The last time I boarded a flight out of Japan was January 2020. This was a much welcomed change from the previous 20 years of traveling out of Japan every few weeks on business trips. I’ve secretly had a goal to not make my airline status each year for the past many years. I’m finally glad that I have achieved that goal for the past two years and likely for a 3rd for 2022. I’ve very happy with my new post-COVID outbreak lifestyle. I work in the office a few days a week and home a few days a week. I keep a healthy balance of exercise in my life with jiu jitsu and cycling and a much better diet thanks to my wife Mayumi’s amazing cooking. It’s great to be spending much more time at home.

When I was only working from home at the start of COVID and I was spending 10-12 hours a day, 5 days a week on Zoom, my head was in a fog. I was feeling very drained mentally, as many people were. I needed something to challenge myself mentally and inspire professionally. Reading books wasn’t enough. I started looked at various online courses to see if those would fit was I was looking for. After a lot of research, I applied for Stanford’s Graduate School of Business LEAD Program. It’s a 12 month online executive education program focused on leadership, strategy, finance, innovation, negotiation and so much more. I was happy to get in. 12 months and hundreds of hours of study later, I can say it was a very good use of time and a productive way to ride out COVID. Lots of practical learnings that I can apply in work and life.

I haven’t gone out shooting for the past few years as I’m avoiding large crowds but my wife and I have made some trips to some of our favorites getaways outside of Tokyo.