• The Week #113

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    • I met with a buddy for a couple of brews in Totsuka. A few years ago when we met for drinks in Totsuka we tried to visit Yokohama Brewing, a local beer brewer. But that time it was the day after a public holiday, so they were closed in lieu of being open on the holiday. Sunday wasn't a holiday, so they must be open.Β 

      Wrong! When we arrived there was a sign on the door, the entire staff was off because they were attending a Yokohama Baystars baseball game. Maybe next time we'll be able to have beers there, 3rd times' a charm and all.
    • After wandering around a bit we found a nice Okinawan restaurant that had some tables out front so we could enjoy the cooler weather with our beer. The old lady running the joint wanted to take our photo for her Instagram story, which we obliged.
    • Leo's started mimicking? role playing? me. Out of nowhere he started saying he needs a desk and a computer in his room. Fine – we have an old IKEA Lack table and that old (now working fine) Macbook Air laying about. He starts typing in the notes app and tells me to close the door because he has to work. Then he tells me to go to my office so we can work together (each in our own office though).

      It got me thinking – in his mind working 90% remotely is completely normal for him. The shock when he realizes that most people, especially in Japan, don't get to do that, is gonna be huge.
    • However, now that Leo is "working" and pre-school is starting up he's started also saying "I'm not going to pre-school, I need to work". He does say he wants to study English while he's workig, so at least there's that. I feel like it's gonna be a long couple of weeks while we get back into the routine after a long summer break.

  • Checkin to δ»²ζœ¬ι£Ÿε ‚

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    in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan
    Really great Goya-chanpuru with a friend.

  • Checkin to TGγ‚ͺγ‚―γƒˆγƒ‘γ‚Ήγ‚¨γƒŠγ‚ΈγƒΌζ ͺ式会瀾

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    in Chuo, Tokyo, Japan
    New decorations up at the office.

  • Checkin to Single O Hamacho

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    in Chuo, Tokyo, Japan
    Vegemite jaffle at a Single-O. I think this means I qualify for Aussie citizenship.
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    One of the things I think about a lot lately is the amount of animal products I consume. Not just meat, but milk, yogurt, and cheese as well. And I've been working on reducing it when I can.

    Doing so makes me feel better mentally. Not just from the "no animals were harmed in the making of this lunch" perspective, but that there's just less to think about. Did I cook the meat enough? Have I accidentally cross-contaminated my meat and veg? And so forth.

    When visiting Waterstones in the UK, there was a book that caught my eye and I read a bit, but ultimately didn't buy called This is Vegan Propaganda. As I finished the climate change book, I decided to buy it as I kept thinking about it. Thus far it's been a good read.

    The only downside is it's made me a bit uncomfortable when I ride by the chicken farm not too far from my house. I find myself questioning the well being of the chickens, while before I just thought about fresh eggs.

    While I don't intend to become vegan (neigh impossible in Japan, unless you cook all of your own meals), I am curious.

  • The Week #112

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    • About two months ago I saw that Disney on Ice was going to be in Yokohama. Fresh off our trip to Disneyland, I bought tickets for us as I knew Leo would enjoy it. And naturally right as I did, a fresh wave of covid started its thing. Having been burned the last 2 times I tried to plan anything I was trying to not raise my hopes that, even though the tickets aren't refundable, that I'd actually be able to see it. But in the end, we did and it was a lot of fun.
      Tink and the gang
    • A (Japanese) college friend who I haven't seen in years was going through Kanagawa and dropped by for the day. It was really great to see him and introduce him to Leo. Leo took an immediate liking to him and kept trying his convince my friend that he should stay the night. We went to Lucy's, that American restaurant we went a couple weeks back for dinner. The key-lime pie was on point.
    • As I've (probably?) discussed before, my wife practices Kyudo, or Japanese archery. There's been a recent uptick in people interested because of Tsurune, a manga about Kyudo. And as with many manga, they also get made into movies. We saw Tsurune the movie this weekend, which was released on Friday. I was surprised Leo made it through the entire thing, but that was mostly thanks to sneaking in some potato chips and a little box of milk and timing delivery. The movie itself was beautiful.
    • I had another 4-day weekend because it's the last week of summer vacation and my wife worked on Monday. As it was cooler out we decided to go to the play at the beach early that day. Leo's swimming classes are paying off as he's really starting enjoy swimming and playing in the water.

      Of course as we're at Enoshima, we had to visit the aquarium as well. We couldn't see the dolphin show, but instead Leo and I explored areas of that he usually runs past on his way to see the jelly fish, sharks, and the dolphin show. It wasn't nearly as crowded as I was expecting. Though maybe it's because everyone was sitting at the dolphin show 😬.
    • Looking at this week it occurs to me that I went out a lot. It's been good to have some sense of 2019 in life. How wise this is/has been from a covid standpoint remains to be seen. With Leo starting back at pre-school this week, I am looking forward to getting back into our regular routine and slowing things down a bit.

  • Checkin to KUA`AINA

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    in Fujisawa, Kanagawa, Japan
    Post splish-splash lunching.
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    in Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan

  • Checkin to Yokohama Arena (ζ¨ͺζ΅œγ‚’γƒͺγƒΌγƒŠ)

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    in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan
    Time for Disney on Ice πŸ˜€

  • The Week #111

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    • My office area has been a mess, pretty much since we moved to our house. It's still a mess, but less so. Basically the problem is we have some awkward sized things that don't really fit anywhere and there's no proper place to put things...so they ended up getting grouped in an area. What I realized was I had heaps of storage vertically and I wasn't using it. I bought another steel shelving unit from muji (large this time, instead of the extra large) and put it across from my other shelve.

      Now there's a perfect spot to store the bike charger and all the other random stuff that didn't really have a place. It's great.
    • I've taken about a month off from running. Maybe it's the heat. Maybe it's getting bored with always running the same general area. Maybe it's, despite best efforts, I can't run slow enough to stay in "zone 2". In place, I've started taking out my acoustic bike. It's so much fun to ride. Maybe this will be my thing?
    • I finished reading Saving Us: A Climate Scientist's Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World and I'm glad I stuck with it. The three main take-aways I had from it are:Β 

      1. You're not going to win over the 5%Β  of the population that are climate change denialist, so don't waste your energy trying. Instead, focus conversations about climate change with the 95% who either agree / can be convinced / are somewhere along that spectrum.Β 

      2. For die-hard conservatives, they associate climate change as a liberal political issue and will often automatically disagree with doing anything (we saw this with the recent passage of the IRA). For climate change conversations with such people, focus instead on local issues, which brings it home. e.g. The local river isn't as full as it used to be and this will lead to water shortages -> as a community we've got to be prepared to properly manage -> how can we solve the issue, roughly. Especially important in this is it doesn't matter if you don't agree all the time, but that choices/lifestyles trend in the low-carbon direction.

      3. Using your car doesn't make you a sinner and approaching carbon output from the perspective of sinΒ  is counter-productive. Sticks don't work. I always felt a sense of moral guilt each time I used my gasoline car knowing that I was making the problem worse. I still feel that to a certain extent (especially in summer), but it's not like before. I don't beat myself up over it. Note that this is separate from general disdain for driving and cars generally, but that's been there for as long as I can remember and is separate from climate change.
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