Having recently celebrated 31 years in Japan, I can definitely relate
to a number of these responses by other foreigners in Japan to that
very important question.
- 55% of people stated that they loved their life in Japan.
- 35% of people said that safety was a big factor in why they are still living in Japan.
- 35% of people said that they stayed in Japan due to COVID-19 restricting their options to move back home or abroad.
- 20% of people interviewed said that they had more job opportunities in Japan than in their home country or another country.
- 11% of people felt that Japan was their home now.
Why are you still in Japan?
Click here to read individual responses from foreigners in Japan.
(image credit: Metropolis Japan magazine)
June 17, 2022 - Success is built by what you do, not by what limits you.
Did you know that:
— Albert Einstein was 4 years old before he could speak.
— Issac Newton did poorly in grade school.
— Beethoven’s music teacher once said of him, “as a composer he is
hopeless.”
— When Thomas Edison was a boy, his teacher told him he was too stupid
to learn anything.
— F.W. Woolworth got a job in a dry goods store when he was 21, but his
employer would not let him wait on customers because he “didn’t have
enough sense.”
— Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team.
— A newspaper editor fired Walt Disney because he had “no good ideas.”
— Winston Churchill failed the 6th grade.
— Steven Spielberg dropped out of high school in his sophomore year. He
was persuaded to come back and placed in a learning disabled class. He
lasted a month and dropped out of school forever.
I don't think we'd consider any of these people a failure. So what allowed them to be successful even amidst struggles?
The answer to that question may be less in what they did do and more in what they didn't do.
(courtesy of Dan Miller, Career Coach & Author of 48 Days to the Work You Love)
Success is built by what you do, not by what limits you.
(photo credit: 48days.com)
June
2, 2022 - Top Gun: Maverick
Without question one of the best movies I’ve seen in years, especially
since the onset of the covid plandemic began a couple years ago, was
last weekend when I watched Top Gun: Maverick, which opened in Japan
last Friday 5/27.
I don’t know what Tom Cruise's secret is, but he’s obviously found the
Fountain of Youth as he doesn’t seem to have really aged that much
since the original Top Gun movie back in 1986… that’s right… a
remarkable THIRTY-SIX YEARS AGO!!
If you’re a Tom Cruise fan, an airplane fan (especially F-14 fighter
jets), a U.S. Navy fan, or a fan of action/suspense flicks, you will
love this movie. I was on the edge of my seat most of the movie, and I
just can’t stop thinking about it.
If you'd like a real adrenaline rush, you owe it to yourself to go see
it!
Top Gun: Maverick trailer
(If player above is not visible, you can view video
at YouTube here.)
[click on CC button for English subtitles (英語字幕)]
The 30,000 m2 (7.4 acre), award-winning Keisei Rose Garden in Yachiyo,
Chiba, Japan accommodates 10,000 roses of 1,600 varieties. The full
blossom seasons are mid-May through early June and mid-October through
early November. The most magnificent display of roses I've ever seen in
my entire lifetime.
May 9, 2022
- Burger King Japan's new Salsa & Avocado Smoky
Whopper
On the occasion of the May 5th Children’s Day national holiday, I’d
like to tip my hat to Burger King founders Jim McLamore and Dave
Edgerton, who I feel deserve at least partial credit for the amazing
Salsa & Avocado Smoky Whopper I had for lunch, helping make my
holiday a smashing success! 美味しかったです
(it was delicious)!!
Burger King Japan's new Salsa & Avocado Smoky Whopper
Burger King founders Jim McLamore and Dave Edgerton
April 30,
2022 - World's oldest person dies at age 119
Kane Tanaka, a Japanese woman who was the world’s oldest person, died
on Tues. 4/19 at age 119.
She was born on Jan. 2, 1903, the same year of the Wright Brothers’
first powered flight, and was recognized by Guinness World Records in
2019 as the world's oldest living person.
Tanaka had been living in an elderly care facility in Fukuoka City,
Fukuoka Prefecture in western Japan and died at a local hospital.
Tanaka loved playing the board game Othello and her favorite food items
were chocolate and soda drinks. She had reportedly hoped to stay
healthy until she was 120, but passed away just a few months short of
her goal.
Japan has a dwindling and rapidly aging population. As of Sept. 2021,
the country had 86,510 centenarians, and 9 out of every 10 were women.
With Tanaka's death, the world’s oldest human is now Lucile Randon, a
French nun known as Sister Andre, aged 118, according to The
Gerontology Research Group.
Kane Tanaka, the world's oldest person, dies at age 119
Jan. 2, 1903 - April 19, 2022
(photo credit:
Canada.com)
April 3,
2022 - Spring has sprung!!
The springtime flowers in Japan bring a non-stop exhilarating display
of brilliant colors and sweet fragrances to titillate the senses. The
plum blossoms begin in mid-February, followed by the absolutely
breathtaking cherry blossoms, and then a continuous overlapping of
blooming periods for azaleas, camellias, wisteria, magnolias, peonies,
roses, tulips, pansies, irises, hydrangeas, etc. that last well into
mid-summer.
What you see now in the album linked below is just the start, so
I'm planning to add more pics to it in the weeks ahead! Stay tuned and
check
back soon!
April
1, 2022 - Spring 2022 rape blossoms in Tokyo
Of all the beautiful, stunning spring flowers at their peak in
Tokyo right now, the breathtaking cherry blossoms always seem to get
all the attention, and for good reason, but I think the brilliant,
yellow rape blossoms (Nanohana, 菜の花) are just as beautiful. May
the force & uplifting spirit of spring be with you…
Spring 2022 rape blossoms inTokyo
Mar. 14,
2022 - 2022 Cherry Blossom Forecast
Only 8 more days till the cherry blossoms are forecast to begin
blooming in Tokyo on Mar. 22! Yay! This is 7 days later than last
year, but 2 days earlier than usual! Full bloom in Tokyo is forecast
for
Mar. 29. Can't wait!
2022 cherry blossom front in Japan
(Source:
Japan Weather Association)
Mar.
11, 2022 - The Beatles: Get Back - The Rooftop Concert
One of the best flicks I've seen in a while, even though the "Get Back"
rooftop concert filmed atop Apple Corps' Savile Row headquarters in
London on January 30, 1969 was only a 65-minute documentary.
Not to be confused with last year's 3-part, 8-hour TV mini-series, this
film was digitally remastered for the HUGE screen and high-quality
sound of IMAX theaters and directed by famous New Zealander Peter
Jackson of "Lord of the Rings" fame. The cinematography was phenomenal…
10 cameras on the rooftop, 3 on the street interviewing puzzled
passersby, and even 1 on top of the building across the street.
The close-ups of the Fab 4 performing live in their surprise,
unannounced last ever public appearance made me so nostalgic, it
practically brought tears to my eyes. And they were all so young &
handsome (all still in their 20s).
Believe it or not, it was my very first time ever to see a flick in an
IMAX theater. With the HUGE screen, high-tech sound system, and my
sensory perceptions in full overdrive… it almost gave me the impression
I was actually there.
Particularly impressive was the professional editing which made good
use of the full width of the floor-to-ceiling IMAX screen to present 3
different simultaneous views of the performance – such as close-ups
each of John and Paul singing, along with a wider shot of the whole
band.
Sadly, as of yesterday it seems the screenings in Japan have now
finished, but for any passionate Beatles fans (especially old folks
like me who grew up with The Beatles), if this film ever comes to a
nearby IMAX screen, you will be remiss and saddened greatly if you miss
seeing it.
The Beatles: Get Back - The Rooftop Concert (photo credit:
thefatangelsings.com)
Feb. 18,
2022 - In loving memory of Thomas Arthur Todd
It's a sad day in Tokyo and Steamboat Springs, Colorado, as one of my
lifelong good buddies has
received his final reward and moved up to the big playground in the
sky. I've known Tom since our college days and will always hold him
dear
to my heart.
Love you, miss you, and rest in eternal peace, my dear friend. C U
again someday!
Thomas Arthur Todd
July 24, 1953 - Feb. 17, 2022
(The above pic was taken at Garden of the Gods, Colorado in Aug. 2016.
More pics of Tom are here.)
Tom (left) & I scaled Gannett Peak, elev. 4,210 m (13,810 ft),
the tallest peak in Wyoming, back in Sept. 1979
Feb.
10, 2022 - Comparing sizes of geographical areas
I've often wondered how the size of my home state of Texas would
measure up to my adopted home for the past 3 decades. Now finally the
mystery has been solved.
Actually, it's not such a big surprise for me, since I learned a long
time ago that Texas (America's 2nd largest state and 1/2 the size of
Alaska) was about twice the size of Japan, but it's pretty cool to now
see it on a map.
MapFight is a web-app to help visualize the comparative size of 2
geographic areas... continents, countries, cities, oceans, etc. I was
turned on to this amazing app a couple days ago by a fellow university
professor, and I'm so intrigued by it, I'm still playing around with
it.
Feb.
6,
2022 - 360-degree panorama
from the summit of Mt. Whitney
Flashing
back to one of my all-time favorite mountain climbing pics, a panorama
from the summit of Mt. Whitney in California (the tallest peak in the
continental 48 U.S. states) taken by my fellow climbing partner Matt
when we scaled it in August 1989. He made it from his 16 sequential
pics
spliced together, back when digital cameras were not yet widely
available.
Jan. 27,
2022 - "How Long Has It Been Since YOU Been Home?"
Blessings to my good buddy, Mississippi bluesman Rambling Steve
Gardner, who hits it out of the park with his 12-string National
Reso-Phonic guitar by posing a very pertinent question as we kick off a
New Year.
This song is Rambling Steve's version of an old Lightnin' Hopkins tune.
More details on this amazing Tokyo musician are here: www.ramblingsteve.info
Keep on spreadin' your Big Leg, X-tra LARGE, My-T-Fine magic, my friend…
"How Long Has It
Been Since YOU Been Home?"
(If player above is not visible, you can view video
at YouTube here.)
[click on CC button for English subtitles (英語字幕)]
Jan.
20, 2022 - Japanese elevator floor location monitor
Wow, now why didn't I
think of this?
Japanese elevator
floor location monitor
(If player above is not visible, you can view video
at YouTube here.)
I was thrilled recently to be notified that my GaryJWolff.com website
has been named one of the 16 top hiking and adventure blogs from Japan
by the highly-renowned Ridgeline Images hiking website.
If you have a very vivid imagination, perhaps you can visualize me
right now patting myself on the back, ha ha.
No, in all seriousness, in the past 12 years I have spent literally
hundreds of hours posting information on the highest
mountains in
Japan, which I hope will be useful for present and future climbers.
It is extremely rare when I get these kinds of kudos or feedback
regarding my website, so this recognition is extremely appreciated.
Thank you very much, Mr. David Lowe!
If you're looking for a good hiking
trail around Tokyo, since 2013
David has published over 100 hike reports from around the Greater Tokyo
Area. And each hike has a detailed description, including photos, how
to get to the trailhead by public transport, hiking duration, distance,
elevation gain, difficulty, as well as downloadable GPX track and PDF
map files.
Jan. 1,
2022 - Hatsuhinode (初日の出), First Japan Sunrise of 2022
Hatsuhinode (初日の出) is the Japanese Shinto tradition of viewing the 1st
sunrise of the New Year to greet Toshigami-sama (年神), the god of the
New Year, with hopes of receiving good luck, well-being, and health.
Before sunrise on January 1, many people will drive to the coast, climb
a mountain, or go to the top of a tall building or structure, like the
Tokyo Sky Tree or Tokyo Tower, to view it. Here's the one which
occurred in Tokyo this morning at 6:51 am with a crisp -1°C (30°F)
temp. Happy New Year!! May we all be blessed this year with "good luck,
well-being, and health."
Hatsuhinode
(初日の出), First Japan Sunrise of 2022
(If player above is not visible, you can view video
at YouTube here.)
(BGM: "Morning Has Broken" by Cat Stevens)
Have your say about this page! Feel free to comment in the box below:
Website
Updates
Jun 27, 2022
WHY ARE YOU STILL IN JAPAN?
Having recently celebrated 31 years in Japan, I can definitely relate to a number of these responses by other foreigners in Japan to that very important question.
- 55% of people stated that they loved their life in Japan.
- 35% of people said that safety was a big factor in why they are still living in Japan.
- 35% of people said that they stayed in Japan due to COVID-19 restricting their options to move back home or abroad.
- 20% of people interviewed said that they had more job opportunities in Japan than in their home country or another country.
- 11% of people felt that Japan was their home now.
Source: Metropolis Japan magazine, Summer 2022 issue
(click link to read individual responses from foreigners in Japan)
The most frequently asked questions about climbing Mt. Fuji, including info on routes, maps, videos, transport access, traffic stats, weather, and climber stories.
Listing of Mt. Fuji Yoshida Trail mountain huts, including website URLs, phone numbers, elevations, and sleeping capacities, as well as links to the Fujinomiya trail hut sites.
How long is the historic Mt. Fuji Yoshidaguchi Trail?
I know that starting at the 5th station makes it an 11.6 mile loop, but if you were to start and end at the Kitaguchi Hongu Fuji Sengen Shrine following
Success is built by what you do, not by what limits you.
Did you know that:
— Albert Einstein was 4 years old before he could speak.
— Issac Newton did poorly in grade school.
— Beethoven’s music teacher once said of him, “as a composer he ishopeless.”
— When Thomas Edison was a boy, his teacher told him he was too stupidto learn anything.
— F.W. Woolworth got a job in a dry goods store when he was 21, but his employer would not let him wait on customers because he “didn’t have enough sense.”
— Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team.
— A newspaper editor fired Walt Disney because he had “no good ideas.”
— Winston Churchill failed the 6th grade.
— Steven Spielberg dropped out of high school in his sophomore year. He was persuaded to come back and placed in a learning disabled class. He lasted a month and dropped out of school forever.
I don't think we'd consider any of these people a failure. So what allowed them to be successful even amidst struggles?
The answer to that question may be less in what they did do and more in what they didn't do.
(courtesy of Dan Miller, Career Coach & Author of 48 Days to the Work You Love)
Page 2 of the most frequently asked questions about climbing Mt. Fuji, including info on routes, maps, videos, transport access, weather, and climber stories.
Gary J. Wolff's Blog Archives, January-March, 2015
Posts include winter hiking tips by Wes Lang, Danish archer Lars Andersen, Super Bowl XLIX from the New Sanno Hotel, and an awesome Diamond Fuji seen from Tokyo.
Without question one of the best movies I’ve seen in years, especially since the onset of the covid plandemic began a couple years ago, was last weekend when I watched Top Gun: Maverick, which opened in Japan last Friday 5/27.
I don’t know what Tom Cruise's secret is, but he’s obviously found the Fountain of Youth as he doesn’t seem to have really aged that much since the original Top Gun movie back in 1986… that’s right… a remarkable THIRTY-SIX YEARS AGO!!
If you’re a Tom Cruise fan, an airplane fan (especially F-14 fighter jets), a U.S. Navy fan, or a fan of action/suspense flicks, you will love this movie. I was on the edge of my seat most of the movie, and I just can’t stop thinking about it.
If you'd like a real adrenaline rush, you owe it to yourself to go see it!
The 30,000 m2 (7.4 acre), award-winning Keisei Rose Garden in Yachiyo, Chiba, Japan accommodates 10,000 roses of 1,600 varieties. The full blossom seasons are mid-May through early June and mid-October through early November. Without question the most magnificent display of roses I've ever seen in my entire lifetime.
Burger King Japan's new Salsa & Avocado Smoky Whopper
On the occasion of the May 5th Children’s Day national holiday, I’d like to tip my hat to Burger King founders Jim McLamore and Dave Edgerton, who I feel deserve at least partial credit for the amazing Salsa & Avocado Smoky Whopper I had for lunch, helping make my holiday a smashing success! :-) 美味しかったです (it was delicious)!!
Kane Tanaka, a Japanese woman who was the world’s oldest person, died on Tues. 4/19 at age 119.
She was born on Jan. 2, 1903, the same year of the Wright Brothers’ first powered flight, and was recognized by Guinness World Records in 2019 as the world's oldest living person.
Tanaka had been living in an elderly care facility in Fukuoka City, Fukuoka Prefecture in western Japan and died at a local hospital.
Tanaka loved playing the board game Othello and her favorite food items were chocolate and soda drinks. She had reportedly hoped to stay healthy until she was 120, but passed away just a few months short of her goal.
Japan has a dwindling and rapidly aging population. As of Sept. 2021, the country had 86,510 centenarians, and 9 out of every 10 were women.
With Tanaka's death, the world’s oldest human is now Lucile Randon, a French nun known as Sister Andre, aged 118, according to The Gerontology Research Group.
Having recently celebrated 31 years in Japan, I can definitely relate to a number of these responses by other foreigners in Japan to that very important question. - 55% of people stated that they lo…
The most frequently asked questions about climbing Mt. Fuji, including info on routes, maps, videos, transport access, traffic stats, weather, and climber stories.
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美味しかったです
(it was delicious)!! 
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