2022 in Review and 2023 Goals

2022 was the best year of my life so far. I attended my first-ever conference. I especially feel grateful to be able to visit my parents back in India after three long years.

Table of Contents

• Highlights
• Travel
  • Kyoto
  • Dublin, Ireland
  • Jaipur, India
  • Fukuoka
  • Osaka
• Hiking
  • Fuji-san
  • Kamikochi Japanese Alps
  • Howth Cliff Walk
• Books
• Writing
• 2023 Goals

Highlights

• Went back to visit India after three years.
• Attended ACL and PyCon JP conferences.
• Climbed Fuji-san.
• Finally got infected with COVID-19. Twice.
• Started learning to drive.
• Read nine books.
• Attended MCR and Pixies concerts.

Travel

I visited four cities I had never been to: Jaipur (India), Dublin (Ireland), Kyoto, and Osaka.

Kyoto

Visited Kyoto for the first time and spent a week living in the downtown area.

Dublin, Ireland

Visited Dublin to attend the ACL 2022 conference. Explored a lot of coffee shops and bars there. Checked out Guinness Storehouse. Attended MCR concert. I was supposed to stay here for a week but tested positive for covid a day before my flight, so I spent two additional weeks here. During that time, explored many parks and went for a small hike in Howth.

Jaipur, India

Went to Jaipur, the pink city, during my India trip along with my parents.

Fukuoka

It was my second time in Fukuoka, and I spent a week here this time. Explored a lot of specialty coffee shops and craft beer bars. My recommendations would be Manu Coffee (Watanabedori), Coffeeman, Stereo Coffee, and Umineko stand.

Osaka

Spent a week in Osaka downtown during the new year holidays. Also, went to Nara and Kobe for day trips.

Hiking

Finally climbed Fuji-san. Other than the hikes listed below, I also hiked Nokogiriyama, Takao-san, Tsukuba-san, Okutama Lake course, and Mitake-Otake-Nokogiri-Okutama course.

Fuji-san

Climbed the highest mountain in Japan, 3776 meters high, Fuji-san. More details are in this post.

Kamikochi Japanese Alps

Visited Kamikochi for two days during autumn. The views were amazing. Two days weren't enough to climb any mountains, so I will come back here for a longer hike next time.

Howth Cliff Walk

While visiting Dublin, I came to Howth for a short hike along the cliffs facing the seas. The views were breathtaking.

Books

Read a total of 9 books. I hope to make it to 12 in 2023.

• The Culture Map ★★★★★
• Algorithms to Live By ★★★★☆
• The 100 Year Life ★★★☆☆
• Designing Machine Learning Systems ★★★★☆
• Set Me On Fire ★★★★★
• Read This If You Want to Take Great Photographs ★★★★☆
• The World Atlas of Coffee ★★★★☆
• And Still I rise ★★★☆☆
• Selected Poems Emily Dickinson ★★★★☆

Writing

Wrote a blog post about routing algorithm for customer inquiries on Mercari Engineering Blog.

Customer Inquiry Routing Algorithm

Every month we receive hundreds of thousands of inquiries from our customers spanning hundreds of categories. To help ou

Mercari EngineeringAnandPrashant

2023 Goals

• Finish driving lessons and get the driving license
• Give 2 tech talks at Python conferences
• Start learning piano
• Move to a new apartment
• Reach conversational level in Japanese