Murphy’s Law No.1

Rain is wet. And sometimes it rains very hard in Shizuoka, and for a long time.

An image of London, my hometown, is the businessman in his grey suit, walking quickly along the street with his umbrella. So everyone in London has an umbrella. Wrong. When I was last in London, in March, there were a lot of rainy days, but no-one had an umbrella, including me.

In London the rain is often light, mostly short showers, so most people just don’t care. If the rain becomes heavy then people go into a shop or a pub for a few minutes until the rain is lighter.

However in Shizuoka I often need an umbrella. Sometimes it rains for days! I counted my umbrellas, and I have 5. But I’ve never bought one! So where are they from? I think I got one from someone who didn’t need it, and another from the lost umbrellas in a bar. As for the others I really don’t know. Anyway I don’t need 5 umbrellas so what should I do?

Do you know about Murphy’s Law? It’s not a real law, more like a joke. For example if you leave home without an umbrella it is sure to rain, but if you take an umbrella it won’t. I call this Murphy’s Law No.1.

So, guided by Murphy’s Law No.1, I decided to put some of my umbrellas in different places. I put one at university, and another at my local station. It was hard to find a hiding place in the station, but I found somewhere high to hide it. Nobody ever looks up, do they? And most people won’t be able to reach so high, so I think it is a good place. And if it is raining and someone else takes it, then I can be happy that my umbrella kept someone dry.

I can’t read!

I can’t read!

It hurts my pride to admit that I need to wear glasses. My eyesight was so good, but in the last year it has quickly become worse and worse. I can’t read a newspaper or a catalog, and sometimes even a text-book, especially when the text is in colour.

So I went to Megane Top, but it’s so expensive, about 20,000 yen or more. I also checked Washin in Shin Shizuoka Center and the prices start from 5,000 yen, much more reasonable. Then I checked a place in Parche with a big range from 4,200 yen.

My next stop was my local 100 yen shop which had recently changed to a 98 yen shop, including tax. To my surprise I also found glasses here. I knew I needed glasses of about 1.5 strength so I bought a pair with a nice gold frame. I can read again!

Then I realized I needed a case. I remembered that I had bought a glasses case from the same 100 yen shop a few years ago for my sunglasses. So I put my 98 yen glasses in my 105 yen case. The case is more expensive than the glasses!

Of course I shouldn’t wear 98 yen glasses forever. Do you have any advice? Please write a comment or tell me after class.

Bicycle at dusk

I like riding my bicycle, but I haven’t ridden it much recently until today.

Today I rode around my local area for an hour, from 5pm to 6pm. Dusk is my favourite time of day, but this ride was not enjoyable.

I was on neighbourhood patrol, especially checking the local park and some narrow streets near the station. There must be thousands of people all over Japan doing the same thing every day.

It was dark by 6pm, and there was no-one in the park. There was no trouble at all, and I spent one hour thinking what a waste of time.

I thought about this all night, and I realized that it is certainly NOT a waste of time. Nothing happened because there are regular patrols.

The next day my legs felt very tight, and it was actually a good feeling; my 1 hour of cycling had been very good exercise and I have promised myself to cycle more often.

Think twice

Dear Viewers

Welcome to the very first posting of my very first blog.

The title of this blog is ‘Think twice’ and I hope that it will stimulate us to think twice about many of the everyday events in our lives.

A beautiful sunset? Not bad. Or is it?

A viewer writes “everything here is very small. Only in the sky can exist a huge object,” and these words carry great force.

So, yes it IS a beautiful sunset, but the electricity pylons and powerlines aren’t. Would it be even better without the powerlines? The view would be, but life without electricity is hard to imagine.

I guess this kind of landscape is becoming more common: beautiful natural scenes, especially near towns and cities, with powerlines, wind farms, 3-lane highways etc. Many of us would complain if these things didn’t exist, a neccesary evil?