Everyday Japan

Blaine also wrote a fine story, Japan Debates Digging Itself Out, about massive public works programs in Tokyo. It's amazing to live in a city where you literally cannot find a pothole and constantly see crews repaving sidewalks, repainting crosswalks, and replacing sidewalk fences that would probably last another decade.

Along those lines, a few weeks ago, I watched a man carry a ladder to each streetlight near our house. He climbed the ladder and, using a hand-held paint roller and small paint brush, repainted each 4-foot-long mint-green lamp. (A neighbor's rain-spout is slightly blocking my view.)


You would never see that in NYC.