I realized that ever since the Covid outbreak in 2020, I haven’t traveled to any country other than the Philippines. Before Covid, we made it a point to travel at least three times a year: once domestically within Japan, once back to the Philippines, and once somewhere else. That already covered about 15 days of…
Author: Enrico Pangan
Filipino in Tokyo
After 20 Years, I’m Finally Fixing My Backhand
There is one thing I’m focusing on right now in my tennis journey—my single-handed backhand. I’ve been playing tennis for more than two decades, and I can say I’m happy with my forehand, my backhand slice, and my volleys. When it’s on, I’m also happy with my first serve, and in recent years I’ve made…
Coding with AI Feels Like Having a Team of Junior Developers
While working on my latest hobby project, I realized something surprising: AI has completely changed the way I write code. I can literally add new features and fix bugs just by asking AI to do it. It feels like having a team of smart junior developers doing everything I ask them to do. They never…
Why I Built My Own Event Website
There are a few websites I use to look for events to join. Meetup was one of the first platforms I used to join hiking and tennis events, and it was popular among the English-speaking crowd. TennisOff also used to be the go-to place to find people to play with in Japan, but that website…
The Bench Shirt Incident
I have this vivid memory from high school about the need to belong—and what happens when you try to be different. It’s part of my core memories, though now as an adult, I just laugh when I think back on it, even if it did have a big impact on me. I went to a…
Then and Now: A Visit to My Childhood Barangay
The other week, I flew back to my provincial childhood home to spend some quality time with my family. I bought my tickets on Thursday, flew the next day, and stayed for a week. This time, I went by myself and had no particular plans other than to simply be with my family. It was…
Too Old For A TennisBear Event
The other day, I tried joining a tennis event through TennisBear, a popular Japanese website for finding such events. This particular event was looking for six intermediate or upper-intermediate players, and since there were still a few open slots, I was hopeful I could get in. I applied, entered the required details like my name,…
Japan And The Rules Locals Often Break
The people of Japan have, over the years, built a reputation for being rule-abiding and mindful of their surroundings. It’s still not uncommon to see locals patiently waiting for the pedestrian light to turn green, even when there are no cars in sight. Television and social media often feature visitors who don’t follow the rules….
Selling My HomePod Mini on Mercari
September is just around the corner, and every Apple fan knows it’s the month when new hardware drops. I’ve been reading rumors that Apple will release new HomePod minis, so I figured it’s a good time to part with a few of mine … ehem … to make space for the new ones. We currently…
Upgrading Our Almost 10-Year-Old Toilet
The Red Light That Started It All Our toilet is almost 10 years old. Our building was built in 2016, and while it’s still working fine, we recently saw a red blinking light on our Lixil toilet. A blinking light is never a good sign, but since nothing seemed wrong, we checked the user manual….
We Visited Narita Station (Not the Airport) — Here’s What We Found
We were in Narita to run some errands. Not the airport that everyone associates with “Narita,” but the actual city where the airport got its name. Specifically, we were at Narita City, near Narita Station. We thought to ourselves—we pass this station so many times whenever we go to Narita Airport, and now that we’re…
Goodbye Wisdom Tooth. Goodbye 親知らず
My dentist had been prodding me for a while to have my wisdom tooth extracted. He argued that it would be better to remove it before it started causing more problems, since it had become a natural collector of dirt that was hard to clean, and because it had been pushing against one of my…
Enrico in Tokyo 