How Singular

I was somewhat desultorily reviewing the information available on the web regarding terror birds, motivated by a program I'd been watching on the National Geographic cable channel. I'd seen the program--or one very like it--some time ago, and (typically for me) I was again doing something else at the same time. Consequently I missed a detail: the name of one of the bird's prey, described as a mammal unrelated to any now extant. This piqued my curiosity sufficiently that I made an attempt to identify it. In that particular quest for impractical knowledge, I have so far been unsuccessful.

However, in a process that's not entirely clear to me, I somehow came across the "technological singularity" concept. I vaguely remember having heard the term before, but if I ever knew what it means I'd forgotten, and further investigation led to mention of Singularity University. I'm sure that I hadn't heard of that before, and I'm surprised, since it's the sort of information that I usually encounter in the course of my regular reading and research.

So now I know, and I have something else to monitor and think about.

I also have the amusing realization that a quest for information about the Miocene led to information about the (near?) future.

In Whatever Comes Our Way

Among the factors making driving in Tokyo interesting are the many narrow roads, bad visibility at corners due to foliage and/or structures, vehicles parked at the roadside, ubiquitous construction sites, and widespread lack of sidewalks. When you add all of the death-defying bicyclists and oblivious pedestrians--and not a few wildly incompetent motorists, some driving huge trucks--you have a great arena for lots of excitement, with more thrills than a circus.

Having grown accustomed to the more common street scenarios and the typical antics of the people involved in them, I'm not that easy to surprise any more. It doesn't necessarily require surprise to provide an adrenaline rush, though, and I'd much rather be thrilled than bored, so I'm not averse to a fair bit of excitement and entertainment.

There were more acts than usual in one day recently.

First there was the guy who sprinted out from behind a parked truck, across a narrow but well-traveled road, right in front of me. He didn't merely dash, he was running full out, perhaps because he realized that the light was red for him, and cars were zipping by, and he thought he stood a better chance for survival if he ran faster through the traffic. I probably would have hit him, had I not seen the shocked look on the face of a driver in the oncoming lane. He saw the runner coming from the other side of the truck that hid him from me on my side of the road, and slammed on his brakes just in time to miss him; I downshifted and braked hard on the strength of the driver's expression, so I just brushed the runner's coattails.

A couple of hours later I came across a middle-aged woman on a bicycle, pedaling furiously against the lights, crossing a major multi-lane thoroughfare, with a look of fierce determination, shouting "Get out of the way!" repeatedly and glaring at all of the cars and trucks screeching to sudden stops to avoid hitting her. I have no idea whether she was color blind, or confused, or just clueless.

Only a couple of hundred meters further on, a compact van came up from behind me as I waited for a light on a narrow one-way street, the driver blaring his horn to get the half dozen cars behind me to move over so he could pass. We let him by, and he sped through the red light. I have no idea what his story was.

Later in the evening, another of the Tokyo street circus performers appeared with a new act: this young woman was holding a mirror, a makeup case, and a cell phone; she was attempting to apply makeup and send text messages, while riding her bicycle. Evidently it took a lot of concentration, since she had no attention to spare for the drivers and pedestrians who had to dodge around her.

I thought that was it for the day, and I was only a few minutes from my destination, when the last performer suddenly zipped out of an alley from behind a hedge. I had to swerve a bit to avoid him, and then did a double-take...it was a junior high school kid riding--somewhat unstably but undeniably--a unicycle.

It's going to take big cats or elephants or something to appear in the Tokyo street circus before I'm surprised or even very thrilled at what comes my way, now.

I've already seen plenty of clowns.

Looking for Adventure

Recently I've been having, with unusual frequency, dreams that share certain characteristics. Although not identical enough to accurately be called recurring dreams, they have been notably similar both in "plot" and overall theme, and that has made them memorable and thought-provoking.

They all involve rushing around, by motorcycle, by taxi, on foot, or all three. With a constant sense of urgency and dogged determination, I'm striving to accomplish something while overcoming irritatingly frequent obstacles. All of this harried and exasperating activity takes place in a sort of stylized version of familiar yet oddly changed places. Shibuya, Aoyama, Akasaka, and Yokohama--all places where I've lived, worked and played for many years--form a recognizable backdrop to all this frenzied activity, but they are all considerably different from reality...they all resemble something you might see in an adventure movie set in Asia in the '20s or '30s, dramatic in mood and stunning in detail, exoticized and romanticized into scenes from an Indy Jones or Charlie Chan movie. The Dragon Lady or Fu Manchu would fit right in.

They're not nightmares, but they're certainly not restful or calming dreams, either. Since I've been having these dreams four or five times per week for several weeks, I've been wondering what's been going on in my subconscious to produce them. My current theory is that I'm feeling a lack of adventure in my life lately, so I'm looking for it in Dreamland.

There's no denying that the days of flying bottles and breaking rattan in dockside bar contretemps are behind me. It has been well over 30 years since I was dancing in illegal after-hours clubs with a sentry/doorman whose warning sent us all scurrying back to our tables when the police approached (drinking was OK after the arbitrary--11 0'clock?--time, but dancing was not, for some reason).

Explaining to a very skeptical cop that I had missed the last train, was therefore attempting to borrow a boat to sail down the bay from Yokohama to Yokosuka, and that I'd be returning the boat the next morning before the owner even missed it...that's definitely another memory from the dim past that wouldn't bear repetition these days.

So is racing around the circle route on the Metropolitan Expressway, virtually deserted after 10 o'clock in those days. You had to be very good, and pretty much stay entirely off the brakes, to do it in under 16 minutes. That's not even remotely conceivable with the kind of use the expressway gets now.

Times have changed, and so have I, I guess. Car chases, knife fights, scuffles with thugs in dicey low dives, really wild parties...all of those and much more are pretty much things of the past. Fond memories, but few if any of them really suitable for repetition in my current circumstances.

So, I've been thinking, maybe I sort of miss adventure. Maybe life is feeling a little too tame to me lately. It has become a subject for reflection.

And I reflected upon it somewhat differently the other night. Riding the bike in a really strong and bitterly cold wind, I got a much stronger and longer adrenaline rush than I really needed, as fierce gusts continually threatened to push me out of my lane and into guardrails or other vehicles whose drivers were struggling, too.

An hour or so of thrills doesn't really qualify as an adventure, I suppose, but I admit that once I'd arrived and parked the bike, I--briefly--thought to myself, "be careful what you look for".

On the other hand, the dreams haven't stopped.

Head Out on the Highway

Most of Japan's expressways now are offering the weekend and holiday deal whereby one can drive for a flat rate of 1000 yen regardless of distance if one uses the ETC (Electric Toll Collection) system.

The idea is to increase tourism in the hinterlands and stimulate the economy, and it seems to have accomplished this to a limited degree. However, TANSTAAFL.

Predictably, this has caused traffic jams even worse than the usual ones...and the usual ones commonly run to tens of kilometers of barely moving vehicles for hours at a time during holiday peaks. There seems to have been some mitigation of traffic jams at toll gates since the system was introduced; it's said that about 30% of congestion occurs at toll gates, and that's reduced somewhat by the no-stop ETC toll collections. On the other hand, service areas and exits appear to have become more congested than before in many cases.

This should surprise nobody. It was predictable by anyone observing the very similar results of offering late night and early morning ETC discounts, introduced a while back apparently mainly to encourage truckers to drive at night and thus reduce overall congestion on the expressways. What it actually did, as far as I can determine, is push a lot of truckers, particularly long-distance ones, into waiting around on the normal roads until discount time, then onto the expressways. There seems to have been an increase in accidents due to sleepy/fatigued truckers, and congestion appears to have been moved around time-wise without any significant reduction overall.

In addition, the weekend and holiday all-you-can-drive-for-1000-yen ETC discount isn't quite as good a deal as it seems. There are some significant non-participant areas in the expressway system, notably the metropolitan expressways, where some token discounts are available but the 1000-yen cap doesn't apply.

This means that, for example, if I were to go from my office to my house in Kumagaya, I'd pay around 1000 for the combination of Tokyo Metropolitan Expressway (usually 700 yen) and Gaikan connecting ring road (usually 500 yen), then 1000 yen for the Kanetsu Expressway trip to one of the two exits near Kumagaya. At full fare this journey costs 3100 yen, so the saving isn't that significant.

Also, it's a one-time deal in its current implementation. Once you leave the expressway, the deal is done; you pay another 1000 yen when you enter again.

This is particularly significant for motorcyclists with passengers,who aren't allowed on some sections of the expressways, depending on local traffic safety administrations. They have to get off and travel on the normal roads until they reach a place where they can reenter the expressway...and then pay again. Since it costs around 12,000 to install the system on a car but about 20,000 on a bike, I won't be doing that anytime soon.

The current ruling party has talked about making expressways free, but frankly I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon. The responsible cabinet minister has announced that the current system will be changed soon , with wide-ranging caps on tolls, but I'll wait and see whether that actually happens next June as planned, and how it's finally implemented if/when it is.

Get Your Motor Running

With the temperature hovering around freezing, it has become somewhat difficult to start the DragStar lately. Since it has only an electric starter, a certain amount of patience is required lest I run the battery down too far. I suppose it's good practice, although I've never thought of myself as being unusually impatient.

Once it is started, it's wise to wait and let it warm up a bit before starting off; it can be disconcerting to have the engine quit in the midst of Tokyo rush hour traffic.

This is also true of the scooter I keep in Kumagaya, mostly for getting from the station to the house and back. It does have a kick starter, though, and that's something of an advantage since even new motorbike batteries don't seem to hold up real well in the cold.

I can sympathize, or identify (although I guess neither term is really very suitable for application to an engine without rather extreme anthropomorphism): I find it pretty hard to get myself started these mornings as the winter cold sets in.

Enter the Tiger

Happy New Year!

May the Year of the Tiger bring you all of the health, prosperity, happiness, love, adventure, and excitement that you could possibly want, even in your wildest dreams...and then some more on top of that.

Too much is never enough; it may be wiser to be moderate, but it's not as much fun.

Merry Christmas

It's Christmas Eve in Japan, and even though that means that it's a little too early for some of my friends in different time zones,I'd like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas.

If any of you celebrate some other holiday at this time of year, I hope you enjoy that, too.

For those of you who eschew celebrations related to religions for whatever reason, at least enjoy the pretty lights and music, and the happy faces of those around you. I don't believe in the Easter Bunny, either, but that doesn't stop me from eating chocolate.

Enjoy the holidays, remember moderation even though you don't practice it: you need something on which to base those New Year's resolutions. You know, the ones that you'll break long before the spring thaw. Maybe by the weekend after you make them.

Next year is the Year of the Tiger, my birth year in the Oriental zodiac. I'll probably have a brief New Year's message here when the time comes, but just in case I don't, have a very happy, healthy, and exciting 2010.

Cheers!