• For the past month I've been thinking about getting a bike. I wanted something with that wasn't a cruiser like our electric assist mama-chari. Something a bit more sporty but not a road bike...a cross bike. I found a nice blue and white Giant Escape for ¥35,000 (about $350) at a local used goods shop in Totsuka. It already had fenders on it too, as an added bonus.

• Since the weather's been so nice (it is spring) we took our bikes for a long ride along Sakaigawa with our goal being Iida-farm. We took the scenic route, which was a bit longer at 12km. Iida-farm is a small dairy farm with an attached gelato shop that's popular with cyclists along Sakaigawa. Me and Leo shared a milk gelato and it was great.


• My dad got his second shot of Pfizer and Japan has just started vaccinating the elderly. With a 4th wave apparently starting, I really wish they'd pick up the pace.


• I haven't had as much time (or energy) for working on Tanzawa this past week. Part of it is I'm using/saving my energy for work as we're approaching a deadline. The other part of it is writing the Wordpress import code just isn't fun. I've got the import code written and working, I just need to run it through my posts to discover the edge cases I'm not handling and handle them. I think I'm fine leaving a proper polished UI for another day.


• Jeff analyzed all the Airbot data for 2020 and submitted a PR to adjust the values so it tweets for the top 0.5% threshold. It already appears to be tweeting more! Certainly more than it has the past month (TCEQ blocked our scraper's ip address again – a simple snapshop and restore of the server on a new droplet and we're back in business).

We've been using our electric assist "mama-chari" a lot more recently. I've been taking it to a local coffee shop that I'd usually walk (15 minutes) or drive (5 minutes)to and it's been great. My wife has been taking it to her parent's house (5.5km away) where I'd either drive them round trip or we'd take the train. Travel time ends up being about the same regardless of the method of transport we take.

What I like the most about cycling is how you can travel quickly and you're not disconnected from your environment like you are with a car. It feels more human.

• Another big week in the Van Dyne household. After 3 years (mostly by-choice) my wife is re-joining the workforce. The timing is mostly because Leo will be starting pre-school next week, so he'll be out of the house most days for the majority of the day. Japan has some different laws surrounding healthcare/social security/being able to be declared as a dependent for tax purpose requirements, where if you work more than x hours or earn more than y per year you can no longer be included on your spouses healthcare/social security, so she's staying within those bounds for now. Either way, exciting.


• I watched The Trial of the Chicago 7 about anti-Vietnam war protestors charged with the intention to start riots at the 1968 DNC convention in Chicago. I've never seen Sacha Baron Cohen in a serious role before, usually he's Borat or Ali G for me. I didn't realize until the end it was an Aaron Sorkin movie – it's no wonder I liked it.


• This year marks 100 years of public transit in Yokohama and the city has build a webpage celebrating those 100 years. It even looks like the next station down has some limited edition paper tickets "Dancing Cat" tickets. Fun!


• I got a haircut and talking with my barber about the vaccine and she said she's hesitant to get it. I asked why and she mentioned Bill Gates funding the research, alluding to an ulterior motive. I wasn't quite sure how to handle it exactly, but tried to talk about his vaccine work before covid. She said "do you think this might be one of those rumors?", "Yes, absolutely.". I also told her about my dad and brother's experience getting the vaccine (uneventful, because it's safe and not filled with 5G ads for Windows).