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by JamesI love about our local onigiri ๐ shop. Not only are they larger and cheaper (with more goodies inside), they give you a hard boiled egg and a small candy to little kids. Local business ftw.
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by James๐ 5am run club
Chill run listening to The War on Car, special guest Rick Steves. Really good episode. Greeted by rainbows today.4.1km
30.4min
25.4m climbed
147.6avg bpm
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by JamesBarely 5am run club
Chill run with Coolioโs Gangstaโs Paradise on in the back.4.4km
30.3min
35.2m climbed
158.9avg bpm
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The Week #219
by James- โ๏ธ 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.
- ๐โโ๏ธ 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.
- ๐ฒ 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.
- ๐ฎ 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.
- ๐จย 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." ๐ฌ Completely unrelated, I've relocated my hammer to be out of reach of children.ย
- ๐ถ 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.
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Checkin to Starbucks
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by James5am run club
Back to summer, but at least the UV index and Sun arenโt that bad at this hour any longer.4.5km
30.6min
43.8m climbed
156.3avg bpm
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Checkin to ้ญในใ
Train sushi for dinner. -
Checkin to Kinuta Park (็ งๅ ฌๅ)
Every park should have a stand that sells shaved ice and cold drinks. -
by James5am run club: first hints of autumn ๐
Last run summer was back. Now weโve got autumny early mornings. More like this please. Getting close to matching my pace in WA last month despite hills. ๐ช๐ป5.0km
31.0min
29.8m climbed
165.1avg bpm
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The Week #218
by James- ๐ 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.
- ๐ฒ I rode bikes with Leo over to the local Ito Yokado again โ 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).
- ๐ดโโ๏ธ 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!).ย 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. - ๐ 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.
