Tag: blog

My new gear

Earlier Reol announced that No title- will get a vinyl release. I love that album, so I ended up preordering it before realizing that I don’t actually have a record player. Well, that changed now.

And while I was at it, I also got a few old Japanese jazz fusion records from Disk Union and Thy Catafalque’s Rengeteg too.


Moving

I lived in Shakujii for 8 years. It started because of my job at Sunrise, which pretty much required me to live nearby. Then I switched jobs, but moving closer to the office wasn’t really an option, since it’s absolute downtown Tokyo and I’m not willing to pay that much. Then the rona hit and we don’t even have to go to the office anymore (in my case, at all). Furthermore, the small room I rented in Shakujii grew pretty tight since I started climbing mountains. Those sleeping bags and backpacks really take up a lot of space…

Google Maps's idea of highlighting Shakujii-dai.
My old area, Shakujii-dai. The flagged location at Musashi-sakai is the Chinchintei ramen place mentioned in Joshiraku

Breakfast issues

For the past few years, unless I’m in the mountains (or very severely hungover) I’m having granola with almond milk for breakfast. I switched from using cow milk after it started causing trouble (bloating and such fun stuff), but that’s genetic.

However recently I noticed that right after eating breakfast I get incredibly sleepy. It makes no sense: at that point I’m only 2-3 hours at most into the day, usually past my first coffee or energy drink, and possibly even past a good gym workout. And yet.

I grew suspicious, so this week I’ve been experimenting. Not having breakfast. Having the granola breakfast when I’m really hungry. Only having a slice of famichiki for breakfast. Conclusion is that the granola + almond milk mix, even if only half a serving, still makes me very sleepy.

What gives? More importantly, what could I replace it with so I’m not dead first thing in the morning?


花見できた

最後に花見行こうとしたのはもう数年前になる。その時も行ったもののすぐ雨が降り出したのでファミレス入ってランチで終わった。コロナ禍もあってなかなかそういう集まりも難しいとな… でも今年はもう諸々の規制のほとんど解除されたこともあって、石神井公園の八重桜の下で花見できた。

花見はソメイヨシノに限るとかいう人いるかもしれないが、俺はそういう差別はしない。夜のジョギングとかで公園も石神井川沿いの満開のソメイヨシノはたっぷり見てるし。

この前の四阿山登った時道の駅で買った雷電IPAのケースを差し入れとして持っていったが、意外とちゃんと解散する時まで全部なくなってよかった(持ち帰りたくなかった)。一日中天気がよくてこんな快晴で花見できたのは多分大学ぶり。

二次会では新しいお店紹介してもらったし。やった。


Addictions

Observing my own behavior I realize that I tend to get “addicted” to things. For example last year it was League in the early months and interior design after getting back from Pakistan. Of course it’s on top of my generic routine of going to the gym and hiking, climbing and/or snowboarding, but it also means that it takes a huge amount of effort to focus on anything else. Even if I want to code up some of my ideas, I’d end up playing ranked for hours or looking up reversible interior hacks for my tiny flat.

For the past few weeks the ongoing addiction has been playing the bass. I don’t know why it suddenly clicked so hard (since I’ve owned a bass for over a decade now and practiced some riffs on and off) but it did. It’s been since I graduated (and thus stopped playing actively) that I had calluses on my fingers. My sense of rhythm is still trash, but even when I was in the music club it took two years to develop that, so no rush there.

This time though I picked up an audio interface (Focusrite Scarlett 2i2) so that I can hear and record better. I’ve often seen Youtube musicians joke about “the first time you hear yourself recorded” and damn it’s true. The bad is real. But I guess that’s what makes the progress of learning new stuff so enjoyable.


Norlan

A few years back, when I think it was still only being crowdfunded, I got myself a pair of the Norlan whisky glasses. I cracked one sometime later and lost the other one to a fall from the countertop last week. By sheer coincidence though, last fall I clicked on their email about their steel tumbler, which is about the same shape as the glass glasses were, except steel. Meaning hopefully I won’t be able to break it. It also arrived just in time (literally the day after I broke the second glass). Cheers.

A year of things not working out

Including working out. If only I was joking.

a foggy forest with trees on a hill

最近の発見

ここ何年もずっと同じところに住んでるけど、ここ最近でした発見が2件もあって、いつでも世界は新しい情報を渡してくれるなと思った。

まずは近くの高台から空気が澄んだ日の夕焼けの逆行で富士山(の輪郭)が見える。山頂の方しか見えないから、想像するような富士山じゃなく「えっそんなに山頂平だっけ?」と思いそうになるような富士山(案外平です)。その形状だから最初に見たときに目を疑ったけど方向と剣ヶ峰の尖りで間違いない。

そして背景(西方面)が曇っていると逆に田無タワーがはっきり見えることも最近の発見。前職でよく青梅街道の西遊記運転していつも前方の田無タワーが印象的だったが、住宅街からは普段見えない。ただしある(朝のジョギングで毎日のように通る)橋から見るとちょうど見える。最初気づいたのは(同じ方向に高圧電線も見えるから)形じゃなくその頂点の白いライトで、そこからよく見ると実は田無タワーの特徴的なあの形がお見え。

こうしてウン年住んでもまだ新しい発見があるから、新しいこと探す目を失わないようにね…


What was and what’s to come

I’ve already written about what was going on most of last year in my birthday post, but so many people around me are writing year-end/year-start summaries that nudged me to revisit the topic as well.

Budapest at night

またまた忙しい

忙しいぞ。

遠征に出るのでアドカレの記事を事前に書き溜める必要がある。そして勢い余って色々書きたくなる。現状すでにブログに書き溜めが6件、未完成さらに4件、後会社のブログにも一件ある。楽しいし記録に残るんで今後振り返にも役に立つし、例えば転職考えることになったらその時アピールもできるし(できるか)。

あとは遠征の準備そのものでやることが多い。渡航で必要なPCR検査とか接種証明書の準備、今オミクロンで盛り上がってる世の中で一日で渡航条件が変わる可能性すらあるから油断ならない(変わりませんように)。実際に荷造りも始めて、ハイパーライトのリュックを遠征でいよいよ試せるかもしれないからワクワクしてる。本来は夏のK2で使う予定だったけど、それはコロナでとんだよね…