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zoned out



In Japan, buildings go up really quickly, and often there appears to be a severe lack of zoning, with houses and factories sitting happily alongside each other in blissful disharmony.

It's not uncommon for someone to purchase a property next to a lovely looking rice field on a Thursday afternoon, only to find that it's been transformed into an electricity sub-station come Friday morning.

Not bad if you like volts, but pretty disappointing if you prefer rice.



"I remember when all this were rice fields...."


Some houses even have an electricity pylon built directly through the roof, with its base in the floor of the living room. As you can well imagine, this sometimes makes watching television problematic, as parts of the pylon are likely to get in the way of the screen.


A lightning strike would be an unwelcome event for the residents of this household. They have enough electricity to deal with as it is.



The humming heard around here is not that of a hummingbird.



A house with millions of volts next to it.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 19, 2009 at 3:04 pm. You can skip to the end and leave a response.

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On Sunday, 19 April, 2009, Anonymous ThePenguin said:

Shocking conditions!  



On Sunday, 19 April, 2009, Anonymous ThePenguin said:

Shocking conditions!  



On Sunday, 19 April, 2009, Blogger Rafael MJ said:

OMG! I guess it is not even necessary to plug the cell-phone when they need to charge it. Just leave it on the window sill et voilà: battery charged in 5 minutes. Same to toast a slice of bread!  



On Monday, 20 April, 2009, Anonymous Scotty.VOR said:

I could be induced to use a slew of electric puns, but I'll try to resist it, as Penguin has more than enough capacity.

Watt? Wire you looking at me like that?  



On Monday, 20 April, 2009, Anonymous S in Shanghai said:

I remember when we as kids held a flourocent tube toward the 150KV or 400KV lines and it lit up. These guys even to not need to pay for light. However how dor you switch it off?

The power company guy might scratch his head how to charge though.

/S  



On Monday, 20 April, 2009, Blogger owenandbenjamin said:

I wonder what the cancer rates are in the house around there?  



On Tuesday, 21 April, 2009, Anonymous ThePenguin said:

Unfortunately, in the current conditions I am unable to transform what was a simple plug for my own blog into something which would generate a buzz about what a linguistic live wire I am. There are both positives and negatives to this situation, and I hope no-one blew a fuse over the shocking fact I seem to have double-posted. There is ample room for improvement and I hope a spark of inspiration strikes soon before I become terminally isolated.  



On Wednesday, 22 April, 2009, Anonymous Scotty.VOR said:

An impressive battery of witticisms indeed, added like grease lightning. I would charge you with trying to hit an ohm run in terms of pun-ishment, but I know Penguins are above such competitive discharges. :P

What's that sound in the distance? Do I hear Eddy Grant?
  



On Monday, 25 May, 2009, Anonymous Anonymous said:

Graceful disharmony! That sums up so much of what I observed, and marvel at, in Japan. My examples would include the elevated sections of freeway in Tokyo that run so close to apartment buildings that the dwellers could almost touch them. In some cases the freeways seem to completely block the windows of these flats.

Thanks for a great photo essay!  



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