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    It’s warming up so we didn’t use the heat last night and my battery lasted through morning πŸŽ‰

  • The Week #139

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    • I submitted my resignation...to the employer of record we've been using in Japan as the Japanese Kraken Tech legal entity is ready for employees. Day-to-day, in practice nothing changes for me, except a different company is making my salary deposit each month and I'll get a different insurance card. But it will be nice to officially/legally be an employee of the company I've been working at for the past (almost) 18 months.
    • I went for my annual health check. I probably mention this every year, but I am really like the process itself. Basically over the course of about 45 minutes I visit a bunch of stations, each with multiple nurses ready to process the next person in the queue. They're all tests that you're just not going to do, but give you a good baseline of your health (stool, urine, blood, hearing, vision, heart rhythm, and chest x-ray). You can even add extras if you have different concerns that need monitoring. At the end you sit with a doctor who shows you your results and talks through them and compares them with last year.

      This year my blood pressure was down from just above the limit (2 years running!) to completely normal. Also I didn't get hit with slightly elevated cholesterol numbers, either, which makes me happy. The only downer was, though surprising, was that I gained a kilo, putting me at 76.0.
    • Perhaps related I went from a strong December / January running to a grand total of 1 time in February. I took my running stuff with me to the US, but it didn't feel safe to run – too many big cars driving by at 60kmh and no real path. Then with Jet lag and the back tweak...let's aim for getting back into the groove next month. I need to make more badges.
    • I finished off my prep for filing my Japanese taxes, I think. Most of it is just documenting my foreign account transactions and the exchange rate of that day so I can report it yen. I always put it off because I don't like working with excel, especially in my free time, but when I'm done I always like looking at the results with everything nice and neat.

  • Checkin to Blue Bottle Coffee

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    in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan
    Breaking fast after my health check.

  • Mufasaing

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    Nothing makes you feel old before your time like a back injury. Let me rewind. Leo doesn't always like taking a shower/bath. One day, while in America, instead of taking a shower with me, he by himself. But he's only 5Β  – he still needs help.

    The shower head in the house we were staying was fixed to the wall i.e. it didn't have a hose. And the water pressure left a lot to be desired. In order to rinse Leo I needed to hold him up like Mufasa presenting Simba to the rest of the animals on the Lion King so I don't get wet. As he was against showing in the first place, the moment I start Mufasaing him, he starts throwing all of his 15kg of weight around and tweak.Β 

    Back in Japan I visit the orthopedic doctor and as I suspected he gave me a hernia. The fix will take a couple of weeks, but mostly seems to involve heating to relax my back and then putting me in a chair that lays me back and gently pulls my hips / stretches my spine until everything goes back to where it's supposed to be. What a pain. Literally.

  • Checkin to Single O Hamacho

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    in Chuo, Tokyo, Japan
    Morning coffee.
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    Leo’s asking some deep questions. Things like β€œWhen we die, does this mean we can’t live in Japan”. Oof.

  • Checkin to Starbucks

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    in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan
    Sakura season has started! Yay! 🌸

  • The Week #138

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    • We flew back to Japan and we're all happy to be home. By day 10 in America, we had spent the entire time going full-throttle meeting people, going places, and doing things and we were all tired and ready to get back into our regular routine again.
    • Before the flight I bought the extra Mario Kart levels to give us something new to do on the plane. I really like this "expansion pack" model with Mario Kart. For Β₯2,500 we get new 48 new courses to play and they're delivered over the next year or so. Half the price of a new game and we regularly get new content without needing to buy new games.
    • The flight was mostly uneventful. The main mishap was that despite me updating my reservation via the app to include kids meals and Asian Vegetarian meals for the adults, none of them got saved. And as we were coming America, this means there's no rice dishes and nothing that Leo would eat. He survived on half of the bagel he didn't eat for his breakfast and some random bread / butter we could scrounge up.

      What was annoying was that the staff didn't apologize for their system messing up and instead told me to check with the ground staff next time. I shouldn't need to do that? And I've asked this before, but why aren't children's reservations set to automatically include a kids meal?
    • Once we landed in Japan everyone exhausted. But since this is a fully-developed country (and Japan at that) we were able to send our luggage to our house via kuroneko (Japanese fedex), to be delivered the next morning and enjoy a nice rail trip on the Narita Express to Totsuka. Leo ate the food he missed most, a salmon onigiri before falling asleep.

      Once in Totsuka, we took a taxi home, brushed our teeth, and collapsed in bed – almost exactly 24 hours after we started the journey from the hotel.
    • And speaking of Salmon Onigiri, Leo missed them so much he had them the next day (Sunday) for breakfast as well. And some for breakfast, lunch, and dinner on Monday. Onigiri is Leo's life force.
    • I subscribed to a new blog brr.fyi. It is chronicling life in Antarctica through the winter. I've only read a few posts so far, but it's well written and is quite thought provoking – seeing what it takes to keep humans alive in such harsh conditions.

  • Checkin to 7-Eleven (セブンむレブン ζ¨ͺζ΅œδΈ­η”°ι§…ε‰εΊ—)

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    in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan
    Jet lag essentials shopping. Not much different from the time I usually wake up in summer tho.
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    in Narita, Chiba Prefecture, Japan
    Sims back in their appropriate location and bags off with the delivery folks so we’re relatively hands free on the way home.

    οΏΌοΏΌSeems like they still have the same number of staff for quarantine as they did 6 months ago when things were strict. Heaps of people just standing there watching you.
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