tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54557822142424726772024-03-15T17:45:59.020+09:00Janne In OsakaJan Morenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06834641501438709866noreply@blogger.comBlogger828125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5455782214242472677.post-65360527215098906612024-01-03T21:17:00.001+09:002024-01-04T08:47:27.939+09:00The Web is broken<p>Happy New year! The Web is Dead!<br /></p>
<p>No but really, have you noticed how the web kind of sucks nowadays? Search is broken, social media is people screaming at each other, the web is full of useless sites that all seem to copy each other, and it's full of intrusive, noisy, <i>bad</i> ads everywhere. I used to love the web. But it's really no fun any more. Cory Doctorow calls this process "<a href="https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/#hey-guys">enshittification</a>", and he describes the whole thing much better than I can. Go read that, please. </p><h3 style="text-align: left;">At First<br /></h3>
<p>The pre-web internet content was all created by individuals, who skewed very male, very white and very nerdy (an old joke is that "On the Internet the men are men, the women are also men, and the 13-year olds are FBI agents"). "Content" was mailing list messages and Usenet forum posts.<br /></p><p>The early web was primitive and bad, but still a major improvement. Regular people soon picked it up and the web filled up with information about, well, everything. If you wanted to know about an old TV-series or the history of a defunct camera company, somewhere somebody probably had a page about that. Perhaps it wasn't well-written, correct or well designed, but it was <i>earnest</i> - somebody's pet project or deep interest, put out there for you to find, often through the magic of Google search.</p>
<p>Companies and organizations soon joined the web, and by and large they've mostly enriched the web with more information and new services. News, travel bookings, shopping, online gaming, banking, even doing your taxes — this has been a good thing.<br /><br /></p>
<h3 style="text-align: left;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOv9D6fXEtGT50YhSjws4u-Fpz5msN4TA6C-Ht8b7aDVcNMUG-LEJnkhA4zCcfv2bCqRI2XnpGuJER_YlS_Bu4lLdaACqzqRdkKoEhTxF_U8SjpTSxlxhqX25SGvRGRnOnMtZ8oU9lZpQKVs6K_ef-HiaP8GiM8AjPuT9E8-S9G5N-fD2yudpvdvUUxWcY/s2400/IMGP3286.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="2400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOv9D6fXEtGT50YhSjws4u-Fpz5msN4TA6C-Ht8b7aDVcNMUG-LEJnkhA4zCcfv2bCqRI2XnpGuJER_YlS_Bu4lLdaACqzqRdkKoEhTxF_U8SjpTSxlxhqX25SGvRGRnOnMtZ8oU9lZpQKVs6K_ef-HiaP8GiM8AjPuT9E8-S9G5N-fD2yudpvdvUUxWcY/s16000/IMGP3286.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />The Web was a new wave of communication. OK, that's a bit strained.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span><br />Things Change <br /></h3><p>But things changed. <a href="https://www.cnet.com/tech/tech-industry/google-buys-ad-firm-doubleclick-for-3-1-billion/">Google bought Doubleclick</a> and transformed from a search company to the largest ad-tech company on earth. Search began to favour company <a href="https://elizabethtai.com/2023/11/09/is-the-internet-really-broken/">web sites that ran advertising and made them money</a>, over blogs and private sites that did not.</p>
<p>Large-scale social media took over. You no longer made a web page or wrote a blog; you posted on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Reddit. The social networks are as dependent on advertising revenue as Google, and so they push you toward staying on their sites, and toward posts that increase "engagement" — by making you upset and argumentative — so they can expose you to more ads and make them more money.<br /><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTkUXwvsYameg4lBC46IdleMwXjXDHeSn6ZxcuigLmgwljR2r8uXQr1y6rsfwvck8z_Bmy6Cd-Xb7aSTU85pn8qCsZKQ01FBRRVi-NG4GJaMm5ljaF79rl9zJwHXpru-PcKfklXQlK99TccOn8ac99RsyVhRYxsMjb1HlHDkhpMQ2B8b7n1QagMupMXZR3/s2400/IMGP3797.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="2400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTkUXwvsYameg4lBC46IdleMwXjXDHeSn6ZxcuigLmgwljR2r8uXQr1y6rsfwvck8z_Bmy6Cd-Xb7aSTU85pn8qCsZKQ01FBRRVi-NG4GJaMm5ljaF79rl9zJwHXpru-PcKfklXQlK99TccOn8ac99RsyVhRYxsMjb1HlHDkhpMQ2B8b7n1QagMupMXZR3/s16000/IMGP3797.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />Social media users fishing for comments.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table> <p></p>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">Today</h3>
<p>By now the net is a full-on garbage fire. It's the chaos of fifty clowns in a clown car, except the clowns all have fangs and rabies, and their fake flowers squirt burning napalm. Any real information is drowned out by millions of machine-generated fake SEO sites with badly copied content and dozens or hundreds of ads. Social media is full of right-wing bots screaming hate and bile into the void.<br /><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFrsQkgmoiff_F_0y4A-c8uB3hW-71RkIalZ4Z5DQNWoHBK6sOaEqRMJMMTnoi9Iuuv1T097m6ysA1bS3JWRZpSn6qk4CdGpjvzTb6fiwnsKSRMrUqWmjKC0yfU5-2fTW1Wa_cDohi8Yv9BClUXftAuLSgBE-XghoNba_-TDPY9beZkQkJA3EP-1kkgXd9/s2400/IMGP3455.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1679" data-original-width="2400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFrsQkgmoiff_F_0y4A-c8uB3hW-71RkIalZ4Z5DQNWoHBK6sOaEqRMJMMTnoi9Iuuv1T097m6ysA1bS3JWRZpSn6qk4CdGpjvzTb6fiwnsKSRMrUqWmjKC0yfU5-2fTW1Wa_cDohi8Yv9BClUXftAuLSgBE-XghoNba_-TDPY9beZkQkJA3EP-1kkgXd9/s16000/IMGP3455.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />How the web feels today.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p>
<p><b><br />I did a small experiment </b>recently. I searched for a specific phrase that appears in an older blog post of mine. Google returned two pages worth of SEO garbage sites before my own blog post appeared somewhere on the third page. None of the garbage sites even had the phrase anywhere on their page. </p><p>Google is probably OK with this — they make money each time you visit any ad-laden site after all, and the more sites you have to visit the more money they make. But for the rest of us search is becoming unusably bad. <br /></p>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">Blame<br /></h3><p>So who is to blame? The giant online companies that control the web come to mind - Google, Meta/Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon and Apple, as well as regional companies such as Rakuten, Yahoo Japan and so on. They all make money from ads, and their incentives are all pointed towards more SEO garbage and less individual content. Towards removing competition and silencing anything and anybody that don't make them even more money. If that means inciting genocide or promoting racist garbage then that's just the externalized cost of doing business.</p>
<p>Regulators aren't blameless. They allowed these companies to take control over the web in the first place — to buy or kill smaller companies and create impenetrable moats against competition. Yes, the EU is moving in the right direction, but it is very little and very late.</p>
<p>To be clear, I don't believe there's much evil <i>intent</i> on the part of most companies. CEOs are not by and large twirling their moustaches while tying maidens to railway tracks. But their income depends on inciting anger and violence, promoting garbage, discourage civil discourse and suppressing any alternatives to the big tech behemots themselves. As Upton Sinclair put it, "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it."</p>
<p><b>We also must blame ourselves</b>. Me, I'm personally to blame. It's partially my fault. And probably yours too. </p>
<p>Over time we have stopped putting stuff online. We stopped making web pages and posting on forums and writing blogs in favour of Facebook, Twitter and other siloed social media. And now, as public social media is becoming increasingly shrill, competitive and nasty, we have started to withdraw from the public internet altogether. </p>
<p>We write less. We post less. And when we do, we increasingly do it in private spaces - in private chats on Whatsapp, Line, iMessage, Slack or Discord. When only you and your friends can see your conversations you won't get harassed by fake followers, far-right bots or some reply-guy high on painkillers and resentment towards your race, gender, political stance or opinion on superhero movies.</p>
<p><b>But when only you</b> and your friends can see what you write, nobody else can. When you share your neat trick for getting lint out of the washing machine, or a surprising fact about the db V65 diesel locomotive, or explain a new paper your research group published, or that you've discovered that the Kalevala mythos is really cool, or that you have trouble doing a consistent cross-stitch, then nobody else will learn from it and nobody else will give you feedback. Like with open source software, sharing information makes everybody just a little richer. And when we don't share, we all get just a little poorer.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Moving Forward<br /></h3>
<p>Over the past ten years my regular blogging has gradually dropped, and a year ago I gave up. It felt pointless to keep writing here, shouting into an uncaring void with only spam comments to keep me company. <br /></p>
<p>I also started using <a href="https://joinmastodon.org/">Mastodon</a>. It is, for once, a social media network that doesn't promote "engagement" — that is, make people upset for money. It is a slower experience but, also, I think, a much healthier one. <a href="https://fosstodon.org/@jannem">I feel comfortable there</a> in a way I haven't been elsewhere. There certainly <i>are</i> assholes there as anywhere, but it is much easier to avoid them; nobody is pushing posts on to you that you don't want to see. It's easy to block people and filter out subjects.</p><p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaWPgJPygMJP43j8TtHqJPJsblQeRRavt8AKIzORCTX_38EGT6H9a4ZbXS57zrAdsDnOZU29saoY1LR6uYbv0VJw8nAQLPqM20ANc5Ee3BG61Kaor5gePhVlSQ7ucOc30HAjwCCqMx9xE5uBjAIFcWzuIr7lJlzjeictDvMiqlGiNfy57Ol28iDc4AK3q7/s2400/IMGP3778.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="2400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaWPgJPygMJP43j8TtHqJPJsblQeRRavt8AKIzORCTX_38EGT6H9a4ZbXS57zrAdsDnOZU29saoY1LR6uYbv0VJw8nAQLPqM20ANc5Ee3BG61Kaor5gePhVlSQ7ucOc30HAjwCCqMx9xE5uBjAIFcWzuIr7lJlzjeictDvMiqlGiNfy57Ol28iDc4AK3q7/s16000/IMGP3778.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />Looking forward towards the future. Or something like that.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p>
<p><b>And it is there</b> that I realized that the death of the common web is not inevitable. It was our collective choice to give in to the big tech companies that is killing the web. And it's ultimately our choice to start ignoring those companies that can revive it.</p><p>I thought I was writing into the void, but everything I've written is read by quite a few people. I got inspired to search a bit, and found many other blogs and web pages that refer to some old post of mine (especially posts about old cameras). I just never heard about it. I <i>should</i> have realized that's a thing — I read and use other peoples' blog posts in the exact same way.<br /></p><p>So what am I arguing for? Not a revolution — nobody can touch the big corporations running the web. Instead, perhaps, an escape. We can't do anything about the dissolution of the web at large; but hiding in private chats is not our only way out either.</p><p>What we can do is simple: Start writing stuff again. And recording stuff. And filming stuff. And put it out in <i>public</i> - not on the corporate social media, but <a href="https://chrismcleod.dev/blog/blogging-is-where-its-at-again/">in your own blog</a>, in your own web page, on Mastodon, on Peertube and wherever; put it where anybody can find it and react to it and link to it. Anil Dash <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-commentary/internet-future-about-to-get-weird-1234938403/">has a great piece in Rolling Stone</a> about this.<br /></p><p>And link to other people's stuff. Tell your readers, listeners or viewers where you got your ideas. Where they can go <a href="https://youtu.be/FZN0PBBzEHw?feature=shared">for more information</a>. Where they <a href="http://www.linusakesson.net/music/vivaldi-summer-presto/index.php">could get inspired</a>. Could be individuals, could be companies' sites. Yes, it could still be on Youtube or other corporate social media — not everybody is on board with this and it's still really valuable.<br /><br /></p><p>Me, I'm going to start writing here again. How, exactly, I don't yet know. I will probably take some pointers from the idea of a <a href="https://www.genei.io/blog/a-beginners-guide-to-digital-gardens">digital garden</a> and start treating this space as more of an ongoing notebook, not a set of essays. That's how this blog began almost 20 years ago after all, and I think it's time I returned to that.</p><p><br /></p>Jan Morenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06834641501438709866noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5455782214242472677.post-24253535296809582582023-12-31T23:59:00.001+09:002023-12-31T23:59:00.129+09:00Happy New 2024<p> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYWB9QupvHuA8-SGT0rV9P4WQXEa93OZWpnS6XCl8cIPkBn2tqtsdxfT4YTPEsXhXjztr_Q-xB6Cnj0bwIMK_zXAsNEfQ-ilEEulYf45YNv3yvqVMRk7V6d6BW0GPJcudm0CGXOvhtxn8oDO7tCBjWgSNZVnye51HJvU_HdN9Ptr03CMgh9ujSvHN6Rsk7/s2190/nengajo2023.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1481" data-original-width="2190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYWB9QupvHuA8-SGT0rV9P4WQXEa93OZWpnS6XCl8cIPkBn2tqtsdxfT4YTPEsXhXjztr_Q-xB6Cnj0bwIMK_zXAsNEfQ-ilEEulYf45YNv3yvqVMRk7V6d6BW0GPJcudm0CGXOvhtxn8oDO7tCBjWgSNZVnye51HJvU_HdN9Ptr03CMgh9ujSvHN6Rsk7/s16000/nengajo2023.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />The Year of the Dragon<br /></td></tr></tbody></table></p><p>Happy New Year everyone!</p><p>Janne and Ritsuko</p><p>ps: I have plans for this blog! ds.</p><p><br /></p>Jan Morenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06834641501438709866noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5455782214242472677.post-24035524712643021372023-03-18T07:49:00.000+09:002023-03-18T07:49:04.037+09:00Something funny happened<p>Hi, is this on?</p><p><br /></p><p>Yes, so it's been a while. Turns out I'm sticking with <a href="https://fosstodon.org/@jannem">Mastodon</a> this time around, so a lot of random thoughts I'd have posted here now go there instead.</p><p>Also, my Japanese lessons involve a lot of short essay-writing nowadays. After I spent several hours writing something in Japanese, I'm not really in the mood to turn around and do more writing in another non-native language.<br /></p><p>Meanwhile, here's something that happened. <br /><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0oN7axMqQC4oRhBnevHDZQn1les2WfdmzGVtf7vLlUlaLsgFO370WgBph5EDe1lwaVLZX7OWv6oSSayONfxAaPoDmsRhz9UUpM0WyNy7JW1mZkjS_m0bp82Yrmj-r2LrqXtuLeryrS84aulzpZf69RWuN0piDVIh0tc-Z8lSaGQQWvd_-N1x_-ohl9g/s2400/IMGP2826.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="2400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0oN7axMqQC4oRhBnevHDZQn1les2WfdmzGVtf7vLlUlaLsgFO370WgBph5EDe1lwaVLZX7OWv6oSSayONfxAaPoDmsRhz9UUpM0WyNy7JW1mZkjS_m0bp82Yrmj-r2LrqXtuLeryrS84aulzpZf69RWuN0piDVIh0tc-Z8lSaGQQWvd_-N1x_-ohl9g/s16000/IMGP2826.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">Another winter holiday in Osaka. Midosuji is decorated with light from Namba up to Nakanoshima every December. Very cool, and lots of people stop to take pictures at dusk. <br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></p><p><b>Ritsuko's phone was getting old.</b> It's a Pixel 3a that's out of support by now. We've both long liked the Google Pixel series; they're the best unlocked phones you can get in Japan. The phone market here is still broken, with most new models available only from the providers, and only if you sign up for an account. Anyway, she picked the Pixel 6a.</p><p>It's a solid choice and a great mid-range phone. But unlike the earlier Pixel phones, Pixel 6 onward have an optical fingerprint sensor embedded in the screen, rather than a capacitive sensor on the back. That optical sensor works fine for most people, but is erratic or even unusable for some. It's seems related to having dry or cold hands, or shallow prints. Unfortunately Ritsuko is one of those people. </p><p>She understandably didn't want a phone without a fingerprint sensor, and we didn't want to return the phone — it's a good phone, bought at a nice discount. Our solution: she took my year old Pixel 5 and I got the 6a. The 5 is far more "premium" (and cost twice as much) and still decently new; and it has the capacitive sensor that works well for her.<br /><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGJHIxFqQF-4lSy3vFlCXxyoz2_HzoXZj5M1HkZGBzQPBO1rNzh4joqoIVmVUfByWmKe2CVmSi7_GtrIpyHzTLmbMTX8PKFq2oVKqjoVT3F6qLrBbShvqVpHOvyzqwbLD61RkCl5oYvpVO8NpZdWXjOAml7qzaIj6S7VtwQ0_xOd9VksaF7QbIMcNsaw/s2400/IMGP2628.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="2400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGJHIxFqQF-4lSy3vFlCXxyoz2_HzoXZj5M1HkZGBzQPBO1rNzh4joqoIVmVUfByWmKe2CVmSi7_GtrIpyHzTLmbMTX8PKFq2oVKqjoVT3F6qLrBbShvqVpHOvyzqwbLD61RkCl5oYvpVO8NpZdWXjOAml7qzaIj6S7VtwQ0_xOd9VksaF7QbIMcNsaw/s16000/IMGP2628.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />Big Friendly Duck made another appearance! Rainy, but otherwise a fun evening.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p><br /></p><p>So, I had a high-end phone for almost a year, and now a mid-range one for a few months. What's the actual difference between them? </p><p><b>So first the obvious things.</b> The 5 is a bit smaller and shorter, a bit lighter and just a little thinner. The 6a has a larger screen and a larger battery. That's not a reflection on quality or price; it's just a design difference. Phones come in different sizes and which one you prefer is personal. I think I may prefer the larger screen on the 6a.<br /><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMWTNdFxK7_nqZQbj5_TWV5lNphuzGQ_hNLGrImVgkoxIS71tWKHzuRTpz6AvXZOr2SUs6mYZZ-FKmuWBtp8Ix2Gysi3IiDJuYr2KzrGQw2ev84RokjKMpKHyVLs3W8mqiwul2QOkO5kGLerJQI2ToZnfGSdU0rXABpqJsDf4svb8sLP_nhgjkEjyPuA/s2400/IMGP2699.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1920" data-original-width="2400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMWTNdFxK7_nqZQbj5_TWV5lNphuzGQ_hNLGrImVgkoxIS71tWKHzuRTpz6AvXZOr2SUs6mYZZ-FKmuWBtp8Ix2Gysi3IiDJuYr2KzrGQw2ev84RokjKMpKHyVLs3W8mqiwul2QOkO5kGLerJQI2ToZnfGSdU0rXABpqJsDf4svb8sLP_nhgjkEjyPuA/s16000/IMGP2699.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />You do what you do with what you have. I hope they arrived OK.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p><b><br />Things that makes no difference at all.</b> The 6a has a faster CPU, but I can't detect that in use. The Pixel 5 has a more premium screen, but when I put the phones down side by side, match the brightness and show the same image, I can't tell the difference. </p><p>The Pixel 5 supports one oddball satellite navigation option and some older wireless standards the 6a lacks; the 6a has support for Wifi 6. None of which matter at all to me (and I suspect most other people). The 5 has 8GB memory to the 6a:s 6GB, but Android is really good at managing memory use so again, I never even notice.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Stuff that differs but doesn't really matter.</b> The 6a camera is slightly better to my eyes. They're basically the same hardware but the 6a has some newer tweaks. Bluetooth also seems to be a bit more stable on the 6a (not that the 5 is bad or anything). And the 6a speakers are louder. </p><p>The Pixel 5 sandstone-textured back looks and feels better, more premium. The 6a does look fairly striking in white with a black camera stripe. Either way you're going to cover the phone with a case anyhow.<br /><b> <br /></b></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBhYJyTyUkIOdUB-JqxRquhA9rJrSV5aS8IXez6hIA_1-3lShnpGydNQN-N5qQ8fimGBEsV3kUDJBtTKNHMZ1NHsnPg0-7jDoz_IDXQk80uGzwWiBv7oOHRBANCoc7mtOZO4aXR_jFMgd2mz0UVWfO6tTTrhDIg1Nldzvb4LfFuOchGO9fw2j8Hjctbg/s2400/IMGP2634.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1920" data-original-width="2400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBhYJyTyUkIOdUB-JqxRquhA9rJrSV5aS8IXez6hIA_1-3lShnpGydNQN-N5qQ8fimGBEsV3kUDJBtTKNHMZ1NHsnPg0-7jDoz_IDXQk80uGzwWiBv7oOHRBANCoc7mtOZO4aXR_jFMgd2mz0UVWfO6tTTrhDIg1Nldzvb4LfFuOchGO9fw2j8Hjctbg/s16000/IMGP2634.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />Stairs.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p><b>Actually important differences</b>. This is the points you'd actually care about when choosing a phone. <br /></p>The Pixel 5 has wireless charging. The 6a does not. This is the one thing I miss. It's so nice to put the phone down on your desk and let it charge without messing with cables and gradually wear out the USB port.<p>And finally, the fingerprint sensor. The back sensor on the 5 is reliable and fast, and great when you hold the phone in your hand. But it does suck when it's on your desk. The 6a sensor works fine for me, but some people have lots of difficulty with it. And the front screen location is truly useful — you can unlock the phone when it's sitting on a table without picking it up.</p><p>25000 yen, or 40%. That's how much more expensive the 5 was compared to the 6a. The <i>actual</i> difference is even larger as we bought the 6a on sale. That's a fair amount of money.<br /></p><p><br /></p><p><b>In the end,</b> was it a fair trade? Yes, I think so. I'm as happy with the 6a as I was with the 5, and Ritsuko got a major — and much needed — upgrade. Would I consider getting another "budget" model the next time? Again, yes. Nothing about the 6a feels cheap or compromised in any way. </p><p>Phones are a settled product by now; for the most part they all do the same stuff, in the same way, as any other. And the 40% premium for a high end phone feels frankly a lot to pay for, in my case, wireless charging and nothing much else.<br /><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5YZ_ptf1tXv4W-GQZgD913YLNNPJnog35LIrFPBt9Iy0dd4TTUymx3NaJAGNXp1H54hWZA6y9QZbAeSNtuvWwCLQFb9LIrpokVLHHjbfNZTIEiDqrQe84v9bGTrXwLQTLOtjvUcMrtVp-JapqoGgCKh7youYofnhf9VD3Jp6Rmvemwk7tTGnrG7plpg/s2400/IMGP2859.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2400" data-original-width="1920" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5YZ_ptf1tXv4W-GQZgD913YLNNPJnog35LIrFPBt9Iy0dd4TTUymx3NaJAGNXp1H54hWZA6y9QZbAeSNtuvWwCLQFb9LIrpokVLHHjbfNZTIEiDqrQe84v9bGTrXwLQTLOtjvUcMrtVp-JapqoGgCKh7youYofnhf9VD3Jp6Rmvemwk7tTGnrG7plpg/s16000/IMGP2859.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />Reflections. On phones, that is.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p><br /></p>Jan Morenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06834641501438709866noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5455782214242472677.post-15705873108824360952022-12-31T23:59:00.001+09:002022-12-31T23:59:00.200+09:00Happy New Year!<p> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhml65q_MzUJ0gwC76GGtNSF74bCw4dSetdg31dOdwWZy8a5eo82z0vUfXNBZ_BbsMOwROUiVCFSJau01lUjqby4mAuaVjzHsQRssLyET-lAeGH0PwY0J4zuqD03HqEXSKVuBDVOhd14gcE8Cs721PBxBXiJ-I4A1TaHipLH1E8akEZBuwhv_vwJoi3hQ/s1600/nengajo2023.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1073" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhml65q_MzUJ0gwC76GGtNSF74bCw4dSetdg31dOdwWZy8a5eo82z0vUfXNBZ_BbsMOwROUiVCFSJau01lUjqby4mAuaVjzHsQRssLyET-lAeGH0PwY0J4zuqD03HqEXSKVuBDVOhd14gcE8Cs721PBxBXiJ-I4A1TaHipLH1E8akEZBuwhv_vwJoi3hQ/s16000/nengajo2023.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />The Year of The Rabbit<span> </span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table></p><p>Happy new year everyone!<br /></p>Jan Morenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06834641501438709866noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5455782214242472677.post-63237431988715702412022-12-23T21:30:00.000+09:002022-12-23T21:30:11.733+09:00Christmas, Hokkaido and A Certain Kind of Woolly Mammoth<p></p><p>Merry Christmas! Long time no see! </p><p>Things have been quiet around here, but I have been busy writing — homework, in Japanese, for my teachers' eyes only. Every couple of weeks I write a short essay on something, anything, just to work on my skills. Writing is probably the best way to improve your grasp of a language, but it does take forever and a half to finish anything, leaving me with little energy to write anything here as well.</p><p></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqRZo_aLJED-hgvSH5fo0WL2SqUv8O02Q0TU-D_Alc1ZD-PDwK8cfWOxGgXEb-WgdVp_k1-a8ZP7cY1wDZKkTlPWd43zuHEUH_f3hbgXtcUSg6gCGkN2VJAxtMoekjy8GNIkK461dnDR420WDAgxZf6iXKoshPecc--es9y_V0jKCPwoq9lQzQfc1mPw/s2400/IMGP2329.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="2400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqRZo_aLJED-hgvSH5fo0WL2SqUv8O02Q0TU-D_Alc1ZD-PDwK8cfWOxGgXEb-WgdVp_k1-a8ZP7cY1wDZKkTlPWd43zuHEUH_f3hbgXtcUSg6gCGkN2VJAxtMoekjy8GNIkK461dnDR420WDAgxZf6iXKoshPecc--es9y_V0jKCPwoq9lQzQfc1mPw/s16000/IMGP2329.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />Christmas light festival in Sapporo.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table> </p><p><b>Meanwhile</b> I've also become active on Mastodon. It is a distributed social media system that can be used as (but is not limited to be) a sort-of replacement to Twitter. I tried it once before but gave it up. Due to certain shenanigans at Twitter lately there's a lot more people and more activity there now, and I find myself sticking with it.</p><p>My address is <a href="https://fosstodon.org/@jannem">@jannem@fosstodon.org</a>. I mostly follow other people but I also tend to post shorter comments that just don't fit well in a blog like this. Another reason I post here less nowadays I guess.</p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy41VEt1j7q7USNiyV3IIGGbRMO5yBZj8q_GsgsKKzHQZ2mWBIbOJWecgulyWB4mQAdJWxe7yma77g5JcZoYzpsr6OrMst_twfxMz_brMXTEdYqgT8KmqHqImwYmKduXl265T_CjM-0yGxwqq2hcv9h1ggMA-TK4BbKW4itdwwjrnINZDHaU5-lqTKWQ/s2400/IMGP2422.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="2400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy41VEt1j7q7USNiyV3IIGGbRMO5yBZj8q_GsgsKKzHQZ2mWBIbOJWecgulyWB4mQAdJWxe7yma77g5JcZoYzpsr6OrMst_twfxMz_brMXTEdYqgT8KmqHqImwYmKduXl265T_CjM-0yGxwqq2hcv9h1ggMA-TK4BbKW4itdwwjrnINZDHaU5-lqTKWQ/s16000/IMGP2422.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />Toya train station.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></p><p>In other news, Japan has had another round of "Go To Travel!", a travel promotion system to help the hospitality industry recover (and promote bad English slogans, but I digress). You get a heavy discount on your travel costs, and vouchers to spend on site. </p><p>The promotion is well designed; at check-in the hotel hands you 3000 yen of vouchers per person and night to spend. But you have to use them by the <i>next day</i> so you really have to spend them locally on food and drink, gifts and so on, not take the vouchers home to pay for groceries. It makes sure more of the money is spent in local travel destinations, not just the major cities.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmMO7n8o7GR_Zv9uzZA4uKp3tc22Vw_BeIWSAaLNEui2uzUTicg_nKWCrrUQrcZ_ZCEItvYox5-DT0ypspNXymNUJEWllDToGzROpmAovRlftv8IgxqeBUapIPKndM3PX35nKql7MLpMbZremfRQl-KPyhF7079Xwc4aDTdsdBpPoNNRfah8nLWUnJ1g/s2400/IMGP2479.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="2400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmMO7n8o7GR_Zv9uzZA4uKp3tc22Vw_BeIWSAaLNEui2uzUTicg_nKWCrrUQrcZ_ZCEItvYox5-DT0ypspNXymNUJEWllDToGzROpmAovRlftv8IgxqeBUapIPKndM3PX35nKql7MLpMbZremfRQl-KPyhF7079Xwc4aDTdsdBpPoNNRfah8nLWUnJ1g/s16000/IMGP2479.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">Lake Toya, a crater lake in Hokkaido. To the right is an island in the center of the lake. In the far distance you can see Mt Yotei, another volcano, and already snow-covered even though we had no snow in Toya yet. <br /><br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBoISzF5Krsc7olr9Dj1YsHlY-G9BRTf6YmVzat3OTEmy9I6fZ7-ZgFQslQonPDydgKBYAq6I2tCM9zMiszb01A5MJEvin6ArNvYUo-gLX80pbBU_Pum7WMwoVdXooQZ560Dqzv5bN9vgrjvD1_nr893FIy_k6ZsUKJ35c2TLFZ2wbyc3K1mKkmI258A/s2400/IMGP2499.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="2400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBoISzF5Krsc7olr9Dj1YsHlY-G9BRTf6YmVzat3OTEmy9I6fZ7-ZgFQslQonPDydgKBYAq6I2tCM9zMiszb01A5MJEvin6ArNvYUo-gLX80pbBU_Pum7WMwoVdXooQZ560Dqzv5bN9vgrjvD1_nr893FIy_k6ZsUKJ35c2TLFZ2wbyc3K1mKkmI258A/s16000/IMGP2499.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">The lake village is a strip of resort hotels along the shore, then a few streets worth of houses behind them. Shame about the view, but I guess it pays the bills.<br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_BAB8vMGcvCmC4oHNx2uPlGNGnlLYGXagno_oq6OyAuUEUW_AkAVt4qjQA2oVzGjNO9SEaTTyd15Q8naog9oEH3peWPhkCiHgD-7LKONvjcFxTROsIhxpQALm2O_ZCriJ2ffCsQRsb2gnXy3SrtzmZoEa1v_AJIPv0mWq5aB2TNWxd8EVO9xJk1dV8Q/s2400/IMGP2504.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1760" data-original-width="2400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_BAB8vMGcvCmC4oHNx2uPlGNGnlLYGXagno_oq6OyAuUEUW_AkAVt4qjQA2oVzGjNO9SEaTTyd15Q8naog9oEH3peWPhkCiHgD-7LKONvjcFxTROsIhxpQALm2O_ZCriJ2ffCsQRsb2gnXy3SrtzmZoEa1v_AJIPv0mWq5aB2TNWxd8EVO9xJk1dV8Q/s16000/IMGP2504.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />A cozy cafe with good coffee.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>We took the opportunity to stay a night in Sapporo, then two nights at <a href="https://www.konosumika.com/">Ko No Sumika</a>, a ryokan by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_T%C5%8Dya">Lake Toya in Hokkaido</a>, about as remote and free of people as you can find without ending up camping or something — COVID is still very much a thing on one hand; but we do want our creature comforts on the other.</p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8Z5ZRMQhhxFErJsFm-OIl8mgNaDZ0WuUbOiFeSfynKn8Yz_P89MB98fBIrYEuUvwjjgXF6lbJHE_n-WLJwAznHq9NEBrJLPPFFKBzRJ1bsfrWdt2Z8kG5XTFbnFTmlwk7PjkFle5oip8PT9QzA4A_yU2aznKDJQmvR_vk21ViICFLeVyHxfg2WYe-Tw/s3701/original_a6e1dfc6-230e-4c1f-89f9-e1b73c40580b_PXL_20221125_235141491.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2870" data-original-width="3701" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8Z5ZRMQhhxFErJsFm-OIl8mgNaDZ0WuUbOiFeSfynKn8Yz_P89MB98fBIrYEuUvwjjgXF6lbJHE_n-WLJwAznHq9NEBrJLPPFFKBzRJ1bsfrWdt2Z8kG5XTFbnFTmlwk7PjkFle5oip8PT9QzA4A_yU2aznKDJQmvR_vk21ViICFLeVyHxfg2WYe-Tw/s16000/original_a6e1dfc6-230e-4c1f-89f9-e1b73c40580b_PXL_20221125_235141491.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">First place I've stayed at with coffee filters and an actual coffee grinder. Made the morning coffee before breakfast all the more enjoyable. <br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ_ngcFfHCiLSb-YPcjwoFy7HUmCOS2zdo9H-3tAM_2ZIvYcWh3QlBRe-abWVFwl04UqxPilW4PTOGLbmtJQGuy53rDU5ON63RYYqfxJIhc1oZoRMvy9H41ff1Et6QE7cvH-16Ua-Q0tLWM24vqzjymvEDBGfCjpmtb58nD1VKKNwdUBHHwDHZzcTceg/s2048/dinner.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1423" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ_ngcFfHCiLSb-YPcjwoFy7HUmCOS2zdo9H-3tAM_2ZIvYcWh3QlBRe-abWVFwl04UqxPilW4PTOGLbmtJQGuy53rDU5ON63RYYqfxJIhc1oZoRMvy9H41ff1Et6QE7cvH-16Ua-Q0tLWM24vqzjymvEDBGfCjpmtb58nD1VKKNwdUBHHwDHZzcTceg/s16000/dinner.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />We had a traditional dinner the second evening. <br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table><br />It's a cool place (literally - bring warm clothes). There's absolutely nothing there except the crater lake. You have no choice but to relax and take in the scenery. The place has an onsen of course, and each room has its own bath with a view to the lake. <p></p><p>It wasn't cold enough for snow, but the views were still very beautiful, and the whole trip really relaxing. Even the train ride along the coast is an event with lots of views - if you go, do take the train, not a shuttle bus. </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXhC2CJKu3Cgl47Mq0XRqrShB2k53GC-_42JFwq-CyTTNeEmz00MRtq54xj027Ob97cZ6lew17EZF2ggiu0-BJQwPg4W8UM2GU0f12H0betPhi9iYAlvp7SoLishHFyU7fzQrsvJnhNVtp1YjPKehB3Paub7VXy10pywopfy7Bv53ci_sy4OIPBQVxWg/s3831/PXL_20221125_062503243~2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2154" data-original-width="3831" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXhC2CJKu3Cgl47Mq0XRqrShB2k53GC-_42JFwq-CyTTNeEmz00MRtq54xj027Ob97cZ6lew17EZF2ggiu0-BJQwPg4W8UM2GU0f12H0betPhi9iYAlvp7SoLishHFyU7fzQrsvJnhNVtp1YjPKehB3Paub7VXy10pywopfy7Bv53ci_sy4OIPBQVxWg/s16000/PXL_20221125_062503243~2.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />A view from the rooftop onsen. Life could be worse.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p><br />It's been a very pleasant mini-holiday. Three nights is perfect - long enough to experience a place, but not so long that you get bored, or have to make arrangements for your plants at home or anything like that. We're already planning another one for next year.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDUws_gtRiSrZckKbMdwKGEcBFjBXMTOiHZkVgCrx02V_nPmglUu-0lNexgd2Swvl4YY6PlxkTgOr_NmoupibDLyHeU5542pPADtfL5Ojl2odDldK7Iwcd4PDlM0uHqVdMVvry6ji8IQMZX6Gtlef1bfpSbh-dLWfYUiLmwNoxZNjV7euAmbePpEDxvg/s2400/IMGP2473.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="2400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDUws_gtRiSrZckKbMdwKGEcBFjBXMTOiHZkVgCrx02V_nPmglUu-0lNexgd2Swvl4YY6PlxkTgOr_NmoupibDLyHeU5542pPADtfL5Ojl2odDldK7Iwcd4PDlM0uHqVdMVvry6ji8IQMZX6Gtlef1bfpSbh-dLWfYUiLmwNoxZNjV7euAmbePpEDxvg/s16000/IMGP2473.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />Mt. Yotei at sunrise<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p><br /></p><br />Jan Morenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06834641501438709866noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5455782214242472677.post-88665734069475735872022-10-23T16:27:00.003+09:002022-10-23T16:27:52.545+09:00Coffee surgery - the aftermath<p>How did the coffee plant pruning turn out? Exceedingly well!</p><p>This was the plant right after cutting the trunk:<br /><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja4cNR82Qo6X5iNljfNjr2Hc6zkzQUa1uq_6r1jVkBu6iX-5hvjg-g9d1-iaznbPWHCBxL7OcMfyGSOF-NLZv7ifziiktMahJBvEwNanc1ctziJiq0HNB7UI-zJbQg6zv1wKYWBC5ZUh6gHaUvhWldPoQGe9A6CjblPOGlOPFSM9QRYvPovMHgKHrW3g/s1500/coffee_plant2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja4cNR82Qo6X5iNljfNjr2Hc6zkzQUa1uq_6r1jVkBu6iX-5hvjg-g9d1-iaznbPWHCBxL7OcMfyGSOF-NLZv7ifziiktMahJBvEwNanc1ctziJiq0HNB7UI-zJbQg6zv1wKYWBC5ZUh6gHaUvhWldPoQGe9A6CjblPOGlOPFSM9QRYvPovMHgKHrW3g/s16000/coffee_plant2.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />The coffee plant right after cutting the trunk.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>And this is the plant after one month:</p><p> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH9HT9_CjA7ylGuLJ-0603Cq03aUUUY8A1nyyaWsfOkgyrxEPgrsmPbQ7ZHDsjybI7qFE1AkFi_xeRh1jkmBg2alTq1GX1ee-65xT1ddy1bTWFSbuBmn0gG3eSG9BHIp4vMEeVUXg42t895Ry7I9oMTx8rd5RDMibggfWhyhIqJJmKL8f-0cNpgTS9pg/s1600/coffee_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH9HT9_CjA7ylGuLJ-0603Cq03aUUUY8A1nyyaWsfOkgyrxEPgrsmPbQ7ZHDsjybI7qFE1AkFi_xeRh1jkmBg2alTq1GX1ee-65xT1ddy1bTWFSbuBmn0gG3eSG9BHIp4vMEeVUXg42t895Ry7I9oMTx8rd5RDMibggfWhyhIqJJmKL8f-0cNpgTS9pg/s16000/coffee_2.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />The plant almost exactly one month later.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></p><p>OK, so the camera and the light are both better in the second picture. But it's still fair to say cutting that trunk has done the plant a world of good. There's lots of new, dense growth and little to no leaf browning. </p><p>That last may be in part because I'm more restrictive with watering; a Reddit post suggested a common cause was overwatering. I now wait until it seems dried out, then way for one more day before I completely drench the pot. It certainly seems to work.<br /></p><p>The cuttings didn't fare nearly as well:<br /><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju0_V-jtbp_ddNSJbbm7nr4sMD2vvOOAI57UAUA5NOHyBNAIfC0aqglRdIts4y98wHV08ghcS9ONarraSHZYo7vWBYaXvleGdAebJo7Bku3YB8DLYCqrAFLdDZ8Jnr1bIOjgIz50ykVzonsVt5M8M9eXhRvJJHQPCKiK6ogq0B8_CBJe0FikKXcqMFBg/s4933/cuttings_bad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3700" data-original-width="4933" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju0_V-jtbp_ddNSJbbm7nr4sMD2vvOOAI57UAUA5NOHyBNAIfC0aqglRdIts4y98wHV08ghcS9ONarraSHZYo7vWBYaXvleGdAebJo7Bku3YB8DLYCqrAFLdDZ8Jnr1bIOjgIz50ykVzonsVt5M8M9eXhRvJJHQPCKiK6ogq0B8_CBJe0FikKXcqMFBg/s16000/cuttings_bad.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />Yeah, that didn't work.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>No idea what went wrong. I still want a second plant so I may try again in spring. Will need to first look up a better way to do it — this time I just dipped the cuttings in growth hormone then pushed them into the soil. I also tried putting one in water first, but it never formed roots either. Anybody know how to take proper cuttings, let me know.<br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Jan Morenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06834641501438709866noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5455782214242472677.post-42506379268983464602022-09-16T09:28:00.004+09:002022-09-16T09:28:39.155+09:00Coffee Plant Surgery<p>Some of you may remember my coffee plant? I first got it <a href="http://janneinosaka.blogspot.com/2016/06/bonsai-has-new-friend.html">in 2016</a>, from the UCC Coffee Museum in Kobe. It came with us to Okinawa, <a href="http://janneinosaka.blogspot.com/2018/05/coffee-bloom.html">where it thrived</a> in the hot, humid climate. A few years ago it even gave me enough coffee cherries that I could brew a cup of <a href="http://janneinosaka.blogspot.com/2021/05/zero-to-coffee.html">my own homegrown coffee</a>.</p><p>But as I noted above, the regular typhoons and other weather have been a bit harsh on it. Over time it's become decidedly lanky, with long branches and sparse foliage. This is what it looked like yesterday:</p><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIGIGHxN83FA_Jeew2vun-77qS03God2n34w_KFlAVNWezlofxKH72H3SpcFkpJeH_urEgxrhajpDfncys2mCS5FqpE87_Stibm6W7aQbXgySY-SUa9cSKqyA9nFPu_NuWLkTi0ckvL23wu-QYurPn4BFibNCSIoSdTTNOJoZrYvf7PEiBrr2wky2o5A/s1349/coffee_plant1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1349" data-original-width="1200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIGIGHxN83FA_Jeew2vun-77qS03God2n34w_KFlAVNWezlofxKH72H3SpcFkpJeH_urEgxrhajpDfncys2mCS5FqpE87_Stibm6W7aQbXgySY-SUa9cSKqyA9nFPu_NuWLkTi0ckvL23wu-QYurPn4BFibNCSIoSdTTNOJoZrYvf7PEiBrr2wky2o5A/s16000/coffee_plant1.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">Life's been a bit rough for it lately. Long branches that catch the wind so it loses leaves every time we get a typhoon coming through. When most leaves are lost the branch dies. You get a ball of foliage at the top of a janky, unstable trunk.<br /><br />Sorry about the picture, by the way; it's a cellphone, and we have another plant right behind it (that we also cut at the same time, for much the same reasons).<br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table><p> <br />Actual coffee farms cut down their plants every five years or so. And they do it in part to avoid the plant growing too tall and lanky; a shorter, denser plant produces more coffee and is easier to harvest. So, this is what my plant looks like now:<br /><br /></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjohFZm3V32h21MvnnSeluhQmD-jp-WY7suLGv4RTQcD8xEYYjPIVRjlhirgZDHqyZNPzuREJH9-NnQUnPbidzGrCw5iFLCLlVfLwwoohE8KeIbdqaBhJtGrW67j84esnlNCe3hQnfMlW1HKusqxOh7dmEwGrDcqgWPYpQ0csX1ez96pRG2I0ZoAlW74Q/s1500/coffee_plant2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjohFZm3V32h21MvnnSeluhQmD-jp-WY7suLGv4RTQcD8xEYYjPIVRjlhirgZDHqyZNPzuREJH9-NnQUnPbidzGrCw5iFLCLlVfLwwoohE8KeIbdqaBhJtGrW67j84esnlNCe3hQnfMlW1HKusqxOh7dmEwGrDcqgWPYpQ0csX1ez96pRG2I0ZoAlW74Q/s16000/coffee_plant2.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">The coffee plant cut down. It already had this new "side branch" coming out of the base, so I cut it above that point. Hopefully this will let it handle the Okinawan weather better, and grow a thicker, more stable trunk this time around. <br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></p><p>I <i>know</i> it's the right thing to do, but it's still nerve-wracking. I have no idea if it will survive this. So, to give it a bit more of a chance I took some cuttings as well:<br /><br /> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinZauyBX1pBmk5vD_Y7JxbBkVB3PlaM2rPluuAxOclrXDEPS_M-ldVLDAgA29nfCatT8GOzpZObvTYSrIRg-OhWlTaUJhY0a7VOg7YU2EsjP7zKK_wmp8e1TCyC90b0DzS2RuAafFWXiAi1yiy7R1POld18mzVHpQ_1dW7M31n1JEiFc4Fhanu6hB1eg/s1600/coffee_cuttings.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinZauyBX1pBmk5vD_Y7JxbBkVB3PlaM2rPluuAxOclrXDEPS_M-ldVLDAgA29nfCatT8GOzpZObvTYSrIRg-OhWlTaUJhY0a7VOg7YU2EsjP7zKK_wmp8e1TCyC90b0DzS2RuAafFWXiAi1yiy7R1POld18mzVHpQ_1dW7M31n1JEiFc4Fhanu6hB1eg/s16000/coffee_cuttings.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">Six cuttings. Let's see if any of them survive. If all of them do, I have no idea what to actually do with all of them; our new balcony is large, but not so large we can keep half a dozen coffee plants around.<br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table><p><br />If we're unlucky, they will all die. If we're lucky, the main plant will survive, and perhaps one or two of the cuttings will take root. If we're too lucky, they will all thrive and I'll have more plants than I need or want. Not a bad problem to have; by next spring we'll know.<br /></p>Jan Morenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06834641501438709866noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5455782214242472677.post-3548861374762300882022-09-02T22:10:00.001+09:002022-09-02T22:10:06.981+09:00A tale of a single-dish restaurant<p>In November last year me and Ritsuko are out on a walk in Naha on a rainy Saturday when we run across an Italian restaurant called <a href="https://www.instagram.com/pastida_naha_official/">Pastida</a>. We're looking for a place to have lunch, so we go inside.<br /></p><p>It's an interesting place. They serve lunch only — in fact, they're renting the space from an izakaya that opens at night. And they serve only one single dish, pasta Bolognese. No side dishes, no salads; if you don't feel like Bolognese, you need to go somewhere else.</p><p>It was very tasty; a real Bolognese with bits of meat simmered in a wine sauce, fresh pasta and topped with lots of Parmesan cheese. This was my lunch:</p><p> </p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMRcFqe-1YImTHR7GtjvtI6qtcosD0IufKgddLp8LWnO2KLEgPMCrUq48QbYBBirJ5kkDh-Gk3jYyrduHK8RzGMFu6012QfkPWsK88DMwyIhwkWjEMyUFn_Pl5UzJ7Lk6u_tawURZCU3j3jfKWNp2q5uEaJCTRvl4iyAsHg9gdikgchpdmL0XabvFXLw/s4032/bolognese.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMRcFqe-1YImTHR7GtjvtI6qtcosD0IufKgddLp8LWnO2KLEgPMCrUq48QbYBBirJ5kkDh-Gk3jYyrduHK8RzGMFu6012QfkPWsK88DMwyIhwkWjEMyUFn_Pl5UzJ7Lk6u_tawURZCU3j3jfKWNp2q5uEaJCTRvl4iyAsHg9gdikgchpdmL0XabvFXLw/s16000/bolognese.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />Spaghetti Bolognese<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></p><p>I've been back in Osaka for my summer holidays, and Ritsuko happened to see a magazine article about a pasta place in Kansai run by a young couple. It was a small place serving only lunch, and serving only a single dish: Spaghetti Bolognese. Not just the concept, but the picture looked very familiar. </p><p>And when you search online there's a lot of these restaurants around. Here's a picture from Google Maps:</p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7eBpEkh04HGVQ8-OIl4K9sT-wPP5ID9B_7VpL7_7nAOnlDP9xRNcrV1VLCEZixjXPZqVcgJw6-je_yosMjBfq0Eiz3xU_DXtsaZYMFBryWz0jrKjduk10h9JZiJj9zHJdhHuEfHvuhXBW7MjkjCTvL2_MXzk3vDc_1c1WdCy0jebgYc664_7BfBrLGA/s2274/bigol.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1740" data-original-width="2274" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7eBpEkh04HGVQ8-OIl4K9sT-wPP5ID9B_7VpL7_7nAOnlDP9xRNcrV1VLCEZixjXPZqVcgJw6-je_yosMjBfq0Eiz3xU_DXtsaZYMFBryWz0jrKjduk10h9JZiJj9zHJdhHuEfHvuhXBW7MjkjCTvL2_MXzk3vDc_1c1WdCy0jebgYc664_7BfBrLGA/s16000/bigol.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />Spaghetti Bolognese<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></p><p> </p><p>The pasta, the cheese, the plating, and yes, even the plate is almost exactly the same. Hmmm. </p><p>It turns out these restaurants are way cooler than I thought. They are not chain restaurants, but they all obviously get their pasta from the same place. That place is <a href="https://bigoli.jp/">Bigoli</a> (also a name for the type of pasta they use). This company makes a single thing: fresh pasta and Bolognese sauce. But what they <i>sell</i> is a restaurant in a box.</p><p>You buy a license from them, and you get everything you need: the food, the plates and cutlery, printed menus, promotional material and so on. Yes, you still need to find a good location and come up with a name, and you still need a license to serve food and learn how to prepare this properly. </p><p> </p><p>This seems to me to be a pretty good way for somebody to dip their toes in the food service business; to figure out if they really want to do this sort of thing long term. Starting any kind of business is a big financial risk and lot of work; at least here you start out without having to figure out what to serve on top of all the rest.<br /></p><p>If you look at the list of shops they have, there's single-dish restaurants like above. But there's also cafes and bars that add this as their one proper food dish. A low-workload way to add a proper food item to their menu.<br /></p><p>Two reasons I don't feel cheated: First, they don't hide this. When you actually look a the menu, they clearly print that the food comes from Bigoli. In fact, they make it a point of pride. Second, the Bolognese really is quite delicious. They make this one dish and they really do make it well. You can even order online if you want to try it at home.</p><p>Chain restaurants — fast food, especially — get a bad reputation because they serve low quality or unhealthy food, not because the food has been prepared beforehand. "Ghost kitchens" (multiple online order-only "restaurants" all served from one physical kitchen) try to fool you and trick you into thinking you're getting something you really are not. </p><p>This is doing neither. It is a healthy amount of good quality food. And they're open about it having originally been prepared elsewhere. This is fine by me.<br /></p><p><br /></p>Jan Morenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06834641501438709866noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5455782214242472677.post-2782561623369241542022-07-12T23:12:00.000+09:002022-07-12T23:12:05.732+09:00Fireworks<p>Ginowan has a large fireworks show every year. It's normally in April, but due to you-know-what-virus it was postponed to July this year. <br /></p><p>Good thing: we can see the area right from the balcony. So we set up with dinner (homemade rice bowls) snacks, folding chairs and camera with a tripod. </p><p>As it happened, the first typhoon of the season passed by just the day before. The weather was still really bad the same morning, but they insisted it would go ahead as planned. The rain let up literally minutes before it was due to start — a testament to just how good short-term weather forecasts are these days.</p><p><br /></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpgRVGUdYkgfGkJJ4klJIzxur5CaiFft91ltXMYvjHc6zu9kIbm1Q1LOo1SfdskK62jpm1j_HTLescOZpTVX8utGMwl4eNY8549TDAfoCAO-YuOjiCl2jTn8hpjcMlIt6dbJIiQB2g3cvnRm4HEPxsx6z62hhiyIhRL6XrSVqZMHDQtxG_ekZf5ePJ5w/s2400/IMGP1585.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1920" data-original-width="2400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpgRVGUdYkgfGkJJ4klJIzxur5CaiFft91ltXMYvjHc6zu9kIbm1Q1LOo1SfdskK62jpm1j_HTLescOZpTVX8utGMwl4eNY8549TDAfoCAO-YuOjiCl2jTn8hpjcMlIt6dbJIiQB2g3cvnRm4HEPxsx6z62hhiyIhRL6XrSVqZMHDQtxG_ekZf5ePJ5w/s16000/IMGP1585.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">The fireworks happen near Tropical Beach and is sponsored by JAL, and by the resort hotel next to it. The view from the hotel is probably pretty spectacular. <br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table></div><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtnPZ0neqb8O4346CsO3DFZzDXpewlQFjEB9pKbqXKnYR2RQ7OS6Kvu4n2rqlTXsSGwsitqdGaMCI4vUCC2h34UiMUCAkIK9wIK5OxzfYaxPoI_kI38Eu6545TqmwmlRsfn2KqN_UBnb95djv6kdIiR1IrcQcLTccNsph1be5mdW2oH5Yl4h1_qf7AxA/s2400/IMGP1544.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2057" data-original-width="2400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtnPZ0neqb8O4346CsO3DFZzDXpewlQFjEB9pKbqXKnYR2RQ7OS6Kvu4n2rqlTXsSGwsitqdGaMCI4vUCC2h34UiMUCAkIK9wIK5OxzfYaxPoI_kI38Eu6545TqmwmlRsfn2KqN_UBnb95djv6kdIiR1IrcQcLTccNsph1be5mdW2oH5Yl4h1_qf7AxA/s16000/IMGP1544.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">I elected to take just long-exposure shots this time around. Typically 4-10 seconds per shot. You treat the fireworks much like you'd treat a strobe; you control the brightness with your sensitivity and aperture, not shutter speed. <br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl9oynTD7k-L4Q2LnvB5tjrDoM7r8ug7_5dy5M5uyiJ7yRP5wEBXJa1Cm1PzvLTTZhRbQP0m8OeX_9oPelHDzZcND6fCQUJvgVgkQiWN1GGzgkp4jn1bDCazaY6eS0HJ2Du6dpxiLQIEA2K23Edu9DddFj2vG2sQG-fw9hC37xb4-MjJeqOyy-5CgIxg/s2400/IMGP1618.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="2400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl9oynTD7k-L4Q2LnvB5tjrDoM7r8ug7_5dy5M5uyiJ7yRP5wEBXJa1Cm1PzvLTTZhRbQP0m8OeX_9oPelHDzZcND6fCQUJvgVgkQiWN1GGzgkp4jn1bDCazaY6eS0HJ2Du6dpxiLQIEA2K23Edu9DddFj2vG2sQG-fw9hC37xb4-MjJeqOyy-5CgIxg/s16000/IMGP1618.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">The display was designed by Junko Koshino, a clothing designer. It did feel more focused on creating interesting patterns than on just big explosions. And the long exposures really bring that forward, I think. These fans look as good as a still picture as they did live.<br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggR1nkSGwya7h7NAkn6ZsvtyiWVNNZUUj8VzpxH7TsyUHjafai2i2eJ9-PuemcETNATqDpaEK8d9R8Wym_bZixdT_86rMachB1wUeUBcDFkowXShKG2DiJ1HdCnUQMRn_ScUFIVRnKsNmIeWXSJYLox9J4g37Kx5Q64PpqjhIVU-QJYm15o9vjV6cNEw/s2400/IMGP1629.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1920" data-original-width="2400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggR1nkSGwya7h7NAkn6ZsvtyiWVNNZUUj8VzpxH7TsyUHjafai2i2eJ9-PuemcETNATqDpaEK8d9R8Wym_bZixdT_86rMachB1wUeUBcDFkowXShKG2DiJ1HdCnUQMRn_ScUFIVRnKsNmIeWXSJYLox9J4g37Kx5Q64PpqjhIVU-QJYm15o9vjV6cNEw/s16000/IMGP1629.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />Trees with leaves, I think<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSRUy0X8w1BngpGb2WqLKTjpIc_iHf_jDVKiOdF0ilAfnKmn9yGPGteQuTXxoz--N7wCiTG0ACnkpKHp0eiXimtsnNE5bmCQCi3afkmiOB5U7cmdIDQ6ZnYAxCDuMi2Br8OJdoaFiLk_nEeqAZBfG_GkdnzrCB3V1laOag7WO6wQNw4JYfezujo95Dmg/s2400/IMGP1634.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2400" data-original-width="1920" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSRUy0X8w1BngpGb2WqLKTjpIc_iHf_jDVKiOdF0ilAfnKmn9yGPGteQuTXxoz--N7wCiTG0ACnkpKHp0eiXimtsnNE5bmCQCi3afkmiOB5U7cmdIDQ6ZnYAxCDuMi2Br8OJdoaFiLk_nEeqAZBfG_GkdnzrCB3V1laOag7WO6wQNw4JYfezujo95Dmg/s16000/IMGP1634.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />Cool overlapping patterns<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNsB8-lCQF1cOFOcyMcW2nDkPIetAVXbt5KlqJUNMJ_jxB4h3plrUsaY7sCXYgrsDzY0vEGBwaWiPXWky-PJG0Nx3B-2wivKf5fQgoIvBbog9AyBpyNyS41EhLUg7yzDMqbA_2jzNA1wg4VQq1J4mr8cR2sWGg2bnepWfEtys6-bbToLEvS7DMLbrjPA/s2400/IMGP1657.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2400" data-original-width="1920" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNsB8-lCQF1cOFOcyMcW2nDkPIetAVXbt5KlqJUNMJ_jxB4h3plrUsaY7sCXYgrsDzY0vEGBwaWiPXWky-PJG0Nx3B-2wivKf5fQgoIvBbog9AyBpyNyS41EhLUg7yzDMqbA_2jzNA1wg4VQq1J4mr8cR2sWGg2bnepWfEtys6-bbToLEvS7DMLbrjPA/s16000/IMGP1657.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />A dandelion fluffball and an orchid. Welcome to summer! <br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p><br /></p>Jan Morenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06834641501438709866noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5455782214242472677.post-3504624191143035702022-07-08T23:56:00.002+09:002022-07-08T23:56:24.460+09:002020's<p> You know, if the 2020's could just stop trying to be "interesting times" then that'd be great....</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Jan Morenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06834641501438709866noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5455782214242472677.post-42994870480714369792022-06-30T16:44:00.001+09:002022-06-30T16:44:47.940+09:00Moving House<p>We've moved house. From Naha in the south we've moved about 10km north to Ginowan. From a fun but really old apartment, to a new, fresh place. From a backstreet in the center of a city, to a residential area by the sea.</p><p> </p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKcBFHVdnUZ9mubFM8d46Sx1WtnDSOOaP0h9twtIGcFtaKdTSSiaVJbRJ5EO39d0Y2oWAmJjc4ZhmvgJsOmbWvVU83wLKVFI4o5EdfRA4KorlOPBy7S4ImFjbz0DsRx4OUzTDCUcpmPG1hYPTQOuyTp7x2qPLqMpNX4JRXo8TdKc5ZY-R-8oUmt5jSeA/s4032/original_9ddd0f11-5dfe-4046-a83a-d6552d26cd72_PXL_20220611_104815330.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2267" data-original-width="4032" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKcBFHVdnUZ9mubFM8d46Sx1WtnDSOOaP0h9twtIGcFtaKdTSSiaVJbRJ5EO39d0Y2oWAmJjc4ZhmvgJsOmbWvVU83wLKVFI4o5EdfRA4KorlOPBy7S4ImFjbz0DsRx4OUzTDCUcpmPG1hYPTQOuyTp7x2qPLqMpNX4JRXo8TdKc5ZY-R-8oUmt5jSeA/s16000/original_9ddd0f11-5dfe-4046-a83a-d6552d26cd72_PXL_20220611_104815330.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />Ginowan at night. Not a dense city, exactly, but not rural either.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table> <p></p><p>Our entire existence right now is one of cardboard boxes and chaos. We're slowly digging ourselves out from the pile of stuff we've accumulated over the years. My computer is still packed away, so I've got no real pictures to show. </p><p>Why move? One reason: the Naha rental apartment was expensive and aging badly, and the landlord wasn't willing to do much more than the minimum necessary. For instance, the water pressure was so low that you'd lose the hot water in the shower if you turned on the tap in the kitchen at the same time. That was always fun in winter when I was showering after work while Ritsuko was making dinner.</p><p>Another reason: Our new place is 10km closer to my place of work than the old. But as those 10km were through Naha and Urasoe — very busy during rush hour — that makes my commute about 25-30 minutes shorter in the morning, and 30-60 minutes shorter in the evening. I now drive the 30km to work in only 45 minutes each morning, giving me lots more free time each day.<br /></p><p>We also get a nice views, and we're now close to Chatan and Rycom; the Convention Center mall and the seaside park is right down the road; and the Parco City shopping center is only minutes away. </p><p>On the down-side, we lose walking access to the Naha city center, with its restaurants and shops. And we're more car dependent than before; while our new place lets us have two cars, we also <i>need</i> two cars, a mixed blessing at best. Time will tell if we'll get used to it or not.</p>Jan Morenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06834641501438709866noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5455782214242472677.post-79432238360750238472022-05-22T00:08:00.005+09:002022-05-22T00:08:48.240+09:00Here's Osaka<p>So I start a post about something. I write half of it, then life gets in the way, I focus on other things and I forget about the post. A few weeks pass by and I can't pick it up again because I no longer really remember the point of writing it. </p><p>But it's still sitting there, silently waiting for me to finish it. The guilt I feel for not doing it stops me from writing anything else - which is ridiculous of course. I'm the only one who even knows what I was trying to write in the first place.</p><p>So forget about that. We've been to Osaka, both over New Year and Golden Week. Here's a few pictures, selected not because they mean anything, but just because I like them:<br /></p><p><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr8vSguvmlRZNvEA8QUgQ3zVmC8klEWe7FVXQHSaSpTWuQEjmb46WbaqFFyk4UAy2hZbCf51RYZtzV0FQID-DuVMSpQptJhbPH8xT7YDl6RuvIUUdqK8AzLAJVXpiarDCRkhDomIvPkI_hs_WreRp13cOoB3_-VV6OqYD0zeIQL4P5AfCPX9c1CB8fyQ/s2400/IMGP0594.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="2400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr8vSguvmlRZNvEA8QUgQ3zVmC8klEWe7FVXQHSaSpTWuQEjmb46WbaqFFyk4UAy2hZbCf51RYZtzV0FQID-DuVMSpQptJhbPH8xT7YDl6RuvIUUdqK8AzLAJVXpiarDCRkhDomIvPkI_hs_WreRp13cOoB3_-VV6OqYD0zeIQL4P5AfCPX9c1CB8fyQ/s16000/IMGP0594.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">The old Osaka City Hall on Nakanoshima. Today it's a conference center, and the surrounding park is a popular place for festivals and events. The new Osaka City Hall is a grey concrete box just off to the right. <br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh74wePZgxnw5Iul0T1vsOKufHw2XrFwTrWNMAn9AIl2PAzy87OEgaQy-a9cbDlBBW0HXIfptfOSNZXuwB0Q0LsYzcu0C7AYCP0dD58SSnumH-rQhYFAYcd223e--eZZqHJVRs6PPPFJ5yVEiV2dXFODn_xZtlVNQXrqUuSMNU5EqXNGnEL1QXc-TqYCQ/s2400/IMGP0614.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="2400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh74wePZgxnw5Iul0T1vsOKufHw2XrFwTrWNMAn9AIl2PAzy87OEgaQy-a9cbDlBBW0HXIfptfOSNZXuwB0Q0LsYzcu0C7AYCP0dD58SSnumH-rQhYFAYcd223e--eZZqHJVRs6PPPFJ5yVEiV2dXFODn_xZtlVNQXrqUuSMNU5EqXNGnEL1QXc-TqYCQ/s16000/IMGP0614.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />Umeda JR station in Osaka.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbnVeysBk7BJ0pVndn-L2UgvWTyIkNOg4YwWleCcLc3sCZrTbGwcyjCcbg0i0vpIZHqtYO9PtTAnuEBkd-5_FXUAGq4ce2giYGxauC6NyU9kDJbZUT8ZIYNgfzhTL03NCq_SArL-kWPuIRocV88gZHETsc7G4cg9zlIZ4gOxXYPp8OCF2S3wivrlQ_aQ/s2400/IMGP0635.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="2400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbnVeysBk7BJ0pVndn-L2UgvWTyIkNOg4YwWleCcLc3sCZrTbGwcyjCcbg0i0vpIZHqtYO9PtTAnuEBkd-5_FXUAGq4ce2giYGxauC6NyU9kDJbZUT8ZIYNgfzhTL03NCq_SArL-kWPuIRocV88gZHETsc7G4cg9zlIZ4gOxXYPp8OCF2S3wivrlQ_aQ/s16000/IMGP0635.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">Vending machines — is there anything they can't sell? This one sells COVID antigene tests for 1900 yen, less than 50 meters from home.<br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiZBUV5x4WY2sfip6UMpv0WtyDjgO92KFcfcBD3KEjkVmbGKrVA6E8-6f9bNH3S4FUlp3CRg3iCKnmg6hcBTv6TKviVhqliPa7q0K7kVXQILvrICdmzhCjoTUjk-4B3OTEY0CVoHNTneZK3hrbijlWzRPsdUzEneXrhTY2tBvT8A-Jx_0_IcsP6kE75w/s2400/IMGP0783.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1920" data-original-width="2400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiZBUV5x4WY2sfip6UMpv0WtyDjgO92KFcfcBD3KEjkVmbGKrVA6E8-6f9bNH3S4FUlp3CRg3iCKnmg6hcBTv6TKviVhqliPa7q0K7kVXQILvrICdmzhCjoTUjk-4B3OTEY0CVoHNTneZK3hrbijlWzRPsdUzEneXrhTY2tBvT8A-Jx_0_IcsP6kE75w/s16000/IMGP0783.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />This way. <br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB6_7uOA9YXUcMkhwj5m1wKLj-kd8AEiQfMxE1hF06kfz61tr2qzFQT9loThg-oF5aDsUHxFm3cjRh8fMoc9p3hWaF8r4eRs-dm8tppfW-oTzYkB2MDu1pUWGf1EnUAkAc7HeoK-vtKC0zILpXRsyN5LStz7H1GL6UO2R9Fs1h3TBNVxzB3h6m1a116g/s2400/IMGP0839.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1920" data-original-width="2400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB6_7uOA9YXUcMkhwj5m1wKLj-kd8AEiQfMxE1hF06kfz61tr2qzFQT9loThg-oF5aDsUHxFm3cjRh8fMoc9p3hWaF8r4eRs-dm8tppfW-oTzYkB2MDu1pUWGf1EnUAkAc7HeoK-vtKC0zILpXRsyN5LStz7H1GL6UO2R9Fs1h3TBNVxzB3h6m1a116g/s16000/IMGP0839.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">Namba, Osaka. This is obviously a story in the making, and I <i>really </i>want to know what was going on and how it turned out.<br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE45BEnQq-X8wrwQTm1l7mvJxxdFVkmrqoD4GDViko-6cZSxkkxgloIHNypYo2C7ETs8_LbaXU2Huw7ZXkOPK-yvM8fPUQsTgSGJnt8ElHVaI4V8TvCF83OOATfvhFJGFTmzyBmtsSqt6wmmFN0qe9vGQekeqjTTSlgoAxaVEXDQFpL9n2yV1VTMFAuA/s2400/IMGP1237.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="2400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE45BEnQq-X8wrwQTm1l7mvJxxdFVkmrqoD4GDViko-6cZSxkkxgloIHNypYo2C7ETs8_LbaXU2Huw7ZXkOPK-yvM8fPUQsTgSGJnt8ElHVaI4V8TvCF83OOATfvhFJGFTmzyBmtsSqt6wmmFN0qe9vGQekeqjTTSlgoAxaVEXDQFpL9n2yV1VTMFAuA/s16000/IMGP1237.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />Fugitives. <br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLTO-8iFknQq_pDJawEYyQrSTjyIISDsmR_jcjUQRN4TrX7E_K9sFAzQhQoNrEyIcdVlgC0QY5qWQQEoaTtk4YLiOPFwIdeOFORvVhH4u3hBcLsPIFxDF-Ne1860ZoRNJY3aWwM8zs1zDO10F5HL80ei1--DFBssJD1cLeaeqri1JQzLP02iej4x4dyw/s2400/IMGP1265.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="2400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLTO-8iFknQq_pDJawEYyQrSTjyIISDsmR_jcjUQRN4TrX7E_K9sFAzQhQoNrEyIcdVlgC0QY5qWQQEoaTtk4YLiOPFwIdeOFORvVhH4u3hBcLsPIFxDF-Ne1860ZoRNJY3aWwM8zs1zDO10F5HL80ei1--DFBssJD1cLeaeqri1JQzLP02iej4x4dyw/s16000/IMGP1265.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">Kawachi-Nagano is less than half an hour away from Namba by train, but as quiet and peaceful as you'd ever want. Feels like going 30 years back in time, in a very good way. A friend of ours works at a ryokan in the area, so we went there for a delicious lunch.<br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHZCj3lie9-7f_yvFbdlbHy4gzY8Qa0x9urwmf68S2-P957dEwZguZpjcih49Xe3VUc-wGkBVZHN_pFFwMuAF0hVlEod3Mr55dxwMj4kBzreAU1g7VEet_U2P35vB_33eoCbjhQt1VkqmltbhWo1tNV0eo2fzi4x-_SwMODlzHlwuhwtl_ll-yTn05Ug/s2400/IMGP1397.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="2400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHZCj3lie9-7f_yvFbdlbHy4gzY8Qa0x9urwmf68S2-P957dEwZguZpjcih49Xe3VUc-wGkBVZHN_pFFwMuAF0hVlEod3Mr55dxwMj4kBzreAU1g7VEet_U2P35vB_33eoCbjhQt1VkqmltbhWo1tNV0eo2fzi4x-_SwMODlzHlwuhwtl_ll-yTn05Ug/s16000/IMGP1397.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">The pinball hall in Big Step, Amermura. Almost a hundred machines, from really old to the newest releases. Well worth a visit if you've ever enjoyed pinball. Even more worth it if you've never done so. Bring 100 yen coins! <br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT9FqH-Ffz7T1qaEcUR9I3IphtmqUTtYwcUUkYKY-Hl20f-WtFwzt9C2qyJ89VMJ1wbJY4P1Kc5ysZA8Y461SJqrMF_K7Ua0DQRGxq6vTEZtdl2EcfH-1JHIiZNaWiG2w6FW9KjP2OY_PyRIkXXqxx3FJR88PYZqZmL0OIXJARlDF5Srfd71RBGRfXgg/s2400/IMGP1410.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="2400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT9FqH-Ffz7T1qaEcUR9I3IphtmqUTtYwcUUkYKY-Hl20f-WtFwzt9C2qyJ89VMJ1wbJY4P1Kc5ysZA8Y461SJqrMF_K7Ua0DQRGxq6vTEZtdl2EcfH-1JHIiZNaWiG2w6FW9KjP2OY_PyRIkXXqxx3FJR88PYZqZmL0OIXJARlDF5Srfd71RBGRfXgg/s16000/IMGP1410.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">Lilo Coffee Roasters is currently my favorite coffee place in Osaka. They do some excellent specialty coffee. You can get your choice of beans brewed almost any way you want, and buy a bag home.<br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWhqSDS68X7Rp_dswHte8tdF8hNp1d-cCni_-6rklinGYOOZuFzu1PbQeJ3bo9V10vwRf0fus6VPH6G0rpJ78O30SCRmN4GlplLVK1keCKwbiyaOrC9pX6jbMQODC8u7jczYHu8hGPa3XVzBxecK2UKeHcCEatFZvv62BpE-mZRAGBardcTEB8Ce-mEQ/s2400/IMGP1425.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="2400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWhqSDS68X7Rp_dswHte8tdF8hNp1d-cCni_-6rklinGYOOZuFzu1PbQeJ3bo9V10vwRf0fus6VPH6G0rpJ78O30SCRmN4GlplLVK1keCKwbiyaOrC9pX6jbMQODC8u7jczYHu8hGPa3XVzBxecK2UKeHcCEatFZvv62BpE-mZRAGBardcTEB8Ce-mEQ/s16000/IMGP1425.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />A quiet evening sit down outside the shop. Minamisenba.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipKoZJIyUzx4sTrJpk-KWG3eh1cGdocFHw6HC_8VWB6pzek4GG29kfjV4IHCtyuCXDjsByRVajMur5FcvUvyKhjolgK4upijGjFQGZdUB4mJbni0KAhcbY-4K8ffsLMEf-bZfBHosyCHS6iE-FF1KrYXx15XxJwx_h4NeIAhAJZkCDYCsQtnLPxBwD6Q/s2400/IMGP1437.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="2400" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipKoZJIyUzx4sTrJpk-KWG3eh1cGdocFHw6HC_8VWB6pzek4GG29kfjV4IHCtyuCXDjsByRVajMur5FcvUvyKhjolgK4upijGjFQGZdUB4mJbni0KAhcbY-4K8ffsLMEf-bZfBHosyCHS6iE-FF1KrYXx15XxJwx_h4NeIAhAJZkCDYCsQtnLPxBwD6Q/s320/IMGP1437.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />You never really see your neighborhood until you leave it for a while. Minamisenba.<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXEuAdDx1lk2ap4OXyNEw9_pKuXCD8X90WvUwH2WL6vb3rA-54i4rN0V9F5NBNFIbAB_Lmpg9F8GMuj084Ad8tCLu3yQvYP8KULZXVTpH2tjKfKUMo4Zm3q7FEUu6Iu24irgH6QVV6-FtO9FfH_GRrL7QpYQUocr6TsTnHpoNn4OZKbbwW2rVrCVFyWw/s2400/IMGP1416.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><br /><img border="0" data-original-height="1350" data-original-width="2400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXEuAdDx1lk2ap4OXyNEw9_pKuXCD8X90WvUwH2WL6vb3rA-54i4rN0V9F5NBNFIbAB_Lmpg9F8GMuj084Ad8tCLu3yQvYP8KULZXVTpH2tjKfKUMo4Zm3q7FEUu6Iu24irgH6QVV6-FtO9FfH_GRrL7QpYQUocr6TsTnHpoNn4OZKbbwW2rVrCVFyWw/s16000/IMGP1416.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />Sunset.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p><br /></p>Jan Morenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06834641501438709866noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5455782214242472677.post-69508366219722368442022-03-26T16:45:00.013+09:002022-03-26T16:48:33.052+09:00Life Pro Tip: Don't scratch your car<p> Life is full of choices. If you have the choice, I do recommend that you not get too close to a fire prevention cabinet in the company parking garage and scratch the rear of your car:<br /><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhymutj3l01dz-d_Ekfuxoww5safx7yBIAjIj-37f7EiEZRNc7WfDFyT9pm5-iF9Yj8V8-u6fgVZyk302_Ju42tt4G1YUvHpSDauasWZ-f_sx7rBsT6-e_uFzqsr-NnKvRremuIrkbjgh0eI0mZJfXLh_aOdqi-9JlBv9Ncbq5J0mabyYMqEioK5_xWJA/s4032/PXL_20220317_233736912.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhymutj3l01dz-d_Ekfuxoww5safx7yBIAjIj-37f7EiEZRNc7WfDFyT9pm5-iF9Yj8V8-u6fgVZyk302_Ju42tt4G1YUvHpSDauasWZ-f_sx7rBsT6-e_uFzqsr-NnKvRremuIrkbjgh0eI0mZJfXLh_aOdqi-9JlBv9Ncbq5J0mabyYMqEioK5_xWJA/s16000/PXL_20220317_233736912.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">It looks so small, doesn't it? The rear scratch in the plastic panel is apparently easy to fix; just a bit of paint. The front one is in a metal panel and is dented as well as scratched. That got expensive.<br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><br />Now, you might feel the urge to try this, just to find out what it's like. I can assure you that you're not missing out on anything. They need to remove the rear panels (and light fixtures), beat out the dent and repaint the area. Meanwhile I'm driving a rental car to work. </p><p>Insurance covers the rental car but our deductible is too high to cover the repair. Why is it so high? Because we didn't plan to break the car, that's why. </p><p>This is a partial list of things we could have spent the money on instead:</p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Almost a month of gasoline</li><li>Weekend for two at a resort hotel</li><li>A top of the line <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/steamdeck">Steam Deck</a></li><li>About <a href="https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/Commercial-Toothpick-50-Pack-approx-7000-Pieces/dp/B00JPX17FA/">half a million toothpicks</a> </li></ul><p>All of which would have been more fun or more useful than putting a scratch on the car. </p><p>So, don't scratch your car. Get the toothpicks instead.<br /></p><p><br /></p>Jan Morenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06834641501438709866noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5455782214242472677.post-21051713645843435032022-02-16T20:39:00.000+09:002022-02-16T20:39:10.803+09:00Valentine's Day<p>Like very year, Ritsuko managed to find me something a little special for Valentine's Day. As you probably know, in Japan it's split into two holidays (probably so shops can sell more stuff ^_^) : on Valentine's Day women give a present to men; and on White Day a month later men reciprocate with a gift to women. </p><p>I've received some really cool chocolate-themed gifts from Ritsuko over the years. My all-time favourites have been the <a href="http://janneinosaka.blogspot.com/2011/03/jurassic-chocolat.html">Jurassic chocolat</a> and the <a href="http://janneinosaka.blogspot.com/2009/02/valentines-day-was-two-weeks-ago.html">chocolate tools</a>.
This is what I got this year: </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjJeQlkrqFMxMTkeV5C7emYXYNtz75w6oCd7HMylLe_mriR32Bs_gEOZMxApGKJrCkvpOWcFQfXmGiceZSjxXfKjaU9zyUTJv6nuEp3ANjgTiWRcyl-JTUPE7iPD3SNawFBBIarzmtgg5xRQmuonERQboMEW1ifpUG7YwOZ6AhyRJVB1P883Zw1mLYJEA=s1600" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjJeQlkrqFMxMTkeV5C7emYXYNtz75w6oCd7HMylLe_mriR32Bs_gEOZMxApGKJrCkvpOWcFQfXmGiceZSjxXfKjaU9zyUTJv6nuEp3ANjgTiWRcyl-JTUPE7iPD3SNawFBBIarzmtgg5xRQmuonERQboMEW1ifpUG7YwOZ6AhyRJVB1P883Zw1mLYJEA=s16000" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />A box of chocolates. And a camera!<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>A box of chocolates. Specifically, a metal box in the shape of a medium-format TLR, containing chocolates packaged like 35mm film. Really cool, and the chocolate is delicious too.
Now, should I keep the metal box to keep stuff in; or do I convert it to a pinhole camera? Both are tempting — the box would be perfect to store film-related stuff; but just imagine taking an actual picture with this! Decisions, decisions...</p>Jan Morenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06834641501438709866noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5455782214242472677.post-15544809463355813852022-01-13T16:12:00.002+09:002022-01-13T16:12:21.500+09:00Work From Home (again)<p zoompage-fontsize="15">Omicron is spreading like wildfire in Japan as elsewhere, and Okinawa is hit by far the hardest. This is in no small part due to the American military bases, and the lax-to-nonexistent procedures they have had for entering the country from the US. </p><p zoompage-fontsize="15"> </p><p zoompage-fontsize="15"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgLPm6m0Vyc8faEq5u0b-kWkXQEgTYDOc5oYjeCVeFnBwv5hG0jafileEnfdYSrrqHJyb6KW5lSw0NR_vax9YYweaeXUcDekAxsdcx5Rt-rLldCFX0xyqmx6mBRVGD8fEtwJMFhlnjCETUxZqiFq9JtUpXWqr5bW67U-fanEbSTj2oLX1GER5urOgfRPg=s1320" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="1320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgLPm6m0Vyc8faEq5u0b-kWkXQEgTYDOc5oYjeCVeFnBwv5hG0jafileEnfdYSrrqHJyb6KW5lSw0NR_vax9YYweaeXUcDekAxsdcx5Rt-rLldCFX0xyqmx6mBRVGD8fEtwJMFhlnjCETUxZqiFq9JtUpXWqr5bW67U-fanEbSTj2oLX1GER5urOgfRPg=s16000" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">COVID cases per day in Okinawa prefecture. That vertical wall at the right edge is not reassuring...<br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table> </p><p zoompage-fontsize="15">Okinawa is also the poorest prefecture in Japan, and has the smallest number of hospital beds per capita ("hospital bed" means not just the bed, but equipment, staff and so on). Even though the number of cases have been — and remain — low by international standards, there is a real risk that the medical system will be overwhelmed by the number of cases. If that happens, people that need emergency care would start getting turned away. That would be very bad.</p><p zoompage-fontsize="15">Among other measures, the prefecture has now requested that businesses implement work from home policies to reduce the spread. And as OIST is really good about following regulations, and is taking COVID very seriously (my bosses' boss, Mary Collins, is a professor in immunology; the person in charge at OIST for this situation; and <i zoompage-fontsize="15">really</i> good at getting things done), we are back to working from home again from today and for the next two weeks at least.</p><p zoompage-fontsize="15"><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi-1YjNW_lfmHzQ8MydUqmxXK5cR22jqdrUPSD53DxB6BdfLgEBat0_AUXxyyX3FvTx457-B3Rh7v6M6AsNkQc9x8T_ge5aMs2FEGShwEnAS1Cr-rd4q6mgqPiYHvxTA-yH5vD9prow0lGOpKpKIVIVq2JBw2Mp1vb4rnTrfQpZIGvkhdfumcVQNzVD5A=s2400" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1350" data-original-width="2400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi-1YjNW_lfmHzQ8MydUqmxXK5cR22jqdrUPSD53DxB6BdfLgEBat0_AUXxyyX3FvTx457-B3Rh7v6M6AsNkQc9x8T_ge5aMs2FEGShwEnAS1Cr-rd4q6mgqPiYHvxTA-yH5vD9prow0lGOpKpKIVIVq2JBw2Mp1vb4rnTrfQpZIGvkhdfumcVQNzVD5A=s16000" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />Naha harbor, and typical Okinawan winter weather.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p zoompage-fontsize="15"><br /></p><p zoompage-fontsize="15">I'm not going to dwell on the larger picture here — lots of other people have a better grasp of things than I do anyway — so I just want to jot down some notes on what has been working for me in this situation. I'll also add some random pictures because why not.</p><p zoompage-fontsize="15"><b zoompage-fontsize="15">The greatest thing</b> about working from home, for me, is my commute. Or, rather, the lack of one. Normally I spend 1 hour and 10 minutes driving to work, and 1 hour and 15-45 minutes going home. Now I spend about 5 seconds walking from the living room to my desk in the backroom. That's about 2.5 hours of my life I get back every single day.</p><p zoompage-fontsize="15">Today I woke up at 6:30 as usual. I went for an hour-long run to Omoromachi and back, had a relaxed breakfast, and I still had enough time to do a bit of cleaning up and start a load of laundry before I logged in to start my day. </p><p zoompage-fontsize="15">It's also really convenient to be at home of course. I can make good coffee and make a real lunch, and eat together with Ritsuko when she's at home. She can use the car when she needs to. And I can do stuff that isn't really possible when working at OIST, such as playing music while I work, or noodling on my ukulele while thinking.<br /></p><p zoompage-fontsize="15"><b zoompage-fontsize="15">The worst thing</b> is the lack of face to face meetings. We have a good group of people at SCDA, and working together with them is part of the fun. But my job also involves a lot of interaction with the researchers. I teach courses on using HPC systems and how to program cluster computers. I also have daily meetings to help them get started on the cluster, give advice about how to best run things, and work with them to improve their code to run faster or better on our systems. This is the best part of this job and a large reason I took this job in the first place.</p><p zoompage-fontsize="15">But that's of course no longer happening. I do use Zoom for one-on-one meetings and classes but it's a pale imitation of the real thing. It's doable, and it sort of works, but it's nowhere near as frictionless, social and satisfying as meeting in person. I miss that.<br /></p><p zoompage-fontsize="15"><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjJlPcaVnpMWR5mjvlgJz--WSflhfRTMsvckcJcYFGnaMoCa6kCmziKkD82vIXfm6R4587QxSdYpLftGUf2jsctkTnBMvzLM61o7Ziu2a75veaBaxil43xSM0lyCtXEoBi-v_rakQFqFO3FkZFXoZFruyhv29Mk9zfCoAjQaEHt8X5w3viJGkmp061XWQ=s2400" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="2400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjJlPcaVnpMWR5mjvlgJz--WSflhfRTMsvckcJcYFGnaMoCa6kCmziKkD82vIXfm6R4587QxSdYpLftGUf2jsctkTnBMvzLM61o7Ziu2a75veaBaxil43xSM0lyCtXEoBi-v_rakQFqFO3FkZFXoZFruyhv29Mk9zfCoAjQaEHt8X5w3viJGkmp061XWQ=s16000" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">Fishing is insanely popular here. I've never tried it myself; I worry that I'd get hooked (sic) and have to deal with fresh fish every weekend.<br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table><p zoompage-fontsize="15"><b zoompage-fontsize="15">Technically,</b> working from home works OK. I have an improvised standing desk and a wooden high stool to sit on, but this setup was never intended for using all day long every day. If working from home became a regular weekly thing I would need to get a real desk and a proper chair.<br /></p><p zoompage-fontsize="15">I connect my work laptop to my monitor. It's a largish 32" 4K LG monitor that's perfect for my desktop. The laptop, with its pokey integrated GPU does struggle a bit with the size; it can only drive the monitor at 30Hz, and while fractional scaling (at 150%) works surprisingly well on the Gnome desktop the combined result is a slight but noticeable delay or hesitancy to everything. For work I only use an email client, a browser and a pile of terminals open to remote machines, so it's not a big issue.<br /></p><p zoompage-fontsize="15">The other technical problem is our network. We do have fiber at home that's technically 1GB/s, but as we live in a mixed building with lots of businesses, and in the middle of the city, the connection is horribly oversubscribed in practice. We sometimes get no more than 20-30Mb/s and even less at night. It's doable but not ideal, especially when I need to talk with people over Zoom. <br /></p><p zoompage-fontsize="15"><br /></p><p zoompage-fontsize="15"><b>My ideal for Work From Home</b> would be to do it at my own discretion about 1-2 times a week (you know, when we're not in the midst of a raging pandemic). That would give me a break from my commute, give me some alone time to work — for all that I like people, I'm basically an introvert — and still get the frequent personal connections that makes this job so rewarding.</p><p zoompage-fontsize="15">I'd have a proper desk, perhaps one that can be raised and lowered as needed, and a real desk chair. We'd have an internet connection that sucks a little less. That would make for a nearly optimal experience. <br /></p><p zoompage-fontsize="15"><br /></p><p zoompage-fontsize="15"><br /></p><p zoompage-fontsize="15"><br /></p><p zoompage-fontsize="15"><br /></p>Jan Morenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06834641501438709866noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5455782214242472677.post-54746488223430804712021-12-31T23:59:00.002+09:002021-12-31T23:59:00.202+09:00Happy New Year!<p>A happy New Year to everyone!</p><p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjs_OOl6bOtCt0_8MTZ9hEApxyl7tp-q2OxwyrXbUSc_QgHJqKZG7YosqC4XyPHK7GbUK3IVujDmz4u_OItZx2shro-nluec4UfAtjzVy9iWikFoZcok8ILSDwlfMZMn_4ZHm4ig0Q5XLtdNZELEJom31WOkOOIMKIByauZftr8jBCSxShfwIbcTrFSxg=s1200" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="811" data-original-width="1200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjs_OOl6bOtCt0_8MTZ9hEApxyl7tp-q2OxwyrXbUSc_QgHJqKZG7YosqC4XyPHK7GbUK3IVujDmz4u_OItZx2shro-nluec4UfAtjzVy9iWikFoZcok8ILSDwlfMZMn_4ZHm4ig0Q5XLtdNZELEJom31WOkOOIMKIByauZftr8jBCSxShfwIbcTrFSxg=s16000" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />2022. The year of the tiger.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p><br /> <br /></p>Jan Morenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06834641501438709866noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5455782214242472677.post-84571921233052525332021-12-23T22:45:00.001+09:002021-12-23T22:45:32.093+09:00Winter pictures<p>This week hasn't been great. I mean, not lousy, but not great either. The tooth that broke <a href="http://janneinosaka.blogspot.com/2021/10/anguish-and-serenity.html">in October</a> was due to an old, old filling from when I was an early teen. I had a tooth break in a similar way several years ago, with a filling from the same time. </p><p>And yesterday, perhaps because I could only chew on one side lately, <i>another</i> tooth with the same kind of filling broke in half. I'm looking forward to another root canal in January. I have one such filling left; I will make a point of having it replaced before it destroys another tooth for me. </p><p>Take care of your teeth, and if you have some really old fillings, it might not be a bad idea to have a dentist take a close look at them before something happens.</p><p>Anyway, pictures. It's winter, though it's difficult to tell. It's the best season for going out and doing things, at least when the weather is nice. When it's not, I recommend a hot mug of coffee and a book at home. <br /></p><p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjmlvGUFGHQCnFftt-PcV0SLQzQZJUVLdGKXP89OPa2x7IHbZrgt0T3wN5XB1Sgsun9Xp5Kbnerx_cQ33UMZXfyBCI8MSEB7bhOKctXtqouHqfbaG_t5Uz2zHPP_LLMsbRUM5nofVv2_CAYPq0i9HNQ8D5j9uqcx6TZk_5IhyNLp-jY_LYP-bEsJx9yeg=s2400" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="2400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjmlvGUFGHQCnFftt-PcV0SLQzQZJUVLdGKXP89OPa2x7IHbZrgt0T3wN5XB1Sgsun9Xp5Kbnerx_cQ33UMZXfyBCI8MSEB7bhOKctXtqouHqfbaG_t5Uz2zHPP_LLMsbRUM5nofVv2_CAYPq0i9HNQ8D5j9uqcx6TZk_5IhyNLp-jY_LYP-bEsJx9yeg=s16000" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />Tomarin in Naha. This is where you take a ferry to other islands in Okinawa.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhodFMB9ERfNxH1G-XqWNYfmdJmY5GH7Dt92FYgNILdLYWHw6tRy01r-_MZpTS5Yrl8SurYUyOvQ7wq208CJKkWmLGdLmOK5w_g61d2olS0zFLUMLHs2cYL2Dr4lxtk181qzy1187h12K195ldl2_Wu3ZVzXjQkVTf5JNiQkqXYss56_rm_i0WuWTPhXA=s2400" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1665" data-original-width="2400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhodFMB9ERfNxH1G-XqWNYfmdJmY5GH7Dt92FYgNILdLYWHw6tRy01r-_MZpTS5Yrl8SurYUyOvQ7wq208CJKkWmLGdLmOK5w_g61d2olS0zFLUMLHs2cYL2Dr4lxtk181qzy1187h12K195ldl2_Wu3ZVzXjQkVTf5JNiQkqXYss56_rm_i0WuWTPhXA=s16000" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />Some colorful graffiti on the seawall near Parco City. </td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: center;"> </p><p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg5wjsdW2FujnEiGhv6K6hp-1-haAfWLllvCtVJl-9sv9QFSjQ72z4RamiERG5mRfK5JDtJumOkhTX-jAVjj5EUSZwh1cPtM_HbJle2nsRa4zGtyE3oEPlDvtNzwicMyfmDW_7MAMMHZnoLmq8TWjWMUDCHh-Ub2C1WEJ_pBLqZnK2LAFsfRm2kXDxXDw=s2400" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2400" data-original-width="2057" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg5wjsdW2FujnEiGhv6K6hp-1-haAfWLllvCtVJl-9sv9QFSjQ72z4RamiERG5mRfK5JDtJumOkhTX-jAVjj5EUSZwh1cPtM_HbJle2nsRa4zGtyE3oEPlDvtNzwicMyfmDW_7MAMMHZnoLmq8TWjWMUDCHh-Ub2C1WEJ_pBLqZnK2LAFsfRm2kXDxXDw=s16000" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />A wildflower near the gas electricity plant. <br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiODOW3cbM8Ny2Nr0rjoBNbja9KnFglyPmRqbMboVSUzPb9SX1S8ZwQOD6Y-x2XnCQ7wMdur2psM4UzI1gt5_jP2g03_bGzjjYR5-VCMUYc8l0ve6Jo3QlN65QBAARfKkrgAGhxdEGsFrs3B6WUxUrp498Fo8iCl4rNv0Rt-t_-s97XXJ9XYYITff-ogw=s2400" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="2400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiODOW3cbM8Ny2Nr0rjoBNbja9KnFglyPmRqbMboVSUzPb9SX1S8ZwQOD6Y-x2XnCQ7wMdur2psM4UzI1gt5_jP2g03_bGzjjYR5-VCMUYc8l0ve6Jo3QlN65QBAARfKkrgAGhxdEGsFrs3B6WUxUrp498Fo8iCl4rNv0Rt-t_-s97XXJ9XYYITff-ogw=s16000" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />Father and son out fishing on a pier in Ginowan.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgv47dmYTgoPTW5VzKGdYbNcepBOikH-AJ-UfyJva-Oa9QFzEHttneywXSbEXAirFZOugZ3YA0A_3CaH60RmSo_VDhe5VcvqjL6H5jlXbg7HFIa_OR-W56UjL2dk_OSnoyLb6OXn3Uom9gjMqg_exFTXC0T2FI4CZyz9wgv00N5iTtxVSAofxMbeY2aXQ=s2400" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="2400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgv47dmYTgoPTW5VzKGdYbNcepBOikH-AJ-UfyJva-Oa9QFzEHttneywXSbEXAirFZOugZ3YA0A_3CaH60RmSo_VDhe5VcvqjL6H5jlXbg7HFIa_OR-W56UjL2dk_OSnoyLb6OXn3Uom9gjMqg_exFTXC0T2FI4CZyz9wgv00N5iTtxVSAofxMbeY2aXQ=s16000" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />A snack bar in Ginowan along road 58.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhoSdv8-kjwDe3HCL-E8y3HKw4Wfnz2pR-Y7aLv4VghTkoVBEy-UDVNUZAE_Y3SldF9MeI8LeQLaA8PJsrH4HPGgwKXmMM7a3gsj3tM_azmD1K7SSsYvRzSDcmMwrjb6DkXNBAXzFVlqKRd_CSi4atxGlT1SVwLRPVsdt90hkD0Mq-9yGxS-3nx5eTj7A=s2400" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1920" data-original-width="2400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhoSdv8-kjwDe3HCL-E8y3HKw4Wfnz2pR-Y7aLv4VghTkoVBEy-UDVNUZAE_Y3SldF9MeI8LeQLaA8PJsrH4HPGgwKXmMM7a3gsj3tM_azmD1K7SSsYvRzSDcmMwrjb6DkXNBAXzFVlqKRd_CSi4atxGlT1SVwLRPVsdt90hkD0Mq-9yGxS-3nx5eTj7A=s16000" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />A sanshin shop behind a bus stop right between Ginowan and Chatan.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p> <br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEge7YwyQFWcZNMqlzh8vxdqK2Aj52UBGwfxQNf-yzLhG4zQjlpT0TZDAvfbBK_2TysUGTwDBcgpkrlodapOxGPzvLYKMXKvp_HCzDgZXS7-oY0Su_EogKUmwkDXSMaK7VXQlhe5hDswwjBWu-DtQSwu4PdFzx3Kr43KHHygu37UNZSJgmeVvmSjT4CapA=s2400" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1772" data-original-width="2400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEge7YwyQFWcZNMqlzh8vxdqK2Aj52UBGwfxQNf-yzLhG4zQjlpT0TZDAvfbBK_2TysUGTwDBcgpkrlodapOxGPzvLYKMXKvp_HCzDgZXS7-oY0Su_EogKUmwkDXSMaK7VXQlhe5hDswwjBWu-DtQSwu4PdFzx3Kr43KHHygu37UNZSJgmeVvmSjT4CapA=s16000" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />Kariyushi hotel in Naha seems to be renovating the rooms.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj4f_QqmJ29I0KG_zczObs_vj9GeijFJWqJlyXrhwGkUuv2nN6KyBY7M7ll8ePWTcxlrKRowM8eLGkaRiw3BoTYM-iH1s1M5PeZEyeB8valztccPMlLgdtKPBef2uPIlvq5sfdNtc5rn9YXQbktuaNor6xigy7wgAEZSQqP871sDV2HN9NLFFnhXAviGw=s2400" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1350" data-original-width="2400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj4f_QqmJ29I0KG_zczObs_vj9GeijFJWqJlyXrhwGkUuv2nN6KyBY7M7ll8ePWTcxlrKRowM8eLGkaRiw3BoTYM-iH1s1M5PeZEyeB8valztccPMlLgdtKPBef2uPIlvq5sfdNtc5rn9YXQbktuaNor6xigy7wgAEZSQqP871sDV2HN9NLFFnhXAviGw=s16000" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />Archery competition in Onayama park, Naha.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p><br /><br /><br /><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Jan Morenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06834641501438709866noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5455782214242472677.post-30339389880458476092021-11-25T23:14:00.000+09:002021-11-25T23:14:14.843+09:00We Got Pumice<p zoompage-fontsize="15">Okinawa is full of pumice. </p><p zoompage-fontsize="15"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-u6bJhQmOkVM/YZ-Tyh7spjI/AAAAAAAAcHs/-Vod-4GsO68aNXxnSycaEIHTGe7iSAACgCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/beach1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-u6bJhQmOkVM/YZ-Tyh7spjI/AAAAAAAAcHs/-Vod-4GsO68aNXxnSycaEIHTGe7iSAACgCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/beach1.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />Pumice floating along the coastline. <br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FyvpulF6ICE/YZ-Ty-szSvI/AAAAAAAAcH0/qzcp0aMVWaURwoXMIkt8wnSxba3adFhvwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/beach2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FyvpulF6ICE/YZ-Ty-szSvI/AAAAAAAAcH0/qzcp0aMVWaURwoXMIkt8wnSxba3adFhvwCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/beach2.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">When and where it shows up depends on the tide and the currents. Here a current is depositing more pumice along the Onna coast. The gray rocky streaks on the beach is more pumice deposited during earlier high tides.<br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p zoompage-fontsize="15">Pumice is volcanic rock that's created during eruptions. Magma deep underground is under high pressure and can hold a lot of dissolved gases, like a bottle of soda. During an eruption, the rapid pressure drop forms gas bubbles in the lava, and it creates lava foam. When that foamy lava hits cold water, it solidifies rapidly with all those bubbles still trapped inside, and creates a sponge-like rock that's light enough to float on water. </p><p zoompage-fontsize="15"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8Gaa7QssYm8/YZ-TxYtnAhI/AAAAAAAAcHc/kDIlDdUksZwG9dSp7jjeEghmtpfzaXuagCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMGP0493.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8Gaa7QssYm8/YZ-TxYtnAhI/AAAAAAAAcHc/kDIlDdUksZwG9dSp7jjeEghmtpfzaXuagCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/IMGP0493.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />A piece of pumice, about 2cm across.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table></p><p zoompage-fontsize="15"> </p><p></p><p zoompage-fontsize="15"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-K9s-LgH0L_A/YZ-TyK3xiGI/AAAAAAAAcHo/m4ahOf8-GAkQ9HHuWConxZdIwHMCYYW8QCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMGP0495.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-K9s-LgH0L_A/YZ-TyK3xiGI/AAAAAAAAcHo/m4ahOf8-GAkQ9HHuWConxZdIwHMCYYW8QCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/IMGP0495.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">I cut through it with a hobby knife (carefully; it breaks easily), then smoothed the surface with a file. I tried using sandpaper, but the pumice removed the sandpaper, not the other way around :)<br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table><p> <br /></p><p></p><p zoompage-fontsize="15"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kX5_ynOLyVM/YZ-Ty5ByemI/AAAAAAAAcHw/xMk0-bJPtvgoDf9d4s9_gFx2A3DA0lXDgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1024/detail.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kX5_ynOLyVM/YZ-Ty5ByemI/AAAAAAAAcHw/xMk0-bJPtvgoDf9d4s9_gFx2A3DA0lXDgCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/detail.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">A macro shot of part of the surface. The smallest visible holes are very roughly 10µm across. It's like a sponge of silica glass. <br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table> <p></p><p zoompage-fontsize="15">An underwater eruption near Ogasawara created a lot of pumice in August. That pumice has been drifting along the ocean currents until it started washing ashore along the Okinawan coastline two weeks or so ago. These pictures are from around Onna beach, just next to OIST (Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology) where I work(*). <br /></p><p zoompage-fontsize="15">As you might imagine, a harbor full of floating rocks means fishermen can't take their boats out to sea, and a beach full of grey, abrasive pebbles is no fun for the tourists coming to swim and relax in the sun. Even if you clear the beach, the next high tide just brings in more of the stuff.</p><p zoompage-fontsize="15"> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iFnG81m7TnM/YZ-TxvzQj0I/AAAAAAAAcHk/8bUfYMx4HjA5-_Z1kL8jfEwV1w35DZVoQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMGP0358.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iFnG81m7TnM/YZ-TxvzQj0I/AAAAAAAAcHk/8bUfYMx4HjA5-_Z1kL8jfEwV1w35DZVoQCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/IMGP0358.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />Pumice deposited on a beach by the waves.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p zoompage-fontsize="15"> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-t-bsMj-1mSg/YZ-TxqLhD2I/AAAAAAAAcHg/pnJfVbNo6wInW-zO2wswlKaJ7S3MNwewQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMGP0352.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-t-bsMj-1mSg/YZ-TxqLhD2I/AAAAAAAAcHg/pnJfVbNo6wInW-zO2wswlKaJ7S3MNwewQCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/IMGP0352.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />Not everybody has a problem with pumice-strewn beaches.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p zoompage-fontsize="15">It's not all bad, though. Pumice is light and breakable, so it will turn to sand fairly quickly. And it can be useful; large chunks are popular for skin care — they're an excellent natural file — and smaller pebbles are great for improving drainage in potted plants and the like. So many people have tried to sell this pumice online that Mercari — the most popular online marketplace here — have a temporary ban on pumice sales on its platform.</p><p zoompage-fontsize="15">The video below is really crappy quality, but you can hear the sound of the rocks rubbing against each other as they're rocked back and forth by the waves: <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxYfoePONqscNFgC9npSmdpbgznMyH3elH1GYaRAe4_d4M474x_yaMkYQAQ04ifajWMLcS5p0GZbcq3L1faOA' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><p></p><p><br /></p><p zoompage-fontsize="15">* I mention OIST — Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology — because I've realized that they, like many organizations, subscribe to a service that alerts them for any mention of them or their research. Furthermore, the public relations department has to actually read anything that crops up, in case it's important. </p><p zoompage-fontsize="15">So, if you have a blog, Youtube channel or Twitch stream and would like a few more viewers, just gratuitously mention a few big, public organizations. Hi Micheal!<br /></p><p zoompage-fontsize="15"><br /></p>Jan Morenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06834641501438709866noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5455782214242472677.post-69319151287321208532021-10-30T22:58:00.003+09:002021-10-30T22:58:58.212+09:00Anguish and Serenity<p>The definition of anguish? Sitting in a car with your lower jaw full of pain, on the way to a hospital for a root canal. </p><p>The definition of serenity? Sitting in a car on your way back, root canal over, and realize that not only is the massive pain of the last few days completely gone; so is a low-key discomfort you've had for weeks without even realizing it.</p><p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KXyrsPgze28/YX1NTqGxv5I/AAAAAAAAb5w/5OzLZ_k25zQSN1zM5iHKtjygJJo4yPQCwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMGP0250.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KXyrsPgze28/YX1NTqGxv5I/AAAAAAAAb5w/5OzLZ_k25zQSN1zM5iHKtjygJJo4yPQCwCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/IMGP0250.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">After the successful root canal we felt like celebrating a little. This is Kumari Nepali Dining restaurant in Naha. It's a good place for lunch on a weekend.<br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p><b>I am immensely grateful</b> for the existence of dentistry in general. I'm all for dental care in the abstract. And I know dentists are fine, upstanding people that do a world of good. But actually visiting a dentist is one of my least favorite activities of any kind.<br /></p><p>Fortunately, modern dental treatments are far less uncomfortable than in my fevered imagination (or my distant childhood). My molar had gradually cracked under an old filling, infecting the root and finally killing it, at which point the infection spread to the lower jaw. I'd felt something was off for weeks at least (and, really, much longer). The acute pain probably started with the spread of the infection. </p><p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2Cs-PIqEGeM/YX1NS7EXkuI/AAAAAAAAb5o/_nUd7N47KzcZSch1FQgVvhhog3hwHXssQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMGP0203.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2Cs-PIqEGeM/YX1NS7EXkuI/AAAAAAAAb5o/_nUd7N47KzcZSch1FQgVvhhog3hwHXssQCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/IMGP0203.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">Makeman is the major local DIY chain on Okinawa. The logo and character is famous; enough that Americans apparently refer to it as "the monkey store".<br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>As the tooth was already dead, the dentist could remove the filling and trace the cracks down through the tooth without even a pain killer. I only needed a shot to remove part of one root that was still not completely gone. Modern tools and techniques are really gentle, and his bedside manner was immaculate: he explained each step as he was doing it and paced the work just right. In the end I never experienced any actual pain, and my anxiety melted away within the first ten minutes.</p><p>And for all that people complain about facets of living in Japan, I've yet to meet somebody who doesn't appreciate how good and how inexpensive a dentist is here. Dental care is a normal part of the regular health care system. An examination, x-rays, CT-scan, medication, and the actual root canal the next day cost me a total of about 6000 yen. That's about 50 dollars or 460 Swedish crowns. I'm not complaining.</p><p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MTsIo1qbYGQ/YX1NUATM_eI/AAAAAAAAb50/quu4UUn_2lUaP8pXxd8ENEI7JSZyBIeaACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMGP0259.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MTsIo1qbYGQ/YX1NUATM_eI/AAAAAAAAb50/quu4UUn_2lUaP8pXxd8ENEI7JSZyBIeaACLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/IMGP0259.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Naha at sunset. It's a picture of an upside-down reflection in a canal, flipped to look like a straight shot. It makes a neat effect.<br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: center;"> <br /></p><p><br /></p>Jan Morenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06834641501438709866noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5455782214242472677.post-70049863638945359132021-10-14T22:44:00.003+09:002021-10-14T22:44:29.622+09:00Summer I: Air B&B and an Ebike<p>It was a very different summer than usual this year; I imagine it's been the same for all of us. No long-distance travel, just staying close to home. This summer was especially, shall we say, <i>fascinating</i> here in Japan, what with our — as it turned out — highly temporary leader Suga telling everyone we need to strictly enforce social distancing and restrictions, while simultaneously allowing the largest sporting event on the planet to go right ahead. Oh, and we should absolutely spend money at restaurants and shops, but not actually go there and spread any vidus. Without belabouring the point, let's just say the official response to the pandemic has been less than wholly coherent, thought-out or guided by research and knowledge.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-A6YiLpxn3-0/YWgfhoynFlI/AAAAAAAAb0k/dT5ly4ZMP5815A7P38CZB89NoBGIGJIVgCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/PXL_20210801_032006387.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-A6YiLpxn3-0/YWgfhoynFlI/AAAAAAAAb0k/dT5ly4ZMP5815A7P38CZB89NoBGIGJIVgCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/PXL_20210801_032006387.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">A fairly typical Okinawan single-story concrete house. Why concrete? Because between 90%+ humidity, mold, typhoons and termites, wood will rot or get destroyed very quickly, especially with modern building designs. Traditional wood houses fare better but still need to be constantly renovated.<br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>We decided to rent an Air-BnB house in Yomitan over the Olympics, fairly close to OIST where I work, and blessedly far away from cities and crowds in general. But it wasn't just to get away from people; we also wanted to experience what it's like to live in an Okinawan concrete house, and what it's like to live in a semi-rural area like this. </p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0xjpnEhXdKk/YWghDbY9ppI/AAAAAAAAb0s/chec_9aSutsus5au4a_et6pIRwCdCljwACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/PXL_20210808_020138230.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0xjpnEhXdKk/YWghDbY9ppI/AAAAAAAAb0s/chec_9aSutsus5au4a_et6pIRwCdCljwACLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/PXL_20210808_020138230.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">One big combined living room, kitchen and tatami room, then a couple of bedrooms off to the side. Not actually that big but it feels open and roomy inside.<br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table><br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vOcBawTpqHk/YWghaFEQqkI/AAAAAAAAb00/XWsq6hD1o_YBVVS2Gdjcj9sWI8qnHfMOwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/PXL_20210808_015715507.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vOcBawTpqHk/YWghaFEQqkI/AAAAAAAAb00/XWsq6hD1o_YBVVS2Gdjcj9sWI8qnHfMOwCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/PXL_20210808_015715507.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />A terrace and a view overlooking the ocean. Could be worse.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cRIDsST0g0U/YWghoxYSCdI/AAAAAAAAb04/MDkWH_9D4ZEgsZrM9URAQBDLvbcqFpCxgCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/PXL_20210801_091917383.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cRIDsST0g0U/YWghoxYSCdI/AAAAAAAAb04/MDkWH_9D4ZEgsZrM9URAQBDLvbcqFpCxgCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/PXL_20210801_091917383.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">This area is a mix of concrete homes and small apartments, with the occasional traditional house sprinkled among them. Very bucolic.<br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table><p><br /></p><p>The house itself was a great experience, and it has made us reconsider living in a rented apartment. Yomitan was — as we thought — a bit too rural for our taste. It's beautiful and quiet, but you need a car even just to get to the supermarket.<br /><br /></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-upFdJqRJ6RA/YWgiNgK82VI/AAAAAAAAb1E/wQTZsISTc_wcUQzdZWfS5t9odSmRV82ZwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/PXL_20210805_223832983.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-upFdJqRJ6RA/YWgiNgK82VI/AAAAAAAAb1E/wQTZsISTc_wcUQzdZWfS5t9odSmRV82ZwCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/PXL_20210805_223832983.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />Not every building is as picturesque of course.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dmapqPssj8I/YWgiZSE-1gI/AAAAAAAAb1I/_AS25m8QGBQRX9XXZR_yo1HZeg7gyEYmACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/PXL_20210804_024844694.MP.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dmapqPssj8I/YWgiZSE-1gI/AAAAAAAAb1I/_AS25m8QGBQRX9XXZR_yo1HZeg7gyEYmACLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/PXL_20210804_024844694.MP.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">Walk a couple of blocks, turn a corner and now you're out in the Okinawan countryside. Nothing around but you, fields full of sugarcane and the occasional snake. City life it isn't.<br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gHUui32va_c/YWgiwenN7UI/AAAAAAAAb1Y/aqo7F6seBKIVXC1GcYCLdQy-nhTKzbvowCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/PXL_20210730_221830670.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gHUui32va_c/YWgiwenN7UI/AAAAAAAAb1Y/aqo7F6seBKIVXC1GcYCLdQy-nhTKzbvowCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/PXL_20210730_221830670.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">Just your typical rooster on your typical castle ruin. Going running in Yomitan is never boring.<br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><br /></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bZG-I28b2Uw/YWglJXjH0ZI/AAAAAAAAb1w/x6w_xe_qGS0uZnPNZtWQMXFIgnt4hY_cgCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/original_2428d75a-f60c-465c-8884-01ed5f726d1d_PXL_20210807_050228780.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bZG-I28b2Uw/YWglJXjH0ZI/AAAAAAAAb1w/x6w_xe_qGS0uZnPNZtWQMXFIgnt4hY_cgCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/original_2428d75a-f60c-465c-8884-01ed5f726d1d_PXL_20210807_050228780.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><br />While Yomitan is rural, it's not some screaming, hollow wilderness. It's a village of 40 000 people after all so there's lots of good places to eat around there. This is Oasis Thai, one of the better Thai restaurants I've been to in Japan.<br /></div></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></p><p>One fun thing was that the central parts of the island became accessible to us. It was quick and easy to go visit the Nakama, Henoko or Nago areas that are usually just too far for us to go all the way from Naha. We're absolutely going to take another roadtrip or two up that way this winter.<br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GEeFFjnq0eA/YWgkYoWm0mI/AAAAAAAAb1g/oZwdsqlpnqEO-AimuyOUY_9Sqa4EJqZHQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMGP8175.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GEeFFjnq0eA/YWgkYoWm0mI/AAAAAAAAb1g/oZwdsqlpnqEO-AimuyOUY_9Sqa4EJqZHQCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/IMGP8175.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />Busena.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5rbqVBA8k0c/YWgkai3PM8I/AAAAAAAAb1k/Yh4cCW001W8rPnrNKFbOAvbU0o4j65WywCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMGP8190.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1638" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5rbqVBA8k0c/YWgkai3PM8I/AAAAAAAAb1k/Yh4cCW001W8rPnrNKFbOAvbU0o4j65WywCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/IMGP8190.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />Busena.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>While we were there, I still went to work most days. But now, with only about 12 km to work, I could take my electric bicycle. Back in 2019 I <a href="http://janneinosaka.blogspot.com/2019/08/">wrote about my experience with rental ebikes</a> in Naha. I loved them enough that I finally bought one for myself: the Tern Vektron S10.</p><p><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">The Tern Vektron <br /></h3><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mZu76UHIrLs/YWgmLGr0vEI/AAAAAAAAb14/CBpOwE7Q_poJaaUfaOwl_BMAM_Oz5bwgwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMGP7472.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mZu76UHIrLs/YWgmLGr0vEI/AAAAAAAAb14/CBpOwE7Q_poJaaUfaOwl_BMAM_Oz5bwgwCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/IMGP7472.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />The Tern Vektron S10 looking all suave and dashing under an overpass in Naha.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></p><p>This is a folding bicycle with a motor and battery package from Bosch. Why folding? Because we have no place to store a regular bicycle indoors, and on Okinawa anything left outdoors <i>will</i> rust within months. With a folding bike I can take it up the elevator and stash it in a corner of our entrance. I got it at <a href="https://www.ebike-okinawa.com/">Ebike Okinawa</a>, a specialty store in Naha. <br /></p><p>This is a <i>great</i> bicycle, and, I think, the best vehicle I've ever owned of any kind. Folding bicycles are always a compromise between being good at being a bicycle on one hand, and being good at folding small on the other. The Vektron is very much towards the good bicycle end of that range. It's comfortable and it rides very smoothly even on rough terrain on the wide tires, and it's stable and responsive at any speed I've managed to take it (38km/h according to the speedometer). It doesn't feel like a folding bike at all.</p><p><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CxPP9-i30Uo/YWgmfyY_U-I/AAAAAAAAb2A/BDpTwJIB2xwRddNVIK_LPBhqv89fj8bsgCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/PXL_20210725_222146946.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CxPP9-i30Uo/YWgmfyY_U-I/AAAAAAAAb2A/BDpTwJIB2xwRddNVIK_LPBhqv89fj8bsgCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/PXL_20210725_222146946.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> <br /><div style="text-align: left;">I'm preparing to leave for work at OIST (picture by Ritsuko). This is what the bike was made to do. The side bag swallows my backpack with all my work-related stuff in it, and the solid baggage rack holds a water proof bag with a change of clothes, running gear and a towel. Yes, the helmet is kind of dorky, but better a dork than a paraplegic.<br /></div></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> </td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> </td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>It's not a sport bike of any kind but it is unsurpassed for commuting, running errands and exploring. The frame and components are strengthened to handle the extra power and weight from the motor assist. With the rear rack, a side bag and a basket I can easily bring my backpack, camera and a bag full of groceries. People use these bikes (or the non-motorized Verge model) for week-long bike touring trips.</p><p>Japanese rules for electric assist bicycles are simple and — I feel — very well thought out. The motor can give you up to 200% of the power you produce up to 10km/h. That maximum percentage drops as you speed up until it reaches 0% at 24km/h, at which point you need to pedal entirely on your own to go faster. </p><p>This makes all kinds of sense. An electric assist bicycle is supposed to be a <i>bicycle</i> after all. This way you get plenty of power at low speed to help you get started, to get you up hills, and to push against a strong headwind. As you get up to cruising speed the assist drops, and when you want to go fast you do it completely on your own power.</p><p> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pPHnUanRHKs/YWgnWWiDaZI/AAAAAAAAb2I/8S9FgpBsWuIj1brMxsNhC4_3lgE3OQXTwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMGP8319.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1638" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pPHnUanRHKs/YWgnWWiDaZI/AAAAAAAAb2I/8S9FgpBsWuIj1brMxsNhC4_3lgE3OQXTwCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/IMGP8319.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">The bike folds up fairly well and it's stable when folded. With that said, it's not exactly tiny, and at ~22kg it's a heavy, chunky thing to handle when folded. I <i>can</i> get it into the trunk of our car but it takes some effort, and it does take up most of the space. <br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6kdj2m8TZMY/YWgvmOlLSWI/AAAAAAAAb2Q/wkk2i-JDBncaxlqRKfljqeYeNYwCOUoJACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/PXL_20210916_122756336.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6kdj2m8TZMY/YWgvmOlLSWI/AAAAAAAAb2Q/wkk2i-JDBncaxlqRKfljqeYeNYwCOUoJACLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/PXL_20210916_122756336.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">It fits neatly into our hallway with room to spare. But again, it's a chunky piece of gear; we'd have trouble fitting two of them here.<br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>The Bosch system is really smooth. The motor is completely quiet — I can't recall ever hearing it — and the assist is so well done you don't actually notice it activate at the lower power settings. The lowest "Eco" mode only helps you get started, then compensate slightly for the drag of the mid-mounted motor (the pedals still have to spin the motor when it's turned off). The bike just feels like a regular bicycle that's unusually easy to get rolling.</p><p>The "Tour" mode is the normal mode on the bike. Getting started is easy, hills are smooth and the bike feels quick and light. With the "Sport" mode you start to notice the assist; it reacts fast enough to your input that you feel the assist kicking in, and steep hills become easy. The "Turbo" mode gives you maximum assist.</p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lX4VmApq6DE/YWgv_2PizdI/AAAAAAAAb2Y/-wYVMugSO2A26b25fXTp0DiaJxUuZUulACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/original_a35ae87f-feed-4120-8758-67ef5dc99edb_PXL_20210711_052955866.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lX4VmApq6DE/YWgv_2PizdI/AAAAAAAAb2Y/-wYVMugSO2A26b25fXTp0DiaJxUuZUulACLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/original_a35ae87f-feed-4120-8758-67ef5dc99edb_PXL_20210711_052955866.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />Waiting for the rain to stop, somewhere in Naha.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></p><p>In practice I spend 95% of the time in Eco or Tour. The motor is connected to the pedals so it benefits from switching to lower, slower gears just like you do, and Tour is plenty even for hilly roads. I use "Sport" only for really steep hills, and that's sufficient even for hills so steep I start to worry I might tip over. You gear down to the first or second gear and slowly but steadily climb it with very little effort. I never use Turbo in practice.<br /></p><p>You can use the bicycle with the motor turned off. It's a good bicycle on its own, but the battery and motor does make it heavy, and you have a certain amount of dynamic drag from the motor as you pedal. At higher speeds you don't notice but at low speeds you do. If I wished for any one thing, it would be a way to physically disconnect the motor from the pedals when needed.<br /></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AbgxTg-p5QI/YWgwOQojtXI/AAAAAAAAb2c/U0KnOShJQK0pszp9PNmbRmgJUS9z72K8QCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/P8250039.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AbgxTg-p5QI/YWgwOQojtXI/AAAAAAAAb2c/U0KnOShJQK0pszp9PNmbRmgJUS9z72K8QCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/P8250039.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">A view of the eastern side of the island, from a tiny gravel road at the top of a steep ridge. There is no way I'd find myself here either by normal bicycle or by car.<br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></p><p>A couple of other minor issues is that while the matte black paint is really cool it does scratch easily. Also, it's not very nimble when folded. The folding process itself is simple once you get the hang of it, but it's fairly bulky with the weight and the relatively large wheels. Rolling it into the apartment or loading it into the car is OK, but I would not want to roll it over any longer distance. I'd never take it on the subway or anything like that.<br /></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-N1C1UDMilWw/YWgwsG9aVAI/AAAAAAAAb2o/5gGiVXn7bl0cl6pkVM1JIIOgPEDNaay1ACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/original_855d489e-bf5b-4bd3-acdb-ffb7650223db_PXL_20210503_042042364.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1723" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-N1C1UDMilWw/YWgwsG9aVAI/AAAAAAAAb2o/5gGiVXn7bl0cl6pkVM1JIIOgPEDNaay1ACLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/original_855d489e-bf5b-4bd3-acdb-ffb7650223db_PXL_20210503_042042364.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />Ice coffee and an affogato at Pipeline Coffee in Ginowan.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></p><p>This bicycle has been a game-changer for me. I don't necessarily go very far, but it's so easy and convenient to take the bike instead of the car when I run errands, and it's a great vehicle for exploring areas in Okinawa. For destinations within 8-10 km it's frequently faster than the car, and that's before you spend time looking for a parking space when you arrive. Buying his bike has been one of the best things I've done.<br /></p>Jan Morenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06834641501438709866noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5455782214242472677.post-39999273049337062792021-07-21T15:46:00.000+09:002021-07-21T15:46:41.275+09:00Build your own Computers!<p>Building your own computer is fun! I've been doing it off and on for 30+ years. As a student in the 90's it was a good way to stretch my budget. Today I like selecting the exact parts that go into it, and I enjoy putting it together.<br /></p><p>What's more, building a computer is easy. I really mean it; a new computer is a total of about nine parts, case included, and the only tool you need is a Philips screwdriver. Mostly things just snap or slot into place, with no way of doing it wrong.<br /></p><p>And we have the internet to help us out. It's full of Youtube videos, forums and blogs that can help you answer every question, from what parts you should get to the finer points of installing your operating system.<br /></p><p>Here's an overview of what goes into a desktop computer:<br /><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Cyd8oEVf2uc/YOwyoA0mGdI/AAAAAAAAa0c/OMoFqG6WKnc6Yk-KvpXls5L0DOQt6qfXQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1200/mb.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1004" data-original-width="1200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Cyd8oEVf2uc/YOwyoA0mGdI/AAAAAAAAa0c/OMoFqG6WKnc6Yk-KvpXls5L0DOQt6qfXQCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/mb.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">All the major parts that go into a computer. Laptops, tablets and smartphones all have basically the same organization, but most components are integrated instead of being separate in order to save space and reduce cost.<br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>The CPU is "the computer". Everything else is just there to help it do its job. It needs memory for running programs and processing data. It needs storage — today usually an SSD (like a USB stick but much faster) — where you install and save stuff so it doesn't disappear when you shut it off.</p><p>The CPU gets really hot, so it needs a cooler to keep the temperature down. This is usually a fan with a heatsink that bolts on top. And often (but not always) you need a separate graphics card that generates the graphical output you see on screen. <br /><br /></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qLXyzm6vmEQ/YPe4B6pm_aI/AAAAAAAAa3I/9kcDUucYsKIQEGsqx3Z7LbF9H9e2zopMwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/IMGP7769.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qLXyzm6vmEQ/YPe4B6pm_aI/AAAAAAAAa3I/9kcDUucYsKIQEGsqx3Z7LbF9H9e2zopMwCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/IMGP7769.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">Here's my motherboard, an AsRock Taichi X570. If you think it looks, well, colorful, that's a current trend. A lot of home PC builders like to bling out their computers, so parts are full of LEDs and cool-looking designs. You have to pay extra to get a motherboard without it. Me, I don't mind either way.<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />At the top you can see the four slots for memory. Below that is the large square CPU socket. To the lower right you have three PCI connectors, were things such as a GPU is connected. The panel of connectors to the left will be exposed outside the case and give you networking, sound output, USB connections and so on.<br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></p><p>You mount all of this onto a "motherboard". A modern motherboard comes with a lot of things already built in: sound, network hardware, sometimes also Wifi and Bluetooth and more. When I was young(er) you often had to get all that as separate add-in cards. Things have gotten easier.</p><p>This all goes into a case, together with a power supply. With the motherboard in place you can connect all power cables, fans and the outside case ports (this can be fiddly and take a lot of time if you want to make it neat and clean). Finally you install an operating system (I'm partial to <a href="https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop">this one</a>) and you're done.<br /><br /></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-z5Imm108UTQ/YPe5TVleh2I/AAAAAAAAa3Q/RYPzxZa4hawGSWJipndtnAmtKOC04uXbgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/IMGP7771.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1600" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-z5Imm108UTQ/YPe5TVleh2I/AAAAAAAAa3Q/RYPzxZa4hawGSWJipndtnAmtKOC04uXbgCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/IMGP7771.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> <br /><div style="text-align: left;">My storage is an SSD (solid-state drive - think really fast, big USB drive) that connects to the motherboard with an M.2 connector. The M.2 connectors sit underneath a panel on this motherboard. The drive is the small narrow board sitting at an angle in the middle of the picture. When you close the cover it's pushed down and held in place by a cover screw.<br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></p><p>Later, you probably want to go into the settings on the motherboard and change a few settings that will make your machine a good deal faster — again, there's lots of information and friendly communities on the net that are happy to help you. <br /></p><p>All parts come with detailed instructions, and include all the things you need. The <a href="https://noctua.at/en/nh-d15s-chromax-black">Noctua CPU fan</a> I got, for instance, comes with a tube of thermal paste (you add a drop on the CPU to make a better heat connection with the cooler) and a long, thin screwdriver to reach the holding screws when you install it. <br /><br /></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BJ3UK9WqXMA/YPe8h0bwtlI/AAAAAAAAa3Y/nQXPcZn7bP8IEU19Rl7Bi3J9Gp3W0LnEACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/IMGP7778.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BJ3UK9WqXMA/YPe8h0bwtlI/AAAAAAAAa3Y/nQXPcZn7bP8IEU19Rl7Bi3J9Gp3W0LnEACLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/IMGP7778.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">The CPU is in place. This is really easy: you lift up a latch (the metal stick next to the socket), drop in the CPU — it goes in with no force at all — and close the latch again. Just make sure the CPU is the right way up; there's a triangle mark next to the socket, and a triangle mark on the CPU. Match them up and you're fine.<br /><br />Easy but nerve-wracking. The CPU has about a million (OK, about 150) tiny, soft metal pins on the back, and if you bend one of them you might permanently break the CPU. And if you break it, you broke what may be the most expensive component of your computer. Be very careful.<br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table> <p></p><p>So, why, exactly, would you want to do this? You can go buy a computer, bring it home and start it up in minutes. Why bother?<br /></p><p>Is it cheaper? Yes, to a point. If you're building a really cheap system you probably don't save much. For a high-end computer you can potentially save a fair bit. But that's not the main reason to do it.</p><p>You get the freedom to choose the exact parts that *you* want, and set it up the way you like. You can find a prebuilt computer with about the same specs as my new one. It may be about the same price or perhaps a bit more expensive. </p><p>But it will have slower memory. It will have a cheaper, noisier cooler that might not be able to cool the CPU enough to let it run at full speed. It will have a cheaper-looking case with noisy fans and worse airflow. It will have a slower, smaller SSD for storage. When I build my own I get a faster, higher-quality computer for less money.<br /><br /></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NgNC_tzL2NU/YPe-HCn4urI/AAAAAAAAa3g/HaoQpS2BxBIhlN7yH0Opq64lhtM8qxBGgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/IMGP7781_%25C3%25A4ndrad.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1333" data-original-width="1600" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NgNC_tzL2NU/YPe-HCn4urI/AAAAAAAAa3g/HaoQpS2BxBIhlN7yH0Opq64lhtM8qxBGgCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/IMGP7781_%25C3%25A4ndrad.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">The memory is in place on the lower right; look up in the motherboard manual what sockets to use, then simply push the sticks in until they click. The gigantic thing in the middle is the Noctua air cooler, two radiators with a fan in the middle to push air through it. There's just barely space enough to fit it on the board and into the case. But it is very efficient and very quiet.<br /></div></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /> </p><p><b>But the main reason</b>, for me, to build computers is that it's fun. It's fun to read up on the current state of the art; it's fun to pick and choose parts; it's fun to plan the build. And it's <i>really</i> fun when it starts up the very first time without breaking anything. It's fun.<br /></p><p>This is really no different than spending time and money to customize your car, or plan your autumn wardrobe, or hunt for rare commemorative coins. It's a hobby, and doesn't need any justification beyond the enjoyment we get from doing it.<br /><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OMPM1XcxE_s/YPe_AnW_VkI/AAAAAAAAa3o/f8Fhv5PVTqoSg2_ncTq6XXxWqm8mtfmoQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/IMGP8159.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1599" data-original-width="1600" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OMPM1XcxE_s/YPe_AnW_VkI/AAAAAAAAa3o/f8Fhv5PVTqoSg2_ncTq6XXxWqm8mtfmoQCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/IMGP8159.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">Here's
my finished computer mounted in its case. A 16 core 5950x CPU, 32GB
memory and 1TB SSD storage, running Ubuntu, in a low-key case. The GPU
that sits below the cooler is my older RX570; I'll probably upgrade in
another year. This is <i>very</i> understated by the way; many builds are much fancier than this.<br /><br />Do I, strictly speaking, need this? No, no
more than anybody needs a fancy car, or sports bicycle or a Gucci bag. I
do want it, though, and I enjoy both building it and using it.<br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table><p>If you want to get started, you don't even need to build a full desktop. If you just want to dip your toes in the water, you can get a "barebones"-style device: a tiny PC with a motherboard, CPU and cooler already installed. You just add memory and an SSD and off you go. </p><p>They are really capable machines that easily handle web browsing, office work and light gaming. You could use one as network storage for your other computers. I use an ancient one as a <a href="https://bonsamatic.com/">web server and backup storage</a>. And they're so small you can literally mount them on the back of your monitor (they usually come with a mounting bracket). <a href="https://www.newegg.com/asrock-4x4-box-4300u/p/N82E16856158071">This is</a> an AMD CPU-based one from ASRock I'd love to have for myself. </p><p>If you want to know more, I would start with <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/">r/buildapc</a>. It's a Reddit community dedicated to building PCs with literally millions of members. They are friendly and helpful, and there's a great <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/wiki/index">Wiki</a> with lots of information. They are focused on gaming PCs, however. If you're looking to do something else you need to take that into account; they will tend to recommend very fast (and very expensive) graphics cards you don't need for instance. You can also search Youtube for "build a PC" and get lots of good videos. <a href="https://youtu.be/npGL2-pRXlU">Here's</a> a shorter video, and <a href="https://youtu.be/PXaLc9AYIcg">here</a> a longer one, but there's just lots and lots of them out there. <br /></p><div><br /></div>Jan Morenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06834641501438709866noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5455782214242472677.post-72194769909105234292021-05-09T20:11:00.003+09:002021-05-09T21:33:46.037+09:00Win some, lose some<p><b>Japan has finally joined the developed world</b> in offering a decent amount of mobile data at a not-ridiculous price. We just switched this month to an <a href="https://www.iijmio.jp/">IIJMio</a> plan with 20G data per month for about 2600 yen. Even better, as before the unused data will carry over one month, so in a while we could potentially use up to 40G in a month if we had to. </p><p>This changes everything, as they say. 20G is enough that I don't need to know or care exactly how much I use every day. No pressure to find and use some dodgy public Wifi whenever we go somewhere, and I can tether my laptop to my hearts' content. I might even get a Spotify subscription now that I could actually use it away from home.<br /><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-G7Am-x7vsU8/YJfCAFyybcI/AAAAAAAAaWI/2MjBqnMnEikeob_IbKHmIvyNS2Dw0yeSgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/fisher.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-G7Am-x7vsU8/YJfCAFyybcI/AAAAAAAAaWI/2MjBqnMnEikeob_IbKHmIvyNS2Dw0yeSgCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/fisher.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />About as close as we got to other people. It's a nice place for a quiet holiday.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p><b>We spent the last few days of Golden Week</b> at a <a href="https://www.bestwestern.jp/booking-path/hotel-details/best-western-okinawa-onna-beach-kunigami-78532">small hotel</a> in Onna. It's pretty secluded, and there's not a lot of people around. The natural beach is too shallow and rocky to draw many people (but is great for watching marine life), and we had a room with a kitchen so we didn't even visit the restaurant. We spent the last three days literally cooking, reading and taking long walks on the beach. The cliche is real.<br /><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qYhfad4ahNg/YJfCZwyUXTI/AAAAAAAAaWQ/wMDbyo0Kq7MB0fqAn7DP_XNUgYG_8PpbwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/ika.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qYhfad4ahNg/YJfCZwyUXTI/AAAAAAAAaWQ/wMDbyo0Kq7MB0fqAn7DP_XNUgYG_8PpbwCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/ika.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">No underwater camera this time. I did manage to capture this cuttlefish (or squid? Not sure) in the shoreline with my usual camera. This area is pretty great for casual marine life observation.<br /><br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table><p><b>Alas, no silver lining is ever without a cloud.</b> My phone decided to die on me while we were away. I've ordered a new phone (a Nexus 5) and it should show up later this week. Meanwhile I'm without a phone. I'm sure it's good for my moral fiber or something but it is also bloody frustrating. At first I got the urge to check it maybe every fifteen minutes or so; I've mostly lost that reflex now.</p><p>Worse, I realize now how dependent I am on that phone. I couldn't log in to my Google account (or to my work account) since I need my phone for 2-factor authentication. I can't use PayPay to pay for stuff, and I can't use Line to stay in contact with people. I can't record my running sessions, or check the weather, listen to podcasts, find a recipe, look up a Japanese word, read the newspaper...<br /><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mFmeAio1TvI/YJfWcSsvCrI/AAAAAAAAaWc/3QU4omAymRAUyJLmPyvA-0H5ZqaTML5YgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/breakfast1600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mFmeAio1TvI/YJfWcSsvCrI/AAAAAAAAaWc/3QU4omAymRAUyJLmPyvA-0H5ZqaTML5YgCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/breakfast1600.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />The last (backed up) picture from my phone. At least the breakfast was delicious.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p><b>On the bright side, I did have plenty of time to read.</b> Specifically, I read "<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/611060/project-hail-mary-by-andy-weir/">Project Hail Mary</a>" by Andy Weir (of "The Martian" fame). It's difficult to say much without giving away the plot, but if you like your science fiction properly sciency <span>— if you enjoy, say, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon%27s_Egg">Dragons Egg</a>, or <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Martian_(Weir_novel)">The Martian</a>, or anything by Arthur C. Clarke or Isaac Asimov — then you'll probably love this one. Expect lots of danger and close escapes, vaguely plausible future science, and some instantly likeable characters. It's a fast, engaging read; perfect for a few summer days at the beach or by the pool. Do read it.<span></span><span></span><span></span></span><span></span><br /></p><p><br /></p>Jan Morenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06834641501438709866noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5455782214242472677.post-16326427501278205112021-05-05T20:07:00.000+09:002021-05-05T20:07:56.173+09:00Zero To Coffee<p>I have a coffee plant. I've had it for about 7 years and it is now chest-high. Two years ago it bloomed, and shortly after it produced a few green cherries. </p><p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LQHamNG7vuU/YJJ1xlF-GRI/AAAAAAAAaT4/PsA3A5JZPuQWcu9EhrldYrSOF9twtelpwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/plant.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LQHamNG7vuU/YJJ1xlF-GRI/AAAAAAAAaT4/PsA3A5JZPuQWcu9EhrldYrSOF9twtelpwCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/plant.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />My coffee plant is a little worse for wear. A typhoon will do that to you.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p><br />But a typhoon almost killed the plant — we were travelling and the plants were all outside — and it nearly killed the plant. This is why it looks so bare and lopsided; it lost most branches in the typhoon.</p><p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nRlQMCUvaRc/YJJ1w_VgX6I/AAAAAAAAaTw/b9FdT-CvVccj1Y8UIe5PbSdG7Vfh9EZOQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/flower.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nRlQMCUvaRc/YJJ1w_VgX6I/AAAAAAAAaTw/b9FdT-CvVccj1Y8UIe5PbSdG7Vfh9EZOQCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/flower.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">You get these delicate, beautiful white flowers along the branches for just a few days. Each flower is blooming for perhaps only a day or so. My plant doesn't really have the strength to put out a lot of flowers, but the ones I do get are beautiful.<br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table><p><br />Amazingly, it recovered and last spring it once again put out a few beautiful white flowers for just a week or so. A couple of weeks after the end of the bloom it produced about a dozen cherries. They have been maturing over winter and I harvested them a few weeks ago. In all I got 11 cherries. This is fine; I'm just happy the plant is alive and able to produce any at all<span>.</span></p><p><span> </span> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ysXZBSQLEX4/YJJ1w8dQbuI/AAAAAAAAaTo/vDUTQg9J8lksyUIg68nmnBXeLP685BHAACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/greenfruit.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ysXZBSQLEX4/YJJ1w8dQbuI/AAAAAAAAaTo/vDUTQg9J8lksyUIg68nmnBXeLP685BHAACLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/greenfruit.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">Each flower site will bud a few cherries like this. They take about 8-10 months to turn red and ripen fully.<br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table><p> <span><br />The coffee "bean" that we use is the seed of the coffee cherry. There's a couple of ways to process coffee, but the most common is the "wet process", or "washed coffee". There is also a "dry" or "natural" process; and a "semi-washed" process but wet process is most common. </span></p><p><span> </span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iGTy9l_srew/YJJ1yIVURcI/AAAAAAAAaUE/7ks2J2BOBqwJOwsXMFKImxtK6o8Lg__9gCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/redcherries.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1600" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iGTy9l_srew/YJJ1yIVURcI/AAAAAAAAaUE/7ks2J2BOBqwJOwsXMFKImxtK6o8Lg__9gCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/redcherries.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />My bountiful harvest! 11 cherries.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p><span><br />You dump the cherries in water and remove any floating ones (I don't; I'm not willing to lose 2 out of 11 beans); remove the skin and most of the pulp; ferment for 24-36 hours to make the remaining slimy mucilage easy to remove; wash; then dry for at least a week. I've checked out several web pages and videos, but the best one is this: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCWN2F-GhAE">How To Wet Process Coffee</a>. </span></p><h4 style="text-align: left;">Wash and depulp</h4><p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tpRJusY-1bQ/YJJ1xwQekgI/AAAAAAAAaUA/lbpeNo7QJtQylT1lh-rNbJVqZdTvwYnJgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/pulpandbean.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tpRJusY-1bQ/YJJ1xwQekgI/AAAAAAAAaUA/lbpeNo7QJtQylT1lh-rNbJVqZdTvwYnJgCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/pulpandbean.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">You remove the skin and pulp. Inside you find two stones like this. You can see that they're still coated with a slimy, tough mucus-like substance. The fermentation lets enzymes from the skin dissolve the coating. You can use the pulp to make tea if you like.<br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table><p><br />We wash the cherries and remove the pulp. Normally you do this with a machine, but as I doubt Ritsuko would agree to getting a coffee depulper for a total of 11 beans, I do it by hand. You effectively lightly crush the cherry so the skin and flesh splits open and you remove the seed inside. Each fruit usually has two seeds each; if you only have one that makes it a "peaberry". Peaberry coffee is beans that were a single seed. I got a total of 24 beans (I think two of them had three beans). <br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;">Ferment</h4><p style="text-align: left;">The pulp is gone but the seeds are still covered in slimy mucilage. Wash them, then leave in water for a day or a day and a half. Enzymes from the skin will break down the slimy mucilage so we can easily wash it away.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Wash the beans a few times, rubbing them together to remove all the gunk left on the surface. I should have left them to ferment another half a day I think; there was still a bit of mucilage stuck to them at the end. I guess that makes this a "semi-washed" coffee.<br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;">Dry the beans<br /></h4><p style="text-align: left;"> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-T9P3Nr-t0ww/YJJ1wRVadaI/AAAAAAAAaTk/dtRqd2XMwP8TcRr6hoTf12tz7RQPzqIEwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/driedbeans.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1600" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-T9P3Nr-t0ww/YJJ1wRVadaI/AAAAAAAAaTk/dtRqd2XMwP8TcRr6hoTf12tz7RQPzqIEwCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/driedbeans.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">Dry beans. They're coated in "parchment", a dry shell similar to the shell of a peanut or pistachio.<br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: left;"><br />The beans need to dry for at least a week in an airy place. Real coffee producers dry them on a fine net or cloth suspended above ground in the sun. I just put them on a clean tea towel and make sure I rotate them every day.</p><h4 style="text-align: left;">Dehulling and Roasting<br /></h4><p style="text-align: left;"> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ArFwyp33y8o/YJJ1xbSufuI/AAAAAAAAaT0/r3-pjbVfpsIkZIGt6aTXBiqU09q_mui3gCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/parchment.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1600" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ArFwyp33y8o/YJJ1xbSufuI/AAAAAAAAaT0/r3-pjbVfpsIkZIGt6aTXBiqU09q_mui3gCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/parchment.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">I manually cracked open the parchment with my fingernails and removed the bean. With a bigger harvest I'd need a better way to do it. One way is apparently to stuff them into a hose or inner tube, then roll and crush them from outside. <br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: left;"><br />The beans are dry. They still have two layers outside the bean itself: the silver skin and the parchment. The parchment is like a woody shell outside the beans itself, and we need to remove it before we roast. There's various ways, from specialized machinery, to using a bicycle inner tire. For 24 beans, though, the easiest way is to just pry open each bean with a thumbnail then remove the bean itself.</p><p style="text-align: left;"> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DwzGdnZCUIs/YJJ1wRqwFeI/AAAAAAAAaTg/szrw4KKGHyU7DSDu1uSzBKFVw5HYz7slwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/dehulled.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1600" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DwzGdnZCUIs/YJJ1wRqwFeI/AAAAAAAAaTg/szrw4KKGHyU7DSDu1uSzBKFVw5HYz7slwCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/dehulled.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">Green beans. If we let then sit they'll slowly turn light grey, which is how you usually see them if you buy unroasted beans.<br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: left;"> <br />The final amount is 2.6g of green coffee. That's not a lot. These beans are small and have fairly low density as they've grown near sea level. That means they'll roast really quickly. I knew that, and I still managed to over-roast them a little; it went so fast towards the end. We got 2.0g roasted coffee beans in the end. I let it sit for 3 days to degas a little.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-37KD3Fy-MWk/YJJ1yDB9VrI/AAAAAAAAaUI/svGtxp0xb7A2urHLlA9lSBNhQZ3oav1xgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/roasted.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1600" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-37KD3Fy-MWk/YJJ1yDB9VrI/AAAAAAAAaUI/svGtxp0xb7A2urHLlA9lSBNhQZ3oav1xgCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/roasted.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">Roasted beans. A bit dark for my taste; they're small and light so they went from a light roast to this in maybe 20 seconds or so. <br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;">Enjoy our Coffee<br /></h4><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="text-align: left;"> <br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-x4JXS3FVmvE/YJJ1xNOhK7I/AAAAAAAAaTs/eDHeF17FAaEfCQMtHZ1UmYtnyAa56k7pgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/ground.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1371" data-original-width="1600" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-x4JXS3FVmvE/YJJ1xNOhK7I/AAAAAAAAaTs/eDHeF17FAaEfCQMtHZ1UmYtnyAa56k7pgCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/ground.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">We've ground the coffee. It's a small glass and it's close up, so it looks much coarser than it really is. Still, a better grinder would have been nice to have.<br /></div></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> <br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: left;"> </p><p style="text-align: left;">Time to enjoy the fruits of a year of (very little) work! But how do you even brew 2g of coffee? Carefully, is the answer. I ground it medium:ish with my crappy manual grinder into a clear glass, then poured 34g of water just off the boil on top for about 1:17 coffee to water. That's a bit more water than I usually use, but will help discern the flavours in the cup. After a couple of minutes I poured it though a fine sieve into an espresso cup (then split in two so Ritsuko could also taste).</p><p style="text-align: left;"> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MEXUCu9Uv1E/YJJ1wA1lx_I/AAAAAAAAaTc/mtN9Asgv2v0a9U9BLszcnUIyywgVW7ZbgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/cup.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1060" data-original-width="1600" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MEXUCu9Uv1E/YJJ1wA1lx_I/AAAAAAAAaTc/mtN9Asgv2v0a9U9BLszcnUIyywgVW7ZbgCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/cup.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />A well-deserved cup of coffee.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: left;"><br />How did it taste? Surprisingly good! It's not bitter, there's a fair amount of body, and quite a bit of sweetness. More of an earthy coffee rather than a floral one. I'd be happy to enjoy a full cup of this coffee if I could. I don't know the species, but the balanced flavour and lack of aftertaste makes me think this is Arabica, not Robusta.<br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">Finally, just as I was preparing the coffee, my plant has put out a new round of flowers. It seems I'll get to enjoy another cup again next year!<br /></p>Jan Morenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06834641501438709866noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5455782214242472677.post-11817739409867359732021-04-13T22:33:00.005+09:002021-04-13T22:33:52.833+09:00Not Going to Osaka<p>I'm not going to Osaka. I mean, I'm not going to lots of places — Kuala Lumpur, Borås and Adis Abeba to name a few. </p><p>No, this is more specifically not going to Osaka for Golden Week, like we did last year. We had planned a two-week holiday at home in Osaka. We'd take care of some errands, go walking around town, cook and generally just relax. COVID, and Japans lethargic approach to it, effectively put a stop to that today.</p><p> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DD0E1ghtA8Q/YHWdFF9IbWI/AAAAAAAAaDs/DrXs4RME9TAOFy4O-3V1BjrwaRQFs0JTwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/shisa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1639" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DD0E1ghtA8Q/YHWdFF9IbWI/AAAAAAAAaDs/DrXs4RME9TAOFy4O-3V1BjrwaRQFs0JTwCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/shisa.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />A Shisa lion at Naha airport<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></p><p>Japan has overall managed to keep cases fairly low. This has really mostly been through the willingness of the Japanese public to go along with voluntary restrictions, and a general sense of caution even when the government does something headlessly dumb such as campaigns to promote domestic travel and eating out last autumn. Those campaigns caused the previous surge in cases.</p><p>We now have another surge, and this time it's different. Cases in Osaka has risen to over 1000 per day, and Okinawa is not much better off. Tokyo is reporting fewer cases, but they are also testing a lot less. The rise this time has been far more sudden and more dramatic than previous surges, and restrictions doesn't seem to even slow the rise. <br /></p><p>One reason is a sense of virus fatigue. Very understandable; I feel it too. But another reason is that apparently 90% of new cases now is by the British strain; a strain that is more contagious, and more dangerous if you catch it. Several areas are now at the limit of what hospitals can take care of and there's no drop in sight so far.</p><p>Will vaccines help us? No. Japan doesn't have the vaccines we need. They've so far vaccinated a fraction of the medical workers (around 0.8% of the population), and they're talking about possibly vaccinating the most vulnerable elderly by end of June. That seems unlikely. Why doesn't Japan have vaccines? Good question.</p><p>One answer is that Japan didn't seem to have entered any international cooperation agreements and was very slow ordering vaccines from foreign makers. And that, in turn, seems to have been due to some nationalistic desire to have a domestic vaccine. Which is not forthcoming, as domestic makers have been hobbled by a lack of funding the past decade or so, and never stood a chance to create a vaccine in time.<br /><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DKPRGCG3OaY/YHWdOOPpe5I/AAAAAAAAaDw/t5mKkbUSoMwku3LZYjJV-HQ-XDANqsbSwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/IMGP7695.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1060" data-original-width="1600" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DKPRGCG3OaY/YHWdOOPpe5I/AAAAAAAAaDw/t5mKkbUSoMwku3LZYjJV-HQ-XDANqsbSwCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/IMGP7695.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">Life goes on. Tourists still visit. And as Ritsuko says, we're lucky to live in a place pleasant enough that people are willing to risk travelling in a pandemic just to come here. <br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>So, it looks like we will spend Golden Week during another emergency declaration, with a more aggressive virus and no relief in sight. And that, frankly is better done on Okinawa than in Osaka. At least we can get outside into quiet areas without people here on the island. In Osaka we'd be stuck at home.<br /></p>Jan Morenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06834641501438709866noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5455782214242472677.post-83013944643799471662021-03-21T20:00:00.000+09:002021-03-21T20:00:00.245+09:00I get boxes<p>Delivery people have been giving me boxes lately. Small boxes and big boxes; cheap boxes and expensive boxes. I now have all the boxes.<br /></p><p>Five years ago I built my current desktop PC. It's working (mostly) fine, but it's getting a little long in the tooth and it's time to build a new one. My plan is to build a new, shiny computer here on Okinawa; then bring my current desktop back to Osaka. With a second computer there I won't need to bring a laptop along every time I go back.</p><p><br /></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2viOaI47P-o/YFcmUC8S_rI/AAAAAAAAZ9I/wyTVYO_hqpg-LKKr642MfZXEqFTeDKKqQCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/K.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2viOaI47P-o/YFcmUC8S_rI/AAAAAAAAZ9I/wyTVYO_hqpg-LKKr642MfZXEqFTeDKKqQCPcBGAYYCw/s16000/K.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />What I imagine my new computer will be like.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />This cunning plan has only one slight flaw: this is the worst time in a decade or more to get a new computer. Because of COVID, supply chains and industrial production has been disrupted the world over, and it's particularly bad for <a href="https://www.extremetech.com/computing/318554-a-massive-chip-shortage-is-hitting-the-entire-semiconductor-industry">complex electronic components</a> such as CPUs, sensors and RF components (Wifi, bluetooth and so on). Products from <a href="https://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_will_delay_next_galaxy_note_due_to_chip_shortage_but_promises_one_in_2022-news-48248.php">smartphones</a> to <a href="https://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2021/02/18/ricoh-announces-pentax-k-3-mark-iii-delay">cameras</a> have been delayed or cancelled, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-bb12adb6106019a618440d85fd91f77e">car plants sit idle</a>, and computers are of course <a href="https://www.theburnin.com/industry/pc-component-shortage-continue-increased-demand-upgrades-2020-12-27/">especially affected</a>.<br /></p><p>At the same time, the pandemic has increased the demand for laptops and desktops. Lots of people now work and study from home and they all need computers to do that. And when you're stuck at home with little to do, a gaming PC or game console seems like just the thing to relieve the boredom. PC sales are increasing for the first time in ten years.<br /></p><p>How bad is it? I've tried to get a new laptop at work since late November. The order has been cancelled twice due to a lack of parts, and five months on I still don't know when I will finally get a replacement. <br /><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HGWT1tJ1P6c/YFclkL-vdVI/AAAAAAAAZ9A/RlCf9bhmz0Ew27rCFFH4PJc7jWh03H42wCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/cat.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HGWT1tJ1P6c/YFclkL-vdVI/AAAAAAAAZ9A/RlCf9bhmz0Ew27rCFFH4PJc7jWh03H42wCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/cat.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">Concerned cat does not approve of the current component shortage.<br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table><p><br />Still, if you persevere you can get lucky. I've been looking for the <a href="https://www.amd.com/en/products/cpu/amd-ryzen-9-5950x">AMD 5950X</a> CPU, but it's been constantly sold out online (you can get it at 25%-50% markup from a scalper, but I don't want to give them my money). However, I also kept an eye on the stock at our local store (called "<a href="https://www.goodwill.jp/">GoodWill</a>"), part of the <a href="https://www.pc-koubou.jp/">PC Koubo</a> chain. The physical stores have a separate supply channel, and visitors can't snap up stock instantly. And they get regular supply drops of this CPU.<br /></p><p>About three weeks ago the shop in Chatan got a shipment of the 5950X. We drove over, waited with ~6-7 other people until they opened (I'm not the only one monitoring the store page), and walked out with a 5950X, at MSRP - no scalpers or shady resellers and no inflated price.<br /></p><p>I've since ordered the other parts I'll need for a working computer: a motherboard, memory, an SSD, a CPU cooler, a PSU and a case to put everything in. It all finally arrived this week, neatly packed in boxes on my workroom floor. <br /></p><p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IsxcqZq3Gmk/YFcjkyS-XeI/AAAAAAAAZ84/GH2OOlsTRNQsVvnK54Wx_MuJ75pqMn4ZgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/pile.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1371" data-original-width="1600" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IsxcqZq3Gmk/YFcjkyS-XeI/AAAAAAAAZ84/GH2OOlsTRNQsVvnK54Wx_MuJ75pqMn4ZgCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/pile.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">A
pile of boxes. Put them together and you have a computer. Put them
together wrong and you have some expensive junk. Don't put them together
wrong. With that said, it's actually pretty easy.<span></span><br /></div> </td></tr></tbody></table><p>One item is conspicuously absent: I didn't get a GPU. If other parts are hard to get right now, GPUs are effectively impossible. Cryptocurrencies are booming, and some them can be profitably mined with consumer GPUs. The major PC builders - the likes of Dell and Lenovo - get a lot of them to fulfil the demand for PCs. Then currency miners and scalpers hoover up everything they can get their hands on, through bulk buying and by using bots to grab anything that shows up online.<br /></p><p>It's not just the newest graphics cards either. You can't get <i>anything</i>. I bought an <a href="https://www.amd.com/en/products/graphics/radeon-rx-570">RX570 8GB</a> on sale about two years ago, for about $180. Today Amazon sells used cards for $380, and new cards go for $700 and up.<br /></p><p>I gave up. I'm not going to spend weeks trying to find a current-generation GPU, then pay several times what it's normally worth. I'll use the RX570 for now, then buy a new card in a year or two, once the COVID-related shortages fade and cryptocurrencies crash again.</p><p>Meanwhile I will put together my new computer this week, and once it (hopefully) works I'll move over my stuff from the old one, and prepare that one for shipment back to Osaka. <br /></p><br />Jan Morenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06834641501438709866noreply@blogger.com2