Month: March 2008

Travel

Chuo Shinkansen

“Chuo Shinkansen” is the name of a new bullet train line using maglev technology. The distance between Tokyo and Osaka(550km) will be covered in less than one hour!. Isn’t it amazing? Sometimes I spend more time moving between stations inside Tokyo. They will finish the construction by 2030.

Tokyo and Osaka are connected with a Shinkansen line since 1964. You can travel from Tokyo to Osaka in 2:30 hours, the Nozomi trains are the ones with the highest average speed in the world. More than 300 hundred trains travel from Tokyo to Osaka every day transporting nearly half million passengers. Some trains have 16 wagons and are able to carry around 2.000 passengers. The average delay in the last 40 years is only 20 seconds. It’s like these two cities are connected by a metro line.

The new “Chuo Shinkansen” will connect even more these two megalopolis. There is already a test track working, and here is one of the tests showing a train moving at speeds near 600km/h:

More info here.

Videos

Caramell Trooper

Dannychoo’s newest lol dancing video based on Caramelldansen.

Society

23 million in cash

23 million dollars is the money that Tokyo inhabitants found on the streets and returned to lost and found offices during the year 2002. 72% of that money was recovered by the original owners and the 19% was given to the people who found the money if nobody claimed it within 6 months.

Umbrellas are the item that gets lost more times in Tokyo, every year between 300.000 and half million umbrellas are stored in lost and found offices. But it seems nobody cares about them, only 0.3% are claimed, that’s why more than 10 million umbrellas are accumulated in Tokyo’s lost and found offices, they must have some kind of Guinness world record!

I liked the ending where it explains how Mr.Hirahaya found 13.000 yen. He brought the money to a koban, after some time nobody claimed it and the police gave him back the money. ”I feel uncomfortable holding another person’s money,” Mr. Hirahaya said ”I think many Japanese people feel the same way and hand over something they find. I think among Japanese there’s still a sense of community since ancient times.”

Last week I found this bag and I followed the Japanese way. It was pretty boring to explain to the police that I’ve found it, they asked me all kinds of questions.

Bolsa

More about lost and found at Dannychoo.