Web-toolbox.dev is an excellent & convenient bilingual English/Japanese site for web devs by K (thanks!), with various tools for generation, encoding, SEO, text. 🛠️
I want to learn more about storytelling, and The Perfect Story by Karen Eber 📚 has been great so far. The author posted on LinkedIn about a new Japanese translation, which you can find here.
I searched on the word “Hygge” after eating lunch at a cafe called that, and found this cozy little book on the topic: The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living (The Happiness Institute Series) by Meik Wiking 📚
Our dog goes to daycare with a big unit of a black lab, whose human is French, so I decided to compile a French dog command list, with Japanese and English, to try to communicate next time we meet. Assis! 🐾
Happy Valentine’s Day 😍 special chocolate from Blue Cacao!
I really enjoyed and found insightful I Never Thought of It That Way by Mónica Guzmán. It will give you tips about how to bridge the divide in conversation with those you disagree with, and help you stay curious! 📚
Went to Kanda Daimyojin shrine to receive New Year blessings for my firm eSolia. You fill a fill a form, tell what blessings you want (we chose business success and employee health), wear a special sash around your neck, and attend a 15 min ceremony. Let’s go! ⛩️🙏🏻
If you like design and thinking about design, User Friendly by Cliff Kuang is a home run of a book. Just fantastic. You could follow its threads to study further, for a year. 📚
Interestingly heard via two completely separate conversations, D2’s husband and her best friend both are programming in python now in their careers; the former for data science, the latter for the back end of web sites. All that python setup nonsense gives me a rash, though. 🐍
TeamLab Planets in Toyosu was Fantastic
A few years back I took IDEO’s “Insights for Innovation” 5-week course, and just reviewed the assignment submissions. I did manage to implement what I wanted to, at eSolia, and think this course was worth it. 😄
Renewed my Japan drivers license at the Futamatagawa center. A pretty efficient process for the most part, though I feel a little traumatized after having watched their safety video which contained several actual scenes of cars hitting bicycles! Be safe out there, people. 🚙
Apple’s Image Playground (that I just got access to) would not make a fire-breathing Shiba for me, but it did set a Shiba’s tail on fire. 😜
At Unitora in Senkyaku-Banrai (Toyosu, Shijomae), before we go to TeamLab Planets. It was sooo good. 🍣
For my birthday (59! what?!) I got this Kanazawa-ya U-shaped pillow with wool stuffing. Ordered during their New Year sale, it came with a nice case (expected) and extra stuffing and a handkerchief to boot (a bonus!). It’s great! 😴 #金澤屋
Congrats to Aoyama Gakuin for their incredible run of the Hakone Ekiden in 10:40:20, a new record. 2nd Komazawa 2:50 back, 3rd Kokugakuin 9:29 back, edging Waseda! 🏃🏼♂️
Japan Shrine Donation Amounts
Happy New Year one and all. Hope it’s a good one for you! In Japan, we have osechi like in these photos. 🎍🇯🇵
Got a Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition, but unfortunately it’s not possible to transfer old Kindle book purchases I made a long time ago in the US, to my main Japan-based Amazon account. The Paperwhite e-ink tech is fantastic, but it’s annoying to have to pay twice. 😤
Been doing the “big tidy” for the past couple of weekends. Today was about changing the sink filter, cleaning the range hood, sprinkling weed killer, and lubing up the rollers and hinges in the house. 🏡🧹