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The Week #312
by James- 6ī¸âŖ This post marks 6 years of writing The Week. Technically it was last week, but I proper missed, without just flubbing the status, the 6th year anniversary post and I don't really remember what I did. When I started mid-pandemic, I wasn't sure how long I'd continue. And truthfully, in this age of LLMs stealing all the content and fakes, at times I question if I should continue, but if I stopped it's a win for the the bad guys and the closed internet, and we can't have that.
- đĻđē One of the reasons I missed was a short trip to Melbourne for work. This time I transited through Sydney. Like last time, this flight was overnight (at least to Sydney) and I actually slept decently. I skipped the main meal because it was late and, I don't need to be eating a second dinner at 11pm at night after a curry in the lounge. I rode on Virgin airlines for the first time â getting on/off from the rear of the plane was an interesting experience. I imagine it enables more efficient boarding / unboarding.
- âī¸ I took the opportunity in Melbourne to drink as many magics as possible. I love the sheer number of cafes and coffee shops in Melbs. I think I probably went to a different shop each day and they were all excellent.
- đž I took a trip to immigration to get a new card for my permanent residence. They were absolutely slammed. What usually takes an hour or two â tops, took four, almost five. The new cards are pink and last for 9 years now and expire on your birthday, which is far easier to remember. You can merge them with your MyNumber card these days, but I opted not to because it required some extra paperwork and I'll merge my driver's license and MyNumber in my next renewal. And maybe at my next residence card renewal in 2035, the systems will be battle tested enough for me to merge all 3 into 1.Â
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Checkin to Starbucks
Decompress after immigration -
Checkin to Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau Yokohama District Immigration Office (æąäēŦå ĨåŊįŽĄįåą æ¨Ēæĩæ¯åą)
Extending the period of validity on my resident card -
Checkin to Air New Zealand Koru Lounge
Short rest before heading home. -
Checkin to Denis the Menace
Another magic đ -
Checkin to Axil Coffee Roasters
First Magic in Aus (this time) -
Checkin to Pillar of Salt
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Checkin to Sydney Airport (SYD)
Transfer to MEL -
Checkin to ANA LOUNGE
As is tradition. BRB, going to Aus -
The Week #311
by James- đ Leo had a field trip to Children's Nature Park nearby in Asahi-ward and he liked it so much we went again on the weekend. What an incredible park, absolutely massive. I had seen it on maps for years, but never went because it was usually the middle of summer and existing outside in summer in Japan is sub-optimal at best. The park is so large and green you can't even tell you're in Yokohama any longer. Seems like a fantastic place to go for a run.
We rode down a big rolly slide that cuts through a playscape. Afterwards we went to the small...petting zoo? It wasn't really a "petting zoo" petting zoo, but for a 10 minute block, we'd sit in our assigned space and they brought out a basket with a guinea pig that we could pet. - đŦđ§ As part of Leo's intensive English class this summer he had to take a short online speaking placement test. 3 minutes before he started writing down what he was going to say in katakana so he didn't forget. He was able to answer a few of the questions, and but he seemed to go blank when they used the word "describe" (not a word that I use very often with him). So while he'll likely go to the beginners class, the tl;dr is that they're going to re-test on the first day. But this experience has been huge for Leo's motivation to learn and use English. Immediately afterwards he was like "I need to write a book to show how good I am". So we'll see if we can surf this wave for a while.
- âī¸ I splurged and picked up a Casio GBD-200 after thinking about it 4 months or so. It's halfway between a regular G-Shock and their full-needs-charging-every-couple-days smart watch. I settled on the GBD-200 rather than a G-Shock with multiband-6 or similar because I wanted the super-legible memory-in-pixel display, big easy to press buttons and multi-timezone support. The fitness tracking (step counter and run tracker (without GPS, unless paired with your phone) are bonuses. Is what I wanted to write, but the seller on Amazon has not shipped it for whatever reason (and hence has missed the 2-day prime).
- đ Leo had a field trip to Children's Nature Park nearby in Asahi-ward and he liked it so much we went again on the weekend. What an incredible park, absolutely massive. I had seen it on maps for years, but never went because it was usually the middle of summer and existing outside in summer in Japan is sub-optimal at best. The park is so large and green you can't even tell you're in Yokohama any longer. Seems like a fantastic place to go for a run.
