Just a reminder: this is the monthly newsletter of your friendly belletrist Chad Kohalyk, where I write a personal note with highlights of both my writing and some of the fun/interesting stuff I find on the web. You probably subscribed via my Twitter account or from my blog. If you no longer want to follow along, just click the unsubscribe link in the footer below. Thank you for reading!
In my last newsletter I wrote a surprise note from Kyoto. Just three weeks later I am writing you again from Kyoto, where I arrived in a sorry state of jetlag yesterday. In these recent weeks I returned to Canada with my two daughters, sold my electric car and computer, moved out of our rental in Kelowna, said goodbyes to friends and family, and returned to Kyoto for the foreseeable future as detailed in this month’s only blog post (link below).
These past three years have certainly been mobile for my family, with the “difficulty level” increasingly ratcheting up.
In 2020 we executed an international move under pandemic conditions.
In 2021 we conducted an emergency international move under pandemic conditions, when shipping was stalled and could only carry what was on our backs.
Now in 2022, we completed two simultaneous moves: I moved out of our house in Kelowna on my own, while my wife solitarily moved everything from our apartment on the edge of Kyoto to a new location in the city within walking distance of her father.
I don’t even want to imagine what the “next” level could be. I am very grateful for the danshari principles we have been been practicing over the past few years. Certainly makes moving much easier!
But, now I am here, on the edge of Kyoto’s new summer. It is certainly a strange feeling to be living in Kyoto again after so many years. Although we have stayed in Kyoto for many weeks and even months over the last twenty years, I have not lived and worked here since being a student and then web designer between 1999 and 2004.
I am also not sure how long this will last. Certainly not forever — it really depends on my father-in-law’s health. If we are here for an extended time, say a year or more, I feel I need to capture it in writing, photos, and video kind of like I did for our Iki adventure. Granted, this is by no means a similar situation. We are here for solemn reasons, and I will be working full-time for my company back in Canada. There won’t be much time for travel excursions as we have health considerations. However, in the afternoons, as I walk through the city occasionally stopping in at local temples and shrines, I would like to record these little snippets of Kyoto life.
With the threat of a “Muskovite” takeover of Twitter, we are all rethinking our online presence. This may be the right timing to experiment with other types of online media. Rather than using the same big centralized networks like Twitter or Instagram, maybe I should capture my daily interactions here — my own personal “Kyoto Journal” — using something more indie or distributed? Of course, I will always maintain my blog for long form writing. But for the smaller interactions, the kind of thing I would normally just post to Twitter, I would like to try something different. I’ve already resurrected my dusty Mastodon account to document my arrival in Kyoto, and am considering how I could tie that to Twitter. Beyond that I am considering using Micro.blog as a sort of quick, time-boxed journal that will be fairly photo heavy and exclusively for Kyoto content. No decisions have been made yet, as I consider these while trying to figure out what my life will be like for the next while. We will need a little time to let things settle. By next month I might have some links to share. I would appreciate any recommendations if you have them.
In the meantime, stay healthy.
Yours,
/ck
🖋 From the Blog
Relocating to Kyoto
Yep, we have moved… again.
🧭 Elsewhere
Photos from our spring trip in Kyoto, featuring lots of 🌸🌸🌸 Link →
What language does each country want to learn the most? Link →
3D printing ancient Buddhist sculptures so that visually impaired people might enjoy them too #accessibility YouTube →
Collection of gorgeous mosque ceilings in celebration of Ramadan Link →
Ikijima featured in Bloomberg (climate change) Link →
Novel solution to the classic trolley problem Link →
📖 What I’m Reading
The Relentless Moon by Mary Robinette Kowal (100% Complete and 5 stars)
While I was packing boxes, polishing floors, and hauling furniture, I needed something upbeat to keep me going. The third instalment of the excellent Lady Astronaut series was just what I needed. Mary Robinette Kowal’s description of the deep connection between the main character and her husband made me pine for my wife in Kyoto even more. Kowal’s writing does such a great job at intertwining deep human relationships with strong science and engineering content.