I won't comment on the cosmetic side of things, but it is several degrees cooler under a parasol/umbrella and that's the usual selling point. I didn't comment on the weight or practicality, either (I don't actually think it's practical with the technology we have today). I was pointing out that these would potentially be used in times other than when it's cloudy as zr0 mentioned.
tiredofsametab
joined 11 months ago
Japan (and I think a number of other asian countires) has a lot of people using them as sun shades. Particularly when we walk a lot and even moreso in the concrete jungles like tokyo
Worker protections and their enforcement have improved in recent years, but things still aren't fully there yet. That said, the whole karoshi thing is getting less and less, which is good. The problem now is less in the big corps and more in the smaller businesses since they end up having less oversight. My company even requires I record hours at my other job (my own company) and submit them to make sure they and I are not in violation of labor law for hours worked.
Now, how I manage is best described as "poorly". I'm still very much in the phase of getting things set up and learning. I started growing on my balcony before buying my small farm, but there's obviously a big difference between the two set-ups.
Automation is part of the plan. Whilst I'd ultimately like to get to doing no-till with automated driptape irrigation or similar, that's still a long way off. Getting the soil and your systems to a point that works with that is difficult in a property that was a traditional farm for years and then lay fallow and covered in weeds for several more. I'd also like to have sensors (maybe raspi or something off-the-shelf) for soil temp, etc. to better manage my resource usage.
Weeding is a neverending battle. I did get a wheel-hoe which is somewhat helpful, but not a panacea.
A typical summer day for me is getting up with the sun or a bit after (so 4ish here) and working outside before the heat really comes on. At that point, I come in, have a shower, have breakfast, and do my software job. I will also try to tackle yardwork during this time, but that might happen during my lunch break or in the evenings. I plan on cutting the yardwork number down by replacing yard with raised beds growing other crops and such, but it's not something I can afford to do overnight (neither monetarily nor physically).
I think learning more will also help bring efficiency later, both as I learn more in general as well as learn what works in my specific situation; not all of what I read (mostly from the Americas, Europe, or occasionally Australia) applies to farming in rural Japan. For example, trying to find a broadfork to use for aeration; that's not a thing in Japan at all. Trying to import one is also a nightmare. Our climate is technically like 8b IIRC in the US system, but Japan has rainy seasons and stuff. All that to say I still have a lot of inefficiency from mistakes as well.
The good news is: I mostly like the farmwork so it feels like a hobby as well most of the time (and I'm indeed not sure what the breakdown of hobby, work, and therapy for my time outside would look like; "this feels like work" is mostly time in putting plants in the ground and weeding, both of which are done by hand). I'm typing this now in part to avoid going out into the 28.8 degree sun at 76% humidity, but I had best get on it this Saturday morning since it's only going to get hotter.
To be clear, I don't think the choices are a coincidence; I think the general idea is one.
My guess: someone messed up trying to split an array and split a string from it and hilarity ensued.
ts beyond time for japan and korea to find commanality and join
Good luck with that. Especially the older generations that still hate each other. Add to that whenever the japanese right or Korean left want to stir shit up with their nationalist bases, the opposite country is the go-to. Previous agreements etc. be damned.
That wouldn't generally be needed here, though. At least in the cities where most people live, they are walking and using public transit just to live, eat, etc.
im not sure how true that is considering that they can always just open a gate for fish to pass
That's not how that actually works. Damming has huge impacts on downstream, now much drier, ecosystems. Even if there were a way to "open a gate for fish", that wouldn't solve the problem that their habitat is now gone. This is among reasons people have fought for dam removal. This also ignores the flooding of the environment that becomes the reservoir.
Over a certain percentage, I bite into chocolate and it just sucks all the moisture out of my mouth and is just terrible bitterness. I think 86% was the last one I tried, but even 50% is getting to be too bitter for me. I was always super sensitive to bitter compounds as a kid, though, so that may make sense. I do actually like black coffee of some beans/roasts, but it doesn't have nearly as much bitterness.
One of my teammates used AI (our company heavily encourages it) to write code. It did what it was supposed to and the tests passed, but it was the most ugly and unmaintainable shit ever. For one example, I don't want to have to untangle a for i = 0; i++; i <= len(foo) {} that has multiple ifs inside that separately increment and decrement the loop counter i when trying to troubleshoot an issue.
I don't know that it is the primary factor, honestly. Jobs keep moving to places like Tokyo where daycare has a lottery system and is super expensive if one doesn't get into the free one. Add to that that, since corona and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, prices for a lot of things have gone up leading to a cost of living crisis. for many as wages stay stagnant.
Indeed, there was an election yesterday and these were some things that were being mentioned by politicians in the lead-up. In Tokyo, it looks like they are trying to make daycare and school tuition free, which would be a big help. Several schools have even had trouble properly providing meals lately because of the sudden rising costs of food (fees for school are paid at the beginning of the school year so schools have to budget for higher prices and will have worse meals at the beginning to avoid having money for none at the end). Even the far-right anti-foreigner party ran on some kind of payments for kids. Another party talked about getting things less centralized in Tokyo and trying to spread the population out or at least support hose that remain in the countryside.
As for why it wasn't faster, rules have been on the books forever, but people and culture make it different. People feel huge pressure not to make waves so they will clock out and continue working. The more recent legislation has actually addressed this and put some responsibility on the worker themself in my understand, which may help. Corona also showed people what could be and many were angry when forced to go back to the old status quo (and one can see comments about people's manners and patience on the train and other places getting worse in the time since). There's also what is called "power harassment" and the like and lots of old, entitled fuckheads in positions of power at companies who think they are untouchable and, thankfully, are slowly going away.