trainbuffer comments

I've been reading about this for a while. Great idea and if it can block a surge or two from a tsunami, great.

But what pumps the air? A bunch of tanks and gear, both underwater and on the surface, apparently. What if this connection and/or power goes out in a big one? A really expensive Lego project that does nothing.

^ of course where you get on/off and recharge is no doubt logged, but I never gave them any personal info to get one.

Just to add a data point here: Icoca (Kansai) regular/rechargeable cards don't have any of your personal info.

I saw this on the news last night. Maybe I misunderstood, but I think they said it was traveling on a section of track that's also used by non-Shinkansen trains. Never heard of that before. Sounded odd.

Thanks for the info zichi. The Arboretum is great, never been up there during hanami though. Will give it a whirl.

zichi, You're in Kobe, yeah? What river is that (if you don't mind me asking)? ;-) Shukugawa is beautiful but I'm getting sick of the insanity there around sakura time.

Good for customers all around!

AU is a different network though, CDMA, not 3G (Softbank/docomo). Wonder if the new iPhone will have dual band or be like the Verizon phone in the US (CDMA only). One drawback of CDMA is you can't use data while on a call. Data or voice, not both. Not a huge deal, I suppose, but there have been plenty of times I needed to look up something while chatting with someone... As much as I'd like to go back to AU, I don't want to give ability up.

If nothing else, it will get Softwank to beef up their infrastructure to compete.

Produced by Greenpeace, but a good rundown on the "Tokyo Two" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kumi-naidoo/un-japanese-authorities-b_b_453407.html