Three-day work week this week. I begin in Osaka, following my defeat (or victory?) at the Queueing Olympics.
Originally my plan is to be back in Tokyo quite early, but I cancel my plans on Tuesday to instead spend the day pottering about Osaka and looking at and eating things. The city has a very different atmosphere which I love.
This also includes possibly the most unhealthy Tonkatsu lunch I will ever eat.
I spend some time over the week iterating on a design-document and corresponding schema, which involves going back to the drawing board a few times. The combination of short week and many iterations means I make less net progress than I’d hoped to.
New 5K PB is a nice small win.
In the context of journalism, I learn a fair bit about financial reporting obligations in Japan, which for a place with so much paperwork turn out to be surprisingly difficult. Or maybe I’m too used to Company House?
I’m introduced to a new spot which I’m afraid I have to gatekeep because I will be back. The owner is great and it’s a nice time with tasty drinks and incredible looking food, although because I’m British and must grumble about something, the open-mic Karaoke is at times distracting.
Unrelatedly I break one of my rules and end up feeling some hangxiety the next day. Co-Star’s sass doesn’t help.
What does help is that I hit the milestone of having apparently learned 100 Kanji. I can now recognize many in signs and menus, but it’s still not enough to fully navigate or order food. Roughly another 2000 to go for “functional literacy”, hah!
While waiting for an incident to be resolved, I have a good catch-up and get to speak to some people I’ve been meaning to, followed by an underwhelming mini-adventure to Hibiya for a campaign.
The weekend’s plans are discarded to admin, prompted by a tax bill. I pay the bill in cash, but not before filling out a lot of paperwork and sending a few letters. I have the knack of this now, and so it’s mostly undoing my past mistakes. I’m getting dangerously close to being able to pay for these things digitally - these are the perks of having a long legal name.
Highlight of the week is the dinner which closes it, which, after a week of mostly yakitori, is Obanzai - Kyoto’s speciality. Demonstrably healthier and tastier. I break away a few beats too early with some goodies.
