On the train home from a rare night out. We visited the city to attend an event that a few of our friends were involved with. I initially noticed the event on my village vegan IG account but my taco truck friend (also a sound engineer, formerly for Los Lobos and Norah Jones etc.)invited us saying there are vegan options.. the event was a collaboration between his culinary and musical selves as well as a local nut butter company and another friend of mine who will soon open his craft beer brewery.

.. I initially thought that the vegan offerings would be only from my friend but when we arrived my attendance was announced.. My name was on the menu blackboard and they made a proper big deal about it.. I was a little embarrassed at first but Christ on a bike, the food was amazing!

The weird thing was I met someone who I believe to not be Japanese and indeed to be natively English speaking who perhaps felt that I wanted to speak in Japanese and after an initial chat told me she read my posts on note.com.. a Japanese blogging site.. fuck me, my mind is blown.

What, surely not, checks diary, can it be?

.. seemingly I’ve been married for 10 years today..

😶😯😲😳🤯

That feeling when you see mentions of a new star wars series in your timeline and finally get control of your remote control only to discover that Disney+ is wise to your Japan move and won’t be sharing it’s goodies with you any time soon.

I really need to find some time to re-implement brid.gy into my site, I need my photo posting process to be website based with syndication out to here and IG as I’m not posting to my website (and as such not here) these days.

My final assignment of the current course and of my PgCert was announced yesterday. I was really hoping for a topic that I had already researched to some degree as December is insanely busy.. but alas, it is on something that I haven’t read a single paragraph about to date.. balls!

It will be interesting but I don’t see how I can actually get it done with the amount of events that have been placed in my schedule.. wish I could just clear the decks and focus on this but cancelling engagements isn’t the done thing here, even if you had nothing to do with their arrangement in the first place.

In other news, cheeky wee rascal jnr has discovered the advantages of bum-shuffling and can now slowly move around the room.. increasing the need for morning ☕

Perhaps a somewhat controversial thing for a wannabe brewer (beer) to say but Fire One Day Black chilled coffee is by far the best beverage that Kirin produces. So much so that it’s appearance in convenience shops is brief, they sell out quickly. Very much my go to daily ☕

Back in 2010, I started dating the girl who would become my wife, we were in Okayama, Japan and the world cup was awesome. Watched every game, mainly with friends and beers and supported my host country as well as I could.

Skip forward 12 years, we are back in Japan and the game that I am struggling to stay awake through is the first and maybe last of the tournament I’ll watch.. My interest in this sport ended at a Scotland vs Canada friendly match in Easter Road some years ago and shows no sign of returning.

Thankfully, I am here to try and support my host country in other ways, so I don’t feel guilty.

Another village festival where the only “vegan” option was fries (cooked in the same oil as chicken). just as well I knew not to have any expectations and had a big bowl of ramen before we attended.. but the village must do better..

.. next stop though is the brewery where I intern, where for the first time in ages, I’ll be drinking the beer!

Thinking ahead to when we have a brewery.. I want to brew in a kilt, yes, it is gimmicky but story is everything here and it would be a crowd pleaser.. but I don’t want to brew in a woollen kilt for obvious reasons..so looking at utility kilts and wondering if I’ll ever be welcome back in Scotland if I wore one..