The last time we went to a movie theater was in 2022, when we watched Top Gun: Maverick. Three years later, we finally returned to the big screen to watch a Japanese film: The Solitary Gourmet (孤独のグルメ). While it’s nowhere near as grand as the Tom Cruise blockbuster, we found it equally entertaining in its…
Category: insights
Welcoming 2025: Our Take on Osechi Ryori and Kohaku Traditions
This year, we decided to order Osechi ryori from a restaurant we frequent. Unlike traditional Japanese Osechi, this one had a more Western twist, which makes sense since the restaurant usually serves French or Italian cuisine. We made the reservation for the Osechi box back in October and picked it up from the restaurant yesterday,…
When a Simple Walk Leads to a Week Stuck at Home: My Tendon Tear Story
These past couple of weeks have been a little tough fitness-wise. I developed a tendon tear, which essentially prevented me from leaving home for a week, even making it difficult for me to move around our place because of the stairs. How it started My tendon tear came out of nowhere. I just did my…
Life with minimal social media
These past few months, I’ve been exploring life with minimal social media. I realized I was spending too much time on social media, and I wanted to fix that. One by one, I started limiting my access to these apps and then eventually deleting them altogether from my devices. LinkedIn was the easy first target….
Coping with Illness When COVID Still Lingers
I took a couple of days off because I was sick. I woke up with a sore throat, runny nose, and cough. This was a continuation of feeling weak and tired over the previous days. I started taking over-the-counter cough medicine, but I still decided to visit a nearby clinic to have it checked and…
My Boring Summer Vacation
As a company policy, we are required to take summer leaves before the end of September. I scheduled mine this week though I didn’t really make travel plans because my wife had to work and it was only me on vacation. So for one week, I got to experience life without work … all by…
SNS Review 2018
More and more, I am starting to lose interest with all these social networking services. Facebook has lost its appeal because my timeline has started to look like a long boring stream of babies, travels, and get-togethers of people I barely know anyways. Not to mention the persistent articles about Duterte or Trump many of…
Morning Fire Scare
This morning, while getting ready for work, I got a little scare from this alarm sound coming from the security intercom. It was later followed by the sound of sirens outside the building. Been living here almost ten years already, and this was the first time. Fire in the building? This wasn’t exactly what I…
Is my doctor ripping me off?
Is my Japanese doctor ripping me, and my insurance off? This is a question I started asking myself after a few months with this doctor. It started when the results of my yearly medical exams arrived, and they found an excessive level of CA19-9, a tumor marker. Imagine the shock not only from myself, but maybe…
Close Encounter of the C Kind
The results of my recent medical exams were out, and aside from the now usual “bad” cholesterol numbers, one particular number caught my attention, CA 19-9, an item under a section called “Tumor Markers.” Oh! The clinic marked it as “D1”, which essentially means I was in deep sh1t, and treatment was required. The doctor…
Playing The Blame Game
The other day, I was having this somewhat philosophical discussion with one of my managers and one question raised was “When a student fails a test, who should we blame?”
Where I Stand Now Religion Wise
I have written several blogs about my beliefs, and you could see some of them if you actually search through this blog site. I am writing this blog now as a milestone to where I stand now religion wise, so that years from now, I can look back and see how I have evolved from…
Enrico in Tokyo 