Finding my old Japanese letter

I came across a picture of a memo that I left for my Japanese tour guests when I was freelancing as a tour guide in the year 2014. Reading it now makes me cringe. It says

こんばんは、ガイドのTorazakanaです。
すみません、集合場所の変更をお知らせに参りました。

4階のロビーではなくって、1階、エレベーターの場所から、左側の椅子で集合お願い致します。これは毎回の29日、30日、2日の場所に対してです。

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Attacks on KonMari

I have only just realised that there is a tendency for people to judge something they haven’t even tried. Instead of trying, they decide on whether they like it or not from the words of others or from articles written by others, and just stop there.

I understand this helps people save time, as there are probably many things they want to do, so they can’t possibly check out every single doubt they hold, but it just reminds me that many things go unnoticed and untried with the biases we carry.

I wrote this in relation to the recent KonMari attacks. People who have never seen her books are making comments like

Catching up with an ex-CIR

I caught up with an ex-CIR of a certain prefecture over dinner today. I can count with one hand the number of times we have met, but I really enjoy his company.

I learned a lot about his prefecture’s previous and current governor, how the director of his division was like during his first year, and the overall dynamics of his old JET workplace. After listening to his stories and him commenting about mine, it made me all the more grateful for my colleagues in my division.

He also shared with me his experiences of having a Japanese spouse and raising a trilingual child. It was extremely fascinating to hear how

Protected: Finally told my parents (B)

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A fufilling interpretation

I feel that one of the factors that contribute to a fulfilling interpretation is having enough time to prepare for it, and having the words you prepared coming up in the actual interpretation.

I received news that a school from overseas would come down to my prefecture to look at our horticulture. There was a lot to study as I knew nothing about horticulture – both in Japanese as well as my native English language.

After a week of intensive studying – coupled with many

Torazakana’s Food Lifestyle

I am a person who eats to live, and not one who lives to eat. Anyone who knows me well enough can tell you that I sometimes grumble about why humans require food to survive.

It has been more than 10 months since I arrived here and started living by myself. When I first came here, my lunch was food from my work canteen, and my dinner was something off the ready-made bento rack from the nearby supermarket most of the time. I gradually grew sick of my dinner bentos after a couple of months and decided to

Falling Sick

My throat started hurting, and then it turned into a cold – with chills, headache, slight pain in joints and a hint of a fever. I couldn’t think straight and felt cold even though the temperature was at 29 degrees. Had to use two hours of 代休 (off in lieu) and leave work at 15:00 to crash into bed – but not before texting BF to help buy me some sandwiches for dinner. At about 17:30, BF came over with not only sandwiches but soba and salad – as well as a hamburg bento set for himself. He also got me this Oral Rehydration Solution that is supposed to taste good when you’re sick but awful when you’re well. It tasted good. Damn.

We watched a couple of