April - Work hard and play hard!👹🍣🎎 My Japan

The first week of April is almost over and things are starting to get busy again. I am not sure whether I am ready for it but as usually I don't have too much of a choice. But I am probably not the only one who is feeling like that, here in Japan there will be countless people who are sharing the same faith.

In terms of work, April is another busy month. The business year begins anew and also in the kindergartens, schools and universities people start to rotate again. In order to avoid an unwanted routine, in Japan many companies and also the public sector transfer employees to a different department every few years. Thus, when you have just learned the ropes and think that you have mastered your work, you are asked to start all over again in a different place. It can happen that you are transferred from warehouse management to accounting, or from forestry management to the museum. And of course it is expected that you continue to do your job without complaining and, if possible, let most of your vacation expire. But since we are not supposed to travel at the moment anyway, there is no need for vacation, so why not skip it altogether?

Fortunately, not that much will change for me and I will probably continue to work from home. The advantages and disadvantages are pretty much balanced, but in the end I'm also quite happy to have more time for the family. Even though I'm quite fond of driving, I appreciate being able to get to my workplace within seconds. A blessing in disguise, or maybe not?

Actually I had hoped to finally make it back to my home country last month. But the ongoing situation has once again thrown a spanner in the works and made me postpone my plans and hopes for another time. Now I'm aiming for late summer, but due to this year's events at the moment it doesn't seem to be that easy to catch a flight from Japan to Europe. Most of the connections have been canceled and the prices for the remaining flights are so high that we could buy a nice used car. But unfortunately this would not bring us to Europe without problems either, so that my hopes are still on an affordable flight, which also should not exceed the time frame. At the moment the stopover in Alaska, which was shut down after the cold war, is being seriously considered again. The world is already crazy and mankind is sometimes quite stupid. If it were not so sad, we should laugh out loud about it.

Exactly, Laughter! For April I have resolved to go exactly for that and I intend to implement these resolutions immediately and without interruption. At this moment I am already practicing with a small grin, which has now already turned into a smile. I am apparently already on a good way to make this month a good month. And I won't accept anything else than a success message.

So come on and follow me along. Let's make today a great day and the next week a time you will always be able to remember. It is still April and that means the cherry blossoms will ready to bloom again and to provide us some needed distraction. And also some chances and excuses to go outside and to just enjoy the day.

You can be sure to find me there!