• 🎳 Summer is quickly approaching so we've gone searching for entertainment indoors. I quite enjoy bowling (2 semesters in college, still not great) and Leo enjoyed playing last summer when we stayed in Odawara.
  
  We went bowling at Shonan Tokyu Bowl and it was a lot of fun! I'd been there once before probably 6 years ago and nothing had changed. My favorite parts of the bowling that day was seeing Leo get hyped up and that we could choose a mario theme (SNES era) for our score board. The background change each frame and it was great fun.
  

  

• 🍝 Eating out for dinner has been a challenge these past...since Leo was born. It's mostly been Denny's and other family restaurants and I'm so burned out on them. The menus are practically the same and there's always some shit by the registers that kids want to buy that makes entering and leaving a total pain (I'm looking at you, personal gumball machines) .
  
  But with Leo trying more foods each day (finally!) at primary school, he's feeling a bit more adventurous. Leo and I went and got Indian curry together because he wanted to eat nan. And we were able to go to a place that my wife and I really enjoy for the first time with Leo. Slowly the range of restaurants we can go is expanding.
• 🌹 For Mother's Day we didn't buy flowers  (Japanese mom's don't want them). Instead Leo and I went in to Yokohama to Tonoji and bought some really nice, handmade bento. Maybe it's the fact that Leo has his own passmo now (i.e. it costs money for him to ride public transit), but going is getting so much easier. He walks, doesn't moan (too much), and doesn't goof off in the train.
• 🏃‍♂️ I ran 3 times a week for the second week in a row. Go me!

Next time you make a cup of coffee, take a moment to reflect on the experience. Do you start drinking the coffee when it is a bit too hot? Do you wait until the temperature is just right? Do you forget about the coffee but drink it anyway? How does the c

They’re delivering solar power after dark in California and helping to stabilize grids in other states. And the technology is expanding rapidly.

1. Tagged with
2. renewables
3. electrification
4. energy
5. batteries

• 🏅 Golden week continued this week, which meant a 4-day weekend. I gotta say, it was nice to have 4-days off in a row. The weather was fantastic the entire time as well (too warm for this point of the year, a tend that continues unabated). We kept a rather low profile most of the time.
  
  We rode our bikes to the local kids log cabin and played with Leo for a couple of hours. Life has been so busy with primary school starting and work and being an adult generally that in the moment I was able to really appreciate just being and hanging out.
• 🍛 Part of this just hanging out and being has been including Leo more in what we're doing around the house. Teaching him the essentials of cooking and practicing his knife skills. We all made Japanese curry and miso soup. I think getting him more involved in the kitchen will be both a good thing for him and a way to bond. My dad and I cooked together growing up and it's one of our goto topics – what have you been cookin' recently?
• 🏫 School still remains a challenge, but he went every day this week without a meltdown. School lunch is going well and he seems to be eating a greater variety of foods. At home he's even started trying to practice with regular chopsticks. After school Leo's doing his homework so he doesn't have to do it at home and can dive into Zelda.
• 🗡️ Speaking of Zelda, we got Leo a Zelda shirt a couple weeks back with the idea that he'd be able to advertise to his classmates that he likes Zelda automatically and maybe make some Zelda-friends. He's seen a couple of kids around with Zelda shirts and he talked with one! Not quite Zelda-friends yet, but I reckon they will be before we know it. The plan is working.
• 🙌🏻 Protector of Takao, fellow Gaijin, and runner Derek Wessman (🐘) made a post on his blog. I quite enjoy his posts, but this one stood out to me. It reminded me of how I used to blog "back in the day". Here's a thing that happened over a period of time with some photos interspersed. So much of my blog is micro-posts (checkins and runs) or "The Week" I don't leave the time to let a story like that build up. Maybe I should try?

Here’s how US train travel went from excellent to mediocre.

1. Tagged with
2. video
3. trains