Little things

I was able to confirm that the Moderna vaccine gives me a pretty huge headache. Better than brain fog from long covid. But got my two vaccines down. A huge relief, but we’re waiting until both of us are able to get fully vaccinated and see the infection numbers go down before we start going out again. I was able to get it through my company, but my girlfriend was not able to get hers as easily.

I’m going to miss working from home though. We’ve been able to have almost every meal together. I tend to start lunch a little earlier than her. While she’s on a call I sneak into her peripheral and put up 1 or 2 fingers and wait for her to respond back with the number of slices of bread she wants. I run back into the kitchen and pull out the loaf of not yet sliced bread.

We found this small bakery that specializes in making 食パン (shokupan, or plain/sandwich bread). The shop does not have a dinning area. You buy at the window, and go about your day. If the loaf is still warm, they’ll wrap it in a way so that condensation doesn’t build up inside the bag. It is very good bread. And while it’s more expensive, size-wise it’s not that bad of a deal compared to what they sell at stores. Quality easily out classing even the grocery store bakery bread.

I started writing the above over a month ago. I’m finishing this post up now as things continue to not get much better (and thankfully, not much worse for the day to day). We continue to enjoy our fresh bread. I continue to oscillate between having no passion for any hobbies and being way too focused on a hobby.

I have more pictures I’d like to share, but I like to have at least have something written to go along with it. My writing practice has near non-existent lately, which is something I have been slowly working on. An alternative to posting on here would be social media platforms like instagram or similar. But the instagram app itself has changed away from photos recently. The mobile web version oddly is closer to what I want, but the app itself increased focus to shopping and video.

I have been fortunate to be able to travel around Japan. I have done multiple trips and now live here ¹. And it is a beautiful photogenic place. I enjoy taking pictures here. In the past I would share my photos with people on instagram and similar services. But there were a few individuals whose comments left me a bit uncomfortable. Social media benefits greatly from creating addictive behaviors. Instilling feelings of FOMO and “the grass is greener”. The comments they left had a longing that was beyond the typical “Oh, I’d love to visit there someday!” and I haven’t been able to shake the feeling of being a contributor to the unhealthy habits in social media. On the flip side of this, many people are unable to travel right now. Social media can be a way we can connect and see other parts of the world. Which is great when you’re living abroad. A key difference is that we need to be mindful and intentional with what we’re sharing². Having a good purpose of sharing to share, rather than sharing for the benefits of sharing (such as chasing likes or sponsorships). I might look into sharing on those sites again, but I need to be sure I can be properly intentional and mindful of what I post. For the time being, I’ll focus on content here. It’s a slower process that requires more time and thought. Which allows more time for checking intention and mindfulness.