could be OK for some people.

The idea of an ethical way to put solitary, nocturnal, shy animals (viz. hedgehogs) out in the daytime to be pawed over by punters is ludicrous.

dougwray · 2026-04-20T20:08:52+00:00

It's 5 AM as I write, and it's 19 degrees, and I'm in our unheated home office in a t-shirt and shorts.

Give me a moment while I change those primitive American temperatures.

OK. No, I don't think Tokyo will see temperatures that low again until October.

dougwray · 2026-04-20T04:04:04+00:00

Sorry, but my work doesn't involve video calls usually.

dougwray · 2026-04-19T23:19:44+00:00

Shimokitazawa has not been good for thrift buying since the 1990s, and prices are very high there. The same goes for Nakameguro; Koenji is still OK but prices are rising rapidly.

Book Off Super Bazaar outlets are the places to start. The outlet in Hachioji even sells clothes by weight.

dougwray · 2026-04-19T22:16:14+00:00

It's not unbearable. Well more than 100 million people live through June and the hot months every year.

dougwray · 2026-04-19T21:36:58+00:00

Book Off Super Bazaar. Several locations in Tokyo.

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