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Posterous theme by Cory Watilo

Peach - Japan's First LCC

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Ever since moving to Japan (2001) I have long been aghast at how expensive it is to fly (or for that matter travel in any way) in Japan. Finally this year sees the arrival of two true LCC (low cost carriers). Peach Airlines, based in Osaka, started flying this month. Jetstar Japan, based in Tokyo, will start in July.

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Personally I am not a fan of LCC airlines. Even though they are cheap, everything that goes with them sucks. Service is minimal, flights are crowded, seat comfort is a contradiction, inflight meals expensive and at best ordinary, and the gates are always the most inconvenient. If everything goes well then it can be a very cost effective way to travel but if things go wrong then it can be a complete nightmare trying to rectify the problem.

With some time off in March I was able to get away from the tailend of Sapporo's winter to the milder climes of Osaka's early spring. My airline of choice, JAL, was not an option. Booking my flights inside 14 days meant ticket prices were "standard." A return airfare was just shy of ¥90,000, this was not an option.

So I jumped over to Peach's website, which is available in Korean, English and Japanese. Was easily able to scout out flights and prices for my flight to and from Osaka, total price ¥24,860.

Like most (all?) LCC's if I wanted to check baggage I would have to pay extra, for this trip that was unnecessary. However, I did opt for ¥850 (each flight) option to reserve my seat.

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Inflight

Peach uses brand new Airbus A320 with a very tight 3-3 seat configuration. Rows 1, 12 and 13 are "stretch" seats. When I booked row 1 wasn't an option so I grabbed 12C (aisle) both ways.

The leg room in these "stretch seats" is quiet good. At 190cm, I found I had plenty of room for my legs. The same could not be said if I was in one of the normal seats. I was also fortunate not to have a neighbour. For a little extra comfort, the stretch seat is well worth springing for.

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The meals and drinks are expensive. 100% more than what you would pay at your local convenice store. So the best bet is to pick up a bento and drinks before boarding. Which is a nice segway to the next part.

At the Airport

As part of their budgets LCCs always get the gates and services far away from everything else. Peach is no different - be prepared to walk. The bigger problem is the lack of facilities, that bento and drinks you want to buy, options are very limited around the Peach departure gates. Sapporo is a bit better, you can go for a walk and pick something up. At Osaka it is one little store with a very limited range of stuff.

The best thing you can do to improve the comfort of your flight is too get food and drink before the airport.

With all that said and done would I fly Peach again? If I have to or if the airfare is right - yes I would. But personally I would rather drop down a few dollars (yen) more and fly ANA or JAL, get my milage points and receive nicer service. 

My greatest hope is that Peach and Jetstar Japan force the full service airlines to offer more competative fares.

Time will tell. But for now I am more than happy that Peach airlines is flying.

On Sleep


For many many months now I have fallen into a weird sleeping pattern. I would go to bed and then after 3-4 hours I would wake up, unable to go back to sleep I would then read, or play a puzzle game on my iPhone, check Twitter, check my RSS feeds and then maybe 2 or so hours later go back to sleep.

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I am fortunate that my current employment and family situation makes this sleeping style manageable. 

But I was concerned, why can't I get a good nights sleep.
Just the other day my coworker mentioned to me about some research showing that humans are naturally inclined to this 2 part sleep, and that indeed that solid 8 hours is unnatural.

According to mounting research, the concept of a solid eight hours sleep is a fairly recent phenomenon and it's likely that our ancestors enjoyed "two sleeps" of shorter duration, separated by time awake, as opposed to one sustained period.

Now I can rest easy.

Christmas Nights Plan

As I sit here in my lovely warm home and listen to the howling wind whipping snow outside my plan for this evening

The Cowboy Junkies - Trinity Sessions
Kindle (undecided which novel I shall read)
Enough lighting to read by
and my sofa


This morning being alone sucked.

Tonight it is a blessing.

The Galaxy Nexus

It is time, after two weeks of using the Galaxy Nexus I feel that I can write a decent review.

Firstly, for those who don't know, I am pretty much strictly an Apple guy, but I do have alternate tech tendencies and am definitely Android curious. My phone of choice (and still is) the iPhone 4S, but having the Galaxy Nexus in my pocket has many benefits and there are many things about the phone and Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) (Android 4.x) which I like.

The biggest difference between the two phones (iPhone 4S and the Galaxy Nexus) is that there is nothing that drives me mad about the iPhone 4S. It certainly lacks some things that I would love to have but I have never said "Really?!" to my iPhone. My first Android phone (a Nexus S) constantly tempted me to see how far I could throw it into the ocean, I am very pleased to say that the Galaxy Nexus has not come close to achieving this level of frustration but there are some things which do drive me bonkers.

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Size

The first thing that you notice about the Galaxy Nexus is the size. I remember back in the 90's when the idea for a phone was to get it as small as possible. The era of Smartphones is seeing this trend reverse, to the almost ridiculous. Personally I find the Nexus S to be the screen-size I am most comfortable with in a phone. The Galaxy Nexus for the most part doesn't feel nearly as large as it is, but there have been times when I just feel that it is too large. On one such occasion it lead me to tweet -
There are times when I really like the screen-size, normally when it comes to viewing videos, photos and books. When it comes to reading Kindle books on a phone, the Galaxy Nexus is king.

The Feel

Other than size, the Galaxy Nexus feels pretty good in your hand. I like the textured battery cover, it has a nice rubbery feel that makes you feel confident with the phone in your hands. It is also reasonably light for its size.
One of the problems the hardware does have, is a lack of physical buttons or controls. With only a powerbutton and volume rocker you quickly learn to appreciate the iPhone's home button.

A welcome addition to ICS is the ability to take screenshots. Finally!! However I am still yet to master the right conditions under which you can press the volume down button and the power button at the same time to snap the screenshot. (The few shots in this post were attempted many many times).

Ice Cream Sandwich

The Galaxy Nexus' biggest point is Ice Cream Sandwich. Clearly the folks at Google have been working on this for some time and it feels for the most part pretty slick. A huge step up from Gingerbread. (I know this because I don't swear at my phone every other hour).

While ICS is awesome, it is no IOS5. Apple's operating system is clearly a more refined, consistant and polished product.

However in saying that, there are definitly some points that I would love Apple to steal from Android. The biggest one is Widgets.

Android's widgets have always impressed me. These widgets serve a varitey of functions eg: on screen updating of news, weather, features in apps, or access to phone settings. And it is something that I use often and really depend on when using my Android devices. And I really, really miss when I come back to my iOS devices. 

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Apple - I would settle for just this one widget
One of the biggest problems that Android has had is inconsistancy across apps. ICS is no different with the most glaring example of the menu "button". As shown below it is in different locations on different apps. This drives me insane! 
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Another thing that my Galaxy Nexus loves to do is just randomly reboot. The phone will be sitting on my desk doing nothing and then all of a sudden the opening splash sequence begins and my phone is out of action for the reboot process. Seriously annoying and seriously frustrating.

The biggest thing that drives me nuts is the screen rotation. This breaks down into several points. On my iPhone if am watching a video and I want to rotate the screen (to either landscape or portrait) I double tap the home button, up pop the controls, hit the unlock screen orientation, go back to the video and rotate the screen, the video continues through the whole process!!

On my Android devices I have to quit the video, go to settings âž› display âž› turn auto rotation on return to the video and then I can rotate the screen. What makes it even worse, the video stops while the screen rotates. I have now PURCHASED a widget which gives me faster access to the screen settings cutting out a few of the steps, but I still need to quit the video, hit the widget, return to video and experience the pause while the phone catches up.

Apps

Just a quick note on Android Apps. I really dislike the marketplace. I hate that it shows me apps that I cannot access or purchase based on my location. (Netflix and Google Current being the two that came to the fore these past weeks). On my iPhone I just went to my iTunes account and downloaded them; no such joy for Android. The other thing I have noticed is that for the large part iOS apps (even from the same developer) feel more polished and thought about. Android apps feel rushed and rough or just incomplete. There are of course exceptions, but on the whole that's how it feels.

So should you buy the Galaxy Nexus?

If you hate Apple, or want a monster screen and/or live in the Googleverse then the Galaxy Nexus is a pretty neat bit of kit. But with my Android curiousness sated the iPhone 4S is my phone of choice.

God missed a Golden Opportunity

Don't you think that if you were God you would've presented yourself to Christopher Hitchens in his final moments, cured him and let him go forth and spread the word.

Would've been the worlds greatest convert.

Clearly God missed a golden opportunity which would mean that he is not infallible or perfect.

Or perhaps there's just, and this is the most likely, no God.

Scrapping $1 coins to save money? huh?

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This morning an article bubbled up to the top of my RSS reader. The article, from the team at Planet Money,  reports that the US Government plans to scrap their $1 coin, citing cost savings of $50 million a year for doing so.

the White House said it will end the program. A small number of dollar coins will continue to be minted for collectors, but the coins will no longer be put into circulation. The shift will save an estimated $50 million a year.
That may seem all well and wonderful. The US taxpayer should be happy. But if cost savings were really the guiding principle at hand then surely the scrapping to the $1 bill would be more beneficial.

As Coin News reported Rep. David Schweikert of Arizona

By making this transition from a dollar bill to a dollar coin, the U.S. will save $184 million a year and nearly $6 billion over 30 years.
I don't know in what universe $50 million is greater than $184 million but it seems to be one the US Government likes to work in.

But if the government truly wanted to save money (when it comes to currency) they could scrap pennies and nickels.

I would propose a currency system

Coins
10c 20c 50c $1 $5

Notes
$10 $20 $50 $100

Barak Obama came to power on a platform of change, isn't it time the US took up the challenge and introduced new change.