Happy new lunar year!

This week in data:

• 🍣 Time taken to eat Ehomaki: 682.33 seconds
• ☁️ Average humidity: 27%

Had a few delightful catch-ups with people outside my team this week, so I’m feeling like I’m starting to settle in better — but there’s still a lot of things for me to learn, as well as some cultural differences to navigate.

I don’t normally do this sort of thing, but I’ve been using Endel (a soundscape app, e.g. for concentration, for activity, for sleep, etc.) - and I’m finding it incredibly good. I've used similar apps in the past - this generates music (not AI, dw), instead of playing back pre-recorded tracks, so it feels relatively fresh and non-repetitive. My default soundscape has become Richie Hawtin’s collaboration which I genuinely love. This isn’t a referral-driven recommendation, but I do have a referral code/voucher which nets you a 14-day trial (regularly 7-days).

The weather is currently incredibly cold and also incredibly dry which is not doing good things to my skin. To combat it, I went out and bought a humidifier and paired it with my IR hub - so now I have the ability to remotely heat and humidify my flat. It seems to be helping?

Buying the humidifier was a funny experience: It wasn’t on display, so I wandered around Yodobashi looking until finally asking someone who sent me to another floor. By the time I got there, a man had wheeled the very last one directly to the till, so I paid and was out in minutes. DB was right when he said that Yodobashi is a magical place.

A man looked at my tonsils. They have been the subject of debate with several general medicine doctors saying they are too large for my age, but the specialist’s conclusion after my ordeal — which involved a camera in a tube — was that they are probably fine. Did you know you can request the photos? I didn’t.

Finally saw The Bone Doctor 🦴, who did about 10 x-rays of my shoulders, had a look, and after a brief examination which him articulating my arm said they were “almost normal” and that I should come back for an MRI if it didn’t resolve in a few weeks.

Japanese class is speeding up, to the point where I now need to do more practice outside of class. We’re covering numbers (and time) which are tricky because — you can’t just translate these when you’re speaking quickly — it takes far too long and you lose flow.

Did a few more flat viewings, including an incredibly cool place at the very top of my budget which had a fully soundproofed room (with double-doors and ceiling-mounted loudspeakers) suitable for use as a music studio (as well as being the bedroom...) - However I then saw an incredibly good deal which (sans-soundproofing) was better in almost every way including being in the commuting sweet-spot. I put in an offer - fingers-crossed it gets accepted.

Went to VENT to see Adiel. Very cool little venue with the no-photos policy typical of all good clubs, which I only saw two people breaking. Great set: For all the production value of big events like GMO and all the distracting drops of neo-rave, I love a set which you can genuinely lose hours dancing to and boy have I missed going to gigs like these. Got home in time to go to bed at a reasonable time.

Sunday was Setsubun — or a few events marking the day before the official start of spring — so I rocked up to Zozoji searching for beans, which are thrown to ward spirits. I later found some beans. For dinner I did the whole Ehomaki thing, which involves eating a huge roll while facing the year’s lucky direction, and, just about made it through.

It was also the last day of Lunar New Year celebrations in the Yokohama Chinatown, so like last year, I went on a mission to locate moon cakes (and found dumplings and lanterns on the way).

Checked out the Red Brick Warehouse on my way home, which was running the Nabe festival with a Showa theme. Very cool vibe. I’m feeling like I may have misjudged Yokohama: It’s fun beneath the tourist veneer.

Remember to wear hearing protection in the club kids.