Tokyo Drift

IMPRESSIONS OF TOKYO

People are nice, quiet, polite, helpful. 

Cars are really quiet. Petrol cars must have good mufflers.  No beeping.

We heard one angry horn blast. 

A couple of ambulances.

One would assume Tokyo drift would be a silent game. 

At the lights pedestrians stand with space.  There's no crowding together. Certainly no pushing. 

There's more people in the greater Tokyo metropolitan area than all of Australia. Yet it's calm. 

SATURDAY 14 Feb 2026

We are staying at:

Remm Tokyo Kyobashi

Breakfast at the hotel. A mix of Japanese and western. 

Train to Shinkuku railway station. This is somewhat large. Apparently 3 million passengers per day and a gazillion concorses, hallways, platforms. Although previously we'd unduerstood 200 exits, getting out proved to be a challenge. In the end we figured any stairs that went up were to be taken. Finally through random chance we saw daylight. 

Upon reflection, I suspect only one exit.

Walked through Golden Gai Area

Hanazona Shrine.

Shinjuku Gyoen Garden.

The government building was closed so no viewing.

Tonight Shinjuku food tour.

HARDWARE

A couple of hundred years ago a traveller would face the challenge of going forth to unknown worlds with partially completed maps, sails beholden to the winds, the threat of ship wreck, scurvy and kidnapping. 50 years ago paper maps and a wad of travellers cheques hidden through ones luggage. 

With such challenges de-risked, we have modern challenges born of poor decisions back home. Mine being the purchase of a power adapter that included 3 pins on the plug yet all the sockets only had two.

So, as a side gig yesterday, between resting in a Japanese garden and a evening food tour, we went in search of a hack saw.

Leaning on the expertise of Google maps incidentally the very device needing to be charged and causing the challenge in the first place, we set about finding a Japanese bunnings. This turned out to be the 7th floor of a department store with Gucci on the ground floor and every conceivable convience on the intervening floors. It seemed weird to find such variety all neatly arranged in the one building.  

After a lovely Japanese food tour, returned to home base to solve the power compatibility issue.

Sat 7 Feb

Park Run

Swim

Breakfast club

PARK RUN

Phoebe and I just did a walk and talk for the first 2/3.  Only toward the end did we run.  My stride is longer than hers so I ended up in front.  Feeling a bit heavy and weak meant I broke into a walk run walk rhythm.   

Rocks Riverside parkrun results for event #605. Your time was 00:49:54.

Phoebe is more consistent and once she starts running, she keeps going. 

The weather was warm but not stinking hot. 

after park run,  we stopped in at Tim & Ro's and jumped in the pool. 

Then onto breakfast club at Elspeth's (Tim's sister) place in Graceville. It was nice to see Derek & Naomi. Haven't seen Naomi for years. 

Also there were:

Elspeth's husband Steve.

Trupp family, Jenny, Mark, Chris, Robyn.

Tim's 60th

At the Trupp's place. 

Phoebe and I made a cake. 

Various bands Tim played in played:

Pale.

...?

Glenrich st Windows

I was called back to re clean the windows at Glenrich st.   The owner had emailed the real estate who'd forward to me that the windows looked like they had been wiped over with a dirty rag.

I collected the keys from the real estate and let myself into Glenrich st.  Indeed the windows looked dirty. 

I set about rectifying the problem.  I chose to work on one set of windows in the lounge because they were easy to access. 

 

I tried to clean with weak detergent water mix and also metho but there was a scum on the window.  I then tried a huge range of cleaners.  I could push the scum around on the window but none of the cleaners or solvents seemed to be able to dissolve it.  

 

It seemed that the best option was metho followed by a dry wipe with clean paper towel.  So I decided to go over all the windows with that process.  

 

When I got to the front bedroom I observed a line about 5mm from the edge of the glass.  Initially I assumed this was just as close as I could clean with my finger but upon closer inspection it appeared to be plastic film.  I picked at it with my fingernail and confirmed it was plastic film.

 

I think what was happening on the lounge room windows was the scum I was trying to remove was in fact the plastic film being dissolved by the solvents I was using to try to clean away the scum. In a way, the harder I tried, the stronger the solvent, the worse the scum became.

 

With hindsight,  I think what happened was that several weeks ago, I cleaned the walls and windows with dilute "Ajax Professional".  I later observed there was some mould re appearing on the walls so I rewashed the walls with a weak bleach solution.  I did not re wash the windows because at that stage the windows looked OK.  I suspect that when the owners inspected the house that the mould had grown on the windows.

 

This week I attempted too rewash the windows but as described, the cleaning was quite  

 

 

 

 

 

Tim's cake

Been making sponge cake for Phoebe to use construct a cake for Tim Hills 60th birthday. 

Weight Loss & Diet

Need growth hormone to maintain muscle. 

ACTION

reduce carbs 

Add

Salad

Protein and fat

Intermittent fasting

INTERMITTENT FASTING

Don't eat for 16hrs

Eat 6-8hrs

For me, I try to finish eating by 7pm and then have lunch at 11:30.

Black coffee does not break the fast. 

Fast for a long period

Ortifergy 

Body eats damaged cells. 

BAD

Fructose is bad. In fruit. Very high insulin. 

Berry's are ok

Strawberries, blueberries, 

Veggies ok above ground

Peas corn pumpkin.

Bad

Milk

Potatoes 

Bakbeans

Chick peas

Grapes

Kidney beans 

Alcohol inhibit liver from performing neoglenesys.

Diminishes muscle mass.

Carbs for recovery.

Not protein.

1g protein per kg body weight minus the fat. 

Flesh is About 30% protein 

Processed meat (nitrates) is carsonogenic .

To increase or maintain weight

Weights 3 x /week. 

Carbs give a dopamine hit.

Caffeine before exercise

Createen 5g per day. Build muscle. 

RECOVERY

Unless we are elite sports people, having post exercise carbs is not necessary. 

Autophagy is a vital cellular "cleaning" process that removes damaged components, typically triggered by fasting for 16–48+hrs.

INVESTIGATING

YOGHURT 

My recollection is that On Monday night yoghurt was in the bad camp. I totally understand that fruit yoghurt is bad because it's loaded with sugar.  What about the plain "greek" yoghurt at woolies?

as i started to read it,  I realised it's very confusing. 

Protein 11% sounds good but it's %DI/serving. Wtf is that. 

Likewise look at fat total is 11g and shows up as 17%DI/serving and fat saturated is 7g but 32%DI/serving. It's mathematical goobligook.  And the right hand column i think is g per 100g serving but it doesn't add up to 100g.  

drink stand

Phoebe gave me a lovely and very practical stand to put my drink on.