Time

I just cruised here to post, and saw that I haven't posted in two weeks. Where does the time go? Why is it that when I should have so much more free time, I seem to have less?

This weekend, at least, went by in a blur. I played in a dart playoff tournament, and then enjoyed the post-game party. I spent Sunday morning recovering, then spent some time with my mother on Mother's Day. Then dinner with a friend. Then time to crash early so I could wake up early to go paint doors and baseboards...

Now home again, and posting here in order to kick-start my creative juices again!

I will be quite busy all this week with painting, and then maybe get out of the city for the weekend...

And so it goes.

Planting Season

Although I've sworn off rice and other seed-based foods, there is no doubt that Japanese society has necessarily relied on wet paddy agriculture to sustain its population on an otherwise mountainous island, lacking non-seafood game.

The resulting planting traditions continue today, and in my area it is now time to plant the most common rice varieties. While this can be mechanized, many farmers rely on family and friends' manpower to plant.

I caught this scene behind my apartment yesterday morning, including the flooded paddies, hardworking planters, and even an egret. (The egrets and ducks flock to the newly flooded fields for the frogs, fish, leeches and bugs that suddenly abound when warm and wet!)

Tiger Beetle (ハンミョウ 斑猫)

It is possible to take great photographs with any camera, but it's definitely easier with better equipment! I haven't been carrying my DSLR around like I used to, especially since switching to a motorbike (no windows to roll up if it rains, etc.). While the iPhone camera isn't primitive, it puts the challenge back into snapping even acceptable images, and I have yet to capture anything 'great' with it.

On a recent outing, I stopped for a quick dip at a mountain stream 'swimming hole', and found a tiger beetle that must live nearby. It would sit still long enough for me to consider taking a picture, but would run away if I got too close for too long, and then return as soon as I looked away. It also wouldn't let me look it in the face, always turning away... I really wanted to see its sabre teeth!

I finally got one picture that was acceptably focused and exposed:








I found out later that these can live for three years, eat ants and other insects, and 'can bite if mishandled'. The full Latin name is Cicindela chinensis japonica.

Spring Blues

Not sure if it is missing Japan, the inability to find any kind of job, even a crappy kind, still sofa-surfing at my mother's house, or just the crazy, changeable weather of spring. But the spring blues are in full force this week...

Dexter's Spring Haircut

Dexter is doing quite well, although he (like me!) is slightly overweight still. He does look very cute with his new haircut, though.

Mountain ride on VRX

My bike isn't really good for touring with its stock pair of upswept exhaust pipes, which interfered with any saddlebag options. My first big change then was to switch to a two-into-one header, and then a single muffler.

After playing around with the silencers, I found better sound and more hp (above 5000rpm!) with the silencers installed, and unchanged torque. I captured some of the testing with my iPhone and GoPro.

With some time on the last rainy Saturday morning, so I assembled some footage and sound files into a bite-sized video:

Brevity of Time

Easter is here. This is the first time in about thirteen years that I have been in a pre-dominantly Christian country, and where Easter is even acknowledged. For me, I find it pleasant enough just to have a reason for people to be off work (I, of course, am off just about every day!). My mother has gone to Ottawa to enjoy some time with my brother and sister-in-law, and will very likely have a nice dinner. I will be going to my friend's place for a ham and pineapple - neither of which I have eaten in a very long time.

While Easter is associated with spring and with re-birth, in Japan we celebrate hanami - the lovely sakura (cherry blossoms) that bloom only very briefly before blowing off into th spring breeze. People go out and sit under the trees, sing songs and drink lots of beer. It is the Japanese way to acknowledge the brevity of life, and to appreciate what is present, even if only very briefly.

While I too, am appreciating the day, I am also pleased to have a rebirth. Spring is a great time to start fresh, to make spring resolutions, and get healthy.

 

Inaugural Bike Ride

Although the weather the past few days has been cold, windy and rainy, last week was actually bright, sunny and warm. Beautiful enough, in fact, that I took out my 29er single-speed bicycle, a custom Clockwork Bicycle, out for the first ride in at least a year.

What I've been doing

Mostly, I've been spending my time actively seeking to get back into the workforce here. Lack of French is an obstacle, but I'm confident that I can overcome it!

I've been attending a Career Transitions program at a place called La Passerelle. It is, happily, a government-sponsored program and I, even more happily, qualified to participate. It is a twelve week program, and has so far provided me with more confidence, and a deeper understanding of myself and the job market, than I had previously had.

Who knew that all the other participants felt so similarly to me? The disillusionment caused by the former job, the feeling of being a bit lost, not knowing where to go next, avoiding looking for work... these are all common feelings to newly unemployed professionals in their forties and upward.

So - this has been good, and keeping me busy.

Ich bin satt...

I remember this phrase from my study of German years ago, and it really made an impression... it was contrasted to the alternative (but considered vulgar) Ich bin voll...

Until recently I had forgotten about these phrases and their distinction, especially as I didn't really understand the difference, and filed away the distinction as just polite rather than technical.

I now completely understand the difference.

The short story is that I found myself living in an ever-tightening cycle of eating, and needing to eat. I would wake up hungry, eat, run or bike, eat again, go to work and endure an irritable itchiness that could only be satisfied with a sugary snack, eat a 'healthful' large lunch, snack again, and be starving again by dinnertime.

This continued for years, until the cycle tightened to me waking up twice a night to either eat, or drink, something and sleep again, or stay awake and suffer from fidgety dissatisfaction.

After eating, I could count on a one or two hours of focus and concentration, but that yielded to irritability if I couldn't quickly get a cookie, rice-ball, can of cold beer or hot cocoa. Exhausting.

For the last eight weeks, I have eaten nothing but meats, fats, and vegetables, completely avoiding sugars, carbs and grains. Within 4 days I was in ketosis, and I haven't faltered, or been tempted to falter, yet.

Ich bin satt..

Since then, after my meals of eggs, beef or pork and some veggies sauteed in butter or coconut oil, a sense of well-being... satiety,... washes over me. I can think. I can concentrate. Not only don't I crave snacks, I can skip meals without even noticing. When I am 'satisfied', I am done eating.

Actual differences that I should have recorded are many, but I entered into this as a trial, not really a test, so I didn't record or measure hard data. What I can report though, are these:

1) My body temperature is spot-on 36.6 deg now. It has always been a full 1 degree Centigrade lower unless in a fever state.

2) I can sleep through the night, and wake with a rested feeling. Previously I woke only to jump up in search of a sweet danish or coffee.

3) Now, no need to snack: I usually needed to eat sweets, or drink a beer, several times a day to maintain a calm disposition. If I couldn't carry something sweet / carby with me, I'd do anything to get to a shop and buy something.

4) I wasn't worried about my weight or skin, but once cutting carbs and sugar, I immediately lost all my belly fat (pants are loose) and my skin has cleared up completely.

I don't plan on giving up on this regimen; it will become my lifestyle instead of just a temporary experiment. Here is a pic of my now usual breakfast (taken on a particularly sunny morning, so with good light!); bacon and eggs, with the pumpkin, string bean, asparagus and broccoli glistening with coconut oil. Satisfying!