Work as I’m scheduled Sat-Tue but I’m taking an early start to my weekend by driving to Izu Peninsula tonight with my RV and will work Tuesday from there.
Weather looks to be relatively warmer there than where I currently am as well.
Went ice skating. It’s been 4-5 years since I went last time, and I had so much fun. I’ll go next weekend too and make this a weekly thing!
English club at my company had an event and i was one of the MC’s and planners. We had a great time. Also finished second playthrough of fire emblem 3 houses at my friend’s house and started playing my brand new shiny copy of the Nintendo Switch remake of Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life.
Rode my bicycle to Glitch coffee in Jimbocho following the recommendation of a redditor in a recent post about coffee in Japan.
Had to wait in line about 15 minutes to get in the store, but it was neat because they have store staff ask you about your preferences and give suggestions on which beans to try.
I went with the taster shot and chose the Columbia Cauca Santuario and Columbia Huila La Loma. The Cauca Santuario in particular was excellent with fruity notes. I might buy a bag of beans.
I noticed the cafe was nearby the Imperial Palace, so went there intending to do a couple of laps. Arriving in Takebashi, I found that the Palace Cycling event was being held. The event closes the road in front of the Imperial Palace between Iwaidabashi and Takebashi to cars and turns it into a bicycle-only road.
Last I heard, it was cancelled because it overlapped with the bus route to the Vaccination Center operated by the Self-Defense Force, but it is held every Sunday if the weather is good.
Kyoto needs to figure out its tourist and bus situation. You’d think after all these years, shuttle buses from major stations straight to tourist attractions would have been well justified but they keep on insisting on cramming tourists in on routes where regular people need to use the bus to get to and from their destinations.
EDIT: Oh yeah, 若草山焼き this year was ok I guess. The fireworks were nice but the mountain failed to light significantly. Not that that’s any surprise given all the precipitation this year.
Snow shoveling. My lower back is feeling it–not zonked or thrown out, but very definitely feeling the stress.
Daughter said her first swear word. Thankfully, it wasn’t in context. She was just saying it. I have no idea where she learnt that from. We don’t swear at home, don’t watch English tv near her, there are no sailors in our area. She’s only been around home and with me in the car…
In other weekend news, the drivers in my area this weekend were something else. A lesson I learned early on driving here was to be very careful around Alphards.
God save us from controlling mother-in-laws
Did some cooking at the weekend and now the freezer is full of peanut chicken stew
bless the heated toilet seats
Used the JR West Random Ticket (サイコロきっぷ lit. Dice Ticket) to visit Kaga Onsen for the first time. Got there early Friday afternoon before the heavy snow hit. Have a nice afternoon in the town but by 6pm the snow was heavy enough that it’s not really feasible to walk around.
The return trip on Saturday was fun. Kosei line wasn’t running so all Thunderbird train go via Maibara (+20-40min delay). So while normally you can’t change the specified train with this ticket (you can on the 2022 ticket, but 2023 ticket no longer allow this), they allowed changing because of the situation. I initially booked the evening train, but it’s almost impossible to sightsee with all the snow so I changed to immediate departure. Then bamboo fall on the train track and the line stoped running lol.
With all the delay combined my train end up arriving in Osaka 2h10m late, which is over the threshold for refunding of the limited express fee. I thought I wouldn’t be eligible since the random ticket were very cheap, but the staff at the ticket gate said I was, and stamped my ticket with 遅払証 (which mean the ticket can be refunded at Midori no Madoguchi within 1 year).
Went to Midori no Madoguchi at my local station on Sunday and was refunded 2950 yen (the full reserved seating limited express fee for Kaga Onsen to Osaka), which has me dumbfounded. I only paid 5000 yen for the return trip, yet I got 2,950 yen back. Not going to complain though.
Had a PTA meeting from 7-9pm on Saturday night for my kid’s after school program. It was just one city council member bitching for two straight hours about city policy and spending. I would like that time back.
On Sunday my game group had our monthly DnD session. My character died, but at least it was a cool death.
Had a nightmare my kid died. That’s one way to ruin my week.
Mostly running errands and out drinking with friends. Enjoying the last of my vacation before work starts.
I’m not sure if it’s one of the meds I’m on, but my dreams the last few weeks have just been insane and vivid. I actually found myself going back to sleep to continue them a few times (which rarely works, but still).
就職活動 grind continues. Applied to many jobs this weekend and remaining optimistic. 若草山焼き fireworks were pretty, but of course the mountain/very large hill could not catch fire because it was just far too wet. I also watched Spaceballs for the first time!
After work on saturday, I went into an お風呂屋さん and bathed in an open air for an hour. It was snowing that time but luckily there is a roof above the place I am bathing in.
Probably the best bathing experience after a very long time but of course it isn’t the best when compared by the time I went to an onsen in 白山.
Proceed to eat my favorite katsudon after taking a bath and all of my fatigue and stress just went away.
Went up to Hakone to Yunnesun (we stayed at Ten-Yu right across the road) for my yearly birthday onsen trip. I swam in a bath full of wine. Was it actually wine? I have no idea. It smelled like wine so I’ll go ahead and say, yeah, it was probably wine. More like water with wine in it to give it the color and scent.
Are there any good, practical reasons for swimming in wine? I don’t know. But I swam in wine.
Wanted to go play badminton 🏸 , it was too cold and windy so I had to take the bus. Forgot that the buses run late during the weekend, got on the wrong bus and got stranded 4kms away from home 🤦♂️ walked back home to at least get some exercise done.
Well the bus had the same end destination as the one I was supposed to get on, and arrived exactly on the time Google maps mentioned, but it took a different route there which caused the issue.
Is it possible to see the comet ZTF from Japan?
Entire family got influenza. My first time getting it in over 5 years and it’s way worse than COVID for me.
20 comments
Work as I’m scheduled Sat-Tue but I’m taking an early start to my weekend by driving to Izu Peninsula tonight with my RV and will work Tuesday from there.
Weather looks to be relatively warmer there than where I currently am as well.
Went ice skating. It’s been 4-5 years since I went last time, and I had so much fun. I’ll go next weekend too and make this a weekly thing!
English club at my company had an event and i was one of the MC’s and planners. We had a great time. Also finished second playthrough of fire emblem 3 houses at my friend’s house and started playing my brand new shiny copy of the Nintendo Switch remake of Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life.
Rode my bicycle to Glitch coffee in Jimbocho following the recommendation of a redditor in a recent post about coffee in Japan.
Had to wait in line about 15 minutes to get in the store, but it was neat because they have store staff ask you about your preferences and give suggestions on which beans to try.
I went with the taster shot and chose the Columbia Cauca Santuario and Columbia Huila La Loma. The Cauca Santuario in particular was excellent with fruity notes. I might buy a bag of beans.
I noticed the cafe was nearby the Imperial Palace, so went there intending to do a couple of laps. Arriving in Takebashi, I found that the Palace Cycling event was being held. The event closes the road in front of the Imperial Palace between Iwaidabashi and Takebashi to cars and turns it into a bicycle-only road.
Last I heard, it was cancelled because it overlapped with the bus route to the Vaccination Center operated by the Self-Defense Force, but it is held every Sunday if the weather is good.
Kyoto needs to figure out its tourist and bus situation. You’d think after all these years, shuttle buses from major stations straight to tourist attractions would have been well justified but they keep on insisting on cramming tourists in on routes where regular people need to use the bus to get to and from their destinations.
EDIT: Oh yeah, 若草山焼き this year was ok I guess. The fireworks were nice but the mountain failed to light significantly. Not that that’s any surprise given all the precipitation this year.
Snow shoveling. My lower back is feeling it–not zonked or thrown out, but very definitely feeling the stress.
Daughter said her first swear word. Thankfully, it wasn’t in context. She was just saying it. I have no idea where she learnt that from. We don’t swear at home, don’t watch English tv near her, there are no sailors in our area. She’s only been around home and with me in the car…
In other weekend news, the drivers in my area this weekend were something else. A lesson I learned early on driving here was to be very careful around Alphards.
God save us from controlling mother-in-laws
Did some cooking at the weekend and now the freezer is full of peanut chicken stew
bless the heated toilet seats
Used the JR West Random Ticket (サイコロきっぷ lit. Dice Ticket) to visit Kaga Onsen for the first time. Got there early Friday afternoon before the heavy snow hit. Have a nice afternoon in the town but by 6pm the snow was heavy enough that it’s not really feasible to walk around.
The return trip on Saturday was fun. Kosei line wasn’t running so all Thunderbird train go via Maibara (+20-40min delay). So while normally you can’t change the specified train with this ticket (you can on the 2022 ticket, but 2023 ticket no longer allow this), they allowed changing because of the situation. I initially booked the evening train, but it’s almost impossible to sightsee with all the snow so I changed to immediate departure. Then bamboo fall on the train track and the line stoped running lol.
With all the delay combined my train end up arriving in Osaka 2h10m late, which is over the threshold for refunding of the limited express fee. I thought I wouldn’t be eligible since the random ticket were very cheap, but the staff at the ticket gate said I was, and stamped my ticket with 遅払証 (which mean the ticket can be refunded at Midori no Madoguchi within 1 year).
Went to Midori no Madoguchi at my local station on Sunday and was refunded 2950 yen (the full reserved seating limited express fee for Kaga Onsen to Osaka), which has me dumbfounded. I only paid 5000 yen for the return trip, yet I got 2,950 yen back. Not going to complain though.
Had a PTA meeting from 7-9pm on Saturday night for my kid’s after school program. It was just one city council member bitching for two straight hours about city policy and spending. I would like that time back.
On Sunday my game group had our monthly DnD session. My character died, but at least it was a cool death.
Had a nightmare my kid died. That’s one way to ruin my week.
Mostly running errands and out drinking with friends. Enjoying the last of my vacation before work starts.
I’m not sure if it’s one of the meds I’m on, but my dreams the last few weeks have just been insane and vivid. I actually found myself going back to sleep to continue them a few times (which rarely works, but still).
就職活動 grind continues. Applied to many jobs this weekend and remaining optimistic.
若草山焼き fireworks were pretty, but of course the mountain/very large hill could not catch fire because it was just far too wet.
I also watched Spaceballs for the first time!
After work on saturday, I went into an お風呂屋さん and bathed in an open air for an hour. It was snowing that time but luckily there is a roof above the place I am bathing in.
Probably the best bathing experience after a very long time but of course it isn’t the best when compared by the time I went to an onsen in 白山.
Proceed to eat my favorite katsudon after taking a bath and all of my fatigue and stress just went away.
Went up to Hakone to Yunnesun (we stayed at Ten-Yu right across the road) for my yearly birthday onsen trip. I swam in a bath full of wine. Was it actually wine? I have no idea. It smelled like wine so I’ll go ahead and say, yeah, it was probably wine. More like water with wine in it to give it the color and scent.
Are there any good, practical reasons for swimming in wine? I don’t know. But I swam in wine.
Wanted to go play badminton 🏸 , it was too cold and windy so I had to take the bus. Forgot that the buses run late during the weekend, got on the wrong bus and got stranded 4kms away from home 🤦♂️ walked back home to at least get some exercise done.
Well the bus had the same end destination as the one I was supposed to get on, and arrived exactly on the time Google maps mentioned, but it took a different route there which caused the issue.
Is it possible to see the comet ZTF from Japan?
Entire family got influenza. My first time getting it in over 5 years and it’s way worse than COVID for me.