Japanese house designed around a Maserati...

[Andyk]

I don't mind minimal - we lived in something quite minimal for some of the time when we were in Tokyo and enjoyed the experience. Helped that I went out there with only very little stuff (but of course came back with most of a container-full). Managed to rent it for a (relative) bargain price as it wasn't child-friendly in the slightest and most people had that requirement. Our cats eventually got used to the spiral staircase...

Not for me I'm afraid.....

 

[tokyomb]

The awful cables kinda' spoil the externals though!!

Japan mainly runs cables overground because of the frequency of earthquakes. Much easier to identify where a cable has failed if it is above ground. Does make for ugly streetscapes though.

 

[TimR]

Japan mainly runs cables overground because of the frequency of earthquakes.

You might expect the Japanese understood nuclear power reactors weren't perhaps the best choice either...?

 

[Scaf]

I am not very well traveled but Japan is way up there on my wish list, has always interested me.

As for the house, I would have to sit in the garage so I could see out !

 

[tokyomb]

You might expect the Japanese understood nuclear power reactors weren't perhaps the best choice either ...!?!?!

Understand your point. But, if you have no coal or oil, your gas comes in by LPG tanker ship from Russia or the Middle East (at considerable expense), and you have a huge demand for power (due to population, climate and industrial demand), there aren't many other viable choices for such an economy. For the most part their power plants seem to cope with the regular earthquakes reasonably well. The tsunami was an exceptional event.
I was there for the March 2011 earthquake, tsunami and subsequent Fukushima debacle. The media reporting at the time was an interesting case study, with the international media shouting "Chernobyl all over again" and the Japanese being "all is under control" - and knowing the truth was likely somewhere between the two.

 

[CatmanV2]

You might expect the Japanese understood nuclear power reactors weren't perhaps the best choice either...?

Yep. Totally. The Reactor that withstood far more than its original design parameters, you mean?

C

 

[TimR]

Yep. Totally. The Reactor that withstood far more than its original design parameters, you mean?

C

Well that too, absolutely man!
I’m sure it wasn’t a choice made lightly by the Japanese. After all, the national experiences of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are still very much current in their culture and education today.....
Between a rock and a hard place. Life’s tough.