Happy Year of the Snake
Year Summary#
January
- New Year trip, Osaka & Kyoto, got sick the day after arriving in Osaka, stayed in the hotel and read Nishio Ishin at Starbucks, coincidentally the story background of "Romanticism of the Gallows" is set in Kyoto, making it very immersive.
- First time skiing, used a snowboard, very happy, helmet is very important.
February
- Lunar New Year, Yokohama Chinatown, outdoor ice skating at the Red Brick Warehouse, ice skating in the sunshine was super fun.
- Izu Kawazu cherry blossoms.
- Sendai, still snowing.
March
- Mori Art Museum, the exhibition was very interesting, there is an observation deck where you can see Tokyo Tower.
- National Art Center: The hotel featured in John Wick 4.
- Hatsune Miku Art Exhibition: Not very big, bought a T-shirt and some snacks.
- Conan 30th Anniversary Exhibition: Crowded.
April
- True cherry blossom season.
- Teamlab, several areas were very cool.
May: Golden Week back home for fun.
- Shenzhen popular bookstore: Rated as having good decor, but not many books I was interested in.
- Hangzhou: Walking by West Lake on a rainy day, watched a spy family movie, met college roommates and old colleagues.
- Harbin: Met friends from a light novel group, met online gaming friends, ate barbecue, ate hot pot, and ended up at a comic exhibition, social anxiety kicked in.
- After returning to Tokyo, went to the Meguro Starbucks that I couldn't book during cherry blossom season.
June
- Ginza Goldfish Exhibition.
- Tokyo & Kamakura hydrangeas, last year it was scorching when I went to Kamakura, this year it was rainy, the hydrangeas after the rain were very beautiful.
July
- Saitama Musashino Shrine, Kadokawa Musashino Library.
- And my favorite WF 2024 figure exhibition.
August
- The tiny town at the far east of Chiba - Katori, pilgrimage to the Christmas Kiss sacred site (haven't watched this anime), took the Katori train that only runs once an hour.
- Unknowingly, I've also been working for five years.
September
- Around the Mid-Autumn Festival, I had a consecutive holiday, then went to Shanghai and Guangzhou, also caught a typhoon in Shanghai.
- After returning to Japan, a junior came to travel, so we arranged to go to TGS gaming exhibition, it was crowded, and I probably won't consider going again next year unless something unexpected happens.
October
- An unexpected alumni meeting, and I also went to Nikko (the leaves hadn't turned red yet, but it was quite cold).
November
- New iPad mini and watch.
- Got into Hearthstone, started a homebody life, reached legend at the end of the season, which can be considered fulfilling a dream from my poor student days.
December
- Ginkgo, the yellow leaves are very beautiful.
- The Christmas tree downstairs is pink this year, very nice.
Reading#
Read 48 novels, mainly completed Nishio Ishin's "KonoSuba" series and Yoshihiro Nishikawa's "Takumi Chikage" series.
Also read 84 manga, among which I particularly liked "The Evil God and the Chuunibyou Girl" and "Two People Smoking at the Back Door of the Supermarket."
Movies, Anime, etc.#
After receiving my year-end bonus, I rewarded myself with a sofa and a TV, finally not living in a bare house, so I watched various things, but mainly rewatched some previous works.
The Japanese drama "The Decagon House Murders," I haven't read the original, but my experience was very good. Recently, the official announced that there will be a live-action adaptation of another work in the series, looking forward to it.
"Unnatural," a drama that was very popular a few years ago, I finally caught up with it this year, overall it was pretty good, but I felt the ending was not strong enough.
In terms of anime, I didn't watch much this year, but "The Bad Girl" was really good.
Games: I got into "Zero Escape," quit after two months. Got into Hearthstone, probably can keep playing.
Work#
Abstractly speaking, it's too abstract, like the math I played in Siberia (laugh), work is frustrating.
Specifically, I'm working on machine learning and RAG applications.
- Gained some experience in data engineering and backend (FastAPI).
- Refactored last year's code, redesigned the database and migrated it.
Hope to maintain a calm mindset in the new year and strive to become someone who can solve problems.
Things I Bought That I Feel Good About#
- iPad mini, the previous one was a 10-inch air4, the next one might be a 13-inch pro.
- Pitaka phone case.
- Alienware monitor, smooth 4K 160Hz, Overwatch, start!
2025 Plans#
First, let's review the goals I set last year:
- Japanese N2: Still far from it, just a working person who wants to sleep, currently probably at N4.
- Personal knowledge management: Although Notion isn't very user-friendly, I choose to tinker less and record more. — "As long as something is good enough to get the job done, you might as well keep using it. Don't focus on the tools, but on the work you need to accomplish."
- Reading: Completed the "KonoSuba" and "Takumi Chikage" series, but still have Shirai and Nozaki's works on hold.
- Photography, travel: More in the first half of the year, then got addicted to Hearthstone and became a homebody.
- Use GPT more: Generally, mainly used for coding and as a search engine.
Goals for this year:
- True Japanese N2, aiming to be able to read light novels and play GalGames.
- Keep reading.
- Bought a diary at MUJI, aiming to write a sentence every day.
- Work hard to learn some random things that might help with the next job.