This past Wednesday, the city government opened up their online registration system for anti-COVI-19 vaccinations. I had tried to logon the previous Friday and had been turned back because I didn't meet the age criteria. The one thing I di…

Back on June 12th, when I wandered off to Tendo Park, I came across a building which was a touch different. Its styling wasn't exactly that of a shop or a residence. What caught my eye was a star mounted on its exterior. It wasn't quite a …

I mentioned the large shogi piece to another student yesterday. She wasn't too sure what I was talking about. So I brought up this photo and tried to explain it to her. In the midst of doing so I enlarged the photo and was able to make out…

I mentioned to my Tuesday evening class that I had taken a walk up Maizuru Mountain last Saturday. One student asked if had seen the shogi memorial up there. I mentioned that I had visited the human shogi board. She said that wasn't exactl…

I had a few hours between classes on Saturday so instead of just sitting around the office I decided to head out for a walk. My destination was the Tendo Park at Maizuru Mountain which is quite close to my workplace. The mountain isn't a p…

A co-worker came over to tell me a story yesterday. She started off "This is so typically Japanese".... The gist of the story is that the authorities in Tokyo and Osaka had set up large temporary clinics in sports facilities to vaccinate p…

Well, sort of. Actually, it was the 2020 Olympic Torch Relay that came to Yonezawa on Sunday, June 6th. On account of the COVID-19 pandemic, the relay was broken down into short jaunts in towns and cities across the country. In some places…

Last Friday I stayed overnight in Tendo since I was going to be covering my co-worker's morning classes (she'd taken three days off that week because it was her birthday). On Saturday morning I drove up to the local McDonald's to grab brea…

Recently I noticed a group of banners by the side of Route 13 just past the point where there is an intersection with the road that comes out of Nakayama, a small village between Nanyo and Kaminoyama. The banners read 「しゃくやく祭り」, "…