happylife

The Reason for the Spread

When I was a boy, there used to be standing several ticket examiners at every gate of stations and they used to examine and punch all the passengers' tickets every time. We can't see such a scene now because automatic ticket gates have spread all around the country. As automatic ticket gates need to check every ticket both when passengers get in and out, they must be placed at every station gate on the train network. The required number of machines is almost countless. It must have been a big investment to change all the human gates to machine checkers. Furthermore, at least one human examiner needs to be placed at every gate of all the stations in case of emergency. This picture just depicts the case -- my friend's ticket jammed in the machine and a human station staff is repairing it. Why did they dare to introduce such costly machines? The lost money by illegal train-ride must have been bigger than whole the cost of this machine. Since a few years ago, ticketless machines which record passengers' tracks wirelessly in their cell phones have been spreading and illegal train-ride has become almost impossible. Sure it is fair and square, but I sometimes miss the simple ticket system in Vancouver.

To Read in a Bed

It is sometimes difficult to read a book in a bed. I don't know the perfect position for reading in a bed. To hold a book over the head is like a push-up exercise. To bend the back sharply to read a book beneath the head is as hard as yoga position. To read a book lying on a year is hard for eyes. I think most people have to change these positions again and again in a bed because any of them is not pleasant enough to keep for hours. The other day I found this reading stand on the Internet and purchased immediately because it seemed reasonable. As long as I have used it for a few weeks, it works really good. "How easy can I turn over the page?" It was the biggest question before I started using it, but it was just groundless. The device has two plastic fingers on both left and right sides. One finger is hard and the other is soft. The hard ones can hold the whole book firmly on the book cover and the soft ones can hold some pages lightly so that we can easily turn over the pages. It's really pleasant to read a book without using hands especial on cold days.

"Adolescence 18" Ticket

When I came back from Osaka to Tokyo, I bought an interesting train ticket named "Adolescence 18." It is a kind of super discount ticket sold by JR (Japan Rail). With this ticket we can take any JR's trains except for express and super express trains as many times as we like in a day. It consists of five sections and we can use each section on five different days or use all of them at one time with our four friends. It costs only 11,500 yen (US$120), so each section comes to 2,300 yen! I came back from Osaka with one of the five sections of this ticket. It means that I could come back from Osaka to Tokyo just for 2,300 yen although it took more than eight hours. This ticket is a seasonal ticket and we can purchase it only in spring, summer and winter vacation seasons. Sure it is popular among young students, but mature people can use it while lots of people misunderstand that it is limited to under 18 students. I'm now wondering where to go with the rest four sections of my ticket.

GPS Logger

As I Had a one-way free air ticket left, I Flew to Osaka last weekend. I could have visited a further place like Sapporo or Okinawa with the free ticket, but I chose Osaka as my destination this time. It was just because I didn't like to purchase an expensive return ticket. My plan was fly to Osaka for free, enjoy delicious food over there and come back to Tokyo by local trains. Throughout this trip, I kept my GPS logger ON which logged my trace every 15 seconds. This map depicts it; the upper map is my flight course and the lower one is my train track. It's really interesting because I can establish my alibi perfectly by seconds, but a GPS logger is not only interesting but also useful for photographers. By just adjusting my digital camera's built-in clock, I can locate any pictures on the Google Map though my camera does not have a GPS in it. I don't have to wonder any more like "where did I take this picture?"