Hummer Overfloweth - two years later (almost)

The two year anniversary of the Hummer Overfloweth post is just a few days away, but today's Wall Street Journal story about Hummers in Japan has resulted in a decision to reminisce a few days early. Here's the picture that started it all and played a small role in shutting down a television station in Venezuela. Seriously - see Hummers! In Venzuela!

Click to enlarge ... now here, we will insist - click it and make it bigger

For those of you have been around here a while, the following opening paragraph should sound familiar - I still giggle about it from time to time:

The word around town was that the Hummers weren't moving. It looked like high gas prices and a White House reversal on fuel conservation meant that fewer "W" bumper stickers would find their exposed sticky sides mating gloriously with the smooth rear bumper of an H2, somewhere between the tow loop and the access hole for a Class 3 hitch.

Here are links to the entire series for those who haven't already seen them:

• Hummer Overfloweth
• Deluge
• Inbox Overfloweth
• Epilogue (for now)
• Hummer Overfloweth Still
• Friday Lite - Hummer Anniversary Edition

I still get a kick out of reading through the comments on the original post along with a glass of wine or two every once in a while.

Oh yeah, the Wall Street Journal story...

When Sadayoshi Ishi drives his Hummer, he takes precautions. He has installed a navigation system that shows wide-open streets in green and more dangerous narrow streets in pink on a computerized map inside the truck. Periscopelike monitors on each side-view mirror alert him to obstacles.

Mr. Ishi isn't dodging land mines in a desert war zone. The 48-year-old Japanese cartoonist is trying to navigate Tokyo's urban jungle of streets too narrow for his 7-foot-wide vehicle. "I broke out in a sweat every time I drove it," says Mr. Ishi. He now drives his Hummer just once a week -- to golf games -- on a predetermined route.

Mr. Ishi is one of a growing number of Japanese who are spending more than $100,000 for the military-style H1 Hummer. Mesmerized by the mammoth trucks shown in TV news coverage of the war in Iraq, they are determined to overcome the special problems of driving in Japan.

Have a look at the "special problems":