Steve Roberts may well have been the original digital nomad. Learn more about him and his fascinating computerized bicycles here...

I have a sudden urge to build a winnebiko. So cool.

 

1. Tagged with
2. digital nomad
3. bicycle
4. solar

• I took the day off on Wednesday and we saw Matilda in Shibuya. Leo's not used to long-ish train rides (40 minutes), so on the way there he was got a bit impatient on the way there. We got lunch at Ikea Shibuya (more on that later), then headed to the theater where we had to wait for another 40 minutes before the show started. We barely made it through the waiting periods without some meltdown.
  
  Once the show started, Leo was hooked. He watched the entire show (over 2 hours) almost without a peep. It was just as good as I remembered. The music from the show is on Apple Music – well worth a listen. My favorites are The Hammer and When I Grow Up.
• My father-in-law came over and planted a flowering dogwood, the same tree that the US brought Japan in the 1912 - 15 exchange of flowers, to commemorate Leo's first trip to America. While Dad's healthy as can be, at 80, it makes me think a lot about the adage "A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in". 
  

  

• 3 years ago I bought a car, which means it was due for its first shaken, or car inspection. Car inspections in Japan are a much more thorough deal than they ever were in California or Texas. Inspection in Texas takes about an hour and costs $50 bucks. Shaken takes literally all day at a minimum or multiple days for slightly older cars and costs ¥85,000 ($635 currently) or more. 
  
  I probably could get it done for much less if I shopped around or did it myself (hah!), but getting it done at the dealer, along with all other maintenance, is the path of least resistance. They're also a known quantity. I have no idea how to judge smaller shops and to be sure I'm not being taken advantage of. 
  
  In the US, mechanics are famous for taking advantage of people's ignorance and doing work that doesn't need to be done for extra revenue. So in my head, the relationship between car owner and mechanic is always adversarial, regardless if that's the case here in Japan.
  
  The good news is that while my wallet is lighter, there weren't any issues with the car (7,000km over 3 years, I'd hope not) and its next shaken is in another 2 years.

• This week was farming week at work. Farming is what we call maintenance and smaller improvements (as opposed to mining, which is building out big new chunks of functionality). Before farming week, each team spends some time with our energy specialists watching them and talking with them about how they use the respective parts of our product, getting ideas for things that could be improved / farmed. Then we spend farming week finishing as many of them as possible. With the entire team working on it for a week, there is a marked improvement in the software in a short period of time.
• We started advertising around town. I haven't seen them personally yet, but this is our ad at Ikebukuro station (a major transit hub in Tokyo). Exciting times!
  

  

• Leo's been getting too tall for his 12" bicycle he's been borrowing from his cousin for the past couple of years. The weather was nice, so we decided to walk to the bicycle store to see if there was any 16" bicycles that he liked. Of course, the first bicycle we see is a 16" Mario Kart bike – so you know we weren't leaving the store without it. Thankfully it was his size.
  
  He rode it home, his first time along one of the busier roads to the big park near our house. Immediately another boy, who was on a pink (presumably) hand-me-down  saw it and started to get jealous. The kid said something and Leo quipped back to him something along the lines of "well you should've bought it first". Both Yumi and I reprimanded Leo and explained why you can just say things like that. Leo has difficulty just ignoring what kids say.
  
  The boy kept riding fast and  cutting it really close barely missing Leo a number of times. When the kid decided to kamikaze directly towards all 3 of us is when we decided it was time to leave. I might buy some AirTags and put one inside the frame, just in case it grows legs.
• I watched the new Tetris movie from Apple and really enjoyed it. It reminded me how much I used to play Tetris on my NES when I was younger. It's such a good game.
• Ryuichi Sakamoto passed away. He was a fantastic musician, leader of techno-pop, and formed the group Yellow Magic Orchestra. I've listened to this version of Rydeen at the Greek Theater from 1979 more times than I can count.
• Last but not least, the former president got indicted.  Freakin' finally.

• The tulips we planted a couple of months ago are in early-bloom. I'm loving the splash of color to the front of the house. Leo's been getting into it as well, wanting to check them every morning.
• It's was rainy this past weekend, which threatens all of the cherry blossoms and (probably) killing the hanami-season. Writing this made me realize I haven't posted any photos of the sakura this year. 
  

  

• I went out for beer/lunch with some old co-workers/friends to a place called Mots Beer Party. The venue was small with just enough seating for 6 people along a bar. The owner cooks when you place the order directly in front of you and as it is space constrained, was interesting to see how he prepared all of the dishes. There was no gas range, but he did have two portable IH hobs side-by-side acting as a range (no venting / fan necessary!) One technique I think I'm going to borrow from him was using a camping hot-sandwich maker to cook veg / meat. Makes it easy to turn and gives nice grill marks without the grill.
• We rearranged the downstairs and I think we've got a winning layout. The layout's been a bit awkward since we got that 3-person sofa last autumn(?) as we never could keep the sofas facing each other (you want to face the TV when you're watching it / playing games, so we'd turn the small sofa 90 degrees). Also, inevitably the large sofa would slide back a few cm and make rub against the sliding door to enter the LDK.
  
  We moved the TV back off of the tatami into it's original position, directly across from the large sofa. Then, we pulled the large sofa forward about 40 - 50cm to keep it off the wall and allow access to the plugs behind it. This surprising makes it feel more like a proper room. Lastly, we moved the small sofa on to the tatami, parallel with the tv, along with the coffee table lego table.
  
  This created three different zones: 1, unchanged, with the dining table where we eat, 2, for relaxing and watching TV (with the bigger sofa), and 3, for Leo to play with his legos. The 3rd zone will also make a great reading area as well because there's good light in that corner of the house and it's relaxing in a showa kind of way on the tatami. When it's finished and looks presentable, I'll share a photo.
• There's still some Twitter users that I'd like to follow but I don't want to login to Twitter to just for that. There's a great site called bird.makeup that essentially mirrors their tweets so you can follow them from Mastodon (likes and such don't propagate, which is fine). All you do is put their twitter handle @bird.makeup into the search and they show up like a regular account.
• My jam this week has been Japanese Breakfast. I really like this live recording from KEXP. I wonder if there's a Japanese equivalent of Japanese breakfast? American Asa-gohan? But seriously, wouldn't mind finding Japanese indie bands.