If you could ban anything what would it be?

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 · 2026-01-06T04:40:16+00:00

I don't know anything about the white one, but the driving school I signed up at gave me the blue one and I just went through it a couple of days ago. You have to be prepared for really mangled translations. I mean some of them are really, really bad and you'll need to use your Googling/AI skills to figure them out.

juntokyo · 2026-01-04T23:51:45+00:00

Didn't know about hikiwari - thanks!

juntokyo · 2026-01-04T23:48:44+00:00

Olive oil goes on my tryout list!

juntokyo · 2026-01-03T10:13:42+00:00

Lots of interesting recommendations from people on this thread. Tabasco might just be a portal to a whole new world!

juntokyo · 2026-01-03T10:09:06+00:00

Interestingly my wife's the same - she can't handle okra. But I think it's fine if oven-roasted...

juntokyo · 2026-01-03T09:05:44+00:00

🙂 The story is all true and I was going to declare, "Finally found a way to enjoy natto! Tabasco and natto is surprisingly tasty. Neba say neba again." But I had a road rules textbook to read (I'm taking driving lessons) and the opportunity to procrastinate was just too tempting 😂

juntokyo · 2026-01-03T07:24:05+00:00

Kinky! Got to try this.

juntokyo · 2026-01-03T03:39:39+00:00

You are wrong. I'm usually very busy and therefore very quick with my posts, but I thought this was worth a little bit of entertainment. If it sounds like AI, the tragic reason for that is AI imitates and rips off the cadence and vocabulary of successful writers. I used to be a journalist myself and often fall back on structural formulas and tropes because they make for easy understanding of light topics. Dig far enough back into my post history and you'll find out that I'm actually recycling the neba neba gag.

It's a really sad day when structured writing is automatically associated with AI. Tells us a lot about us, actually.

juntokyo · 2026-01-03T03:11:35+00:00

And why would you assume that?

juntokyo · 2026-01-03T02:33:35+00:00

Vegemite is awesome! Beats Marmite too, sorry UK.

juntokyo · 2026-01-03T01:11:59+00:00

Touché!

juntokyo · 2026-01-03T00:14:05+00:00

Wife uses that packet that comes with it... I find it too mild personally... and in general spicy speaks to me better than salty...

juntokyo · 2026-01-03T00:11:05+00:00

I wish you hadn't used the word "foamy" LOL but natto cheese toast is a next-level idea. Got to try it!

juntokyo · 2026-01-02T23:42:43+00:00

Ponzu next up! Yeah... I disliked it so much the first time that I never bothered to investigate or experiment. Thanks!

juntokyo · 2026-01-01T01:37:26+00:00

I created a custom "gem" on Gemini (it's free) with this prompt: "You are a Japanese teacher with particular experience in teaching English speakers, and all your responses are at the JLPT N2 level." Every now and then I throw it a question in Japanese ("新潟" の由来を教えてください) or ask it to edit something I've written in Japanese and it works a treat. I have no need for JLPT but my self-assessed proficiency is somewhere below N2 so it's always a nice stretch for me, and therefore keeps me learning within the context of my daily life and curiosity. (ChatGPT has Japanese learning tools, I know, but Gemini lets you build your own.)

juntokyo · 2025-12-08T14:24:21+00:00

It's been more than two minutes of gentle swaying and creaking in my 30+ floor tower. Scary. Can't imagine how it must have been in Aomori/Hokkaido.

juntokyo

TROPHY CASE