Beating global downturns in Japan.

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Beating global downturns in Japan.

Postby CrankyBastard » Mon Feb 16, 2009 8:05 pm

1960, employed full time by a Japanese company. Lived in company dorm.
Heating= one room, kerosine heater. No air conditioner/ cooler.:(

1968, Saved enough to buy a small apartment.
Heating = one room, air conditioner/cooler.:D

1973, Oil shock! Air conditioner bill too high.
Heating= one room, kerosine heater. No (more) air conditioning/cooler.:(

1991, Saved enough to buy an up town 'mansion'.
Heating= all rooms air conditioning.:D

1993, Bubble bursts, bought a fan controlled kerosine heater.
Heating=One room, kerosine (fan) heater.:(

1996, Sold mansion and moved into detatched house in posh area.
Heating= two floors throughout, year round state of the art floor and air conditioning.:D

2009, Credit crunch!
Heating bills too high, will have to shut down air conditioning and get a kerosine heater next week.:(

If only I'd had the foresight to keep the first kerosine heater I bought in 1960, I might not be in this predicament now!!!!:wall:
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Postby dimwit » Mon Feb 16, 2009 11:39 pm

Kerosine heaters unlike scotch do not age well. That 1960 heater, if it hadn't killed you with CO poisoning it would have left you with a happy case of emphysema by now. Besides those 1960's heaters were about as effecient as heating your room with a barbeque.
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Postby CrankyBastard » Tue Feb 17, 2009 8:23 am

dimwit wrote:Kerosine heaters unlike scotch do not age well. That 1960 heater, if it hadn't killed you with CO poisoning it would have left you with a happy case of emphysema by now. Besides those 1960's heaters were about as effecient as heating your room with a barbeque.



The amount of sulfur in the air here in the 1960s', made entering a kerosine fog at home seem quite pleasant by comparison.:)
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Postby Greji » Tue Feb 17, 2009 12:08 pm

CrankyBastard wrote:The amount of sulfur in the air here in the 1960s', made entering a kerosine fog at home seem quite pleasant by comparison.:)

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

If one didn't know Japan in those days, they could not really appreciate your post. I don't know about down your way Cranky, but I can remember back then when they had days in downtown Tokyo where they closed intersections and residential areas down to outdoor activities because of the air condition and you were forced to remain inside.

The belching, gaseous kerosine heaters of the time provided the only breathable atmosphere...
:cool:
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Postby CrankyBastard » Tue Feb 17, 2009 1:06 pm

Greji wrote:
The belching, gaseous kerosine heaters of the time provided the only breathable atmosphere...
:cool:


Too right, Greji :D
One of my kids, looking through an album of photos I'd taken of those days, asked, why they were all in sepia, surely the 60s' weren't that long ago.
I had to explain to him that, back then, anything further than twenty feet away took on a sepia hue.
:cool:
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Postby Behan » Tue Feb 17, 2009 1:13 pm

I knew a refugee from Kawasaki and he said that he moved out to Chiba to escape the air. Everyone was always coughing and the air was like a fog limiting visibility around his house. He didn't want his kids to get sick so he moved to the other side of the bay.

(Excuse me for just repeating second hand what you have experienced first hand.)
His [Brendan Behan's] last words were to several nuns standing over his bed, "God bless you, may your sons all be bishops."
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Postby CrankyBastard » Wed Feb 18, 2009 1:55 pm

The web is spun,
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You are the prey,
Watch your ass!
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Postby Greji » Wed Feb 18, 2009 5:10 pm

"There are those that learn by reading. Then a few who learn by observation. The rest have to piss on an electric fence and find out for themselves!"- Will Rogers
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Postby Behan » Fri Feb 20, 2009 10:10 pm

His [Brendan Behan's] last words were to several nuns standing over his bed, "God bless you, may your sons all be bishops."
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