daily slice-of-life photo blog of a Gen-X dad
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I like the curly wisps at the top of these clouds.
Tonight we tried Dai-chan, a little okonomiyaki spot near the house. The decor feels straight out of the 70s or 80s, at least to my untrained eye, and there was a great run of Enka playing while we sipped beers and waited on our okonomiyaki and yakisoba. Everything came out delicious, and the two people running the place were so kind. That kind of old school ambience is hard to fake, and honestly a big part of the charm. Best of all, it’s just a short walk from home. 🍺😊 This one’s going into the regular rotation for sure.
I’ve been using the Hobonichi Cousin Avec for a couple of weeks now, and I’m really enjoying the bigger size. My little A6 techo is compact and cute, but the A5 is just a better writing experience overall. The pages lie flatter, so I can use my Clampy, and I get to write at my normal size instead of concentrating on keeping my letters tiny. There are still spots where small writing is a must, like the daily timeline in the photo, but even there I’ve got twice the space to work with. And on the free-writing pages, I can just write without worrying about size at all. As a bonus, I’ve got more room to print bigger photos too. Overall, I’m happy with the mid-year switch to the Avec ✏️
This summer’s pepper plants are thriving! A friend recommended watering plenty and fertilizing often, and it’s really paid off. I’ve never harvested so many peppers from our Scotch Bonnet plant before, and the others are doing amazing too. I’ve been enjoying them every day, little by little. They’re super hot, but I love it. Yay! 🔥
We were on our way to a friend’s house for dinner when we got a flat tire, right in the middle of a busy highway. We pulled over and got it changed pretty smoothly, and only ended up 30 minutes late. The drive home was a different story though. The spare tire tops out at 50 mph, so we stuck to surface streets the whole way and it took quite a bit longer. Still, it could have been so much worse, so I’m counting it as a minor inconvenience and nothing more. 🔧
I didn’t bring my Canon Selphy photo printer to Japan with me, so now I’ve got over 30 photos to print, cut, and glue into my Hobonichi. Once I catch up, I can finally close the book on my A6 Hobonichi (pun intended) since I switched to my A5 Avec Cousin for the rest of 2026. Next time I take a long trip to Japan, I think I’ll just bring the printer along. It’s not too big, and it weighs almost nothing, so it should be an easy addition to the bag. 🧳
We had a few friends over for dinner tonight. I always enjoy having them over, but it felt a little soon since we just got back and I’m not acclimated to Texas yet, physically from the jet lag and mentally from the post-Japan blues. I’m afraid I wasn’t the most lively host, though I tried to stay awake and keep smiling. After 30 to 45 minutes I was pretty much ready to check out. Oh well, that’s just how it goes sometimes.
The food was delicious of course, and I definitely had more than my share of the desserts. 🍮
