An annual tradition. Here are my picks for best purchases of the year.

2023 Review

Last year's post is here.

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Everything from last year is still a daily essential. All still strongly recommended. Check the 2023 post if you're curious.

Best Purchases of 2024

Year after year, my life is getting more fully equipped with the things I need, and this list becomes harder to make. This year I ended up focusing mainly on indulgences. Here we go.

1. Iris Ohyama Low-Temperature Cooker

(Product link)

Finally made the leap into sous vide cooking.

10X has a seriously dedicated gym person named Iguchi-san, a software engineer. While talking with him about how we each manage daily protein intake, we arrived at the conclusion: "Food ultimately comes down to how efficiently you can get chicken breast into your body every day — and for that, a low-temperature cooker is unbeatable." Agreement reached, purchase made.

I aim for protein equal to twice my body weight in grams every day. Since getting the cooker, I've been able to shift almost entirely to chicken breast and salmon as my protein sources, and I successfully quit protein powder. Protein powder hits my system too fast and stresses my gut, so this has been great for how I feel. And honestly, low-temperature cooked chicken breast is delicious.

2. NICHIGA Super Barley Barleymax

(Product link)

The big three macronutrients — protein, fat, carbohydrates — are foundational, but I personally think of dietary fiber as the fourth essential. It matters enormously for how I feel.

As I've gotten older, digestive issues have become more frequent, and after a lot of trial and error I discovered that 20g of dietary fiber per day matters more than any supplement.

For getting dietary fiber through actual food with real chewing (rather than supplements), I eventually landed on Barleymax — super barley.

I found it through a YouTube video by Bazooka Okada, a well-known fitness coach in Japan, and immediately incorporated it.

Now I cook it every week and mix it into white rice. The texture and taste are great, the kids eat it happily, and I've set it up as an Amazon Subscribe & Save.

3. Zojirushi Humidifier, High-Power Type, 4.0L

(Product link)

I'd been using the 3L version, but as we started needing humidification in more rooms and found the frequent water refills tedious, I upgraded to the maximum capacity model.

"Bigger is better" holds here — a full day of humidifying the living room without running out is genuinely great. Very satisfied.

The monthly citric acid cleaning is a bit of a chore, but unlike ultrasonic humidifiers this type doesn't grow mold, and knowing the steam is from boiling water is reassuring.

The old model only came in grey, but a black version has been released that fits much better in the living room.

4. Claude Pro Plan

(Product link)

After cycling through ChatGPT, Gemini, and others, I've settled on Claude. The Japanese output quality is in a league of its own. ChatGPT feels unnatural; Gemini feels bloated.

The main feature I use with the Pro plan is Projects:

  • For longer articles or documents, I set up a project, load in relevant materials, and generate output
  • I set up a training project with my current workout maxes and generate a 3-month personal program
  • I load the CSS of this blog and instruct it to write CSS fixes for design adjustments
  • I describe specs for a personal project, iterate, then have it generate event-storming diagrams and prototyping code

That's roughly how I use it.

Among the people I know, Claude seems to be the most frequently cited as the most practical tool. Whether I'll keep paying $20/month indefinitely remains to be seen, but for now I'm happy with it.

5. PUBLIC TOKYO SHIOTA BASIC Royal Cargo Pants

(Product link)

Running low on things to list, so here's some clothing. Nearly all my bottoms these days come from PUBLIC TOKYO.

I wander into their Umeda or Namba stores when I'm in the area and impulse-buy things. I somehow ended up exchanging LINE contacts with a store manager and now get promotional messages from them monthly.

PUBLIC TOKYO products look completely unremarkable online, but the moment you touch them the material quality and cut make everything obvious. They get me every time.

Cargo pants are something I've always loved, and I've bought many pairs over the years. But this one won on fabric and cut — I ended up taking it home. I brought every other cargo pant I owned to Second Street for resale, that's how smitten I was.

6. koti BEAUTY&YOUTH POLARTEC POWERDRY Easy Pants & Wind Shield Fleece

(Product links)

I grew up in snow country, but city wind cuts right through you.

These days I live near a mountain, and the downslope wind is intense. For three years I'd been wondering what to wear for short walks and errands in winter — and then I found this matching set.

I bought the black top and bottom at a UNITED ARROWS store.

Made from military-developed POLARTEC fleece — wind-resistant, incredibly warm, yet thin and lightweight. Far more practical in winter than piling on heavy sweatshirts.

My son started youth baseball this year, which means spending entire days outdoors in the cold watching practice. This set is perfect: easy to move in, warm, and appropriately dressed.

I've always played sports and basically live in comfortable athletic wear. If you share that disposition, this will hit.

7. From Twitter to X — The Day the Blue Bird Disappeared from the World

(Book reference: Japanese translation of "Character Limit" by Kate Conger and Ryan Mac)

Far and away the most interesting book I read in 2024.

I stopped using Twitter in June 2023 and deleted my account later that year. I'd been a user for about twelve years, but the dramatic changes from 2022 onward wore me out — it was no longer the service I'd loved.

But why had it changed so drastically? I didn't fully understand the backstory — and this book had the answers.

After Dorsey's return to the CEO role in 2015, his divided attention between Twitter and Square meant passive, reluctant stewardship. Then came Trump — a powerful force in public discourse who tested everything Twitter stood for.

The entire arc of Trump's elections and their relationship with social media tormented Twitter's policy teams. Carefully navigating content moderation earned them gradual trust in the brand. Through two painful rounds of layoffs, they managed to grow ad revenue and generate profit for the first time. And then: COVID, and Elon Musk.

COVID brought another wave of content moderation challenges at global scale — dealing with misinformation and health claims, with their constant tension between enforcing rules and protecting free speech. At the same time, brand trust and policy management were always a paired challenge.

In 2022, Musk's acquisition closed. He was a vocal free-speech absolutist and dismantled most of the content moderation framework Twitter had carefully built. Brand trust collapsed. Revenue was cut in half.

All of this is laid out with remarkable candor. Reading it against my own lived experience made it feel immediate and vivid.

Closing Note

2024's best purchases stretched out to 6 items.

More than buying things, 2024 was a year I invested heavily in travel with my children. Okinawa, Ise, Kyotango, Fukui — lots of time experiencing the richness of western Japan.

After losing people close to me a few times last year, I've found myself thinking vaguely that I want to spend more money on being with people. That's the direction I'm heading.