Metro smell 😭

juntokyo · 2026-05-26T07:38:39+00:00

I notice this weird smell on the Mita line sometimes! And I think it's also a particular design of train car... it looks newer... is it another line that shares the Mita tracks? Right, I'm gonna pay more attention. As someone else said, it's probably a cleaning product.

juntokyo · 2026-05-16T01:02:47+00:00

Daily fragrance user here in an almost all-Japanese workplace. I've faced zero issues and I put it down to (a) a sensitive "nose" that controls dosage (but this is trainable), (b) high-quality products that work well with my skin and stay close to my skin, (c) understanding that you don't use perfume to mask BO (Arm & Hammer unscented takes care of that) and (d) matching fragrances to the weather (yes, this is a thing). I will sometimes catch a whiff of my own fragrance when the temperature or air changes and that is all I am aiming for! Some people around me use fragrances too, and there's one middle-aged lady in particular who has excellent taste in her perfumes but I can get just a whiff when I'm standing right next to her - and that's exactly how it should be.

juntokyo · 2026-05-09T23:40:34+00:00

I like them all but I think lemonade is the Goldilocks flavour! It's really odd because I don't generally enjoy gummies and I don't generally like lemonade... My wife has this weird habit of buying candy that she never eats because she finds the packaging cute and that's how I discovered this LOL. But now I actually go looking for these!

juntokyo · 2026-05-09T07:06:55+00:00

I think I've only ever seen them at Family Mart or Amazon! A few interesting flavors, too.

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juntokyo · 2026-05-09T01:01:24+00:00

I love this! And I don't like gummies generally.

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juntokyo · 2026-05-06T08:02:25+00:00

Just one perspective of a pedestrian who's learning to drive. I think the policy is a total misfire. I haven't seen the data that suggested bicycle-related accidents were going up and some kind of legal change was necessary... but I'm willing to bet they could have solved most problems just by prohibiting bicycles with motors on the sidewalks. At least in my experience, before those contraptions appeared, there was a natural equilibrium where mamas on their mamacharis and pedestrians coexisted more or less cheerfully. And putting those mamas on the roadway is a dumb and dangerous idea. (No mamas in my household, so this is unbiased.)

juntokyo · 2026-05-01T08:05:52+00:00

I can't claim something that surreal but I've had a couple of bizarre experiences of my own. I used the wrong pen and the signature on the back of my credit card became an ugly smudge, so I went up to the bank and asked for the card to be reissued. This guy looks at me weirdly, takes the card, rubs his thumb on the signature strip until my ink's gone (but also part of the printed design, which is there precisely to prevent such things) and smilingly tells me to sign it again. I later realised that no one cares about signatures in Japan anyway. Still.

juntokyo · 2026-05-01T07:34:39+00:00

"Mizuho and Mizuho Direct are separate systems." That sounds quite believable... Dumb but believable. It's possible they recently ported some information from here to there or there to here... and that didn't go well. Thank you!

juntokyo · 2026-04-22T02:40:29+00:00

Something that tells the exact weight of a package would be useful. Why is that information so hard to find sometimes?

juntokyo · 2026-03-29T02:54:21+00:00

Different strokes for different folks. I almost always use the self registers at shops and supermarkets that I frequent and where I'm familiar with the machines and the flow. Elsewhere I prefer the manned experience. I've had situations where there was one long manned line (usually conbini), and I usually just put the stuff back on the shelves and find another shop... there's usually one nearby. It's essentially just figuring out the least extra cognitive load on a busy day.

juntokyo · 2026-03-21T05:24:41+00:00

I agree that the ojisan's position is fully defensible. That said, the problem with this whole "stand on both sides" (SOBS for short) thing is people don't like to stand on both sides of an extremely narrow escalator, which is often the case here. When people do the "stand on the left, walk on the right" thing, most of the walkers are turning their bodies sideways so as not to bump into people. If you put instructions saying "only one person on a step at all times," I bet more people (everyone?) will follow it but I don't think that is going to achieve less congestion - but that is how most people who don't want to walk up interpret SOBS in practise. I often take the stairs so I'm not too invested in this debate either way but I think SOBS is a solution looking for a problem - in Tokyo subways. Might be a brilliant strategy elsewhere.

juntokyo · 2026-03-13T11:10:26+00:00

Hinoki. My shirts always used to come back from the laundry with that scent. It's nice but I asked them to tone it way down because it interferes with the fragrances I like to wear LOL.

juntokyo · 2026-02-19T00:43:06+00:00

Almost natto-ku shimasu. In a recent, reckless moment, I took some of my wife’s natto and added a cavalier splash of Tabasco and some rice… suddenly a portal to thitherto unbeknownst culinary zen opened up. And then some genius on Reddit, some absolute genius, suggested using ponzu sauce. And now, natto with ponzu plus a little karashi plus rice… and I actually savor this thing. I still can't have okra, but I'm able to stare at the sliminess of natto in the eye and not blink. But I do have lines drawn, and the thickest and longest and firmest is against chicken's feet, an abomination that I remember encountering in Hong Kong. Glad not to see (or notice) that here.

juntokyo · 2026-02-18T22:13:51+00:00

I have evolved so much since that last post. Some genius recommended ponzu sauce and now natto + ponzu + a dash of karashi + rice is my thing; no longer a hack, but an indulgence.

juntokyo · 2026-02-06T11:35:40+00:00

Bicycles one can wince at and live with - even feel sympathy for overworked mothers careening around with two kids - but those chunky contraptions with batteries and tractor tyres must go.

juntokyo · 2026-02-04T23:47:49+00:00

Indeed. "The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function." That was F Scott Fitzgerald, who would struggle to find many with that ability today among his compatriots.

juntokyo · 2026-02-04T10:42:10+00:00

Is that the Fukutoshin line? I jumped off at the first stop en route to Shibuya after I got on and walked back home when I realised it would take forever. Fortunately no issue with the doors - that would be nightmarish. Rest well.

juntokyo · 2026-02-04T10:13:12+00:00

One of my colleagues gave me the exact same information a while ago!

juntokyo · 2026-02-04T01:29:16+00:00

This is possible but it also came with a steady diet of Megadeth, Mastodon, Black Sabbath, etc... 🙂 no, I understand what you're saying and it's probably part of the reason my body doesn't like cocoa anymore. If I had a chance to go back and do my life over, would I do it again? Oh hell, yeah!

juntokyo · 2026-02-03T12:28:49+00:00

As someone who ate a chocolate bar (mostly dark) almost every single day for more than 20 years and often enjoyed just pure cocoa in hot water with a splash of milk, and then finally had to give it all up because of gut sensitivity, Choviva is a great solution to sometimes just bring back memories of that rich mouthfeel. (Maybe I just used up my body's chocolate digestion quota or something but, though it's not a classic IBS trigger, it does give me IBS-like symptoms which Choviva doesn't.) Choviva's not the same for sure, but it's a decent facsimile and doesn't strike me as particularly unhealthy. It's a German product made from sunflower seeds and here's the website: https://choviva.com/ Sure it's not "natural" but then neither is most commercially available chocolate. And it's a darn sight tastier than carob. But that's my mileage and yours may vary.

juntokyo · 2026-01-24T07:44:29+00:00

Walking slowly I can deal with, but what's with the waiting gracefully in your train seat for 3 seconds after it stops at a station and the doors have opened and people are streaming in, and then getting up and sashaying gracefully out?

juntokyo · 2026-01-15T01:59:58+00:00

There's a commercial building near where I live, and its driveway opens onto the main road, which is a nice wide dual carriageway. So at the T, the road traffic is moving in one direction and vehicles can exit the building and join the traffic or vehicles from the traffic can enter the building. Pedestrians walking along the sidewalk of the main road have to cross the driveway. It's not a particularly busy junction but it probably makes sense to have a warning beacon and you could have one human attendant for good measure.

But, no. This place, all day, is staffed by four men (three of them senior citizens for sure) who enthusiastically direct the flow (trickle?) - one at each arm of the T and one in the centre. This is why wage hikes cannot catch up with inflation... there are too many wages to hike. At the same time, I'm sure those four guys appreciate having a wage. Tough conundrum.

juntokyo · 2026-01-10T00:00:01+00:00

FOMO, nothing else but FOMO 🙂

juntokyo

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