WANISAN

This week was Halloween. Some people don’t realise just how big a holiday, for people of all ages, this has become.

I believe it’s number 3 or 4 for party holidays. So many people want to enjoy a little break from their reality, I’m sure it is only going to continue to grow in popularity.

I did notice at the 100 Yen Shop though that on the night before Halloween, the aisle behind the Halloween decorations was already loaded with Christmas items. I’m definitely not ready for that yet.

Still, I had a little fun in class with some holiday related vocabulary exercises and I did show my horns hehheh

Here’s a photo  of that and my oldest son’s costume he wore to school that day.

I had a notice with a reminder of the video I posted last year of the sorry looking raccoon I saw while out on one of my regular walks in the park near my home, but I’ve continued to see a few odd characters there.

This past week I saw what looks like a tropical bird. It could be migrating (even in Kentucky and Tennessee while I was there you could see some of those from time to time). Or, it could be someone’s lost pet.

But this bird is definitely not the usual wren or sparrow I see.

The photos and video are just taken with my phone, so they’re not so great. Maybe you can see the little fellow though.

Summer was a little different for me this year for reasons I won’t get in to, but there were still some great moments.

One of the best things I did this summer was attempt to climb Mt. Fuji.

Yes, “attempt”.

I also didn’t know you could really “fail” at reaching the top until last summer when my wife’s group was turned back at the last moment by bad weather.

So, she went again. And made it.

So, she asked me to go.

We didn’t make it.

We started in the early afternoon and hiked and climbed all night with a 3 hour rest and short nap right before reaching the top. This was timed so we could reach the top at sunrise.

The wind was crazy strong near the top, and we couldn’t get to go all the way up. We were only a few hundred meters from going all the way. It was disappointing after going so far, but it was also still interesting.

We returned part of the way down the mountain and waited on the mountainside for the sunrise. The wind was really strong and it was very cold. We were told not to go to sleep because of the temperatures and we were waiting on an exposed part of the mountain. It was a little tough, but we were dressed for cold, wet weather, so not too bad.

The sunrise was spectacular.

Here’s a photo I took.

Summer is not here for class yet, but it is certainly here with the weather. It has been in the mid 30s several days in a row now. The humidity has been high as well. I think we actually used the air-conditioning at home more than once.

That’s not a thing we have to do so much.

A couple of days ago when I was parking my bike at school I saw a monster grasshopper taking advantage of some shade on the back of a recently parked car. I guess the window was still cool from the air conditioning. He didn’t want to be disturbed. I’m not sure how big it looks in this photo, but I thought it was huge.

On my walks during the day my clothes are completely soaked wth sweat. There are some shady spots along the trails, but today I noticed that even a snake thought it must have been too hot and walked out of some skin!

Okay, I know it wasn’t the heat, but I did see a pretty good sized, all in one piece, snake skin that was recently shed along one of the trails I usually walk.