OT: Hurricanes Lounge XLII: Maybe Let's Talk About Weather

[raynman]

If it's rocking, don't come knocking!

View attachment 799275

What are the odds there’s an “ass, gas, or grass” sticker on the dash?

 

[the halleJOKEL]

A few pieces of advice.
1) Rent one of those pocket Wifi things. They'll deliver it to your hotel for you and it allows you to use your phone via the pocket wifi device. They didn't cost much last time I was there and you just drop it in the mail at the hotel when you are done.

2) Get a translator app (unless you'll have a person with you that speaks both languages)

3)There are a couple of Tokyo subway apps. Get them on your phone before you go. Figuring out the subways/trains without someone who spoke Japanese was not easy, but those apps helped.

4) Don't cross the road when sign turns red. The cars assume everyone will be out of the road.

nowadays, i would recommend getting an esim over a pocket wifi (use an app like ubigi)

also google maps should be more than sufficient for navigating the subways, and google translate does a pretty good job for simple communication (and you can use your camera to translate signs/menus)

japan is having a shortage of IC cards (i.e suica/pasmo) right now, but you may be able to get one if you fly in outside of tokyo or get a temporary 30 day version if you are flying in through haneda/narita. having these is a lifesaver for the trains, busses, etc and it also works at the convenience stores/vending machines which are everywhere. if you have an iphone, you can create a digital IC card now in your apple wallet and preload it. if you use android, you are out of luck (unless you have a japanese market android phone).

everything we ate in japan was amazing and the prices were pretty cheap in general relative to what you see in america. don't sleep on the convenience store food either.

tsukiji market is great if you want to eat a lot of different things. we did breakfast/lunch there one day.

if you are into nerd stuff (not only anime - video games, tcgs, etc.), akihabara is cool for shopping. some of the shops like super potato are almost more like museums of old video game stuff. if you aren't into nerd stuff, there are other areas that are also good for shopping. there are so many malls/department stores all over you can almost just pick one at random and find cool stuff. hands shibuya is their flagship store and was full of stationary/craft stuff that made for great christmas gift shopping. there are secondhand/thrift stores all over too where you can get some pretty crazy deals.

some things require reservations, you should be able to go ahead and book those now if you are interested. some examples are teamlab planets (kind of cool, but missable), shibuya sky observation deck (if you want to go up top around sunset, alternatively there are free observation decks in shinjuku at the tokyo metropolitan goverment buildings).

i did the planning for a group of 6 of us earlier this year, so happy to answer any follow-up questions

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

So looks like Buc-ee’s is coming to Mebane after all.

 

[Unhinged Finn]

What are the odds there’s an “ass, gas, or grass” sticker on the dash?

Don't know, but probably better than an "oil, gas and gravy" sticker.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

if you are into nerd stuff (not only anime - video games, tcgs, etc.), akihabara is cool for shopping. some of the shops like super potato are almost more like museums of old video game stuff. if you aren't into nerd stuff, there are other areas that are also good for shopping. there are so many malls/department stores all over you can almost just pick one at random and find cool stuff. hands shibuya is their flagship store and was full of stationary/craft stuff that made for great christmas gift shopping. there are secondhand/thrift stores all over too where you can get some pretty crazy deals.

The last time I was there, the guys I were with (2 from Singapore, 2 from Mexico and 2 of us from the US) really got into akihabara. The shopping stores/malls were kind of cool just because of seeing how products are the same vs. different in the US and I agree, even though I was never into video games, it was kind of cool to see some of the old stuff.

The Singapore guys went nuts of Akihabara though. They were buying these toys (Gundam or something like that I think) and then we ate at a cafe with the same theme. They were like kids in a candy store.

It's not my cup of tea, but I still enjoyed visiting.

EDIT: I just remembered the other place went with them that trip. It was Ikebukuro, which was close to where we were staying. A lot of anime and cosplay stuff there. It was interesting for people watching. We had coffee at a Cat Cafe there too, which was cooler than I thought it would be.

 

[Derailed75]

Don't know, but probably better than an "oil, gas and gravy" sticker.

Well the o,g,g sticker would just identify who the owner is.

 

[GindyDraws]

I'm going to miss my beloved Manchester thread over in the ECHL subforum. Dunking on that guy never stopped being funny.

 

[raynman]

Don't know, but probably better than an "oil, gas and gravy" sticker.

If Tripp makes an “oil, gas, and gravy” shirt I will buy it.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Storm hasn’t even hit yet and my power is out. This area I live in loses power so often. More in 3.5 years than in 16 years at my last place.

 

[HisIceness]

It's bad out here today. This is the kind of storm that's blows through in November or March.

Last night's dream was of thunder-snow. Not thunder-heavy ass rain

 

[skipnjump]

The wind has picked up a bit at my house. My cat is hiding under the kitchen table which is usually a sign of storms coming. At least management let us work from home.

 

[Negan4Coach]

I knew 2024 was gonna but lit but I didn't have "Jews tunneling under New York City" on my bingo card for Week 2 of the Tribulations.

 

[Lempo]

I knew 2024 was gonna but lit but I didn't have "Jews tunneling under New York City" on my bingo card for Week 2 of the Tribulations. View attachment 799482

Excuse me, but what exactly is that metal thingy there?

 

[Negan4Coach]

Excuse me, but what exactly is that metal thingy there?

View attachment 799519

The memes are already glorious. Long Live X

 

[tarheelhockey]

Any recommendations on things to do in tokyo?

Become a giant monster and stomp on the city

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Become a giant monster and stomp on the city

You can visit him as well, as there is one on top of a building in Shinjuku.

 

[Blueline Bomber]

My favorite note about the underground Jewish tunnels is there was a guy on Twitter that swore up and down for months that he heard Yiddish underneath his floorboards. People assumed he was being anti-Semitic, one of those “Jews control everything “ types.

He was vindicated when the news broke.

 

[Blueline Bomber]

Follow up:

 

[MrazeksVengeance]

Follow up:

View attachment 799597

This is… just something out of South Park.

What is less hillarious is the number of people immediately going to the conclusion that it was built for a …

I shit you not

Child trafficking ring.

Because of a single matress.

 

[Derailed75]

This is… just something out of South Park.

What is less hillarious is the number of people immediately going to the conclusion that it was built for a …

I shit you not

Child trafficking ring.

Because of a single matress.

Well I'm not on the child trafficking bandwagon but its a little more then just a single mattress driving that. The fact that there is seemingly no motive for the tunnels to be dug and they assaulted the police when discovered makes you think something wrong was going on there.

 

[MrazeksVengeance]

Well I'm not on the child trafficking bandwagon but its a little more then just a single mattress driving that. The fact that there is seemingly no motive for the tunnels to be dug and they assaulted the police when discovered makes you think something wrong was going on there.

Obviously there were… shenanigans at hand.

But I mean - straight to child trafficking. Didn’t even consider drugs or weapons. Or trafficking of adults

 

[Negan4Coach]

This is… just something out of South Park.

What is less hillarious is the number of people immediately going to the conclusion that it was built for a …

I shit you not

Child trafficking ring.

Because of a single matress.

It wasn't just the mattress (although what is that doing there?". It was the high-chairs, and the tunnel going to a Children's museum.

Official cover story "Oh, it was just some Yeshiva students messing around digging a little tunnel",

 

[Lempo]

This is… just something out of South Park.

What is less hillarious is the number of people immediately going to the conclusion that it was built for a …

I shit you not

Child trafficking ring.

Because of a single matress.

What do you expect, in Pizzagate world. The #1 debunkment for that was that "silly fools, there even *isn't* cellars in those pizza parlors!" And then someone finds Jews tunneling.

Any mattress or a kids' feeding chair foud there is but a chef's kiss, but not really necessary for making the conclusions. In fact them being there does feel more like the dressing of the crime scene has gone a bit over the top here.

 

[Blueline Bomber]

Well I'm not on the child trafficking bandwagon but its a little more then just a single mattress driving that. The fact that there is seemingly no motive for the tunnels to be dug and they assaulted the police when discovered makes you think something wrong was going on there.

What do you mean there's no motivation? Even just a little research can tell you what was going on.

That Hasidic sect is split into two, one is referred to as Meshikhists/Meshichists as they believe their last Rabbi never really died and is the Messiah. They are essentially the Westboro Baptist Church of the Jewish community.

And there's the non-Meshichists who either don't believe that he was the Messiah or believe he could have been but once he died some othere unknown person could have the potential to be the Messiah as they believe there's always someone in each generation.

Young Israeli students from the Meshichist group decided to dig from an abandoned Jewish women's ritual bath building to the building at 770. There's two competing theories about why they decided to do that.

The first is that the belief that the Meshichist group was kicked out of the synagogue and they dug the tunnels to sneak back in and worship.

The second is much more likely, given how cultish the Meshichist are. And that's the belief that they built the tunnel to expand the holy ground of the 770. They consider the 770 to have the same status as the future and past main Jewish Temple (Beit Hamikdash), and by building the tunnel between the 770 and the bathhouse, it can be considered "one building" and thus the bathhouse is holy ground as well.

It goes along with the very strict interpretation of rules many Jewish sects and the way to find loopholes to work around them. For instance, Jewish people aren't supposed to build or utilize fire on the day of rest, which in today's world includes electricity or driving a car. However, if someone else turns on a light or drives them somewhere, they technically didn't use fire, that other person did.

Anywho, the tunnels were discovered and obviously very dangerous to the structure of both buildings, so the police were called to help seal it up. The young men of the Meshichist were obviously unhappy about that and started a riot.

 

[DaveG]

Over 25+ years, I've found pretty consistently that Piedmont area of NC gets a "good snow" (3+ in at least once) 1 out of 4 years, light snow (1-2" once or twice) 2 of 4, and nothing/virtually nothing (flurries w/ no ground cover) 1 of 4. Last year we had arctic temps, no snow, 2 years prior we had light snow (or ice rather 2 years ago), and an actual "good snow" about 4 years ago (snowed once each in Dec, Jan, Feb, & Mar)...we should be due this year

yep. Hell there was a parking lot that I walk past on the way home that piles their snow up in the same place and I shit you not, the snow pile was STILL there into MAY that year. I was half expecting all that rain we got this past weekend to end up being snow, though I was on call so probably a good thing it wasn't.