2024-11-05

Well, I’m back from an attempt to cycle the Shimanami Kaido. This trip didn’t quite work out…

• The remnants of a typhoon passing by meant the days leading up to the trip were pouring rain, so we had to last-minute rearrange all our hotels and plans.
• We didn’t really account for transit not running (rookie mistake). We got the ferry from Hiroshima to Matsuyama, but the rain made it extra extra choppy (and nauseating). Then once we got to the port, the train to the city itself wasn’t running, even after the rain stopped. We waited for a while looking for a taxi while hoping the trains would restart, but it seemed the train tracks were still flooded, and taxis were unwilling to take us.
• Finally a crazy taxi driver (that was probably a Beijing taxi driver in a different timeline) took us on, running red lights and crossing busy intersections without lights to avoid flooded roads and traffic.
• Matsuyama itself was quite nice, with a store doing a orange juice and orange jelly flight (it turns out I like bitter oranges), and another store selling fancy scarves and Imabari towels. Then dinner at a local yakiniku place was quite nice, even if we only had an hour to eat.
• Then when we tried to get to Imabari…the JR train wasn’t running. While it seemed like they might restart service, ultimately they cancelled for the day, and we took another taxi.
• The next morning the weather was actually nice, but we got held up in line for rental bikes before finally starting.
• Then we got into a minor accident and visited the hospital, abandoning the attempt. Well, we got to see how a Japanese ambulance works…

Oh well! Matsuyama was quite nice, and the taxi driver was certainly an unusual tourist experience. Iwakuni would probably have been prettier two weeks later once the fall foliage really came in, and it was a bit dreary in the rain, but it still came out well in photos.

2024-11-17

COMITIA150 was quite tiring, but fun; in the future I’m not sure I’ll go so religiously, but we’ll see. The main goal was to see SENGOKU Hiroko and deliver her a fanletter, along with delivering some gifts to a few authors and asking YATOSAKI Haru for an autograph, all of which I managed. Everything else was just a bonus.

I wasn’t expecting Yatosaki-sensei & co to remember me as “the guy who asked on Twitter about sashiire”…guess maybe that’s a bit unusual?

The Rakuen le Paradis exhibition featured basically some commentary (illustrated as manga) from a variety of authors. HARUMI Chihiro was notably absent again, but SHIMA Tokio notes she first started work because an editor of Rakuen introduced themselves at a doujin event, which I suppose makes sense though I hadn’t ever considered that happening before.

2024-11-18

It seems Sengoku-sensei was happy about the letter(s) she received, judging from her Twitter. I hope she liked mine…

2024-11-20

• It turns out Seijo Ishii sells kaya jam! I did miss getting that from Kopitiam on the LES in NYC. Though the one they sell is brown whereas I remember Kopitiam’s jam being bright green (due to pandan leaf?).
• It turns out I can exit through the Fukutoshin transfer gate, go shopping, get on the Yuurakuchou like, and still get the transfer benefits!
• I found a daigakuimo vendor in Kagurazaka, which is reasonably close to me. These candied roasted sweet potato chunks are going to be the death of me…

2024-11-22

After checking Gyomu Super, Seiji Ishii, and Kaldi, I still cannot find evaporated milk, only condensed…

2024-11-23

It turns out even in your first year in Japan, you can use furusato nozei to pay down your residence tax burden. After running things through a calculator, I now need to figure out how to use this before next year…

2024-11-24

Autumn is still not quite here in Tokyo; it seems the gingko have changed, but the maple are still in the process.

Getting a Rakuten Card (credit card) was apparently pretty easy, given they approved me just a few hours after I applied.