• The Week #225

    • πŸ—³οΈ I voted by mail. To date, since living in Japan, I've always gotten my ballot delivered by email. This way there's no chance of it getting lost in the mail (especially a worry during covid). But getting my actual ballot printed and ready mailed is always such a faff. Post office isn't open on the weekends etc... Next time I think I will ask for them to send me the paper ballot as I've learned I can drop them off without postage at the embassy and they'll mail it for me. As my office is right next to the embassy it seems like far much less hassle. I hope the candidates I vote for win. I imagine the rest of the world (minus a few bad dudes) are also hoping the same.
    • πŸƒβ€β™‚οΈ Leo had his first Sports Day at primary school. In the days of old it used to be an entire day event. You'd have to stake out a spot, bring some bento. These days they gotten with the times and it was over by 11:30am. Parents came and went depending on when their kid was doing activities. I stayed for everything except the closing ceremony.

      The first years had a dance and a 50m dash. The dance was partially to Creepy Nuts Bling-Bang-Bang-Born. At the end Leo and a few other kids got to do a special part where they did the main dance move in the video. He nailed it.

      Leo was in the second group of runners for the 50m dash. He got 3rd. The first time he had to run a race like this in pre-school he was well in last and as soon as the first person crossed he started walking. Each year since then he tries a bit harder and, most importantly, he doesn't let the results get him down. Kids growing up...
    • 🚲 Because sports day was on a Saturday, Monday is a day off for school. I took the day off so I could watch Leo, but on Sunday he decided he wanted to go the grandparents house, so I had Monday morning to do whatever I wanted.

      The weather has cooled off (for good this year? πŸ™πŸ»), and I took the Brompton out on a long ride to Enoshima. When I arrived, rather than turning right like I usually do, I turned left towards Kamakura for a bit of an explore. This was 100% enabled by Brompton and that I can get it ready for the train in 2 minutes, so I don't need to worry at all about riding out and back.
      Brompton at the beach

      While in Kamakura an old man came up to me and started speaking to me in English. He has been living in Kamakura for 82 years and worked in America when he still did that (seems like he oversaw operations of things?). He has 7 grand-children and the oldest is studying near Chicago now.

      When I got back to my station, I popped into the konbini and got some lunch. I didn't notice a different old man watching me unfold my bike. He tried to guess at the price (off by an order of magnitude). In the end he told me it was really great (I agree!). I've heard that people talk to you when you have a Brompton, and that seems to be the case, even in Japan!
    • πŸ“Ί Shrinking Season 2 started and it's so good.Β  I watched the first 2 episodes and am looking forward to the remainder of the season. The fact that the first episode is called "Jimmying" makes it all the better.
  • Checkin to Kamakura Station (ιŽŒε€‰ι§…)

    in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan
    Not nearly as crowded as I expected it to be.
  • Checkin to Inamuragasaki Park (η¨²ζ‘γƒΆε΄Žε…¬εœ’)

    in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan
    Ride along to enoshima and beyond.
  • Ride to the beach 🏝️
    Spur of the moment ride to enoshima and kamakura enabled by the Brompton. Very much love that I can go somewhere and take a train back, easy peasy.

    24.5km

    119.9min

    204.6m climbed

    115.4avg bpm

  • β˜”οΈ Light Rain 5k
    Nice and cool. Polar opposite music selection this time about, my favorite German punk band, Fucking Angry.

    5.0km

    33.6min

    29.8m climbed

    152.6avg bpm

  • πŸ˜Άβ€πŸŒ«οΈ Foggy Morning Run
    Cool run through the fog. Made chill with some Enya in the background. Suddenly feel like I need a visit to the Shire.

    4.3km

    30.1min

    22.6m climbed

    163.3avg bpm

  • Checkin to Pasta House Pomodoro (パスタハウス ポヒドーロ)

    in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan
    Fresh pasta for lunch. Been meaning to come here for years.
  • πŸ”— Pluralistic: You should be using an RSS reader (16 Oct 2024)

    You should be using an RSS reader: The one thing you can choose to do that will make your internet life better and make the internet better for everyone else, too.

    Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.

    This day in history: 2004, 2009
    I’ve gotten out of the habit of using my RSS reader because Feedly would unauth itself every so often. Maybe I should lean back in again.
    1. Tagged with
    2. computing
    3. β€œsocial
    4. media”
  • The Week #224

    • 🚲 I did my first commute by bicycle and it was everything I thought it would be. I posted a small tootstorm (?) with some photos of my commute on Mastodon. Time saving wise – it's not as much as I was expecting, but I felt way more energized and better when I arrived to work. I think it's not going down 2 levels to go up 3 levels just to to go down 4 and up 3 i.e. riding 2 subways and an commuter train.

      When I arrived in Shinbashi the FujiTV folks were milling about in front of the steam train. I purposefully tried to hide from their view. What I noticed takes longer than unfolding the bike is actually putting the bag back into its case and securing it to the seat.
      A matcha green Brompton in front of a steam train in Tokyo


      There aren't that many options for coffee / breakfast open at 7am in Tokyo that aren't Starbucks or a Tully's. But I found one . At first I was wondering how they'd react to me trying to bring the bike inside. But it was perfectly fine and they didn't say anything. Also the breakfast and coffee were really good, so I'll probably go back again this week as well.

      Finding my way from there my office was a bit tricky as near my office the roads curve around a lot and I haven't memorized them yet. I'll find the optimal route soon enough.
    • πŸ’€ A major milestone, Leo stayed the night at the in-laws by himself without his cousins being there. Just jiji and baba. The boy wanted to watch YouTube that much. For better or worse that's kind of turning into our routine. After a busy school week and swimming on Fridays, he wants to spend a day laying around. If he does it at the in-laws' then it means we can go out and...get lunch and have a break.

      The next day it enabled me to have a second run at just bringing my folded bike into a cafe (komeda0 and turns out, they don't seem to care. It slid right under the table easy peasy, too
    • 🌳 One of the reasons I wanted the folding bike was so that Leo and I could ride bikes together away from the house. Both bikes fit in the back of my kei. When I went to pick up Leo from in the in-laws and I took our bikes so we could ride some place new. We rode down to the major park and played for a bit. On the way back we stopped for some ice cream πŸ˜‹. It's soΒ  easy to go out and explore (especially as it's flat), I'm tempted to leave a bike for Leo at their house.
    • 🚲 I recognize this week's post has mostly been "James and his Brompton". I'd be worried if, a week after new bike day it wasn't.Β  On Sports Day, I took the bike out for a long-ish ride. I rode down to Sakaigawa and headed inland towards Yamato. I used to ride this direction a year or two ago on my cross-bike for a while. Rides along the river are always fun because there's dedicated paths sandwiched between the river and farmland.
      Brommie near the river in front of a harvested rice field

      When I got back, Leo wanted to go out on bikes with the 3 of us. It was getting dark so we made a bike-train and rode over to the bike shop (to adjust Leo's brakes), Ito Yokado (for some shopping), then to Chai, (a local Indian joint) before bike-training back home. It was a lot of fun riding together as a family and I hope we can do more of it in the future.
  • Afternoon Ride
    First long-ish ride with the Brompton. Only got scared once as I was directly under a bridge when the Shinkansen went over my head.

    19.6km

    79.2min

    163.4m climbed

    108.7avg bpm

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