This week was one I that have been dreading for a decade.
Firstly and most importantly, yes, the rumours are true. I did buy a microwave with a flat-folding door. It doubles as an oven and came with the cutest little baking tray, perfect for the sourdough baking obsession which the stats say is likely heading my way in the next few years.
My ambitious-yet-still-approval-seeking younger self set high expectations for where I would be, who I would be and what I would have done by the time this week came around. And more recently, since the close brush at the start of ’23, there have been times when I thought that I might not see this week. But here we are. We did it. This week I turned 30. And, consequentially, I no longer qualify for a UK rail card.
In the end I'm not really sure what all the fuss was about.
Golden Week, or "GW", is four bank holidays which normally create an entire week of downtime. This year two of them were at weekend. Back home, when a bank holiday occurs on a Saturday or Sunday, the next available weekday becomes a substitute holiday. So consecutive days become consecutive holidays. Japan has a similar rule, but only for Sundays. Meaning that this year’s Golden Week was really more of a “Gold-ish-Monday-and-Tuesday-off”.
On the Monday to reflect and think, I took a train to Ibaraki to do a long walk, and eventually got to Tsuchiura via the Sakura river (桜川). It's a nice stretch dotted with fields and the sorts of businesses you only see in the country.
The walking brought me to a nice round total of total area of earth visited to 160km² (since starting recording in 2019). That is about 0.0000314% of the surface of planet earth, or, roughly 0.000119% of the land of planet earth.
Tuesday the weather was miserable (it felt like home). Went for a long Sukiyaki lunch, and then on to Tokyodome to see the Hanshin Tigers play the Tokyo Giants. Through some quirk of fate, we ended up swapping seats with some proper fans who were happy to induct us into the gilded halls of being Tigers supporters. We sat in the main fray, chants and all. Great result: 7-1. Followed by some micro birthday drinks.
Very short week at work. Back to being an interviewer. I ran an exercise to test a migration, and all-in-all it went well.
Every single time I hear Taiichi Ohno’s name, I have to fight back the urge to reply with “Taiichi Ohyes”. Clearly this age thing hasn’t elevated my sense of humour.
Dinner & drinks on Friday with a micro-crawl that ended in the Rising Sun. No, not that one. A man asked me where I was from, and what brought me to the rising sun, “It’s the oldest English pub in Tokyo!” ”Recently everyone is saying that!” Very friendly vibe, I will be back.
An incident occurred on the way home which has reminded me that street smarts do matter, no matter where you are.
I did that most exciting thing of (with some help) signing up to a nearby gym. They have branches all over so IMO it’s good value. You have to “book” the free-weight stuff in 20 minute slots, which is a remarkable rule some UK gyms could apply. Especially that one gym on corporation street, j-f-c.
At the weekend - the weather wasn’t great - but I still followed one of the floats of the Kanda Matsuri around. Very different type of energy.
