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Alive and Well

There's this app on my phone that I used to use pretty much daily. Then I stopped cold. Today I opened it for the first time in a real long time. According to the activity log the last trip I used it for was March 28th, 2020. I was traveling back to Sendai from Nobeoka in Miyazaki Prefecture. Japan Rail was canceling trains and the apps hadn't caught up fast enough so I ended up missing my flight home because, well, no train when I thought there would be one. I caught a flight to Osaka, stayed the night by the airport, then hopped on the first flight to Sendai the next morning. And after that we all barely went anywhere for a long while.

Today I went on a business trip. After a full two-and-a-half years. To Kanagawa. I rode the bullet train. It felt kind of familiar but also refreshingly new. The ticket system is paperless now. You just pay for your tickets online and scan a QR code at the station and you are off.


As I walked away from my house and down to Izumi Chuo to catch the subway I was having crazy flashbacks to a time just a few years ago where I traveled like a madman, week in and week out. Sometimes a few days, sometimes the whole week. One day I'm closing out a day with a presentation in Sapporo, then racing a rental car to Chitose Airport so I can make the last flight to Haneda so I can sleep by the airport and catch the first flight so I can make a similar presentation in Fukuoka. 

I would come home and the boys grew. And I missed it.

I'm not at all thankful for this terrible pandemic. However, I am thankful for being at home with my family. The traveling days were exciting, but the days at home are better. 

With this business trip, the pendulum is starting to swing again, signaling the start of a new balance. I went from one form of insanity to another, and now we'll see what lies ahead.


Eri sent me this text message tonight. I didn't see it until late because I was out at a dinner meeting. It says when Kenzo was taking a bath he was worrying that I might have died.

He discovered death recently when his lizard Kiki-kun and some of our beetles passed on, and he's curious so he asks questions. Another reason I am thankful to be at home. To help answer his questions. He'll be relieved when he finds out I'm alive and well.

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