On Saturday, as I left the school to head down the road to my usual lunch spot, I spotted a small cream coloured cat on the opposite side of the street. It was a bit of a cold day and there was some light rainfall. The cat was meowing away…

Last weekend I promised to send a package to a friend in Australia. There had been an embargo on parcel post to Australia until a month or so ago. So, on Monday I assembled the parcel's contents, packed them into the box, and prepped the p…

I typically take the train to work on Thursdays. The main reason for doing this is because of the conditions of my car insurance. My policy is for leisure driving and it has a condition that I drive to work no more than three times a week.…

...Maybe I got my latest trio of bad luck, or bad things. Then again, maybe another one is waiting in the wings.... First one wasn't bad luck though. Just a tough slog. I taught seven lessons on Saturday on account of a co-worker taking th…

At some point in a class I was teaching on Tuesday, one of the students went up to the whiteboard to draw something to make a point. This being a class with three preschoolers in it. At which point another student decided to lend a hand in…

First, I think I've more or less adapted to using the Japanese keyboard layout. The convenience of having the @ symbol available on its own key, as opposed to [shift-2], has certainly won me over. Next, how often do I check my messages on …

In hindsight there is a bit of irony in that I've neglected a few things in life for the past week because I was very focused on completing a VN (visual novel) game. The irony arises from the main science fiction elements of the story; tim…

If I were to sum up the visual impact of fall colours in this region then I'd hazard to say that they're a touch muted and yet vibrant though not exactly an explosion of colour. The dominant colours are orange and yellow. I supposed "subdu…

The above term applies to the school trips for junior high and high school students. I suspect that typically all the students in either second year or third year go as a large group. I'm also aware that some elementary school students go …

My usual starting off point for my adult lessons is a roundtable discussion on developments in my students' day to day lives. This Saturday, one of students responsed to the opending question of "How are you?" with an "Okay...but...". He t…

I don't take the same route on my way back from work as I do going there. My outbound route takes me through Takahata, Akayu, Kaminoyama, and a detour around Yamagata city on the Tohoku Chuo (Central) Expressway. On my way home I stick to …

My friend sent me a message to say that she wasn't having a Halloween party at her bar this year. That's understandable given the world we live in now. Nonetheless she said that she was going to open up so after dinner on Saturday I stroll…