If you've been sneezing non-stop in Okayama lately, you're not the only one. I have been bothered by allerigies already in 2025. Allergy season is hitting earlier than usual this year, and a lot us are already feeling it. Normally, spring allergies show up February, but this year they are a few weeks ahead of schedule. The warmer weather seems to be the main culprit.

Why So Soon?

Blame it on the warm winter! When the temperature stays mild, trees and plants wake up early, releasing pollen into the air ahead of schedule. This year, Okayama barely had a real winter, so cedar trees started spreading pollen earlier than usual.

How do you Survive Allergy Season?

Do you take medicine? Wear a mask? Do you use an air purifier? If you have any great tips, please share them in the comments.

In my last post I talked about Christmas shopping and my plans to go to New Zealand to visit my family during the break. While it was an expensive trip, it was nice to go back and see everyone. It took a long time to get to my mother’s house from Okayama. First, we had to take the bullet train from Okayama to Tokyo, then we took a train to Narita airport. After that the international flight took about 10-11 hours. Finally, we had to take a domestic flight down south to Nelson, then had to drive about 30–60 minutes out into the countryside. Overall, it took more than 24 hours to get there.

The international flight was better than expected. We flew with Air New Zealand, and they have business, economy, and even premium economy seats. When we bought the tickets, the premium economy was almost the same price as regular economy, so we decided to buy the premium tickets. It was quite an upgrade from economy. The food was more delicious, there was more seat space, and they gave us many free items to use during our flight. We flew overnight, and I usually can’t sleep on transport well, so I appreciated having a nicer flight environment.

When we arrived in NZ, it was morning. We had to spend some time at Auckland airport. I was shocked at how expensive everything was. NZ is more expensive than Japan, but the airport was especially expensive. I was also surprised by how many Japanese things I found. There was boss coffee in the convenience store, and a large Japanese restaurant was in the food court. There was also no security check for the domestic flight, which was unusual, as my hometown Wellington does.

Eventually we reached Nelson in the early afternoon and met some of my family at the airport. It was the first time to see one of my brothers and my sister in six years. We had to drive out to the countryside from there as my mother is a strawberry farmer and does not live in a town / city area. On the way we stopped at a suburb called Richmond which has a fairly large shopping area. We went to the bakery to pick up some meat pies and sausage rolls, two of my favorite NZ foods. It was also a chance for us to check out the supermarket and pick up any other foods I had been missing. It was December 24th, so it was also our last chance to buy anything for Christmas day.

Once we got to my mother’s farm, we were soon greeted by the zoo of animals that she has. At her farm, there are dogs, cats, chickens, lambs, pigs, and cows. It was feeding time for many of them, and we were asked to help. We were tasked with feeding the baby lambs their daily milk. One of them was particularly greedy. Feeding the baby chickens was also difficult because the fully-grown ones would try to steal the food for themselves. Besides this, we did not do much else on Christmas Eve besides talking and eating. It was my chance to catch up with everyone.

Christmas day was also simpler than I expected. Most of us got up late, and we eventually opened presents. I got an interesting variety of things. Some useful, some exciting, and some… a bit random. The personality of each of my family members showed in their gift choices. One of the nicest gifts I received was a pair of Ugg boots from my mother. Ugg boots have sheep wool on the inside and are very nice and warm in winter. My family always has Christmas lunch. We ate a variety of dishes such as roast chicken, glazed ham, potatoes and many more. We also enjoyed strawberry cheesecake that my mother made and Pavlova (a merengue cake eaten in NZ and Australia) for dessert. Me and my siblings also enjoyed playing card games… which lasted for several hours longer than expected. My brother bought a card game called ‘Muffin Time’ which is very crazy and can be very confusing for everyone playing, but it’s a lot of fun.

The next day was December 26th. In commonwealth countries, we call it ‘Boxing Day’. While everything is closed on Christmas day, most people go out on Boxing Day. It is common to go shopping, exchange / return gifts, buy new things to go with presents they received, or just to spend time with the family when everyone is together. We went out to the central part of Nelson city and looked around. We did a little shopping, but nothing else was too exciting. Because it was boxing day, a lot of people were out in town however and it made Nelson seem like a much more populated city than it is.  There are only about 55,000 people living there.

The 27th was an exciting day. We went to a well-known beach called Kaiteriteri beach. I went there several times when I was a child. My grandparents used to live in the South Island, so it was not such a long trip there from their house. My father bought us some tickets for a boat cruise as Christmas presents. The boat cruise sailed around the side of the Abel Tasman, a famous national park in the area. The ocean was a beautiful blue and the weather was perfect. During the boat cruise we saw a few sights including ‘split apple rock’ and some sea lions relaxing on some rocks. It was a nice trip. The boat dropped us off at a different part of the beach and we had to take a nature path to get back. When we got back, I was hoping to go swimming, but my family had already swum when we were on the cruise and decided it was time to leave. We had another plan later that day to get to. My father came down to Nelson and he took us all out to lunch at a local vineyard. The restaurant and meals were quite fancy. I ordered the roast lamb, and while the size was a bit small it was some of the most delicious lamb I have ever had. After our lunch we went to a local pub. But not just any pub, it was the oldest pub in all of NZ. It had pictures and notes about its history on the walls. At this time my sister had to leave and return home, while one of my brothers who was planning to leave as well suddenly had his flight cancelled and had to stay another night. A few of us headed out one more time to buy some fish and chips, a staple of NZ food culture.

The next day was our final day in NZ. We went out to another local area and enjoyed some pizza at a bar. We also helped my mother deliver some strawberries to a local shop to sell them. After that we did some window shopping at the local shops and eventually went back to get ready for our long trip back home. First, we had to fly back to Auckland and had some time to kill so we had dinner near the airport. Our flight left after midnight. This time we flew regular economy and the difference between regular and premium was very clear. We were lucky to have flown premium economy on the first international flight.  I was also surprised when they served us dinner on the plane at 1-2am NZ time. They also served us breakfast towards the end of the flight…. It’s safe to say I ate too much. We finally got back to Tokyo at around 7am in the morning. Despite not having slept much at all, we spent the day in Tokyo and finally took the bullet train back home in the evening.

Overall, I had a great trip. It was nice to see my family again and enjoy Christmas back home. It is a very different experience compared to Japan. Sadly, the holiday season is expensive so next time I will probably go during a cheaper time. None the less, I hope it will be sooner than 6 years….

When I talk to my brothers online, we spend a lot of time reminiscing on our childhood in New Jersey. One topic that frequently comes up is the movies and TV shows that shaped us as kids.

One of those shows was Batman: The Animated Series. We watched that show religiously every week, along with reruns whenever we could catch them. There have been many other representations of Batman before and since, but that one is the most iconic to us (and probably to many other people born in the 80’s and 90’s).

What made this show special to me was the music, the drama, and the variety of villains Batman faced. It often had surprisingly deep, emotional storylines while still being entertaining to kids. Although it was fairly slow-paced by modern standards, it had fantastic voice acting and animation. I think it’s still one of the best cartoons out there.

If you want to see what a trip down memory lane looks like for me, just listen to the theme song.

One of my favorite episodes is called “Almost Got ‘Im.” It features several villains sitting around a table, sharing stories about their encounters with the Batman. I can still remember how excited I was watching this as a kid.

It’s available on YouTube, but unfortunately, it’s split into five parts. But here it is, if you’d like to give it a try:

Part 1   Part 2   Part 3   Part 4   Part 5

あっという間に大晦日がやってきました。皆さまにとって辰の年はいかがでしたか？辰年は陽気が動くいい年と言われています。年内のレッスンで尋ねてみていましたが、この1年を評価をするならば星5つのうち、いくつをつけますか？私は星4つと答えています。本音を言えば5つでもいいかな。というのも大病もせず、死ぬほど困ったこともなく、旅行へも行けて、人が私のためにお料理を作ってくれて、大好きなテニスもしてある程度戦績もあげたし、これ以上どうしましょう。

仕事もいつまでたっても次から次へと舞い込んで来ますが、どうにかなっています。趣味のテニスもしたいけれど時間がない、仕事のない日を選んでいるといつまでもテニスはできないので、仕事の前に行くことにしました。そりゃもう疲れます。仕事中に人目も憚らず、疲れで大層な溜息をつく日もあります。体力は奪われますが、日中にしかできないことをして、夜遅くても自分1人でもできることをするように時間配分を変えてみました。歳を重ねるごとに悪いことを忘れ去る技も身に付けました。そんなわけで、1年を振り返ってもこれは！と思うような悪いことが無いのです。

本日大晦日にまだまだ仕事がありますが、自宅の大掃除も中途半端なままなので、仕事の合間に自宅へ帰って「ここ」を掃除しました。玄関の三和土です。只今我が家の男子3人が県外へ泊りでお出かけです。しめしめ、靴がどれも出払っている。メラミンスポンジを出動させ床に這いつくばって水で擦ること幾ばくか。やっときれいになりました。石鹸大のスポンジ4つほどを消費しました。ついでに扉も拭いておこう。

そこへNEOに日本人講師のえりさんが美味しいものを持ってやってきてくれました。「メラミンスポンジを使って擦ったら大変でしょう？もっといい方法がありますよ。〇〇という液体洗剤を撒いて、ブラシで擦ったらきれいになるんです。」ガビーン　早く知りたかった。

あ、ガビーンっていう言い方が昭和だった。ガビーンって、自動翻訳はどう訳すんだろう。また令和7年にお会いしましょう！

Holiday seasonがやってきました。12月上旬が暖かく、遅い遅い紅葉がやってきていたせいもあり、師走の様相を呈しておらずおかしな初冬でした。ここにきてやっと冬らしくなり、Happy HolidaysやHappy New Yearと言うにふさわしくなっています。

NEOにクリスマスツリーを飾っていますがその下にはプレゼント…ならぬお歳暮たちが置かれていました。レッスンへ来る子供たちは堪らず、その箱を手に取り、箱を振り、中身が入っているかを探ろうとします。欧米ではクリスマスプレゼントは1人1つだけもらえるのではなく、1人が複数のプレゼントをもらえるので、25日に向けてどんどんとツリーの下にもらえるべきプレゼントが増えていくというわけです。

NEOの歴代の講師たちもまだネットショッピングがそこまで定着していなかった時代には、せっせと家族のクリスマスプレゼントを買い物に行き、それを自国へ郵送していました。Julesも6年ぶりにNZへ里帰りするのでせっせとお買い物をしていました。難しいのは…贈りたい相手に喜んでもらえるプレゼントを探すこと。趣味も好みもあまり無い人にプレゼントを買うのは頭が痛い。どこの文化でも同じことです。その時にピッタリな英語は(My dad) is hard to shop for.でしょう。単語は超簡単、中学1年生レベルの単語で賄えるというなんて素敵な表現なんでしょう。It's difficult to find something good for (my dad).でも言えますが、単語が8つも必要なので、hard to shop forが簡単です。

大人になった今、私はプレゼントは要りません。自分の欲しいものを買います。What did I get for myself? Oh, please make a wild guess.もちろんテニス用品です。ささやかなお値段のもの、持っていたポイントを使い罪悪感も軽減。クリスマスはまだなのに、もう使っちゃいました。フライングだー（因みに和製英語ですよ）。

This year I will be visiting home for Christmas. I have not been back to New Zealand for many years. The pandemic made it very difficult to go as Japan and NZ were two of the most closed countries in the world at that time. While now traveling is not an issue, it is very expensive. None the less, this year has given a good opportunity to be home during Christmas, so I decided to take it.

While I love the Christmas holidays, there is one thing I hate. That is, Christmas shopping. Being abroad, I usually feel less pressure about shopping for presents. It is often easier to buy something digitally when I can, and I don’t worry too much about trying to send things home. This year, I felt stressed trying to buy interesting presents as I will be able to give them out in person. I wanted to try and find presents that are unique to Japan, and that they can’t get back home. My family is difficult to shop for, and I can never feel confident about what most of them would like to get.

A lot of my choices ended up being cute animal themed. Japan is known for its cute products so maybe it is not so surprising. I was also trying to find products that could be practical and useful. Japan has a lot of convenient and well-designed products. I think these can have a lot of appeal to my family. I am going to bring a lot of different snacks too. The food profile is so different here, and the different kinds of snacks are always super interesting for someone who has never been here.

Even though I dislike shopping for presents so much, there is a good side. On Christmas day I get to receive many presents back. So, I am looking forward to that. Hopefully this trip all goes well.