• Last week I wrote about starting by walking instead of running. It worked. I closed all of my  rings for 7 days in a row! I've not noticed any real physical changes, but it's kept me positive. The main way I've been able to close them is a 2km walk in the afternoons. These walks have also given me good opportunity to think through work tasks without distraction (fidgeting to Slack), as an added bonus.
• On the "lets close my rings" kick, I did a couple of body weight workouts on Apple Fitness+ and it reminded me how much I used to liked lifting weights. When I was working with a trainer, my favorites were the kettlebell. Kettlebells are nice as they're compact, only require one piece of equipment, and can be used to train your entire body.
  
  I looked at a local sports shop, but they didn't have any. Searching on Amazon, I couldn't quite decide. The reviews of the cheaper ones said they're welded together, so there's sharp(!) edges inside the handle. That'd be the absolute last thing you'd want when you swinging it / moving it about.
  
  Further searching around the internet I found Ito-gen, a small local manufacturer in a foundry town in Mie prefecture (check out their workshop). I ended up buying a 16kg bell from them via Amazon (they have their own store there). All of the reviews were great. I feel a bit bad for the delivery guy for when it's ready.
• In an effort to read about something that's not tech or climate related, I bought 4 issues of Grow by Ginko. It's a magazine about "synthetic biology" and it's really good and bending my mind a bit. While it would be great if we could eat and only grow heirloom plants/vegetables, that's not always possible in a globally connected society. For example, the American chestnut tree got mostly wiped out because a fungus that was brought over to America on a Japanese chestnut tree. They've made an American chestnut tree that's resistant to the fungus by putting in a single gene from wheat, which will allow the American chestnut tree to survive and live on.

• For how off-again-on-again (mostly off) my running is, I sure do mention it a lot on The Week. I kinda feel obligated after spending all that time to make a Strava integration, only to use it for a month and just stop 😫. 
  
  I had this idea that perhaps changing my habits from never being a sports person to runner was a bit too far. A 30 minute run sounds like not a lot of time, but it's really an hour when you factor in changing, showing, and changing again. Going from "nothing" to hour+ of commitment per day is a drastic change.
  
  Instead I'm trying to just focus on becoming more active, make that habitual, then I can worry about running (or I can mix running in). A 20 - 30 minute walk doesn't require a change of clothes and takes exactly that long. For starters I'm trying to just close all of my rings consistently ( 12-hours stand/450kcal/30 minutes exercise). 
  
  I can already regularly close the 30 minutes exercise ring because of taking Sophie for a walk and using my bike  or walking most everywhere. It's the 450kcal ring everyday that's been elusive, even if just barely. This week I hit it 6 days and only missed the day it was raining heaps outside.
• Speaking of 450kcals, we left a stick of butter on the table from breakfast before leaving for lunch on the weekend. While we were out, Sophie jumped up on the table and helped herself to the entire stick. I could tell immediately when we returned because instead of greeting us like she usually does, she was wheezing like a guy who overindulged pizza.
• After overindulging on the butter, she wasn't feeling well. She went over to the tatami (why the tatami?!) and barfed buttery-vomit. We cleaned it up immediately, but the smell – it's taking a while to disappear. We might end up needing to replace that tatami. 
  
  Later that day she still wasn't feeling well (that's what happens when you eat a stick of butter(!)). She barfed a second time on Leo's bed (again with the barfing on soft, absorbent things). He doesn't use it, so we didn't have one of those protective sheets down, but boy do I wish we had. We cleaned it up immediately but it was already too late. It made it down into the mattress-foam. We took off the mattress cover and washed it and let it air dry outside, but it still smells. Air drying the mattress outside in the sun also seems to have not worked as much/quick as I'd hoped. It might slowly be getting better, or I'm just getting desensitized to it.
  
  I'm glad she's feeling better now, but what a mess.
• While we were at lunch, we stopped by a vintage store. Inside they had a lot of cards from the early 90's: Ghostbusters (1984) and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) with scenes from the movies on them. Having the cards immediately made Leo interested in watching these classics. 
  
  We watched Ghostbusters on Saturday night. Leo liked slimer and the marshmallow man at the end. Sunday night we watched the ninja turtles. He really likes that he's "in the movie" because of Leonardo. I had to repeat the two scenes where they say just "Leo" for him while he had the biggest of grins.
  
  I haven't watched TNMT since I was a kid, but I was surprised just how well those turtle costumes stood up. They don't look dated or clearly fake like CG would've. Good stuff.

Steve Roberts may well have been the original digital nomad. Learn more about him and his fascinating computerized bicycles here...

I have a sudden urge to build a winnebiko. So cool.

 

1. Tagged with
2. digital nomad
3. bicycle
4. solar

• I took the day off on Wednesday and we saw Matilda in Shibuya. Leo's not used to long-ish train rides (40 minutes), so on the way there he was got a bit impatient on the way there. We got lunch at Ikea Shibuya (more on that later), then headed to the theater where we had to wait for another 40 minutes before the show started. We barely made it through the waiting periods without some meltdown.
  
  Once the show started, Leo was hooked. He watched the entire show (over 2 hours) almost without a peep. It was just as good as I remembered. The music from the show is on Apple Music – well worth a listen. My favorites are The Hammer and When I Grow Up.
• My father-in-law came over and planted a flowering dogwood, the same tree that the US brought Japan in the 1912 - 15 exchange of flowers, to commemorate Leo's first trip to America. While Dad's healthy as can be, at 80, it makes me think a lot about the adage "A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in". 
  

  

• 3 years ago I bought a car, which means it was due for its first shaken, or car inspection. Car inspections in Japan are a much more thorough deal than they ever were in California or Texas. Inspection in Texas takes about an hour and costs $50 bucks. Shaken takes literally all day at a minimum or multiple days for slightly older cars and costs ¥85,000 ($635 currently) or more. 
  
  I probably could get it done for much less if I shopped around or did it myself (hah!), but getting it done at the dealer, along with all other maintenance, is the path of least resistance. They're also a known quantity. I have no idea how to judge smaller shops and to be sure I'm not being taken advantage of. 
  
  In the US, mechanics are famous for taking advantage of people's ignorance and doing work that doesn't need to be done for extra revenue. So in my head, the relationship between car owner and mechanic is always adversarial, regardless if that's the case here in Japan.
  
  The good news is that while my wallet is lighter, there weren't any issues with the car (7,000km over 3 years, I'd hope not) and its next shaken is in another 2 years.