A couple hundred miles shy of the Kujikuri coast of Chiba, I reached half-a-million miles with All Nippon Airways. The staff was kind enough to celebrate it with me. (It might be, because I mentioned it! It was also my 102nd flight on ANA, by my count.) When I used to fly into Japan in my first go here (2005 to 2010), I flew mostly on JAL.

I saw this while walking by Jefferson Elementary School, north of where the canal starts. A man on a bicycle was approaching the two gentlemen walking. At some point of the biker's going past, the man on the left decided to shove him. He fell off his bike and on to the grass. I witnessed the whole thing. The pusher said something about "twice", and it wasn't clear.

Hello People! Sorry for the several-day delay for those who read me. This afternoon here in Hawaii, I finished the five-day seminar, and got my 40+ hours credit toward my three CPA licenses and two bar admissions. It is quite a marathon. I fly in from what is called the mainland here, on my way back to my home, which is in Japan.

I get most of my continuing professional education through the Hawaii Tax Institute in recent years. Yeah, I know. Hawaii. Yeah right. Going there for "education". But, yeah, really! I will update you.

I still love you, All Nippon (ANA)! This was a domestic flight. In the legroom seat, I ended up sitting, at times, next to couple. The wife had just had a baby in April. Numbers guy that I am, I found out the baby was born April 16, 2025. That’s one day off of Tax Day in the United States. Usually—but not lately.

A post on the topic of health insurance and health care systems. I live in Japan. Let's say, I live in Japan most of the year. So, I enrolled in the Japanese national health insurance, and pay the premiums. I also live in the United States for part of the year. So I carry an Affordable Care Act policy, the so-called "Obamacare".

I forget when I first discovered Health Sherpa, but I think it was in the time when the youngsters were putting together the service in the early days of the "Obamacare" program (2013 maybe?) They had a better functioning website that the Healthcare.gov website, in terms of shopping around for prices. Oh look! Here I am talking about it…

This new pattern was laid out in 2021. The idea is to get Route 322 traffic under Route 222, while allowing cars to easily enter and exit from 222. The red line is the path I travelled yesterday going toward Ephrata. The video is what it looks like at ground level. (We're at a red light, and I'm not showing actually going through.

Man, this story's not going to disappear off the Japan-side expat social media as fast as I tought it would. Besides Sora the Troll, I also follow Real Rural Japan, who I am led to believe by the following YouTube clip is Steven Cunningham (since he has the same voice as RRJ.) The guy is about 50 now, which is younger than me.

I thought this thing was, like, over, a few social media cycles ago. Alyssa (that's "Oriental Pearl") just posted a great 23-minute video about this, and responding to some of the negativity that she's receiving from the Abroad in Japan crowd. Chris Broad, on the other hand, put out a YouTube post where he insinuates that there is a certain amount of "sensationalist" content being put out about Japan.

A bit of Lancaster County trivia. There was another Union Station in Pennsylvania, and so, in 1881, the town fathers formally renamed the village as "Denver", after Denver, Colorado. Denver was incorporated as a borough, basically a village, in September 1900, and it formally celebrating its 125th anniversary. I have been looking at the banners which were hung to commemorate the incorporation, and for several days, something just really struck me as off.

I get this from the New York Times, in an unlocked article. The contest is between Mikie Sherrill, who is the third woman running for Governor of New Jersey on a major party ticket, and Jack Ciatterelli, who is from Raritan and I think went to my high school (Bridgewater-Raritan West). Everyone says that Sherrill is ahead, but I bet Ciatterelli is going to win.

This number doesn't get the big headlines like the COLA (cost of living adjustment), which is going to be 2.8%. Up to age 62, covered individual's "primary insurance amount" ("PIA"), which is the benefit they'd get at full retirement (67), gets adjusted by a figure called the average wage index ("AWI"). The figure is now a number just shy of $70,000 ($69,846.57).

Talking about Frank Santomauro yesterday called to mind another attorney in the mix of when I last did court representation in the state, co-counsel Jesse C. Markley. I checked out Attorney Markley's similar ability to hold out as a professional LLC in Pennsylvania without paying the annual (now) $700 fee. Sure enough, his is a series of arrearages, going back years for his "Markley Law Firm".

From time to time, I am at a self-service scanner, either in Japan or stateside, and I recall old Frank Santomauro. Santomauro was the opposing counsel in a case I was involved in, about ten years ago. Frank was quite a character, and I was impressed with his relentless go-at-it in the case. He wouldn't give me what I wanted in discovery, and he kept ducking and weaving.

As I mentioned, I watch both on this 21st century version of television. I think I have this time-stamped right, and that it's not "members only"! (You can be a member for like JPY 290 a month ($1.93 US). Never mind the price of coffee. For less than the price of three US postage stamps a month, you can join!

The attractive women are everywhere in the world. Girls make the world go around, to rephrase a lyric by Queen. Some months back into a couple years now, I met a youngster who works at the local car wash back in Pennsylvania. She was so bubbly and full of energy, and had model looks. She looks like a model working at a car wash.

I was excited to see the displays of the young people's kanji art have reappeared along Omotesando in Narita this weekend. These kanji artists are remarkable (one of my favorite words)---this was all done by hand! Steady hands! This is just a sample. There's more. I'll try to post again. For today, I'm just going to draw a comparison. As readers of me know, Narita is actually a very old town.

I am really busy with a post Extension Tax Season project, but I had the chance to walk the Omotesando and enjoy a bit of the festival. The area felt like Waggaki Band was present. But it was total string instruments. I'm glad I got to experience it. Tomorrow is Day Two of the festival. Here is my clip of the performance I caught as I was visiting the ANA tent.

Of my very few Japan-side readers (a couple dozen?), you know that I am a member of artist and cultural commentator Nishimatsu's "Sora the Troll" channel, and appeared recently on the channel. It was my getaway place during the hot summer, and the online community also helped me to get away from the head-pressures of Extension Tax Season. I also watch some videos by Alyssa Studebaker, who streams under the handle "Oriental Pearl".

I finally got through US Extension Tax Season, which ended 11:59:59(:59) pm, October 15 stateside. Depending on which internet source you believe, being on this side of the International Date Line makes this deadline moment a little tricky to determine. With the number of outright non-filers and people who blow off filing, I don't know whether the IRS misallocates sources chasing those deemed 90 minutes late.

This post was inspired by my saying, "Artists and athletes are the cool ones. Accountant just starts with A." That was most recently in the post about how Japanese talent agencies squeeze most of their talent base dry, then toss them aside. It got me thinking about attractive women throughout the years. My score is zero for whatever number, so this is more a retrospective about how life passes you by.

Narita City Hall releases the stats for month-end September 2025. New record: 11,129 (registered). Look at the following numbers: Beginning of 2025 (12/31/24): 133,099 total registered (9,950 foreigners) Latest (9/30/25): 133,407 total registered (11,129 foreigners, as above) The net increase in population is totally explained by foreigners, who added 1,179 since the start of the year. The actual native population of Narita, or Japan, is slowly disappearing.