My wife and I graduated from TEC English Conversation school last month. Actually, we started to learn an English in 2005. However, my teacher is leaving from Japan this month. He is an American and go back to his hometown. Thanks to his t…

Summer is coming to Japan. It's supper hot and humided, so real Japanese summer!

We bought a folding bike, made in the USA two weeks ago and tried it last weekend. In the morning, we headed to Kusatsu railway station by bike and got on the JR train with the bike. We changed train at Kibukawa and then arrived at Minakuc…

12 years have passed since the great eastern Japan earthquake of March 11, 2011 and I feel time flies very quickly. Recovering from such a terrible disaster takes time, however I feel the people of the Tohoku region have made great progres…

We are planning to go to Nagano prefecture for our first ski trip this season next weekend. However, it’s warm today and I think that autumn will still hang on Japan. Some ski resorts already announced opening day will be postponed for a w…

We went to Sayo town last weekend. It is located in the western part of the Hyogo prefecture. It took about two hours from Kyoto station to get there by JR train. We arrived at Sayo station around noon and had lunch there. We ordered fried…

My wife, my friends and I went to Minami-Sanriku and Ishinomaki in Miyagi prefecture on the 20th and 21st August. We stayed one night and enjoyed the local food around the seaside. On Sunday, we visited the Great east Japan Earthquake memo…

Last weekend was very comfortable, because it was cooler and dryer than in the middle of August. I think the summer is almost over and the autumn is coming soon. The weather in this summer was so strange. We often had heavy rains and very …

Wearing a mask is a necessary to prevent the sprade of COVID-19. Now, the number of infected people is small and going down not only in Japan, but also around the world. Nobody wears masks in the US when I watched baseball games on TV. The…

The rainy season started about two weeks ago and it’s getting hot and humid day by day in Shiga. The summer in Japan is hot and also very humid. This is uncomfortable for us, because it’s easy to get sweaty. I hope that we can stay and rel…

I bought a JR train commuter pass to go to work last month. It was the first time in two years, because I went to work by car during the pandemic. Back then, they said, “Avoid crowded spaces” and I stopped taking the rush hour train. Now, …

We stayed home for the last two weeks in a row, because she was feeling under the weather. She got the booster vaccine for the COVID-19 two weeks ago. After that she had fever and felt tired for a while. Now, she is fully recovered from th…

Last Saturday, my wife and I got the booster vaccine for the COVID-19. Right now, I’m fine, but she has had a reaction to the shot. She has a high fever and is feeling terribly bad. So, she stayed home on Sunday and left work, early on Mon…

The Japanese Yen has become weaker compared to the U.S. and Australian Dollars. I don't know why. Anyway, that leads to more exports, but it costs to more for important goods. I think it's sustainable at an exchange rate of one dollar to 1…

Last Friday was the 11th of March and it was the sad anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake. It has been eleven years since that disaster. Many people died and many people are still missing, we don’t know what happened to them. Tho…

On 24th February, Russia invaded Ukraine. I feel terrible, because many people have died there and also the war will affect the Japanese econmy. The war makes us unhappy. Stop the war immediately! Nobody benefits from fighting.

The Winter Olympic games in Beijing have just finished. They took place without a live audience, so we just watched them on TV. Japan won three gold, six silver and nine bronze medals. I respect the Japanese Olympians, because I believe th…

Happy New Year 2022. I hope we will have a great year and the coronavirus goes away.

Last weekend, we took a ski trip to Nagano and Gifu prefectures. On Friday, it was warm and rainy in Kansai. However, the cold air from Russia came over Japan after the rain and it was snowing in the northern part of the country. We were h…

We went to Tsuyama city in Okayama prefecture last weekend. That city is located in the north of Okayama, so we took the bullet train from Osaka to Okayama and then changed to a local train. Around noon, we arrived and went directly to my …

Over time, the number of COVID-19 infections in Japan have decreased compared to just a few months ago. Especially, there are less than 50 new cases daily in the Tokyo metropolitan area. I think the vaccine helps to prevent the pandemic. N…

I had a medical check in our office. In Japan, companies have to arrange for their employees to have full medical checkups every year. Today, they checked my height, weight, eyesight, blood, cardiogram and X-ray. Finally, I have for a rech…

Last Friday, I went to a public clinic in Minami-Kusatsu to get my booster shot for the COVID-19 virus. I was given the Phizer vaccine. Last time, I didn’t have side effects from COVID-19 vaccination. However, I felt tired, muscle pain and…

A state of emergency has been declared in Metropolitan areas throughout Japan including Shiga prefecture. Unfortunately, the Japanese government has decided to extend the lockdown until the end of this month, because the number of infected…

We stayed home last weekend, because my wife got the vaccine last Thursday, so she wanted to relax at home. We rented the movie “Contagion" on a streaming site and watched it at home. It’s an American thriller film directed by Steven Soder…

Overnight the low temperature was 18 degrees and it was very comfortable this morning. Plus, I heard that the first snow had fallen on top of the Mt.Fuji yesterday. So, autumn will be here soon. I think it’s the best season for sightseeing…

A fourth state of emergency has been declared in Tokyo, Osaka and other Metropolitan areas including Shiga prefecture. Japanese pubs are closed and other restaurants are prohibited from serving alcoholic drinks until 12, September. I heard…

Last Sunday, I went to Omi-Kusatsu hospital and got vaccinated to prevent the COVID-19 virus. We need to get this vaccine twice in three weeks and it was the first shot for me on Sunday. I heard there are a lot of reports of severe side ef…

Now, the Olympic games are taking place in Tokyo without any major problems and I’m happy, because many Japanese athletes have won medals. It’s so good. On the other hand, unfortunately the number of people, infected by the new delta varia…

The rainy season has just finished in the Kansai area and the summer is here. However, the cold air from the north and the warm humid air from the Pacific Ocean meet over Japan and as a result, we will have sudden heavy rain showers in the…