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Our terrible ongoing experience with the home search continues. I’d been looking forward to the property inspection scheduled for Sunday all week, confident that this was the one. Indeed, so confident was I that I said to Eri as I left the house that it was difficult to imagine what could prevent us from wanting to move there. Well, life finds a way and I was dismayed on being shown the property to discover that it didn’t have a dishwasher. This despite the fact that we had confirmed during our initial enquiry that it did in fact have a dishwasher and the agent’s own materials listing a dishwasher as one of the apartment’s amenities. Indeed, this put me in the bizarre situation during the inspection of holding up the one-page property summary the agent gave me on entering the apartment when she seemed surprised that I thought it had one.
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There’s a joke amongst some of the Japan-based expatriates on Twitter about how often headlines that refer to Japan use the word ‘mulling’. To be fair to the translators, Japanese governments do frequently announce that they’re considering something. Not the outcome of the consideration process; an announcement that considering is going on. Exhibit A: the Japanese Government announced over the weekend that they were considering easing border restrictions (NHK). When will the consideration process end? Possibly when the current measures are due to expire (the middle of March) but your guess is as good as mine.
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The Olympics began last week (I think) but I honestly haven’t been paying much attention. Eri did figure skating when she was in high school and so she’s particularly interested but I’m practically anti-Olympics at this point.
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I’ve started time-restricted fasting again. That’s the diet where you restrict your consumption of calories to a small window but otherwise don’t worry about what you’re eating. I’ve been using the relatively easy 16:8 pattern for the past week but as of this writing I’ve changed it to 18:6.
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I haven’t done much programming over the past couple of weeks. I’m not entirely sure why but while I haven’t been doing much on that front, I started studying Japanese again with Kanshudo. (Are the two connected? I guess they’re both about self-direct learning.) All evidence supports the theory that this will be another short-lived attempt but fingers crossed.
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After singing the praises of Xbox Game Pass two weeks ago (and buying a new Xbox Controller!), I cancelled it before it renewed for the month. While I do still think the web app is an incredible achievement, the network latency became more of an issue over time. It did prompt me to give the PS4 Remote Play app on the iPad another look and that’s how I’m getting through Jedi: Fallen Order now.
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Although I wasn’t familiar with the meme of Grandpa Joe being the true villain of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (see here), I nevertheless enjoyed Sage Hyden’s ‘Willy Wonka and the Myth of the Lazy Poor’.
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I listened to Hi-Phi Nation’s four-part series on the philosopher, David Lewis (first episode). As a paying Slate Plus member, I was aware of the show but had been put off by its name and its self-description as a ‘story- and sound-driven philosophy podcast’. I was afraid that meant the philosophy was given short shrift but that wasn’t the case in this series and host, Barry Lam, was a terrific guide through Lewis career. With the caveat that I’ve only listened to four episodes, I’d strongly recommend it if you’re interested in thinking about philosophical ideas.
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I was listening to Capital Cities In a Tidal Wave of Mystery (Apple Music) again and what a banger of an album. ‘Safe and Sound’ in particular always puts me back in Osaka in 2014.
