Happy New Year, welcome to 2020!

Here in Japan, most of us take our holidays all at the same time, which can lead to some pretty heavy crowding in popular spots.

In order to avoid such mayhem, my family decided to take a one night trip to Takeshima (island) in Gamagori, Aichi Prefecture.
We encountered a little standstill traffic on the way there, and a bit on the way back, but it could have been (and was for many others) a lot worse. The visit itself was really nice; a great big hotel with an ocean view and a great onsen, great food and plenty of it. The Island itself was quite amazing (there are at least four shrines on an island you can walk all the way around in under thirty minutes) with crystal clear water surrounding a protected wildlife area. I took a bunch of photos and added a few here.

I highly reccomend it!

Typhoon Season!

Three typhoons ( Nos. 9, 10 and 11) were bearing down on the Japanese archipelago earlier this week. Fortunately, they seemed to peter out and veer to the east and south. I'm sure there are more coming soon, so batten down the hatches!

Speaking of Typhoons, I had a whirlwind of a summer vacation. I spent some time traveling around Fuji-san with my family and doing this and that, while at the same time working at home. One particular holiday I was in Hamamatsu Okura ACT Hotel in the morning for a meeting of the Japan-Brazil Friendship Association, and then returned in the afternoon to do a couple of radio interviews with FM Haro's own "Toshimin" .

I hope you stay safe this Typhoon season, it looks to be a busy one! 

Golden Week

Richard Marx is on the radio, the rain falls gently on the moist pavement outside, it can only mean one thing; tomorrow brings the week of gold, AKA Golden Week. I don't know about you, but I don't have any special plans, just clean the house, fix up the bike shed, catch up on some sleep, and write some songs. 

Nothing fancy. I may even spend some time with the kids if they'll let me ;-)

Enjoy your holidays!
Joe
 

The first day of Spring

Felt like the same ol' winter to me. I did see a couple of cherry blossoms here and there, but the weather was still pretty darn chilly all day, even though the sun was out!

Supposedly it should be warmer next week, and I'm sure before I know it I'll be moaning about the heat and humidity. First world problems?

OH! I just got an alert that we'll have a full moon this week! Enjoy that!!

Welcome to Japan!

Last Friday I had the good fortune to take part in an opening ceremony for trainees newly arrived from the Philippines. These 11 young men will spend the next three years working in Japan, learning the trade of carpentry, specifically home building. Before they begin their on the job training, they first must take over 100 hours of practical Japanese training, training that we here at FS are happy to provide. Good luck gentlemen! がんばれ！