Bullet Points
Inspired by James Van Dyne, I think I should do a weekly blog post that is a run-down of what is happening lately.
Yesterday and the day before I went on a trip to Murakami, Niigata, Japan with the Mt. Takao shop association (shotenkai) . It was the first activity of the shotenkai that I participated in, and I had a lot of fun. I got to see a nice town on the Sea of Japan that is famous for its salmon, Murakami. I got to stay in a nice onsen hotel. I got to take a dip in the Sea Japan, which was warmer than I expected. (Or my body is affected by the cold morning showers that I have been enjoying lately.) Most importantly, I got to become acquainted and I would even go so far as to say friends with over a dozen of the 50 or so shops that do business on or around Mt. Takao. I may expand on the experience, but suffice it to say it was a success.
The night view facing the Sea of Japan from our hot spring hotel outdoor bath
Inspired by Raleigh, I joined Rate Your Music. It lets one catalogue their music collection, which, with my advent of listening to vinyl in hydda Takao, makes it worthwhile to me. It drives home for me that when we use streaming services (Spotify, in my case), we have at our fingertips a great deal of the music of the world, and also own nothing. Owning and listening to physical albums has been an enormous pleasure. On RYM, I have catalogued my album collection and will be rating each one after a sufficiently thorough number of listens. Also, as I have mentioned elsewhere, listening to vinyl during work results in a default pomodoro time-management style, since 12” records take 20 or so minutes to play through one side, after which one must flip or change the record (unless one has a fancy turntable that plays multiple albums in succession; I do not).
The company andSCAPES, which my three partners and I created to operate TMH. and future businesses, is poised to create a satellite office space in a prime location near Mt. Takao. This is exciting for several reasons, including the progress we will make beyond our successful-but-still-only project. In addition, local owners of other prime locations are starting to contact us with offers regarding the lease or sale of their properties. We won’t be able to handle it all at once, but TMH. seems to have had a strong effect in showing our ability to innovate and influence the future direction of the community. More news to come, I am sure.
I went to Pizzakaya in Roppongi to have lunch with Levi, Azael, Rick, and Josh. It was a great time. They are all people I have interacted with on Twitter and now Mastodon, but had not met until the lunch. Good conversation and pizza. Online communities are at their best when they result in real-life interactions.
I went to Mitaka to have dinner with Wataru and Jim. I had met up with Jim previously in Yamaguchi-ken, but it was my first time meeting Wataru in person. He too was a connection made through Twitter. Both of these gentlemen have created excellent lives in Japan, so the conversation was good. I learned a lot. It could have continued another seven hours. Meeting people in person is a stressful prospect, and nearly always worth it.
Zack and I have had a few record-listening sessions in hydda. Raleigh has made it to one as well. Listening to records alone is good, and having people there to discuss things is a delight. We often read through the liner notes. Since Zack and I are yacht rock enthusiasts, it is great to identify the session musicians and backup singers and other artists that made the genre. I invite you, dear reader, to come and listen to records sometime.
[I keep adding things to this. Those who come to the post early will miss things. *Ivan Drago voice* If they miss, they miss.]
I ran over 50km this past week. Much of the good effect of that was squandered on the bus to and in Niigata, but I still feel good about it. Thank god I enjoy running. Today I woke up but found myself a bit fatigued from the trip. Tomorrow I will resume, and try to get a good long streak of running days going. I look forward to the body improvements I usually see two weeks after a solid run of runs.