Dungeon Tour............ The Video........

[Jim Benante]

I'm the kind of Canadian who has not lived in Canada for 16 years............ eh.........

My wife is a Canadian and she has lost a little of the accent and manner of speech. Send her home for a week and it's all back. You may not have used eh, but you have not lost the accent, pace, or rythym.

Great little hole in the ground you have there.

Seems like her family and friends are quite ingenious also. If we move to Canada will I pick up any of this? I could sure use some cleverness in my garage shop.

[Jim Hinze]

Stu, great video tour. You've done a helluv a job with that tight space.

[Stu Ablett in Tokyo Japan]

My wife is a Canadian and she has lost a little of the accent and manner of speech. Send her home for a week and it's all back. You may not have used eh, but you have not lost the accent, pace, or rythym.

Great little hole in the ground you have there.

Seems like her family and friends are quite ingenious also. If we move to Canada will I pick up any of this? I could sure use some cleverness in my garage shop.

I know what you mean, we go back, and I'm shocked by how much people say "Eh" eh....

I grew up in a fairly small town, we lived in town but uncles and other family did not. We often just had to find a way to do it, with what we had on hand.

Cheers!

[Keith Starosta]

Very, very cool, Stu!!

I think one of my favorite pieces is the use of condenced A/C vapor as a water source. How freaking cool is that?!

Your choice of music wasn't lost on me, either. Excellent!!

- Keith

[Stu Ablett in Tokyo Japan]

Ya the AC water thing is used a lot here, just because our AC makes so much water in the summer, so people use it to water plants etc, why not?

Some even have it plumbed to go into their toilets to flush them!

Under the sink is a sump with a sump pump on a float, when the tank fills up, there is an over flow to the sump, when the sump fills up it is pumped out to the sewer.

Works great.

Cheers!

[Chris Padilla]

It's a Hobbit Hole! Thanks for the tour, Stu!

[Lincoln Myers]

Very cool Stu, thanks for sharing.

-Linc

[Stu Ablett in Tokyo Japan]

It's a Hobbit Hole! Thanks for the tour, Stu!

My Fav Hobbit was Sam!

BTW, I fixed a glaring problem in the video tonight.........

Attachment 45396

Not brands you would know, but good beer just the same

Cheers, the cold beer kind!

[Alan DuBoff]

Seeing your video brought back some memories seeing the main drag in Shinjuku Stu!

I'll get there eventually, we'll raise the roofs in the Kabuki-Cho when I do!

[Stu Ablett in Tokyo Japan]

That would be really cool Alan!

Beer is on me!

[Alan DuBoff]

That would be really cool Alan!

Beer is on me!

Stu, I don't drink beer, but I'll substitute some sake or chu-hi. I can almost taste those ume chu-hi drinks at the robata on the 2nd floor over towards the station...

A colleague of mine just moved to Japan for my company, and he's trying to get me over to give a presentation, so it could happen this year. I thought I was going to do a deal in Akihabara for them last year but they wouldn't let me do it during July, as it's hot, and that's when the family was going over.

I'll visit the dungeon eventually!

[Geoff Barry]

Dang! Good thing you're not claustrophobic! That's an amazing use of space. One question - did you have that building built, and if so, why not a 'real' basement? And if not, what was the intended use for those cell-like rooms? Are basement storage spaces in Tokyo typically concrete cubes reached by hatches?

It makes me look at my cobbled together setup on my porch and think, man, I gotta be more organized . . .

[Alan DuBoff]

Dang! Good thing you're not claustrophobic!

Geoff,

Are you serious? Stu has more space in his dungeon that many folks have to live in, over in Japan.

I only had a 9 tatami apartment when I was there. I think the dungeon is bigger than that. Maybe not by much, but it's bigger!

[Stu Ablett in Tokyo Japan]

Dang! Good thing you're not claustrophobic! That's an amazing use of space. One question - did you have that building built, and if so, why not a 'real' basement? And if not, what was the intended use for those cell-like rooms? Are basement storage spaces in Tokyo typically concrete cubes reached by hatches?

It makes me look at my cobbled together setup on my porch and think, man, I gotta be more organized . . .

Yes, we built the building, and yes most storage rooms, they call them truck rooms are in the basement and access is through a hatch with a ladder!

The reason we cannot have it as real space for use is the tax laws (big surprise eh, the government is the stumbling block) they have rule for the amount of land you have and a formula for the amount of living or usable space allowed. For example the hallways in the building are NOT considered living or usable, so they don't count, were were slightly over with our design, so we had to make the hallways an extra yard deeper into the apartment on the end of each hallway to save this space, dumb eh?

If the Dungeon was designated as usable space, IE NOT a truck room we would have been WAY over the limit with their stupid formula.

Cheers!

[Stu Ablett in Tokyo Japan]

Geoff,

Are you serious? Stu has more space in his dungeon that many folks have to live in, over in Japan.

I only had a 9 tatami apartment when I was there. I think the dungeon is bigger than that. Maybe not by much, but it's bigger!

Ya, and I got the 30 year mortgage on a cool million bucks to pay back as well