Where's the Double Pane Glass?

Before I really get going with my rant about windows, here are a couple of nice pictures.

Chelsea and Jerry enjoying a nice Sunday afternoon.

I finally put my long lens on the new camera for some pictures. The new camera doesn't support the autofocus on the older telephoto lens, but I got it close. Here is a picture of some stuff off in the distance as seen from our balcony. The bridge is in Yokohama at 35.454667, 139.674008. Just to the right of center, you can see what looks like a tall white tower. This is actually two towers that we are viewing from an angle. They are at 35.476885, 139.679168. I can't tell what it is. My first guess would be some kind of power plant. Fee free to hazard your own guess. The last major feature is two cranes shown, both red and white. One is the tall one right in the middle and you can only see part of the second one at left. These are part of Sumitomo Heavy Industries at 35.323026, 139.660472. This is a shipyard that builds some pretty large commercial ships.

Now, about these windows.

Our hotel room/apartment is awesome. The view is gorgeous, there is tons of ambient light, and there's plenty of space (although Jerry would disagree with that last part). Part of what I like is that we have tons of balcony and with that balcony, lots of sliding doors. We only have two fixed windows and 4 sliding doors. It's great and it's only going to get better when the weather warms up. (However, there is an unfortunate building policy of NO BBQs on the balcony which is strictly enforced.)

The doors are great except for one thing... single pane glass.

I didn't even know that single pane glass was still made for new construction. Here in Japan you hear more noise about energy conservation than even in the states. They're always going off about how expensive energy is and how they don't have enough of it. The apartment does have all LED lighting and small appliances, so it's energy friendly there, but this.....

Not only is single pane better for insulation, it's also better for sound deadening. Double pane glass would spare me from the 6:30 am daily wake-up call from the Japanese Navy.

Not only are the windows single pane, but the frames are uninsulated aluminum. It's almost as if the designers were worried about not having enough heat transfer.

So they cheaped out during construction and are now sticking it to the tenants for energy costs. Here's to cold feet.