This week felt considerably more normal than last week. Maybe the routine got me somewhere. Maybe it’s just the jet lag having worn off. Maybe it’s the nature of the life-admin changing. Maybe it’s something else entirely.

This week in data:

• 📼 Training videos watched: 5 hours
• 🌯 Team lunches: 3
• 🍵 Oi Ocha consumed: 3.5 litres

Felt my first earthquake in yonks on Tuesday evening. It’s been a while (maybe 5 years?) so I’d forgotten how it feels. Intensity 1 so nobody else was even remotely fussed.

This was my first week at work, and I’m feeling the same sense of awe and wonder one does exploring any new world. I’m pretty excited!

Part of onboarding, or, I guess, being in a large company is needing an evergreen way of introducing yourself - and so one of my tasks involved writing a page about myself for an internal documentation hub. (It also includes a link to the about me page on this blog, which, is somewhat out of date - sorry!) It’s kind-of great, and reading others I realised that there’s lots to strike up conversations about.

There is not only Mapo Tofu but an entire Mapo Tofu set-meal in a restaurant in the building. This is not a drill people.

I have a bank card now! It supports one of the major Japanese banking protocols so in theory a whole new world of payment options has now opened up. It meant scheduling a registered letter to be delivered during a specific 2hr time-slot, and just when I was about to give up as the slot was nearly over, I saw a postie cycling up to outside my building.

React 19 is out and somehow that has resulted in yet more breakages in the builds of this blog. Very annoying. I really want a more reliable blogging platform.

Finally used the “delivery boxes” downstairs to receive an Amazon package. There’s an interface in my building with a very primitive, late '90s UI backed with a resistive touchscreen. It’s like having an Amazon locker in your building: you put in your door number, a secret passcode, and any eligible boxes swing open. Pretty slick.

I swung by Yoyogi park to check out the Philippine Festival which looked like heaps of fun - lots of singing and drinking and an atmosphere which made me want to visit the Philippines. I hadn’t had Filipino cuisine before so tried a plate of Pancit Palabok which was OK. Saw Blue Light cave on the way back which was so blue that all of my photos have an alien glow to them.

Sunday I hiked up Mount Takao to catch the last of the autumn foliage, and the views definitely delivered. Parts of the hike were very difficult because there were some steep inclines - but I managed to do it a bit faster than my last attempt last year. It’s a nice route so I may try it more often, but the weather is getting a bit colder now...

Big item coming up next on the docket: Where the heck do you find proper house-cleaning supplies? I can’t find anything in the supermarkets I’ve tried, and all I can find in convenience stores is generic cleaning sprays. I’m missing something big - I can tell.

Brown Bear says hi.