Drainspotting in Japan
Sorry for the lack of posts recently. I’m back at work full-time, and we’re rearranging rooms in the house right now. Kai is sleeping in the same room with my computer while I get his new room painted, so I haven’t had a time or place for blogging. I’ll probably be posting only about once a week for the next few weeks or so 
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 Kamakura
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 Minato-ku, Tokyo
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If you spend a little time in Tokyo, sooner or later you’ll look down at the sidewalk and see one of the fire hydrant manhole covers with anime firemen on them (in Japan the fire hydrants are under manhole covers). Then, if you’re like me, you’ll notice the firefighting scenes on the manhole covers vary in different parts of town. Then you’ll notice that each of the major parks in Tokyo has its own unique, artistic design for the covers of otherwise ordinary manholes. Then you’ll notice almost every Japanese city has unique designs for its manhole covers. And then, before you know it, people are looking quizzically at you, the crazy gaijin with his camera out, stopping in the middle of the street to take pictures of the ground.
 Kawasaki
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 Ueno Park, Tokyo
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 Kawagoe
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 Kawagoe
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 Marunouchi Oazo Shopping Center, near Tokyo station
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 Zushi
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 Inokashira Park, Kichijoji
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 Shin Yokohama
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 Minato-ku, Tokyo
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I discovered the Japan Visitor blog has several sets of manhole pics that are really great: here, here, and here. It turns out there are drainspotting enthusiasts around the world.
Now that I’m back in the US, I’ve been checking out the manhole covers in Philly. They’re utterly uninteresting. That’s probably why I never paid any attention to them in the first place 
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July 10th, 2007 at 11:35 am
i had a flash of inspiration! for your little profile picture on picasa, you could put that illustration of you from the “mike toppa for president” thing:
http://www.toppa.com/photos/displayimage.php?album=7&pos=21
inspiration!