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Today January 2021

joewein

Maximum Pace
Oct 25, 2011
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Happy New Year! 365 days to ride this year!

In December I signed up for a repeat of the 360+ km Fleche ride from Aichi to Tokyo that we had planned for April 2020 but had to postpone to October. Ultimately we couldn't finish it within the time limit because of the typhoon. The 2021 version will be in early April, so my plan is to ride as much as possible in January, keep riding enough in cold February to maintain my condition and get into decent shape in March with more rides.

What are your hopes or plans for the year?

Vaccinations will probably not start much before April, with most of us not being able to get vaccinated before June because we aren't old enough and don't have other risk factors. I am hoping that enough people modify their behaviour in January to halt the ongoing Covid-19 explosion. Otherwise January and February will be an awful mess. Milder temperatures that will allow life to at least partly move to a safer outdoors again won't arrive until March in Tokyo, later in a lot of places.
 
Happy New Year everyone!

As for hopes, I hope to see my family this year, not least because I have no idea whether my mom's going to make it or not (she has been diagnosed with stage 3/4 cancer). I hope to get vaccinated soon (along with everyone else). And I hope for another child.
 
Happy New Year TCCers. Hopes or plans for the new year, @joewein? Good question.

  1. Last year our big plan was the birth of our 2nd daughter.
  2. This year it is building our dream house out in Ichinomiya, Chiba and getting all of that successfully done.
  3. In order to do that, we need to continue to work our asses off at work (work hard).
  4. This will let us play hard:
    • Wife wants to take up cycling, slow at first, but we can start with some 20-30km rides on easy flats around the coastal route, building up from there, and spending more time together. For me, I want to keep consistent with what I've been doing for the last couple months, which is 150-250 km/week, 5-7 days per week, with a rest week every couple of months.
    • I want to get to know Boso peninsula well. City life has been fun, but between Washington, DC and Tokyo, my entire life, I've never challenged to live in a more rural environment. Looking forward, as an amateur chef in the making (hopefully a food truck one day!), to getting to know the farms and food supply environment out in Chiba.
    • Get vaccinated with family.
    • Go back and visit family we have dearly missed in the USA for Thanksgiving or Christmas. Youngest sister has a daughter the same age as ours, and no one there has even met our youngest yet =(
Wishes:
  • Finances permitting, a new bike probably towards end of 2021. Don't really need one but we all like shiny new things from time to time...
 
@MattRyuu - good luck with getting home! I know the struggle.
Thank goodness for video messengers. My daughters (6 & 2) know their grasndparents and cousins quite well.
ALso - goodluck on the rest of your list!
 
@MattRyuu
That's a very ambitious list, and I mean that in a good way.

It's kinda funny that I did not include my new bike in that list. It's finally 2021, so it is time to place the order. I'll do that either this weekend or the next. But compared to the other stuff, it seemed less important.

One thing that is important to me is moving to a larger place. We are living in a 50 m^2 apartment, which is great for 2, tight for 3 and impossible (in my mind) for four.
 
@bloaker thank you! It is incredibly difficult that all of the cousins can't spend time together, I come from a family where at least once a year my father's 7 brothers and sisters and their kids, my cousins, as well as my mom's 4 siblings and their kids would get together. Its one of the few things I miss the most about the USA. Thank goodness for video conferencing. Its kept us from forgetting each others' names.

@OreoCookie , thanks! We upgraded 1.5 years ago and we're moving into a place about the same size house wise but with a larger yard footprint for out two dogs and my 3 grills =) =) =) I hope to plant some lemon and lime trees, continue the tomatillo and jalapeño plants I had going this year (just took the last batch of 12 peppers off the bush, probably no more until next summer..), and start a big herb garden. There is something to be said for letting kids play out in the dirt, eh?
 
20210101-092519-Yamanote-Parade.JPG

We had a ball, parading/marauding around the Yamanote. 30+ riders - several more turned up just after this photo and even more along the way. Lots of new and old faces... covered with masks. One of the half-fastest rides ever, I think, at an average speed of 14.3 km/h. What's the rush on a beautiful day?
 
decided to drop some weight. just lean down 2-3 kg over 4-5 weeks or so. done with week one, and it's going OK so far, but this hunger feeling takes time getting used to... even shedding just several kgs is not gonna be as easy as I thought. of course, I wanna get from 15 to 12 percent bodyfat or thereabouts, so I guess it's more demanding than going from 20 to 15 for example, but still....
 
Happy New Year TCCers. Hopes or plans for the new year, @joewein? Good question.

  1. Last year our big plan was the birth of our 2nd daughter.
  2. This year it is building our dream house out in Ichinomiya, Chiba and getting all of that successfully done.
  3. In order to do that, we need to continue to work our asses off at work (work hard).
  4. This will let us play hard:
    • Wife wants to take up cycling, slow at first, but we can start with some 20-30km rides on easy flats around the coastal route, building up from there, and spending more time together. For me, I want to keep consistent with what I've been doing for the last couple months, which is 150-250 km/week, 5-7 days per week, with a rest week every couple of months.
    • I want to get to know Boso peninsula well. City life has been fun, but between Washington, DC and Tokyo, my entire life, I've never challenged to live in a more rural environment. Looking forward, as an amateur chef in the making (hopefully a food truck one day!), to getting to know the farms and food supply environment out in Chiba.
    • Get vaccinated with family.
    • Go back and visit family we have dearly missed in the USA for Thanksgiving or Christmas. Youngest sister has a daughter the same age as ours, and no one there has even met our youngest yet =(
Wishes:
  • Finances permitting, a new bike probably towards end of 2021. Don't really need one but we all like shiny new things from time to time...
Rural life is great. If and when you mingle with the locals, you'll find keeping a low profile yet talkative to your neighbors is very rewarding.
I guess you'll have land to have a nice garden ?
Door to doors sales of your fresh vegetables will take some time, but after a while and reasonable seasonable income will be flowing in your wallet.
Also, you might consider growing what local restaurants need. Apple and orange trees also provide an income now with the net. Try to grow them very large pink/red color apples that are given around the winter holidays. They go here for nearly 400 yen at the stores.
 
My goal is to get back to 125 pounds.
 
@OreoCookie What is furusatounouzei? I'm a huge craft beer fan, used to brew my own beer in the USA, starting before almost most craft beer was even widely available in the 1990s on the East Coast.

@adventurous cyclist We got apples trees up on the in-laws property in Miyagi (near Sendai), I want to do stuff that isn't so widely available, mostly for personal consumption, but also for decorative, scent, and property boundaries. My immediate goal is simply to figure out farm to table supply places/routes so that I can get my pantry and kitchen stocked regularly. It took me a year or so to do that in Tokyo, and I want to go even more fresh veggie in Chiba given the legacy of quality farmland there.
 
@MattRyuu
As @jdd wrote, this "hometown tax rebate" essentially is a subsidy for smaller communities. We usually get pretty interesting things we would otherwise not buy. For Christmas, we had venison that we bought for ¥10,000 per kilo. The beer was ¥15,000 for 24 bottles, I think, perhaps a bit more. Also our o-sechi-ryouri was courtesy of furusatou nozei. So the prices aren't great, but in the end, it is the Japanese government that is footing the bill essentially.

I really like it, to be honest. It motivates me to buy things I would ordinarily not buy. And I get to support smaller businesses. What's not to like :)
 
FREE STUFF

This stuff is going to the garbage unless someone wants it. Hate to throw away good stuff, but I know I'll never use it again.

I will be at Cross Cafe on Saturday at 10:00 and pass stuff along if anyone is interested in anything. If not, I'll sleep in.IMG_1615.jpeg

(First person to claim something has first dibs. Unclaimed stuff goes to the trash bin.)
 
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