first sunrise

This morning, I watched the sun rise for the very first time. The sun rises early here in Japan. Today it was supposed to "come out" at 4:27, so I set my alarm for 4:20. The skies were clear this morning, which won't happen often this month, but I could not see the sun until 4:33, and then it appeared to be half covered although high enough to be fully above the horizon. It was a big orange ball.

I expect if you are not watching the sun rise over a metropolitan area, it will be much brighter when it first peaks. I thought it was not so bright and it did not bother me at all so I watched as it rose for quite some time. I believe I watched it until 4:47.

As I was watching it, I noticed a blue spot appearing where the sun is. This spot seemed to be like a sun shade. I didn't keep my focus on one point so the spot gradually got bigger and bigger.

So I had this built-in shade screen making the sun not so bright. When I blinked, I noticed the sun could be seen much brighter than what I was seeing it through this blueish spot.

One thing I hope for, is to fix my eyesight. My eyesight is not bad enough to get glasses. I've tried but can't get a prescription. I think my vision strength is slightly different in each eye therefor making my vision a bit blurry if I focus on something with both eyes. It is much clearer to use only one eye. This problem results in me not using both eyes and the right eye tends to look away. It's a lazy eye.

After I quit and came back inside, I had the blue spot still but I noticed something really strange. The blue spot only appeared in my left eye! I'm sure I was watching the sun with both eyes fixed on the reddish-orange ball. But I have no spots at all in the vision of my right eye.

As I type this up, the spot has gone away. The forecast for the rest of the month is for clouds every day. I wish I had taken a picture.

Pepsi-free results

It's the end of my Pepsi-free month. This month I did not buy any Pepsi or other sodas. Although, one time I bought a bottle of vitamin water from the vending machine which cost me 140 yen. It was morning and I just got to work. The room was hot. I was thirsty. I knew it wouldn't last long but I figured I could use the bottle and refill it with water. That was the only extravagant spending I did this month.

I did lose a couple of kilos but it was not due to the absence of Pepsi. I only lost weight when I didn't eat on my shift at work. I now weigh approximately 60 kg.

Aside from what might be found in a little bit of chocolate, I didn't have any caffeine this month either. I don't drink coffee or tea so Pepsi is my only source of caffeine. I didn't experience any benefits from being caffeine-free. I think it made it worse for me because I wasn't always able to be as awake as I otherwise might and that caused me to go to sleep sooner which just ends up in shorter sleeping periods. My shift work is the main cause of the problem but this month was probably a bit worse. Many times I would sleep for only 5 or less hours. So my sleeping pattern was not adjusted well and I lost a lot of time to sleep and lack of energy.

Another side effect was that I was not as well hydrated. I usually drink a lot of Pepsi at home, but with water I don't drink nearly as much.

My reason for the Pepsi-free month and reduced spending was to save more money. I was able to accomplish that so I met my goal. Tomorrow, I will go back to buying Pepsi at home but I will try not to buy any soda at work. The vending machines and convenience stores (here) do not deliver a good quantity for the value. For each 500 ml can of Pepsi (120 yen) I can nearly purchase a 1500 ml bottle of Pepsi at the grocery store (about 150 yen).

Pepsi-free

This month I'm going Pepsi-free. At least, I'm trying to. I've been keeping track of how many 1.5 liter bottles of Pepsi I buy in a month. It looks like I buy more than 3,000 yen worth a month. Plus, I often buy 500 ml can of Pepsi when I work. So I've probably been spending well over 4,000 yen a month, maybe even more than 5,000 yen a month on soda.

This month, I'm going to do some saving and not spend any money on soda. Pepsi is the only soda I buy, so I'm calling this a Pepsi-free month. I'll just have to drink tap water.

sungazing discovered

Last night, I discovered this thing called sungazing. Some people actually look at the sun. And guess what? Their eyes are fine. There are also some purported benefits to it as well. I could write more about what I found, but if you are interested then you can find out about it by doing some searches, and I'm too tired to write any more now. I just wanted a post to reference when I first heard about sungazing.

If I do it, I will write posts here. If I think about doing it, I will probably write some posts here. If I don't do it, I won't write about not doing it.

sleep

I went to bed very late last night. It was around 1:00. I got up around 8:40 I think.

sleep

I went to bed last night at 0:07. It probably took 30 minutes to get to sleep. I got up at 8:08.

sleep is difficult to count

Last night, I went to bed at 23:30 and again I woke up at 5:00 but stayed in bed and slept more. I think I got out of bed after 9:00 but I was awake for a long time and just thinking. It's hard to quantify exactly how much sleep I got. It took me a little while to fall asleep in the first place. Probably, no more than 8 hours of sleep in total.