With the cherry blossoms gone and the leaves filling out a bright green, the weather is getting warm and the air is filled with the sounds of preparation for summer.
It is lovely outside, as the humidity has not set in. Yet I have generally been cooped up. The kids don’t have school and are bored. I am working from home. My wife is going back and forth to the hospital. Later this week my father-in-law will undergo surgery. It won’t make him better, but may draw out the decline.
Last week he went back into the hospital, but before that we were able to accomplish two things he wanted to get done: we went on safari, and we interred his wife’s ashes. (Not at the same time, which I hope is obvious.)
Adventure World, a zoo/amusement park/safari park/research lab is associated with the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Base in China. It is one of only three locations in Japan with giant pandas. Grampa always wanted to take his grandkids to see the pandas. And so we boarded four hours of trains down the rugged Wakayama coast and did just that. I took a million photos, some of which are linked below.
A few days later, in 30 degree weather, we donned our black suits and did a special ceremony to commit the ashes of my mother-in-law to the soil. This ceremony was delayed for two years, first by covid, then by our sudden trip to Canada to take care of my father in his last days. She was interred at Ōtani Sobyō, on the eastern edge of Kyoto, in the same place where Shinran was interred more than 750 years ago. My father-in-law is happy to have finally completed her journey.
Somewhere in there I turned 44.
What a month.
I hope you all are doing well.
/ck
🖋 From the Blog
Ruminating on belonging in a Kyoto coffeeshop
Thinking about my return to this city after nearly two decades.
Obsidian vs Logseq
Some observations after spending a week with Logseq.
🧭 Elsewhere
Traveling by panda train to Adventure World in Shirahama Photos →
Driving a safari jeep through Adventure World in Shirahama Photos →
Fancy hotels and beaches in Shirahama Photos →
Heung-Min Son is greeted by fans in South Korea after becoming the first Asian player to win the Premier League Golden Boot Video →
It’s true, generally you have to change direction to find adventure. Link →
📖 What I’m Reading
The Dream Machine: J.C.R. Licklider and the Revolution That Made Computing Personal by M. Mitchell Waldrop
(7% Complete)
I am very early into this acclaimed biography of “Lick” and already have met Norbert Weiner, Vannevar Bush, and Claude Shannon. It is amazing to compare the environment that they were working in compared to what we have today.