What I'm up to now

My husband's trilingual (English/Japanese/Chinese) and I want to catch up! I'd love to one day start exploring China and Taiwan's mountains too, so I think learning Mandarin will come in handy there. I started on this last year and got a bit derailed, but I'm back on it for 2026.

1. 24 JulCurrently just doing a small amount each day (slow and steady!) Doing some HSK1 flashcards, and part-way through Pimsleur Level 2.

Exercise is my one non-negotiable (other than sleep). Since April I've been consistently exercising 5 - 6 days a week - a mixture of weightlifting at the gym, running, and hiking.

1. 16 JulGot up to 40kg on my barbell squat.
2. 5 JulDid my first 10km run in about a year or so!

With the rise of AI and programming not being as fun as it used to be, I've been wanting to try some more physical, creative hobbies. I decided a good place to start would be with sketching.

1. 24 JulGave watercolours a go for the first time today. Predictably, I'm finding it to be a little bit hard.
2. 7 JulTo improve my perspective skills, I started the Drawabox series (as the name might suggest, it involves drawing a lot of boxes).
3. 3 JulReading The Artist's Way, a 12-week self-help book on creativity.

This year I've entered into my Stardew Valley era and I've got cherry tomato plants and basil growing on my balcony. The tomato plants are in a bit of a dire state (it's probably too hot) but it's already yielded a fair amount this year so I'm happy. I want to write a post at some point with my total yield (I kept count).

I've climbed over 150 mountains in Japan, and there's still many more to go. I'm slowly chipping away at the hyakumeizan, and am eyeing climbing to my 80th in 2026.

1. 3 AugI climbed my 71st and 72nd hyakumeizan last weekend!

This year my focus has been to write more detailed reviews for each book that I read, as I feel that helps me properly digest it and keep it in my long-term memory. (Otherwise my brain is like a sieve and book plots just fall straight out). At some point I'd like to do a couple of round-ups on the blog for my favourite books across genres.

I love coffee, and wanted to expand my blog to cover Japan's coffee scene. I drink pourover every day, and generally buy beans from a new roaster every time which lets me hit up a lot of stores. Over time I'm hoping to build up a solid list of recommendations that I can share on my blog.

I'm lately realising I've found myself in a bit of a friend deficit here in Tokyo. I've reached out to a few people to schedule coffee/dinner catch-ups, and I'm hoping over time I can start to build up a more consistent social life.

I first started some gloves back in March, put this hobby on pause for a few months and now I'm back on it in July. At first I couldn't figure out how to slot this hobby in with everything else, but I'm finding it goes well with doing my Chinese Pimsleur lessons at the same time.

1. 25 JulNearly done with my first knitting project - some fingerless gloves. Just need to figure out how to weave in the ends and fix a hole in the thumb.

My blog is really the culmination of all of my hobbies. I like the idea of documenting things so that I can see my progress over time, and so that it can be useful to other people exploring the same things.

I work part-time at Hardcover, a book-tracking app, in the range of 5 hours a week. Lately I've built out their Dashboard homepage, which I'll have to blog about sometime.

Although I'm half-Japanese, my Japanese speaking is conversational, reading skills are poor and writing skills non-existent. I've found I'm slowly improving my reading just by living here, but need to get back into some more intentional learning. This probably involves reading books, and practicing my writing. Not as high of a priority at the moment.