The Japan Page

Yup, that's what it says. Translated: Thank you for keeping me clean. Sincerely, The Toilet.

For those of you who don't read Japanese, here's the Romanization. "Seiketsu ni tsukatte itadaki, arigato. Toire yori".

Whomever wrote this sign had a sense of humor. You'll usually find something like this in every subway bathroom in the country signed "The Station Master", so he or she was obviously going for a more direct appeal. :-)

Location: A subway station bathroom somewhere in Tokyo.

Posted by John Seaman at 11:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Not actually sure what the Big Lay is, it's above Kato's Taylor Shop and near the Karaoke joint. Probably one of those teeeny 6 seat bars that catches the overflow (or should we say runoff?) from the Karaoke place.

Location: Tokyo

Posted by John Seaman at 11:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here's a nice shot of Emily playing around with the face frame for what will be the medicine cabinet.

Posted by John Seaman at 11:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Here's a side view of the finished bathroom vanity cabinet. The sink is not attached yet of course, but it's had 3 coats of varnish and is finally READY !! The faucet is Kohler.

I may have actually invented something here in the process, I did a bunch of research (OK, web surfing) and couldn't find anything commercially available to prevent water damage to cabinetry in the bathroom. OK, the best thing is just not splashing the water, but it doesn't take much to have that pressboard start swelling up and looking bad. My cabinet is birch hardwood veneer plywood, and plywood is more tolerant of water than pressboard, but not much. Repeated exposure to water will mess it up in the end. So I added a 3/4" strip of solid maple all around the bottom of the cabinet. Varnished solid maple will be much more tolerant of repeated exposure to water. The best thing is it's removeable, so if it ever gets damaged I can just yank the cabinet and swap it out and Presto ! New cabinet. At 3/4" high it will resist all but the largest bathroom floods. Besides, at 3/4" my bedroom will be a swimming pool !

Here the cabinet is finally installed and hooked up in the master bathroom. It's not quite done yet, still needs some doors and a shelf on the inside for storage. My wife wants to keep an oversized hair dryer in the cabinet, so I elected to skip drawers and just do two doors instead. The shelf will be a little tricky to do after the installation, it needs a cutout in the back to avoid hitting the shut off valve. Still, I wanted to maximize the storage space so I decided to wait until the cabinet was mounted to size the shelf.

No description would be complete without a "before" picture, so here's the bathroom when we moved in. The original cabinet was the $119 special from the hardware store, all pressboard and completely water damaged. The cheapo linoleum floor was replaced with tile and the shower (not visible here) was gutted and rebuilt.

Posted by John Seaman at 10:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Just finishing up the Master Bath remodel, one of the last steps was to complete a threshold for the carpet to tile transition. The easiest option here is one of those ugly commercial made metal strips (sorry to all those ugly commercial metal strip makers out there!). If I wanted to do it in wood, then I'd have to do it myself, the door and transition was too complex.

On one side is carpet, the other tile. In between was the tile backer board that extended past the tile to the edge of the carpet. I also had to notch both ends to go around the door frame. Thiis house has all-metal door jambs, so the only trimming is the wood.

First I started with a solid piece of 1x3 Maple. The finish is a light cherry stain and several layers of varnish.

Here's a cross section of the threshold. The tile side (on the right) is a 90* cut, the left side (carpet) is a round cut made with a router. I also rounded the top edges with the router.

Here the threshold is sitting in place. There are five countersunk screw holes visible where it will be attached. I went ahead and used 2" outdoor construction screws. Total overkill for this job, but being a bathroom there might be moisture so what the heck?!

Here it's almost finished. I used hardwood plugs to cover the screwholes and cut them flush with a small Japanese (flexible blade) cutoff saw. After a touch of sanding it's nearly complete, just needs a final coat (or two) of varnish. Addmittedly it may take me a few weeks to actually get back to that part.... :-)

The almost completed new vanity cabinet is visible in the background. Since I'd never made a threshold before, I'd say this turned out pretty good. I'd have liked the edges to be a bit tighter against the wood, but as the door jamb has settled and twisted in the last 48 years, that just wasn't worth worrying about.

Posted by John Seaman at 10:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"This area is only for passengers getting off".

Sorry about the picture quality, took this one with my very first digital camera...

Location: Narita Airport.

Posted by John Seaman at 11:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yes, this muffler really is called Baby Face. If you don't believe me, check out http://www.babyface.co.jp/ . Oddly enough there is a link to an English page called Sato Racing. Guess the Marketing People had their way on that...!

Posted by John Seaman at 11:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Finally got the face frame glued to the cabinet... and yes there are really 11 clamps in use here.

In fact, that's my entire clamp collection, except for the small ones. :-) The face frame is attached with glue and biscuit joints, so no nail holes to patch. It took a bit more time to set this way, but should look nicer.

Next up is the top trim piece, internal shelves and some sanding...

Posted by John Seaman at 10:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

OK class, take out your notebooks and get ready for a quick lesson in how to have fun. We're coming up on festival season in Japan, and wherever you go, there's a PARTY!

Usually the consumption of large quantities of sake or beer is optional, but it helps. You will probably find several of the items below in any festival. Oh, by the way the Fried Octopus Balls are for real. Ever heard of abelskivers? Ok, just think of a small round ball of dough similar to pancake batter, with a chunk of octopus inside. Pour a little sauce and flaked seaweed on top and you're set! It's called takoyaki (fried octopus) in Japanese, and a festival wouldn't be a festival without it. Personally, I really love fried octopus balls - NOT!

A O-Mikoshi or portable shrine is the most traditional and exciting part of a festival. Made of wood, with several long runners or "poles" running front to back. These shrines range in size from small "Children's Mikoshi" to Cadillac size monsters that weigh more than a ton.

Anywhere from ten to a hundred people, dressed in Happi coats and Hachimaki headbands chant while carrying the shrine. With an O-mikoshi it's not the destination, it's getting there that's the fun part.

A DAISHA is a giant festival cart built with the same strength and attention to detail as the Temple or Shrine itself. They often weigh 5 tons or more, and nowadays they even have sub-structures made of steel I-beams. The center area under the roof seats a handful of musicians who play HAYASHI, or traditional festival music with a bamboo flute and taiko drums. The carts usually are covered with lighted paper lanterns..

The best part is the wide variety of costumes and variations, with bright colors making the festival a very lively sight
The Daisha picture was taken at the Kawagoe Summer Festival, which is famous throughout Japan for the large number of festival carts that are pulled by hand up and down the main street. The other pictures were taken at the annual Hachioji City Festival in Tokyo .

If you have the chance, check out a festival while you are in Japan. A good source of festival schedules and information are any of the English language Japanese daily newspapers.

These two youngsters are wearing the traditional clothing that people carrying the portable shrines do.

WA SHOY to ya!

Original publish date 1998.10.2

Posted by John Seaman at 10:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Will the real Japan Page please stand up...?

My first Internet domain was japanpage.org, registered in 1996 or so. I ran my web site on it continuously until about 2002 when I transferred everything over to this domain, japan-page.net.

I decided a .Net had a better sound than a .org. Maybe a few years too late, but what the heck ?!

Someone (OK a Shanon Fernald to be exact) re-registered japanpage.org in 2004. Now I can't complain, once I let it expire it went into the public domain for anyone to grab. But if you look at the content, it's one of those stoopid advertising parking domains. It has a teeny weeny bit of Japan related content, like phone numbers for the tourist information center... and a prominent link to buy you-know-what enhancing drugs.

And if you don't think you-know-what can be enhanced by drugs, just open your e.mail. No doubt you'll receive many offers, whether you are equipped with such hardware or not.

It's a sad day for the Internet when someone can buy up expired domains, host a handful of snarfed content copied from a tourist info web page and sell you-know-what enhancing drugs on commission.

So, for the record this page, The Original Japan Page (TM) has no relationship whatsoever with the fake drug pushing japanpage.org. Do not be fooled by imposters. Don't expect too many content updates on this site either, but that's another problem. :-)

Heiwa to y'all.

--john seaman

Posted by John Seaman at 9:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, if you want to keep them off your car, try something like this. **

Starting in the late 90's people took to setting out such plastic bottles full of water everywhere in Tokyo to keep cats away. Probably because in the hot and steamy summer months cat piss gets pretty rancid. Don't know if it really works though... :-)

Location: Suginami Ward, Tokyo

Posted by John Seaman at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Strange name for a hair salon...

Location: Read the little green sign...
OrigPubDate: 2001

Posted by John Seaman at 10:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, there you go. This picture is the "First Aid Room" or Kyugo-shitsu at Narita International Airport outside Tokyo. Obviously whomever got the translation job was having trouble with that... :-)

Posted by John Seaman at 11:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's always funny to walk around Tokyo and see the slightly mangled English, such as "Rest Room" in this picture. What is really funny is the Japanese on this sign. "Benjyo" is about as polite as "shitcan"...

Posted by John Seaman at 11:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

日本語を表示できるらしい。　じゃあ、日本の皆さんこんにちは。　今後は少し日本語のコンテントも頑張ります。　

Posted by John Seaman at 11:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The population of Tokyo is 11 million, and there is probably one vending machine per person. You can find anything in a vending machine, the one pictured below sells bags of rice. 2.5 kg (aprox. 5 pounds) for about US $30.

Location: Toshima Ward, Tokyo
OrigPubDate: 2001

Posted by John Seaman at 10:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Continuing on the new bath vanity cabinet.

Here it is actually assembled, with the bottom shelf. This time the clamps are holding the glue joints together.

With the exception of the two horizontal supports under the false bottom, all the joints are biscuit jointed and glued. I'll probably put a few brads into the horizontal supports later, then patch up the holes since they won't be easily visible inside the cabinet. I think I need to buy more clamps... :-)

Here's a view from the top looking down with both sides glued together.

I've added a little hardware to reinforce the biscuit joints. Probably not necessary, the cabinet was solid with just glue, but for an extra $2 in hardware I know it will hold my weight now !

Posted by John Seaman at 2:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've finally had some time to do the fun part of woodworking, making cabinets! It's nice to put down the crowbar and blow torch and do something with a little more precision. Just finishing off the master bath remodel, the last steps are the new vanity cabinet and sink.

And to make a nice cabinet you need a nice face frame, here's where my new toy comes into play. It's a Kreg K3 Pocket Hole jig. If you're not into woodworking, go ahead and tune out here. Otherwise, here's the scoop...

This thing is the slickest invention since rubber mallets. Just clamp a piece of wood and within minuts you have a clean face frame joint. It works by holding and drilling a counter-set hole at a 15* angle. Then you just clamp the wood into place and set a few self tapping wood screws.

A shot of the jig. I've mounted it to a piece of 3/4 ply so that I can clamp it down to my workbench. The handle in front activates a clamp (not visible) holding the wood in place. The circular outlet on the left front is for the shop vacuum.

Here's a shot of the face frame joint being assembled. The vice-grips like clamp is included with the K3 kit. I found that putting another clamp on and compressing the joint before sinking the screws guarantees a tight fit with no slip, as long as you line the joint up right.

Here's the completed joint from the inside. It makes for a very tight mechanical fit, even without glue. I bought the plugs (in maple and cherry) to fill the holes, but this face frame will go directly onto the vanity cabinet so I'll save the plugs for something else.

More info from the manufacturer website here.

Posted by John Seaman at 1:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The high price of land means you never know what strange place a golf course might show up in. This Shrine was obviously run by a Monk who liked the greens. No water trap, but watch the headstones on the 4th hole!

I was very surprised to find a golf course here*, especially since the building in these pictures is over 900 years old and on the National Historical Registry.

With the average cost of 18 holes of golf at over $400, it is not a sport for the weak-of-expense-account types. Of course you could always go to a driving range, which in Tokyo can be the equivalent of standing on the roof of a three story building and swinging... the cubicles at driving ranges are often stacked three stories high!

Hole 9 is challenging with the stone well cover in the way...

Note the artificial turf under this hole...

* OK, I lied! This temple isn't really located in Tokyo. It was in Nagano prefecture a few hours outside of Tokyo, but it does show that you can find strange things in strange places sometimes
OrigPubDate: 2001

Posted by John Seaman at 10:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This brings a whole new meaning to the term "double parking". The scarcity of parking in Tokyo forces people to take extreme measures.

This small trading company in Ikebukuro put hydraulic lifts in their garage, and can now fit a total of four cars. The average rate for one parking space in Tokyo per month is around $500.

Location: Bunkyo ward, Tokyo
OrigPubDate: 2001

Posted by John Seaman at 10:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

No country would be complete without a few right wing wackos. Japan has more that it's fair share.

These guys can be found driving around Tokyo, or in front of major train stations playing loud military marching music while blasting political schlock at extremely high volumes.

The line between free speech and public nuisance is quickly crossed at extremely high volumes, and these groups are notorious for disturbing the peace. But they are the public arm to the Yakuza and other extremist right wing groups, who have both thoroughly penetrated the political system and receive sympathetic treatment from the beaurocrats and politicians, they are basically "untouchable".

These guys were dressed like Nazi "storm troopers", including the guy below who was carrying a police nightstick (not visible). Their message this day was to kick the foreign white invaders out of Japan and go back to Imperial Rule like the "good old days". I decided not to press the issue, so these pictures were shot with a 300 mm telephoto lens.

Location: Ikebukuro, Tokyo
OrigPubDate: 2001

Posted by John Seaman at 10:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Must be right next door to the Bar Ber shop!

Location: Chiyada Ward, Tokyo
OrigPubDate: 2001

Posted by John Seaman at 10:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Need to monitor the output of a log file? Like the *nix app tail (tail.exe in windows), but want it to run in a widget? Here's what you need...

KonSoulmate by Henrik Virking

KonSoulmate is a utility that lets you display the end of any text-based logfile. In fact, you can display any text file. This Widget is based on "Konsoul Widget" by Macsavvy.

Download: http://widgets.yahoo.com/gallery/view.php?widget=37795

Posted by John Seaman at 11:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Various LDAP queries that can be used against AD in Active DIrectory Users & Computers. Should work in Windows 2000 and Windows 2003 AD, and makes for a very nice "Saved query".

Find all non-disabled users with no Exchange Home Server
(&(objectCategory=user)(legacyExchangeDN=*)(!msExchHomeServerName=*)(!userAccountControl:1.2.840.113556.1.4.803:=2))

Find all users with "some text" anywhere in the description line
(&(objectCategory=user)(description=*some text*))

Find all users with no SMTP address, not disabled
(&(objectCategory=user)(!mail=*)(!userAccountControl:1.2.840.113556.1.4.803:=2)

Find all users needing a password reset, not disabled
(&(objectcategory=user)(pwdLastSet=0)(!userAccountControl:1.2.840.113556.1.4.803:=2))

Find all users with no SID hostory, not disabled
(&(objectCategory=user)(!sidhistory=*)(!userAccountControl:1.2.840.113556.1.4.803:=2))

Find all "ADC_" ADC created user accounts
(&(objectCategory=user)(samaccountname=ADC*))

Find all mail enabled users with no COMMA in display name
(&(objectCategory=user)(!displayName=*,*)(mail=*))

Put a ! in front of a value to make a NOT query, for example all users except "Smith" would be
(&(objectCategory=user)(!cn=Smith))

Posted by John Seaman at 10:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)