The Week #237

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  • 🚀 Visiting Tsukuba and the JAXA Space Center has been on our list of things to do since we moved back to Japan and as of this week we can tick that item off. We took Leo out of school on Friday, as it was the only time we could get a reservation for a tour of the JAXA campus, and drove to Tsukuba.
    Me in front of a rocket with Leo running around being silly

    Tsukuba is so different from Yokohama. It feels like I'm back in Clear Lake with wide, 3-lane, straight roads in most directions (at least in the center). There's distance between buildings and ample parking. You can even see the sky and look off into the distance without your view being blocked by buildings.

    Whenever I visit some place I always imagine what it would be like to live there. On one hand, I think I would love living in Tsukuba (at least in the immediate vicinity of the station). It's quieter, there's heaps of green around, surprisingly international (it's was designed in the 60's to be a town for research and development), and there's a direct line into Tokyo, which would get me into the office is roughly the same amount of time as now. On the other hand, I imagine needing a car to go a lot of places would probably wear on me over time.
  • 🔭 We went to a the planetarium and spent 4 hours(!) at the Tsukuba Expo Center and it was brilliant. The activity room that had a lot different displays on electricity, wind, gravity, light, and more really enables kids to learn about the world while having fun. My favorite was a Dance-Dance-Revolution style game that had you "dance" to the fuel mix on the grid over time, with each direction being an energy source (coal, nuclear, gas, wind, solar). It got really hard towards the end more generation sources came into the mix.
  • 🏃‍♂️ A wide tree line cycle and walking path stretches through downtown Tsukuba connecting various parks called Tsukuba Park Drive that's a story above ground. At large crossings you can walk right over traffic. It was fantastic. I went for a 5km run along it and it was great. So many other runners and people walking their dogs. Easy to imagine oneself doing it on the regular.
    A Map of Tsukuba Park Drive
  • 🤖 Tsukuba is a science city, designed from the start to be the ideal city for academics and research & development. The entire park drive is also designated as a "robot zone" and there are signs posted saying that you might occasionally see robots out and about on the park, so please watch out. I, unfortunately, did not happen across any robots 😢.
    Robot Zone
  • 🚗 This trip to Tsukuba was my first long trip with our Sakura in the 18 months since we got it. Even with the small 20kWh battery, we were able to make it all the way there without charging. I used a fast charger for the first time, but my first attempt wasn't a success.

    You see, chargers in Japan all have some special card that's used to authenticate (and bill) you for your charge. Most of these cost anywhere from ¥1,100 to ¥4,100 per month and offset parts of that cost with free minutes or charging (charging outside your home is done on minutes instead of actual kWh usage, which a) makes no sense and b) means small battery cars, which slow down charging as they fill up sooner cost more to charge than big battery cars...)

    As I never charge outside I didn't get a card as the terminals also have a QR code that let you use a smartphone to start charging. Except the first charger at a Lexus dealership I rolled up to did not have any QR code...so I had to drive to the next closest one, which thankfully did. After that charging went without a hitch. The only downside to the next charger was that it was in a parking lot with only a 15 minute grace period, so I also had to pay ¥220 for 30 minutes of parking as well.

    I've since ordered a charging card from EcoQ-den, the company that supplied the QR codes, as there's no monthly fee, just a small fee to get the card. Having dealt with the charging networks and driven across Tokyo (instead of just to the edge) going out on adventure by car seems less daunting now.
  • 📖 I finished reading "Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility" by Patty McCord, about how they built / ran / run the teams at Netflix. Really good book with a lot of smart ideas in it. I also started In The Weeds: Around the world and behind the scenes with Anthony Bourdain, as Maique was raving about it on socials and he is right. It just sucks you in.
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