The other day in Otemachi of all places, I saw a group of 3 or 4 teen boys carving up a parking garage entrance on skateboards. It was jarring to see that in that area. 🛹

With the release of Apple iOS 17.3 comes “stolen device protection” (盗難デバイスの保護), in Settings, Face/TouchID & Passcode. Tap “Turn on Protection” to require biometrics with no passcode fallback, if your iPhone is outside familiar locations. Slick! 🙅‍♂️😈

Kindergarten teachers and their charges at a street crossing. Must be stressful! 📷🎌

Kindergarten teachers surrounding their students at a traffic stop light in Yokohama Japan. The children are wearing various colored hats indicating their class.

FIDO2 security keys for M365 MFA have been working at my firm eSolia for over a year. Enabling an Entra conditional access policy to require “phishing resistant MFA” for admins (aka FIDO2 keys!), caused an endless loop of pain.

Jan 5 or 6 is 小寒 (shokan “a little cold”) which marks when the sun is at 285 degrees. Now is a good time to start bundling up. ❄️

If you’re living in or visiting Japan, here are some useful resources we compiled regarding disaster readiness. Stay safe and help those around you if you can. 🎌🚒

Happy New Year greetings to one and all, but our thoughts are with those impacted by the large & terrifying Ishikawa quake.

Osechi food on New Years in Japan

Ozoni soup, crab and osechi at Japan new years.

📷🇯🇵

“Kiji” pheasants have a grating call that I always said sounds like a rusty gate, but I found a more apt comparison: the scraping sound of sliding plastic hangers along a pole. 😬

It’s not a thing where I’m from, but Boxing Day each Dec 26, has an interesting origin of being a day for the more fortunate to give to the less so. There’s also Cricket and big sales. 🎁⛪️

Merry Christmas from Maru the Shiba and his humans. 🎄📷

A Shiba dog in a Christmas Tree outfit.

Noel Log Cake, a chocolate cake with a little chocolate axe.

Pie with tomato and sausage, and roast chicken.

NYT Connections is a cool game where you pick groups of four words with some connection from easy to hard.

Puzzle #196
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟪🟪🟪🟪

On 12/23 in 1982 Japan NTT designated this day “telephone card day”. My first real job was at a design co that licensed idol and actor photos, selling “tereca” printed with them and some English text, to dept stores. 🎌☎️

Per GEDA, 12/22 1997 (H9) marks when generic medicines were first allowed by MHLW, giving Japan consumers access to cheaper alternatives. Med patents expire in ~20 yrs, after which generics can be made. 🇯🇵💊

Today 21 Dec is the anniversary of the first “word-cross” puzzle, published in the New York World in 1913 (T2) by its editor Arthur Wynn. 📰

Walkers have precedence on the highways and byways of Sumida… 📷🇯🇵

A bike rider in a grey jacket rides under an underpass while a walker crosses the bridge above. The yellow sign on the bridge admonishes riders that pedestrians have right of way, and to ride slowly.

Optimists waiting in the cold to buy their 年末ジャンボー “year end jumbo” lottery ticket. 📷🇯🇵

Long queue of people outside a Tokyo building, all bundled up against the winter cold.

Red down left 📷

Red bench sculpture object in Tokyo courtyard surrounds a lonely tree.

Baron Yoshitoshi Tokugawa (relative of the last Shogun) piloted Japan’s first powered flight 19 Dec 1910 where Yoyogi Park is today. 🇯🇵🪽

Robert Patrick, who played the T-1000 in one of the Terminator films has a good line in the new Reacher season on Amazon Prime. Someone asks about an alias: “Who’s Sarah Conner?” and his character quips, “I don’t give a shit, just keep an eye on that hotel.” 😆

Dec 17 1903, Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, was the first 4 manned flights by the Wright Brothers over a short distance. Today you can hang glide it! 🛫📷

Young woman giving a peace sign sitting on the sand dunes at Kitty Hawk NC, before her hang glider flight.