while not null: Tokyo, Japan - December 2019 - Part 1 - Carbon Offsets and First Impressions

For most of 2019 I was learning with my son the Japanese Kanji characters (the Chinese characters) and this trip was meant to be the last item in that journey: an immersion in the Japanese language and culture. I love visiting Japan. The cities, language, food, customs are so different, it's like visiting another world.

First, let's use a Flight Calculator to calculate carbon offset needed: Gold Coast to Tokyo, round trip: 14500 km, 3 people, economy class = 7.0 tonnes of CO2e.

Using the most conservative calculation, one mature tree can absorb 22 kg of CO2e in a year. 7000 kg / 22 kg = 318 trees.

To have them planted I used the Trillion Tree Campaign website. The cost of the Mphompha Planting Trees project by Wells for Zoë was only 0.16 AUD per tree with tree survival rate of 98%, so we needed to plant 318 * (1/0.98) which is about 325 trees, which costs 325 * 0.16 AUD = 52 AUD. Done.

Carbon offsets are the last resort when it comes to stopping the climate change. The best action is to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions. I use public transport to get to work - cannot cycle - I tried, it is not safe where I live. Writing this blog at the time of COVID-19 I can say that I will try to continue working from home. I got into a routine in the past 6 weeks and I quite like it this time. I don't really need to go to the office.

I send to the electrical grid more energy than I take from it, thanks to the 6.5 kW array of solar panels on the roof.
I save for retirement in fossil-fuel free and sustainable funds.
I don't buy much stuff.
I eat vegan, falling back to vegetarian sometimes.
I vote for those who support quick reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

Cutting down on plane travel is one of the last 3 major actions I can do as an individual. The other two are refinancing the home loan with a fossil fuel free bank like Bank Australia, and replacing the natural gas water heater with an electric heat pump.

...

I've been to Japan before. This time we stayed at an Airbnb in a Tokyo district of Ota and travelled only in Tokyo.

My random impressions this time:

Good:

The weather: 5 out of 7 days were relatively warm and sunny. The other two days - it was raining lightly and cold. You will see it in the photos and videos, the weather in December in Tokyo is good.
The colours of Autumn.
The clean air.
Most products and services seemed to have the same prices as 12 years ago.
The streets were quiet: hybrids, smaller cars, engines shut down at lights, bicycles, pedestrians, 30 km/h speed limits on side streets.
The bicycles - so many people biking, with kids, in the rain, with an umbrella in one hand, very young and very old.
Mixed development: residential, retail, services, industry. There were little repair shops, manufacturing facilities, even a metal scrap yard, all tucked between homes, schools, shops and an old-age care facility.
Overall, exceptionally good customer service.
Availability of grocery shopping and ready meals at any time of day and night.
The same very respectful, kind and quiet people.
The same great rail transport options: trains, metro. There will be a separate post about these! Here is a video teaser:

Bad:

Single use plastic bags and excessive plastic packaging everywhere.
The river in Ota is polluted. It is more like a canal.
No renewable energy in sight: no wind farms, very few PV panels on the roofs.
In some museums, exhibits have very limited descriptions in English.
Customer facing personnel sometimes does not understand English at all - happened to us at a restaurant in the centre of Ota. The Google Translate app did not seem to help much. I think I made a mistake entering a restaurant that did not have an English menu. Zero English.
JR trains were crowded in the city.
Tokyo transport is very complex: 2 big metro networks, JR network, 7 other private companies operating their rail lines, buses: but no common ticket/pass for all.
Shortage of bag lockers at train stations.

Other:

Cars: 95% Japanese brands, mostly unique to Japan: narrow and boxy, the rest are mainly German: Mercedes, BMW maybe VW. Saw one Ferrari on a 30 km/h street, one big American SUV with custom rims, one Fiat 500. Saw a Tesla showroom, but no Teslas in the streets.

Food: still a lottery. Despite using the Google Translate app to check food's ingredients before purchasing, we got two items we had to chuck out: dumplings and a spaghetti sauce. Both had so much garlic that were not eatable. On a previous trip I got tripped by a bun that was filled with lard.