• The Week #219

    by
    • ☀️ I've had an Apple watch for about 5 years. The entire time I've run with the default watch face. You know the one, it has the weather, phase of the moon, temperature and rings. It suddenly occurred to me that I could customize the complications to something more useful and meaningful to me than the phase of the moon: UV index. Knowing at a glance what the UX index is at wherever I'm at is super handy for knowing how much I should avoid being outside with appropriate protection.
    • 🏃‍♂️ I ran three times this week, bringing my total to 69 runs this year so far. 2 more (extra) runs and I will be out of "run debt". Run debt being 100 runs in 1 year is about 2 runs per week, and I didn't run for a few months earlier, so I'm making up the difference.
    • 🚲 The binge of information about Bromptons continues. I've probably watched every video about them in Japanese and a bunch from VeloWorks on YouTube. I think his shop was on an episode of ProbablyRiding recently. I've settled in a C Explore. 6 gears seems more important here in Yokohama than it would in Tokyo because there's heaps of hills in every direction. While the flat S-bars are tempting, I reckon the M-bars best fit the type of riding I intend to do. I've looked around on Yahoo Auctions and Mercari and while there seem like there's deals to be had...after watching Second Hand Brompton Tips, there's so many things to check for that can't be easily checked online...I shall think a bit more.
    • 🎮 Leo's been on a Mario kick this past couple of weeks. We've picked up Mario 64 after (what feels like) a year long break. After playing more modern Marios for so long, the limited camera control really ups the difficulty. Noteworthy point is we finally got 30 stars, enabling us to go to the second boss. This is the furthest I've ever been in the game.
    • 🔨  Every boy goes through a stage where he wants a secret hideout. Leo is no different. For weeks he's been going on about wanting to build a secret hide out in the house. He's taken over a closest. Built a fort. Put a sun-shade up in front of nook in my office area. But the quote all homeowners love to hear is, "It's easy. We'll take a hammer and take down the wall." 😬 Completely unrelated, I've relocated my hammer to be out of reach of children. 
    • 🎶 Music recommendation this week is FlavourTrip. Especially this mix in Greece. Sidebar: nomad DJ sounds like a pretty sweet gig for a season of life.

  • The Week #218

    by
    • 🌀 Last week we had a typhoon that looked as if it was going to come quickly to the kanto area. But the path shifted further and further west to land in Kyushu and then basically go up the Japan landmass. It was perhaps the slowest moving storm, moving at around 4kmh at times. It moved so slow it never fully made it up to Kanto before giving up the gusto.
    • 🚲 I rode bikes with Leo over to the local Ito Yokado again – he only needed a 2 short breaks going, and that's even with riding up hill. Riding bikes is perhaps the one sport/physical activity he has confidence in himself to do well (that he's said himself).
    • 🚴‍♂️ Which gets me thinking: I want to encourage this. To do this, I want to ride longer distances with him on the bicycle paths along the river, not just in the neighborhood. Along the river is flatter, zero cars, and there's fun way points along the way (ice cream!).  Problem is, while I might be able to squeeze Leo's bike into my car (with a seat down), there's no way my bicycle is fitting in there.

      Solution: get the folding bicycle I've been thinking about for a while. Problem is, the one that folds the smallest and is the best, is also quite expensive. Quality bicycles cost real money, no matter if they fold or not. But hmmm. To tide me over for a bit, I bought a Brompton Field Guide.

      Long-term, a folding bike fits into what I'd like to do personally and with the family. I'd like to take start rinkou (traveling with bicycles). With a folding bike like the Brompton, the barrier to entry is much lower. They're easy to transport. No disassembly to get it on the train and reassembly when you get back off. It feels like a more approachable way into the activity. And I could even fit 3 in the back of our tiny kei-car.
    • 🚗 Speaking of cars, while driving back from the in-laws along our usual route someone ran a stop sign nearly causing us to get into an collision. Thankfully I was able to stop in time (with just a bit of tire screeching). Rather than lay on the horn (as I imagine most drivers in Japan would), I just looked at them and wave them on in front of me. Laying on the horn solves nothing and maybe they'll pay it forward. Letting them continue ahead of me also makes it so they can't (almost) run into me again.

  • The Week #217

    by
    • 🥸 I bought a new pair of glasses. There's nothing particularly wrong with my current pair, other than I've had them for 7 or 8 years and wanted to change things up a bit. Since I've been in Japan I always bought glasses at Zoff or Jins because they're inexpensive and near the stations. They're inexpensive because all of their glasses are the house brand. I wanted to get a pair of Ray Ban's again, so they were off the table. Thankfully there's a regular glasses shop a short cycle away that had just the pair I was looking for. I will pick them up next week. For the first time I opted to get the blue-light coating, which is supposed to make it easier on your eyes when you use computers all day. We shall see....
    • 🚲 After getting glasses, I rode my bike down to Totsuka for lunch with Yumi. It's definitely starting to cool off a bit, as I was able to make it all the way there without being drenched in sweat. After lunch we checked out the bookstore for anything interesting. I found a few books that looked interesting, but not enough to buy. Of note, the English book section seems to have shrunk from 2.5 - 3 columns to roughly 1. They didn't even have non-fiction books in English, which was disappointing. Back in the day, this bookstore was my lifeline for interesting things to read.
    • 🛍️ A new shopping mall opened a few stations away called Soratos. We finally have a movie theather nearby. Along with a second Starbucks, a Tully's and a giant area designed to drain your wallet – 50+ crane games, including one large enough that a human attendant sits inside help (and costs ¥500 a play).

      On the roof of Soratos is a really nice play area – the kind with the squish ground. Since it's the tallest building around it has some nice views on the top. Once it cools off a bit more, I can see us spending many an hour up there with Leo.

      On the way out we swung by the Tsutaya bookstore to see what it was like..and like Barnes and Nobles in the US, there's a significant "definitely not books" at the bookstore. We found a plush of Link from Breath of the Wild! Leo was, as readers of this blog can probably guess, incredibly excited to find it and there was precisely zero chance of me leaving the store without it. Truth is though I wanted it as well.
    • 🎵  I've been trying to introduce more aloha in my life to keep me relaxed and positive. This week's recommendation is Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's Facing Future (Apple Music).

  • The Week #216

    by
    • 📺 I started watching What Did You Eat Yesterday Season 2 (Netflix). You can guess from the title that the show is largely about food as the main character cooks at home and explains what he's doing while he's doing it (to himself, not like a cooking show) and my explanation isn't doing it any justice. The sub-plot is that the main characters are gay men and it portrays a realistic look at what life is like in Japan as a gay man. Just watch an episode and I promise you'll be hooked.
    • 🫓 The emoji is of pita, but it's the closest I could get to cheese naan. Sorry. Inspired by episode 2 of season 2 of What Did You Eat Yesterday where he cooks a butter chicken curry and cheese naan (official recipe from TV Tokyo), I had a go at making some and it turned out ok. Technically it may have been a cheese roti as I ran out of white flour and used whole wheat for the remainder. Either way, I will give it a go. Did I also make the buttery chicken curry you ask? No, I did not. Why? Because somehow I ran out of curry powder and garam masala and basically everything but cumin (I never run out of that). What is the world coming to...
    • ☀️ It feels like the temperatures for the summer have peaked or just about peaked in Kanto. It could be that the sun isn't fully up by 4:30am making the difference, but the heat is less oppressive in the morning.
    • 🏃‍♂️ Related to the oppressive heat, after having a reprieve from the temps in the US a couple weeks ago, returning to the heat is difficult mentally. It's just zapped my motivation to do...anything (perhaps you can tell as the top item for the week is about watching a TV show 😆). Still I got in 2 runs last week, not my goal of 3 but my "minimum number of runs".

  • The Week #215

    by
    • 🏃‍♂️ I hit a major running milestone, running a 5k in 30 minutes. I've been close-ish in the past, but have never been able to sustain a 6 min km for the duration. 100% I was able to do it because I've been running regularly for the past few months and it was cooler. I feel like even like slow runs in the Japanese heat still helped me to run faster in the cooler weather.  
    • 🍦 One day we went to a nice big central park so Leo could play on a jungle gym for a bit, burn off some energy, and be around some other kids. While we were playing I heard the siren-song of the ice cream man! The ice cream man isn't a thing in Japan, so I told Leo to run and I got him a sponge bob squarepants ice cream for $4(!). Quadruple the price I paid as a kid in the 90's.
      Ice cream... mini van?!
       
    • 🏪 On our way to the airport we dropped by Pike Place market for a couple of hours. I could spend all morning there – all of the vendors and the food look so good. As we got there around noon, it was packed. The line to the original Starbucks was probably an hour long (despite the menu being the exact same).
      Carrots in multiple colors 😋

      Finding gyros is a challenge in my part of Yokohama, so I opted to get a lamb gyro for lunch. It did not disappoint, except for at the very end where it started leaking on to my jeans. 😂
      Walking with Leo in the market

      Next time I visit Pike Place, I want to go early when the vendors are just getting setup and there's less traffic.
    • ✈️ We stayed at a hotel near the airport because our flight was scheduled to leave at 8:45am. Hawaiian Airlines is so good. One of our bags was a bit over the limit and they didn't care or charge us. But even better was, because they heard TSA had long lines, she stamped our boarding passes for priority security checks, meaning we got to skip the wait.

      Ultimately though, our flight was delayed by about an hour as they had to fix something while fueling the airplane. This delay meant our 2-hour layover in Hawaii, where we could stretch our legs and relax a bit turned into a mad dash from Terminal A to Terminal C (thankfully we caught the Wiki Trolly (bus)) just in time, so we could catch our flight.

      There must not be enough bridges as or something at Haneda, as we had to deplane on to a bus that took us to immigration.
      Our ride to Japan

      When we got home I noticed that my bag that I had previously fixed in Hawaii was broken for good now. The plastic latch used to lock the suitcase, which is usually flush on the outside, somehow opened and snapped off transit. Always use a belt on your suitcases. Sad to see it go as it served we well since my first trip to Japan as a college student.
    • 🎥 On the flight from Hawaii and Haneda I watched two films: The American President and Mr. Nice Guy. Watching the first one film and I felt like it was almost a precursor to The West Wing. Probably because Martin Sheen was in it and the movie was written by Aaron Sorkin (who also wrote The West Wing). The sad point of the movie was that they were talking about global warming and trying to pass legislation for it in it...in 1995.

      Mr. Nice Guy on the other hand was the first Jackie Chan movie I have watched in ages and I forgot just how much fun they are. It's basically non-stop martial arts and stunts. Really good entertainment.
    • 🗾  America was fun and, compared to our last trip, Leo did so much better this time. It wasn't exhausting. Part of that is learning from experience and partly him being older. But man is it good to be back home in Japan 🥰.

  • The Week #214

    by
    • 🇺🇸 We flew to the US. First to Hawaii and then to Seattle. When we landed in Hawaii, we were immediately escorted to immigration for 2 hours. Turns out we were supposed to file some paperwork and or apply for certain visas as my wife's green card had expired. We thought going in under esta was the right thing to do (as it's what we did last time) and turns out it wasn't. Turns out immigration in Houston is just much more lax than Honolulu. A stressful couple of hours and $675 dollars later and we made it in. The coming months will require us to think about the feasibility of maintaining PR or not...and then filing the appropriate paperwork and or maybe start planning regular long-ish trips back to the US.
    • 🌴 After the ordeal of actually getting into the country, we got to the good part  – hanging in Waikiki. Hawaii is beautiful. I finally understand the hype. A day in and I was trying to figure out the timezone math for me to be able to meet with both Europe and APAC so longer-term stays could be viable.

      We didn't go with any agenda on our trip – we just wanted to relax. We stayed at the Royal Hawaiian and it was great. Our water pressure could have been better, but being directly on the beach and the environment of the space was really great. That said, pries in the US are high and prices in Hawaii are even higher. I wasn't expecting it to cost $100 for 3 (amazing!) burgers, an order of (amazing!) fries and a lemonade.
      Looking at Waikiki while on a run

      Duke Kahanamoku statue
    • 🌲 After a few days 3 nights in Hawaii we took a flight to Seattle. Seattle is also so beautiful. But the weather... the weather is exactly what I was after – 30 degree highs (where it doesn't hit the high until 2pm instead of 8am) and lows around 14 (a bit chilly!).

      While in Seattle we've gone out and rode horses in Mt. Vernon and rode a historic train. The train ride was a lot of fun, but it was like an oven because not all of the windows could open.
      Views from the train

      On the drive out there we went through some really cute towns. Washingtonians are a fairly active folk, so we also so plenty of people taking advantage of the excellent summer weather and gravel biking along trails. And for the second time I couldn't help but imagine another possible life (though more realistic this time). Living in Seattle, driving out to the mountains to enjoy the small towns, hiking and cycling, wearing socks with my Birkenstocks. How great would that be? But then I think about the required driving and the political division and the guns and think maybe it's just the relief of escaping Japanese summer speaking to me. Maybe I should plan how to do that every year.

  • The Week #213

    by
    • 🏮 This week our neighborhood association held a festival on the elementary school grounds. Last year when we went it was a sneak peak into Leo's future school. This year it is the regular stomping grounds.

      We dressed in appropriate summer matsuri clothing, yukata and jinbei. As soon as we arrived we ran into some of Leo's school friends. We ate shaved ice, corn dogs, and yaki-soba. I also downed a couple of cold ones to help keep my hydrated on the muggy, windless summer night.

      My favorite memory of the night was Leo saying that he didn't want to dance in a line...but as soon as the music started, as if it's in his blood, he started dancing. True to his word, he did not dance in the line with everyone else.
    • 🐻 I finished watching Season 3 of The Bear. No spoilers here, but I really do enjoy the show. I liked how this season they spent an episode zooming in on each of the main characters to really help develop them beyond what you see in the kitchen.
    • 🏃‍♂️ I tied the most number of runs I've ever made in a year. Go me!
    • 🚀 We learned that a dear friend and ex-colleague of my wife, Lorna Onizuka, passed away. We met in Houston when my wife was working at JAXA. The encouragement she gave and the inspiration she was...I'm grateful to have known her. She was such an important part of supporting the JAXA and the Japanese astronauts in Houston. Her impact cannot be understated and she will be missed.

  • The Week #212

    by
    • 🇺🇸 Joe Biden is no longer in the race for POTUS. It seems like Harris might be the actual nominee on the ballot. I'm not entirely sure where she stands on the issues I care about, but I have a hunch they're miles closer than the old guy that's left in the race. Please don't mess this up. (Opinions my own yada yada yada).
    • 📱 I spent about 3 hours at the local docomo shopping changing my cellphones/internet from an MNVO (owned by docomo) to docomo proper. Nowhere on earth should it take that long to fill in a form and get a new sim card. 

      Initially they told me I'd need my passport in order to change over. Informing them that I was a permanent resident and having the manager peep over the cubicle to give me a once over confirmed I didn't need one. Our turn came around to talk to a sales person and, to my surprise a Nepalese guy came out. We did the entire exchange in Japanese until the very end when we both decided to have a chat in English.

      He changed me over to a trainee to fill in the application because it'll be faster (it was not faster). But I can understand why – I'm a good exception cases from the regular customer that you probably get to fill in forms / screens that usually aren't relevant.

      The main reason for the switch, besides not having enough data to last the month (I stream music while running), is that I can use it abroad at no extra charge against my regular data allotment.
    • 🐻 Season 2 Episode 6, "Fishes", of The Bear. Holy shit was that intense. Maybe the best episode of television I've ever watched. I foolishly watched it on my commute in to the office and I was glued the entire time.

      It's a Christmas episode and the way the family interacts is not entirely like my family, but there was a lot of rhyming. It rhymed so much and was so intense that my headspace was entirely in Houston in the old family home and it felt surreal to be "suddenly" walking in Shinbashi station to make my transfer.

      Like the algorithm knew I needed to decompress a bit when I arrived at the office,  it offered up this Deep Relaxing Brunch Terrace DJ Set where they're DJing on a sunny terrace and making cinnamon rolls. It worked.

  • The Week #211

    by
    • 🏃‍♂️ I ran 51 times this year  – which puts me more than halfway towards my goal. My 51st run was on Ocean Day. Initially I wasn't quite feeling it, but decided to let fate take me where she pleases by means of  traffic signals. I went into a neighborhood I've never been into, found a cool forest, and before I knew it, I ran 6km and a bit. Running is easiest when you're just looking around at the world, taking it all in.
    • 🚲 While Facetim-ing with my dad about our upcoming trip, Leo suddenly put on his helmet and said "come on Dad, let's ride bikes while we still can!". I like the gusto, but the timing could have been better. We rode over to Ito Yokado. This time we went a different route this way that has us, except for the crossing the big road, entirely on neighborhood back streets. This route feels much safer.

      While there I played a crane game with Leo and scored a rhinoceros beetle keychain. Leo's first idea for how to use it was to wait for mom to fall asleep and put it near her. As amusing as that might have been, I shut that idea down.
    • 🧼 I've been starting work a bit "later" than usual, 9am (like I used to before Leo started primary school). So why the bar of soap? I remembered I have a power washer and have been power washing the balcony as long as the battery lasts,  15 - 20 minutes. The balconies are clean as can be...and I need to find my next target.
    • 🎂 We celebrated my father-in-law and sister-in-law's birthdays with sushi. Leo wrote a card for Jiji that said, "Jiji, thank you for always toasting my bread. Congratulations!". :chef-kiss: of a message. It was a treat watching him think and write the message out.
    • 📺 I had a rare free Sunday morning and used a few hours of it to binge watch the rest of Bear season 1. Really good show. You should watch it.

  • The Week #210

    by
    • 🍣 There was a time when all sushi didn't rotate and rotating sushi was different. But times change and now most sushi in Japan is of the rotating variety and sushi that doesn't rotate is different.

      Which is a very roundabout way of saying we went to our local kaiten-zushi place. I enjoy sushi but it's never something I crave. If I get sushi, it's usually at a local sit down place.  I can literally count the number of times I've been to kaiten-zushi on one hand: once in uni on exchange at Tokyo station, once with my brother (while also on exchange) around harajuku...and this time.

      This was Leo's first time, a late bloomer amongst our peers, as they all seem to visit conveyor belt sushis on a semi-regular basis. These days though, there isn't a chef making sushi with a conveyor belt shuttling sushi around them and you pick from what's there. Rather there's an iPad that you can order from and a bullet train carrying the sushi is sent on a track that stops at your table. There's even 3 decks so multiple orders can go out at once. It's probably more efficient and safer food safety wise (how'd they monitor the temp of that raw fish rotating about?), but also another tablet (whose camera is always on...). On the plus side, they now offer fried things as well, so if the sushi didn't work out for the little ones (it didn't), there was plenty of fallback.

      Unrelated, but if you're interested in the history of conveyor belt sushi, I recommend this episode of Begin Japanology.
    • 🏊‍♂️ We changed Leo's swim class to the weekend. While initially it seemed like he could ride the bus on Friday with his friends and we could have at least one-day a week without something on the schedule, turns out not to be the case for now. The class was too big for him.

      The practice this time was how to swim with your clothes on (water safety). Odds are you're not going to fall into water in a full swimsuit, so you should learn what it's like to be in water in clothes so you don't panic. If you did in a full swimsuit, it's probably on purpose and called "swimming". They also learned how to use a plastic bottle as a flotation device.

      The point of all this, while Leo was busy learning how not to panic when he falls into the water, I was out busy shopping at the drug store nearby and found this: Legend of Zelda™: Tears of the Kingdom™ Boss™ canned coffee (not ™). I almost bought it, but then I remembered, I don't drink canned coffee.
      Legend of Zelda canned coffee!
    • 🥵 You may have heard, but the climate is changing. Things are getting hotter. Weather isn't climate yadda yadda yadda, but it's been 36 degrees with 60%+ humidity for the past few days here in Yokohama and it's the pits and I need a moan. You have to get out before the sun rises (which rises at 4:30am) if you want to do anything. And even then it's 25 degrees with 90% humidity. Summer, I'm so over you. I need to introduce more latitude and altitude into my life.
    • 🏃‍♂️ This week I beat the number of runs I ran last year and we're only a bit over midway through this year. This puts me almost 50% of the way towards my yearly goal. If all goes well I'll be able to report being 50% next week Still, I'll need to keep up the pace of runs to hit my goal comfortably, but well on my way.
    • 📺 I started watching The Bear and I'm really enjoying it. It has an appropriate number of f-bombs for being a show about working in the kitchen. ( I've got a thing for chef / kitchen shows. I enjoy cooking, but being a chef/kitchens seem  so similar to building product and programming (in my mind). For both cooking and programming, quality isn't an accident (2016)).
Previous 2 of 23 Next