Fire is a constant problem in Japan, a country taken with building houses of wood and paper then heating them with kerosene space heaters rather than Western-style central heating, and whenever the “air raid siren” at the elementary school goes off at any time of day other than noon, we know that a fire has broken out somewhere. On no less than three separate occasions we’ve heard fire trucks and and opened our window to see homes near J-List being engulfed in fire, including one just a few houses over. Today as the J-List staff was posting the new products to the site we heard many loud sirens approach, and sure enough, a building about 50 feet from J-List had caught fire, sending thick black smoke into the air. It was a small factory that makes auto parts, and no one was hurt, but it’s strange and sad to have to deal with fire this much. I much prefer the anime character archetype known as moe to the character for “burning.”
Yet another fire in the immediate area around J-List.
