Propane has a much lower density than gasoline, so you need a bigger tank to get the same range. because it is under pressure in the tank you need a heavier and more sotly tank too. But propane (and it’s compressed gas colleagues) have amuch highe roctane rating than any gasoline sold … so if you just feed it to a gasoline engine with low compression to work with today’s gasoline a lot of the propane’s energy is just wasted. In a diesel … very high compesssion … works like gangbusters. Many large over the road trucks in the US already use LNG or CNG … it is cost sompetitive and burns extremely clean. every truck stop has it. In Colorado Springs where I used t live the city buses use CNG as well as much of the utility department’s fleet … it saves a lot on costs (likely wouldn’t be as cheap in the Philippines) and you can hold your nose in the tail pipe of a city bus and sense nothing but heat … no smell, no smoke, virtually no particulate matter. It would thus be a _great_ possibility for jeepneys and over the road busses here … but to use it effectively in gas engines you really need to rebuild the engine to very high compression like a race car … else it’s inefficient.

I remember in the late 70’s, when I worked for a pizza place, we had all our trucks converted to propane. Had a massive tank in the bed. Seems like we had lots of issues with them, but I don’t know if it was the trucks themselves or the conversion.

My view of prices in Japan is that there can be terrific bargains, and they can also water your eyes … and often in the same store

Food can be atrociously expensive … Kobe steak in the supermarket at more than $100 USD per pound, etc. But when I was there and “living on the economy” as a batechelor I lived off ready to eat items in the supermarkets. I’d stop most every day at amarket on my way home (chosen because of free roof-top parking) and their ready to eat section was a treasure trove. Anything made that day would go on half-price sale at 5 or 6 pm … they are total freshness freaks especially regarding sea food … so I didn’t make out bad at all. At least a couple days a week my deputy and I would go to a local McDonalds for lunch … a ’setto’ was usually about $5 or $5.50 and included a very real bargain for me … coffee with one free refill … hard to beat. Japanese McDonalds also had a menu item that should be required world wide … at the bototm of one of the menu signs was an entry “Smiles: 0 Yen” … since they often have parking and always have toilet seats and paper, McDonalds is your friend .

Make your visit correspond with sakura time … usually early March in the Ryukus unless you have seen it already … it is not to be missed.

Thanks again for the tips, and sorry this is so off topic on this thread .

Speaking of maps, you might like this website for high level ‘day dream’ planning. http://gc.kls2.com It is of course aviation oriented so it ignores that boats can’t sail across land, but I spend many happy hours day dreaming about trips from ‘here to there’ … and you can put your own way points in very easily to approximate the real course a boat would follow … you can ignore all the ETOPS references, that’s special purpose FAA rules for flying twin-engine aircraft over water.

I watch Dangerous Catch when I happen into it. Yup yup yup – I get green in the face during fowl seas – but still have to be alert and up – have to.

Many other sites focus on regions, these guys cover the world. Like Weather Underground they have excellent historical data too.

BTW, are you a Dangerous Catch viewer? To me it is one of the most fascinating series on television … what those guys do for their regular job puts most TV fictional ‘danger dramas’ to shame.

Yup – I hate cooking – and when I do cook – I cook for 2 days. So, I probably use more electricity than gas – cuz I am into reheating in the microwave – hahaha. If not, we eat sandwiches only and keep heavy meals (with rice) to only once per day.