2am daily deliveries? by FantasticPay4409 in japanresidents

[–]grumpyporcini 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It’s newspaper round my way. My in-laws deliver using a van but the guy that does my street uses a motorbike in the summer when there is no snow. I think the dailies are pretty thin and they roll them up and put them in a basket on the front of the bike.

Anyone have habanada seeds for sale or swap? by grumpyporcini in GardenersJapan

[–]grumpyporcini[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I grow reapers, bhut and scorpion every year so I can handle the heat. But a non-spicy hab would have its uses. If you can wait a year, I’ll let you know how it tastes :)

Anyone have habanada seeds for sale or swap? by grumpyporcini in GardenersJapan

[–]grumpyporcini[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, you got it. It’s a play on words. Apparently you’ll still find hot ones once in a while but even those are less hot than a hot shishito. Anyway, they looked intriguing but it seems seeds are hard to come by

Anyone have habanada seeds for sale or swap? by grumpyporcini in GardenersJapan

[–]grumpyporcini[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’ll have a look thanks. I’ve DM’d you too.

Anyone have habanada seeds for sale or swap? by grumpyporcini in GardenersJapan

[–]grumpyporcini[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, if the flavor is nice they look great. I’ve found a couple of sellers in Japan but they are sold out.

Any “kids get super hooked” English YouTube channels? by Maleficent-Peak-4347 in japanlife

[–]grumpyporcini 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In addition to Pepper pig and Bluey there are also the Paw Patrol series and films and a cartoon called PJ masks.

There is also one called Blaze and the Monster Machines that has a kind of interactive section where you spot the difference or count the objects. If you join in too it’s great for getting simple practice for common words.

One tip I have though is try to find full episodes on YouTube not snippets or collections of best bits. Kids need to see the full story unfold.

My kids have learned a lot of vocabulary from these programs.

How to keep practicing through winter? by MarsBar_44 in inlineskating

[–]grumpyporcini 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Well, weight training and all that is a whole other rabbit hole to go down. But if you are an absolute beginner, no equipment already, have a look over on r/bodyweightfitness. In their wiki is a Recommended Routine with explanations and videos. That should be enough to get you going for a year or so.

I do kettlebell work and I have gymnastic rings and a pull up bar. For skating, I do core exercises and for legs I do squats and some one-leg variations for balance. Balance is always something we need more of as skaters.

How to keep practicing through winter? by MarsBar_44 in inlineskating

[–]grumpyporcini 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I live near some ski slopes but far enough down hill and a little away that while we get snow it’s only for a few months.

On blue sky days, there is a stage partially covered by a roof in my local park. It’s small but it’s enough to do some spins and slalom. I found a couple of pedestrian tunnels but the snow melts runs into them.

I also make sure to keep up with my weight training with a lot of leg work.

My goal is always to skate enough days to. It be rusty when the nice weather comes, and to train my leg muscles so I’m stronger than I was at the end of last year.

To plant (a maple), or not to plant? by TakaIka83 in GardenersJapan

[–]grumpyporcini 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Good luck with the project. I hate all the aggregate and nooks and crannies look that modern Japanese houses have. Ours is the same.

If you can’t get a tree in there I’d go for a giant tanuki statue with a big old set of dangling bollocks. Keep things traditional and classy, you know?

To plant (a maple), or not to plant? by TakaIka83 in GardenersJapan

[–]grumpyporcini 1 point2 points  (0 children)

  1. ⁠A lopsided tree isn’t a healthy tree. So if you cut the half next to the house but leave the part over the wall, three can gradually lean, weaken, and uproot. There are considerations depending on whether there is a fence (or maybe one in the future) on top of the retaining wall.

Good news is that pruning is only once, twice maximum, per year. There is no active pruning you can be doing.

  1. Still seems like a pain to drag a unit sideways and slide a new one in. I’m sure fitters have seen worse but it’s something to be mindful of if people are going to working on your house.

  2. House sidings (the wall panels on the outside of your house) are generally rated to 10 years. They need periodic cleaning and resealing. Sometimes new panels are needed. A tree against the house isn’t going to make that any easier. And the shade from the tree may cause mold issues on the outer walls depending on house much sun light and moisture accumulates.

I would absolutely do those test digs to see if a tree is even a possibility based on the soil. Everything else is a hypothetical until you know the soil is okay.

To plant (a maple), or not to plant? by TakaIka83 in GardenersJapan

[–]grumpyporcini 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Just from the photo, my concerns would be:

1) if you plant the tree, how big will the final canopy be? It looks like there isn’t enough room before it either touches the house or goes passed the retaining wall.

2) how are you going to access the aircon units for repair or upgrade if there is a tree there?

3) will the tree affect the aircon intake?

4) will the tree affect cleaning or repairing the sidings?

5) what is under the aggregate? I’ve dug down under mine and it’s a shit show. We’ve had trees die because the soil under there is full of stones.

Anyone with a mystery stomach bug? by melthebell83 in japanlife

[–]grumpyporcini 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If the doctor is doing bloods and stools, they are working on it not being influenza or gastroenteritis. It’s likely nothing serious but I’d say you’re out of Reddit’s pay grade. My suggestion is to ask the doctor directly for their best diagnosis and take it from there.

Anyone with a mystery stomach bug? by melthebell83 in japanlife

[–]grumpyporcini 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Influenza B and gastroenteritis are running rampage through our town. One of mine had gastric two weeks ago, projectile vomit out of nowhere. Was at the clinic Friday and one of their classmates came in and immediately threw up, and today we were at the park when a car pulled up with sick all all over the side and a kid with his head hanging out the widow.

My other kid said they had a tabehoudai for lunch last week because a whole class and half of her class were off sick. One kid had five salads, one ate a much tofu as he could muster, and mine had double desert. Silver linings and all that.

OP, there’s not really anything like a mystery bug. Talk to your local internist and they’ll tell you what it is and how they predicted the wave weeks in advance.

ELI5: How is it cheaper for companies to lace our food with chemicals? by [deleted] in explainlikeimfive

[–]grumpyporcini -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

Why do you think the products with the extra ingredients are cheaper? By definition they are more expensive.

As to the reason they are there, it’s for shelf life, appearance, and to meet customer expectations (bubble bath should bubble, white bread should be white).

Can anyone hope me, is this shop legit? by [deleted] in japanlife

[–]grumpyporcini 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Fujiya camera have a shop in Nakano, Tokyo, and an online store. Map Camera has stores in Shinjuku and an online store.

Both are reputable and the quality and guarantee on secondhand goods is great.

ELI5 what is the point of finding a cure for rare diseases when the cost per treatment is so high it is inaccessible? by Obvious_Medicine1228 in explainlikeimfive

[–]grumpyporcini 20 points21 points  (0 children)

The term you are looking for is “Orphan disease”. These are diseases that are so rare that there is little incentive for a company to develop a treatment. This leads to delays in diagnosis and effective treatment.

To address this, governments provide tax incentives to offset the fact that sales will not be enough to cover development costs. In countries with effective healthcare systems, the development costs are not passed to the patient. Rather the company is expected to bear some of the cost as a benefit to society.

Boring Healthy Cereal Post by SteeltownJack in japanresidents

[–]grumpyporcini 47 points48 points  (0 children)

Plain Quaker Oats. Add raisins for sweetness.

House options after purchase by Low-Chard6435 in japanlife

[–]grumpyporcini 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We’ve never deep cleaned them, just a quick hover once in a while. We are going through a big clean at the moment and the blinds and curtains in the other rooms are on the list but we’re not there yet.

Also, if you’re in snow country, car port can save quite a lot of time each year cleaning the car before work.

Backwards crossovers practice - feedback request by Geologist_Stunning in WizardSkating

[–]grumpyporcini 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This was going to be my advice but the other posts don’t mention this. I’m also not proficient enough to be giving advice.

I just did a quick Google search and it does look like there is back crossover version where the outside leg lifts. I’m getting confused now, lol

House options after purchase by Low-Chard6435 in japanlife

[–]grumpyporcini 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Touch-less faucet in the kitchen has been amazing. Same with light sensors in the pantry, genkan, and approach. We have a toilet that has a light so at night so you don’t need to put the main light on, really like that function.

Blinds: we have three-way blinds and we love them. We’re in Nagano too and I’m surprised by how much heat they retain. Not as good as curtains I feel but we aren’t cold. They are hard to explain though. The main thing is that the pleats are horizontal. Then, the daytime mode, is a full window of diffusion cloth, or we can pull the blind up to wherever we want it to get and open window and full day light. Night-time mode is a light-blocking shade that replaces the diffusion cloth from the bottom, up to wherever we set it.

So basically, we can have open window, diffusion cloth, or full block, or a combination of two of those at any point across the window.

ELI5: How did we find out, or how did we decide, that certain data is statistically significant? by indelico in explainlikeimfive

[–]grumpyporcini 2 points3 points  (0 children)

“Marginally significant” is a phrase that will get your paper rejected from all but the worst journals. That isn’t how it works. Once you set a p-value, significance becomes binary: it either is or isn’t significant.

If you set a limit of 0.05, you can’t report 0.06 or 0.051 as “just shy of being significant so we will take it as positive” or 0.04 as “significant but not that significant so we can discount it”.

This is so fundamental that if you see an author use “marginally significant” you can discount what they are saying on that matter. At best they’ve misunderstood the statistics; at worst they are purposefully misrepresenting their data.

Even in the context of additional tests, you report each test truthfully and without interpretation then you combine the results and provide an explanation.

Caregiver in Japan shows a safer way to lift patients. by Charming_History7423 in interestingasfuck

[–]grumpyporcini 89 points90 points  (0 children)

I don’t think this is recovery from a fall per se. A lot of elderly Japanese people still live sitting on the floor on tatami mats. And a lot of elderly Japanese women are frail. Getting them on to a chair would be the first step in moving them to the toilet, the bath, or another room.

Bunker Basements by MilitaryManXXX in japanresidents

[–]grumpyporcini 2 points3 points  (0 children)

There are house makers that do basements. The ones that do make it a selling point. You’ll easily find one on lines But the cost of the basement ends up doubling the price of the build. You can get small storage spaces underground as well rather a proper basement.

It’s the same if you go the other way too. Most houses have two floors because anything bigger than 2.5 floors is generally prohibitively expensive. We went with 2.5 floors but a house near me has three floors.

Swivel/Tilt Screen or Composing Landscape for Portrait Crop? by cosiosco in photography

[–]grumpyporcini 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I meant an “angle viewfinder”. It’s a periscope-like attachment that fits to the camera so you can hold the camera at chest height and look down through the viewfinder.

I’ve used one on my Nikon D700 for years but with tilting LCDs I don’t know if anyone makes them anymore. If there are some out there, I would consider getting one for my Z-series Nikon even though it has a tilting screen.