How to sort and handle trash to prevent bugs in Japan

A big hello to those who are about to step into Japan, the country that has a reputation for crazy trash sorting!

I am here to tell you that you will most likely receive a huge poster or a guidebook in English that explains how to sort the trash, so not to worry! It is different from prefecture to prefecture, and even for places within the prefecture, so it is best to refer to your own guide. Some places are strict, others less so.

Most items can be sorted into burnable and non-burnable waste. They will only be collected on certain days of the week. Food waste, which can be classified under burnable, rot faster in the summer. I suggest that you

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Sorry for the slow updates

Hello to all my readers, old and new. Sorry about the decrease in frequency of my posts.

I have gotten myself a 10 year diary from Amazon – in specific, this one and have been since preoccupied with it. I must say that I highly recommend it. The real fun begins on the second year though – when you can see what happened exactly a year before. I know Facebook and some other social media or applications do this as well, but it just feels different to pen it down and flip the actual pages of a diary. It will be one of the first things I will rescue if a natural disaster were to happen. So, anyway, I have been diligently filling in my diary since the start of January this year. Thus, my attention and energy are on it instead of this blog. However, I will still continue this blog, as the things I write and blog about are significantly different. In addition, the main purpose of this blog is to provide interesting and useful insights to a CIR’s job, living in Japan, and anything related to languages and Japan in particular. I will, however, probably be slow with my reading of other blogs, updating of my own, and replying from hereon.

Thank you for your continuous support! 🙂

Read a Korean book without batchim

My Korean colleague introduced me to a Korean storybook that does not have any batchim in it at all. He translated the Korean into Japanese so that I can get the gist of the story. Here is me attempting to read out the story without understanding what most of the words mean.

→ https://drive.google.com/file/d/16IZdc1pihGC3w2d2NzqBeZVubSAokota/view?usp=sharing

I hope to look back at this and laugh in about half a year’s time.

Miracle Morning

After a session of meditation practice – which I haven’t done in months – my brain reminded myself that I used to follow Hal Elrod’s Miracle Morning. I have been neglecting it since – I don’t know when – and I would like to pick it up again. I hope that I will be able to manage it. My mornings are way weaker here than they are in my home country. Be striving to keep things up again – it’s time for S.A.V.E.R.S!

#1 KonMari – Reading the Book

I spent nearly the whole day reading KonMari’s first book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying: A simple, effective way to banish clutter forever.

It was really inspiring. Living in a house that has been passed down for generations after generations amongst the coordinators for international relations, my house – just didn’t feel like my house. Even till now. Sure, after living in it for more than five months now, it is beginning to feel more like my house. However, there are places where I have yet to tackle and closets that I have yet to open. I feel like I should do something about it, but the thought that I won’t be staying in this house forever discourages me from doing something about it. I do know that this is a place I stay in, and thus I should take care of it – even though it was not originally mine.

After reading the book, my mindset has changed as to how I perceive my house to be – before even tidying it! I used to complain about how cold it was in my house – it still is by the way – how the air-conditioner was broken – it still is by the way – but. Now, I can feel

Adulting

I’m very glad that I decided to go abroad to live by myself. I feel like this

Cycling in Japan

Having never needed to ride the bicycle in my home country, I only just started learning how to ride it before I came to Japan. Thus, I experience OH MY GOSH THAT WAS FREAKING CLOSE situations when I’m on my bicycle at least three times a month if not more.

Let me share with you what happened today.
I have to post my 年賀状s (new year greeting cards) by the 25th, so I figured that I should get them posted now in case I forget tomorrow. Unfortunately, today was a rainy day. I looked out my window – hoping that it would lighten up enough so that I can cycle to the post office relatively near my place. It did, so I went out.

However, it started to rain quite a bit on the way back, and I had two close shaves. A car didn’t notice me as he turned at the traffic light spot (it was still green for pedestrians), and I had to shift my course of direction towards the left before he realised I was there. Another incident happened when I