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The Week #239
by James- ๐ฌ๐ง Thank you everyone who reached out last week about improving Leo's English. As you suggest he needs to play with kids his age in that language and if he has a teacher, it needs to be not me. I found an English/Japanese Minecraft pictorial guide that he's opening everyday and reading. It also has a practical use โ when he wants to search for an item that he doesn't know how to spell, he can use the index in Japanese to find the page that has the corresponding English word.
- ๐ I went to Eatly for a quiet lunch with my wife. We split a pasta and a pizza. While eating the (delicious) pizza I noted, you can tell the quality of the product and simple ingredients because when you chew it, it doesn't just dissolve in your mouth like a slice of dominos. That in turn slows you down, which in turn gives your body time to signal that it's satiated before you've eaten an entire pie.
- ย ๐ I find myself enjoying lifting weights more than running this past week. Perhaps because it's warm and I don't really need to change if it's just for a quick 20 or 30 minutes. I should probably find a program to follow, but I'd rather do something than do nothing while geting stuck trying to find the "perfect" routine.ย
- ๐๏ธ After 5 years of feeling like we don't have enough "proper storage", despite having 2 nice tall (reaches to the ceiling) anchored into the wall steel racks from Muji, it finally clicked how to use them better so we have a "proper" amount of storage. When buying the racks, I also needed to buy storage cases (with drawers) that could be stacked in a uniform manner across the shelving. Starting to organize stuff into storage cases has made the house feel so much less cluttered... unfortunately I need to buy another zillion to fill the shelves.
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Checkin to EATALY
Lunch date ๐ -
by James๐ฑ Lunch Run
Get some activity in before an afternoon of meetings.4.4km
30.5min
29.6m climbed
134.2avg bpm
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The Week #238
by James- ๐โโ๏ธ Close followers of the blog may have noticed, I did not run 2 times this week. I only ran once. I still closed my rings each day (often doubling), but it's hard to convince myself to go out in the cold.
- ๐ฆ I realized I don't really enjoy posting on short form social media any longer. I think because the way Twitter went, the trolls, and AI ingesting all the things, I don't trust it like I used to, which bleeds over into not posting. Even replies, I'll find myself composing something and stop more often than not.ย
- ๐ช We setup a home gym in Leo's room since he's not using it. I should have done this ages ago. Currently we have my kettle bells (existing), a bench (new) and two adjustable dumbbells (new). We put some some thick 2cm mats in the floor. Now with Leo's playing Minecraft, I can sneak upstairs of pump some iron.
- ๐ฌ๐ง I've grown a bit concerned about Leo's English levels. His listening is native, vocabulary is good, pronunciation of individual words is good, but producing sentences remains a challenge. When we read books, I've started to (try) to get him to shadow me, and that seemed to help, but he needs more. Often bi-lingual kids go back one parent's country for the summer and that's how they level up...but that's not really an option for us. International school, while expensive (๐ธ), for the time being isn't an option because the daily commute length and base-levels not being enough to study.... maybe we just need to move for a couple of years? I'm not sure if Sophie (๐ถ) could do another long flight at her age...and we can't just leave her, she's a member of the family.... Open to ideas ๐๐ป
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by JamesCold Wind Morning Run
Been closing my rings just going to the office. Time to get back on the streets.4.6km
30.7min
27m climbed
156.2avg bpm
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The Week #237
by James- ๐ 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. - ๐ญ 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.
- ๐โโ๏ธ 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 - ๐ค 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 ๐ข.
Robot Zone - ๐ 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 ยฅ1,100 to ยฅ4,100 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 ยฅ220 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. - ๐ 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.
- ๐ 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.
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Checkin to Tsukuba Expo Center (ใคใใฐใจใญในใใปใณใฟใผ)
Learning about electricity generation. Coal sucks! -
Checkin to ใใฉใใฟใชใฆใ ใใผใซ
Doraemon planet time ๐ -
by James๐ Tsukuba Morning Run
Chill run through the center of Tsukuba (home to JAXA). Lovely running and cycling path directly to the station where you can catch an express train to Tokyo.5.1km
36.1min
35.2m climbed
153.6avg bpm
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Checkin to Tsukuba Space Center (็ญๆณขๅฎๅฎใปใณใฟใผ)
Not as commercial as Johnson Space Center. But still way cool!
