I'm back from Japan almost 3 weeks now and there are some things I sorely miss.
First, the train system.
You can get damn near anywhere in Japan using trains. Get yourself an IC card and you can tap on/tap off trains nationwide. (Get one on your phone and you can transfer funds directly from your bank account and use it to pay for purchases, too. Bye, bye foreign ATM's).
Japan is roughly the size of California. Could you imagine California with a train system this elaborate!
@Bliss I'm in the burbs now, but I grew up in the Bronx and enjoyed the NYC mass transit system for many years. It's one of the reasons I prefer mass transit when I travel wherever possible.
@chaos440 Apparently GM could imagine it, that's why it was all torn out, GM controlled national city lines. Nothing makes a company more Gitty than obliteration of competition. My company was so greedy about Marketshare I used to tell colleagues in private that we funded NASA in case they found other beings to sell stuff to.
@MidnightRider Yep, I know the history and it's a damn crime.
@chaos440 When I was still a kid, I got one of those "radio shack, 100 projects toy". (Sidenote, it was a great toy). Anyhow we're talking about 1969 ish. The toy had a working solar cell to power said projects. Now imagine if we worked on that technology and batteries simultaneously at that time. Why we might have made more money than JSOC on Vietnam!
@MidnightRider I remember those kits. I had one that had spring terminals to wire up the components. Great fun.
@chaos440 Yep, now kids that age don't play with Chemistry sets or 100 project toys, they hack the pentagon with a juice box in hand from their bedrooms.
America is woefully behind other countries in so many areas.
So much for leader of the free world.
@chaos440
I know what you mean. I live in #NYC. I don't need to drive anywhere. In fact after 12 rides in a week I travel everywhere for free.