Just got back from 2 weeks in Japan. In week 339, we (Dana and I) were supposed to be attending the Ikenobo World Seminar with 4 days of classes, but it was cancelled due to Coronavirus outbreak, which is fair enough. We already had our Kyoto airbnb and flights booked, so we thought heck... let's go anyway.

Kyoto was lovely and much less busy than usual (both because lower season and little travel out of China) so we visited some of the more high-traffic temples that we'd have skipped before. We also took a day trip out to Hiroshima and a trip out to Nara (I petted a lot of deer!) and Osaka (fried food on sticks!). The JR railpass really is a good motivator to get out and about.

Second week was just me and Alex in Tokyo. He worked some of it. That was a much less busy week, mostly eating and shopping. We're thinking about doing 6 weeks in Tokyo this year or next, so we wanted to scope the new location for his office (they just moved) and get a sense of that neighbourhood, in case we decided we wanted to stay longer-term near there.

I took a day trip down to Tateyama by the sea, and visited one of our flower gang's homes there, as well as the castle and pier. It's very cute and highway buses are great.

I wrote this once, on mobile, and accidentally closed the browser and it lost everything. Computers.

336 was my last week at Netlify. Folks were generally very kind and nice about my leaving. I like those people.

Also:

• Went to Sacramento
• Hung out with Public Digital folks James, Dai and Stacy. It's basically GDS Goes Abroad.
• Visited lovely California Alpha Gov team. They've got all that wonderful energy and I can't get enough. Particularly enjoyed the user research stories and show and tell.
• Amtrak's great. No one takes it, the WiFi works and the scenery/nature is very pretty. I even saw kingfisher!

337 has been in London (I say "has" because we've not quite left yet). Alex and I have accumulated a lot of British Airways points and we managed to spend them on an LHR to SFO flight, so we just decided to last minute, so that meant...

• Lovely birthday dinner at Pollen Street Social. Very cute special cake and clockwork music box presented for the occasion by the dessert kitchen.
• Went to a Celebration of Europe party on Brexit night. Alex and I won the EU-topics quiz with the low score of 3/15, which might be presented as a possible reason why so many people voted to leave the EU.
• Read some more library books:
  • Wilding Girls - has a very pithy short review by some as like Lord of the Flies-but-girls, but I did not get that take away unless you'd only read the first chapter. It's actually quite a lot more sweet and sentimental than that. I would definitely read a sequel if the author decided to do more world building.
  • The Procrastination Equation recommendation by... I forgot (remind me if it's you) and it is basically some common sense and thank you but can someone agree to be my accountability buddy for some un-time-constrained goals I have?
  • The Testaments. Alright but sort of contrived and it's all pushed into a certain direction because of the TV show, but it puts a neat bow on the whole Gilead thing.
  • The last half of Caliban's War and the first half of Abaddon's Gate. They're good sci-fi and I'm playing catch-up with the show still (The Expanse) but I'm determined to get ahead so I can be that smug git with the spoilers.
• Visited the Public Digital offices twice. Once for actual work and once to take advantage of their printer. Good lot, though, and I'm happy that I'm working with them a bit.
• Just generally lots of lovely beers and cups of teas with lots of lovely people. The main reason to visit London, really.
• Had 3 Greggs vegan sausage rolls and they're great and will now be the main thing I complain about not being able to get in the States.