My father just sent me this newspaper clipping from 1976. I didn’t know that my photo was in the newspaper at such an early age. Other than the hairstyle, I don’t really think it looks like me!
I grew up surrounded by music. Many members of my family can play an instrument or sing. My father has been a musician for most of his life and would often play his music in the house and in the car. He had several instruments around the house. While he was a bass player first, he also had a keyboard. As a child I often played around with it and dreamt of being a keyboard player in a rock band.
It is not so surprising then that during Elementary school I started taking piano lessons. My parents found a local teacher and even bought a piano for our house. I played for several years and learnt a lot of things. Around the time I was 11 or 12, I started to lose interest in some of the hobbies I had done for years. Piano was one of them. While I did not stop loving music, I think piano was just not for me.
When I got into high school, the idea of performing in a rock band was very appealing. I noticed my father and his bass, and decided I would like to give it a try myself. My father was probably overjoyed at me being interested in bass guitar as my older brother had become a drummer instead. He quickly took me out to buy my own bass guitar and amp. I started taking lessons from a bassist who was a member of a fairly well-known local band. He was very talented, and I learnt a lot from him. Me and my friends formed a band at school and started practicing together. Over the next several years I played with several different people, performed at school events, and even did school assessments with my bass.
While I played less in University, I still played here and there. And eventually, I came to Japan. I originally decided I would buy a new bass here but… I never did. I found a few chances to play over the years, but overall, I played very little and never got back into playing. Recently I had the urge to finally buy a bass and so I decided to look at some local shops. I found a second-hand Ibanez in very good condition at a great price. I always wanted my own Ibanez, my friend’s dad had one and when I played it at his house it was so nice to play. So, I decided I should take this chance and pick it up.
Playing bass again has been a lot of fun. There is one problem, however. My skill has dropped...a lot. I can’t play like I used to at all. My fingers are getting sore quick from the thick strings too. It is going to take some time to get my skill back. None the less, it is a great feeling to return to a hobby of mine after such a long time. Hopefully I keep playing consistently and can get even better at playing than before.
Over the break at the end of June, Dave and I attended a whisky blending event in Hiroshima. It was held at the Hilton Hotel, so it was a fancy event in an upscale bar. The blending kits, which were produced by Chivas Regal, looked like this:
They included 5 small bottles of whisky with different flavor profiles (fruity, floral, smokey, etc.) as well as a dropper and a beaker to mix them.
We all tried different combinations and had a fun time, but that’s not the end of the story. One of our friends entered the contents of the kit into ChatGPT, and it told us the ‘ideal’ blend: 30% floral, 25% fruity, 20% citrus, 15% smokey, and 10% creamy. We tried that, and everyone agreed – it was the best!
It’s kind of depressing that the AI blend was better than anything we made on our own, but I guess we’re living in the future now…
After 20 years, Japan updated its banknotes on July 3rd. They are rolling out slowly, but I went to the bank and got one of each (¥1000, ¥5000, ¥10,000).
The back of the 1000 yen note features the famous woodblock print “The Great Wave off Kanagawa” by Hokusai.
Just by luck, the Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art is now having an exhibition of Hokusai and Hiroshige (Japan’s other famous woodblock print artist) works. I’m not sure how many original prints of the Great Wave still exist, but I got to see one of them!
This exhibit ends tomorrow, but features hundreds of the most famous prints. There were also a lot of other “books” by the artists with a lot of black and white prints that put modern comic and manga artists to shame, and these were from the early 1800s!
政府が決めた例の定額減税が6月から始まりました。暫くは確認のため、毎月減税額と支給額を確認計算をしないといけません。今回の定額減税ははっきり言って経理を行う人にのみ負担がかかっています。NEOは従業員が少ないのでまだ計算と手配はどうにかなりますが、余計な業務が増えただけで本当に腹立たしい。政府は説明の紙をペラっと送付してくるだけです。私にとっては確定申告が終わり、従業員の住民税の納付計算が終わり、労働保険の計算が終わり、次は源泉所得税の計算をするところなのですが、それに加えてのこの定額減税の計算です。私のような個人事業主は、この定額減税の恩恵は毎月受けられるのではなく、来年3月の年度末になってやっと受けられる始末です。
給与事情は諸外国によって違いますが、給与支給が毎月とは限りません。日本のように毎月というところはアジア圏では多いようですが、それでも北米の影響がある国は月2回の支給（2週間に1回）のようです。給料が2週間に1度だとお金を使う計画が立てやすいのか、逆にすぐお金が入ってくるからお金を使ってしまうのか、どうでしょう。
昔務めていた英会話スクールではこんなやりとりがあったのを覚えています。英語圏からネイティブ講師が来日してまず1か月働きます。給与はすぐには出ません。給与支払い日は翌月の10日や15日なので、働き始めた初日から40日か45日経過してやっと給与がもらえるのです。そのシステムを説明されてもあまり何も思わずに働き始め、2週間目に給与がもらえると思っていたらいつまで経っても給料が支払われない、日本企業はどうしたんだと怒る人がいました。
さて、その給料ですが、サラリーsalaryという言葉があります。ですが使いません。ではどう言うでしょうか？そして「給料をもらう」とは英語でどう言うでしょうか？
答え：給料 payday
答え：給料をもらう get paid
Well, I don't get paid. I just keep paying.Hahaha.
While I like Okonomiyaki, I do not eat it so often. But recently I went downtown and ate some for the first time in a while. The shops name is ‘Kamon S Okonomiyaki’ (お好み焼 花門 S) It is near Okayama station and easy to find. One of the first things I noticed when looking at the menu is a common problem that shows up, that is, should I get Hiroshima or Osakan style?
I have always found this to be a fun question to ask when food comes up in class. Food is easy to have opinions about, and there is often a mix of ideas. For this question, I have noticed that most people who live here prefer Hiroshima style. We are a little closer to Hiroshima than Osaka, so maybe that is why. On the other hand, when I ask about baseball teams, there seems to be as many Hiroshima Carp fans as Hanshin Tigers fans. And when I lived in west Okayama there were certainly a lot more Carp fans.
Sometimes it is fun to see what other opinions people have. I like to ask others to rank convenience stores, or types of noodles (ramen, udon, etc.). These often see more disagreement but make better discussion. There are so many kinds of food out there and it is easy for anyone to have a strong opinion about what they like and dislike. Even in my hometown, I often saw a lot of arguments about coffee. My hometown has a lot of cafes, and a strong coffee culture. My friends could never agree about what kind of coffee was the best.
So, which style do you like?
For the record, I think Hiroshima style is better.