• 🪐 Leo had a field trip to the Shonandai Culture Center, which he's been going to since he was one. Sometimes it's nice when field trips take you some place new, but this time it was an old favorite. Though it was his first time going with his friends, so I suppose that's new.
  
  He had such a good time that he came back and said "Dad, I want to go to the culture center with you on the weekend!". And so we did. We also saw a show at the planetarium, always fun (and a good place to almost catch a nap 😉).
• 🍝 After the culture center and an hour at the park, Leo and I had a guys night out and ate dinner at Pepita Lion.  I had fresh pasta with nama-ham and greens. Leo had the tomato omelette rice and we split an order of fries. The food was excellent as always. Although it was too late for coffee, their coffee is really good as well. They were roasting coffee out front as they usually do, which is not something you usually see and equally excited both Leo and myself.
  
  How nice is it to go to a favorite place again instead of the usual chain family restaurants? So so nice. And it's supporting a local business that's been in the neighborhood for longer than I've been alive. If you're in the neighborhood, I highly recommend a visit. Much easier to just drop in now that they take credit cards/touch payment.
• 💪 I switched from a short program to a medium program in alpha progression (weight training app) and it (predictably) is making a difference. Seeing the number of reps and or weight go up each week is motivating. I'm not sure how accurate my scale is in terms of body fat / muscle mass (as there's nothing to hold on to to get electric impedance testing from my upper body), but clothes are fitting different so that's all the matters.

• 🏮 We went to the annual international festival at my alma matter in Totsuka. And like I (probably) blogged last year, this year it hit all of the nostalgia. The campus is full of forest and has a bridge with an excellent view of Fuji, you could really see yourself doing some quality thinking out there. The thing I think I was the most nostalgic for was the amount of headspace I had back in uni to study and think about the problems facing the world.
  
  This year Watanabe Youichi, famous war photojournalist and  alumni came to speak. We attended his event, but had to leave 10 minutes in because Leo was bored, but Leo was paying attention. As soon as we got outside he asked why the children had guns, did they just find them? Shouldn't the adults keep them from them? We explained that not everywhere is as peaceful as it is in Japan and that we're fortunate to live in such a place where we do not need to worry about such things.
  
  The informatics majors setup a room to teach kids programming with Scratch, which drew Leo in. They had 4 laptops setup with a half-finished game, then they'd help walk you through how to finish it off. Leo built the last part of an air hockey game. I think having the app in Japanese probably helped, though it was full of kanji he doesn't know.  I feel like I'm going to have to get a computer sooner or later so we can do Scratch properly...
  
  Kanachu, the local bus company, brought one of their EV busses for people to see – and it was pretty great. It felt like it was a bit larger inside than their usual busses and there's usb-a sockets at every seat so you can charge your devices as you travel. We got to sit in the driver's seat where they told us there are 11 mirrors that the driver uses to check all of the angles. The battery is also large enough that they can drive it all day on a single charge. But the most surprising thing was that the bus was made by BYD – not one of the Japanese bigs. Though the fact that it's an EV should make that obvious it's not Japanese as they're currently lagging Apparently these usually run along/around Kamakura because there's more/better infrastructure for charging overnight. Maybe I'll make a mission to ride one of these.
• 🍻 I went out for dinner and beers with a friend near Tokyo. We messaged at the start of the year that we should hang out, then 5 months passed. Just as I was thinking "man, we said we should hang, we should hang" and he messaged me. I'm glad he did.

My father’s father died of a heart attack at 64. After that, my father’s fitness discipline was suddenly clarified as a daily grounding, in a way that was not future-oriented but present-oriented. In observing him, I learned the importance of exercise as a practice — not of becoming but of being.

1. Tagged with
2. health
3. exercise

This week, Kraken announced that it was partnering with National Grid in New York and Massachusetts to act as the AI customer service and billing platform for 6 million U.S. customers.

1. Tagged with
2. climate change
3. energy
4. kraken

• 🚲 I rode my Brompton into work twice last week and it was great. Having my bag on my bike let me carry things I wouldn't otherwise (my lock, extra shirt) and made the commute much more comfortable. Cycling there had me feeling more focused and on the way back I was able to turn off work-mode. I still need to get the timing of my fold and bag/de-bag and unfold to be a bit quicker, but I 'know I'll get there with a bit more practice.
  
  Going by bike has also enabled me to get coffees at places I wouldn't usually visit / be anywhere near, which is an added bonus.
  

  

• 🏃 My running has been limited to about once a week as of late. But I think cycling to and from the office is maintaining my cardio, especially the the big hills in Tokyo on the way in, and in Yokohama on the way home. This week's run, thanks to those hills, was easier (and faster) than it had been the past few weeks. Gives me hope I can find a balance between running, cycling, and lifting which doesn't cause me stress trying to do all the physical things.
• 🏍️ It's been about 5 years(!) since I first watched Long Way Up. Last week (or the week before last) the newest edition of the duo's motorcycle adventures Long Way Home (youtube) started on AppleTV+ and it's great.