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Walkers have precedence on the highways and byways of Sumida… 📷🇯🇵

A bike rider in a grey jacket rides under an underpass while a walker crosses the bridge above. The yellow sign on the bridge admonishes riders that pedestrians have right of way, and to ride slowly.

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Optimists waiting in the cold to buy their 年末ジャンボー “year end jumbo” lottery ticket. 📷🇯🇵

Long queue of people outside a Tokyo building, all bundled up against the winter cold.

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Red down left 📷

Red bench sculpture object in Tokyo courtyard surrounds a lonely tree.

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Baron Yoshitoshi Tokugawa (relative of the last Shogun) piloted Japan’s first powered flight 19 Dec 1910 where Yoyogi Park is today. 🇯🇵🪽

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Robert Patrick, who played the T-1000 in one of the Terminator films has a good line in the new Reacher season on Amazon Prime. Someone asks about an alias: “Who’s Sarah Conner?” and his character quips, “I don’t give a shit, just keep an eye on that hotel.” 😆

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Dec 17 1903, Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, was the first 4 manned flights by the Wright Brothers over a short distance. Today you can hang glide it! 🛫📷

Young woman giving a peace sign sitting on the sand dunes at Kitty Hawk NC, before her hang glider flight.

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Dec 16, 1890 (M23) marks the start of phone service between Tokyo and Yokohama with 155 and 44 phones respectively. The 7 female operators (with 2 males on night shift) could connect you for 240K JPY in today’s money. 🇯🇵📞

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Destruction of the ancestral “jikka” home under tarps, 2019. 📷🇯🇵

A home between white and green tarps being torn down by a small yellow backhoe.

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A program in place since 1906 in Japan, Dec 15-25 marks the period during which you can post a 年賀状 “nengajo” postcard for Jan 1 arrival. 🇯🇵🏣📷

A nengajo new year’s greeting postcard from 2012-13.

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Empty Tokyo restaurant. 📷⏳

Interior of a restaurant with a line of empty tables during non peak hours.

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Maru the Shiba came back from day care and the staff who drove him said he and other Shibas hadn’t pooped. A border collie friend kept running up like “hey! Whatcha doing!? Any good smells there?” causing poopus interruptus. 😂🐕

Three Shiba dogs on yellow fallen leaves.

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Dec 13 marks the formal start in Japan of 正月事始め（shougatsu-goto-hajime） when the Big Tidy activities start and it’s off to the mountains to get 門松 (kadomatsu) materials. 🎍🇯🇵

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Bean bun boogie, Shinbashi Tokyo. 📷🧆

Woman in purple uniform exchanges a bean bun for some change, in warm light.

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Alien traffic safety mascot approaches. 📷👽

A person in a mascot suit, with polka dots in green, blue, and yellow, and antennae, has a sash with “koutsu anzen” (traffic safety) written on it.

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Dec 11 is International Mountain Day, a day to think on our impact on vital mountain ecosystems. I wish I was hiking today! 🏔️📷

Man standing on a rock part way up a mountain, with his arms outstretched.

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Scaffolding went up before the old “jikka“ ancestral home was torn down. Four years ago already! 📷🏡

An old tan and brown Japanese style house with scaffolding around prior to it being torn down. Yard is kind of overgrown. There’s a makeshift utility pole with an electric wire strung from it.

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Yesterday our 大掃除 “ohsouji” or “Big Tidy” task was replacing the ugly brown mats we’d laid downstairs with nice wood-like flooring. Took all day & was really hard, but looks good & we can use the heated floor. 💦

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8000 US $ per hour?! Wow.

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This weekend is 大掃除 “ohsouji” or the “Big Tidy” as I like to call it, where the nooks and crannies get so clean even Marie Kondo blushes. If you’re not in Japan, do you do this? 📷🇯🇵🧽🧹

A Shiba dog sleeps on tan flooring under a dining table.

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Udagawa Yu-sui-chi is a little nature conservation area near a park we take Maru the Shiba to almost daily. You can’t go down into it but you can peer at it to see birds. 📷🦆

Nature area on a small local river the Uda in the fall.