Anna Matsushita

 One afternoon, I found some beautiful Kogyoku apples at a supermarket shelve. The apple is pretty hard to come by, it only shows up in Autumn. Kogyoku apple is sour apple, perhaps little sweeter than Granny Smith. When you see this apple, it’s time to cook warm apple pies or apple crumble. This year, I tried making apple pudding. Apple pudding is a simple dessert, and simple to make. And moreover, it is delicious – When I made this at home, half of it went to my neighbor. Within 10 minutes, she rang back and said she loved it.   <Recipe> -----------------------------------------------  Butter – 120g Caster sugar – 120g Egg – 2 large eggs Plain flour – 120g Baking soda – 1/2 tsp Salt – 1 pinch Ginger powder – 1 1/2 tsp Milk   - 3 tbs Kogyoku apples – 1   peeled and quartered, thinly sliced. Honey tbs Whipped cream  ----------------------------------------------------- Grease the baking tin with some butter Pour honey at the bottom of tin

The state of emergency was declared at many authorities in Japan from early .July to the end of September 2021. The number of Covid-19 positive case was high, and it persisted nearly 2 month and half. During this period, I was looking for a job. I briefly worked at a call centre in Tokyo, but I left there due to my lack of high-quality voice, as well as professional speech needed at call centre. Job market was quite fast during the spring of 2021. To be on safe side, I looked for permanent job, or temporary to permanent job, since I will be turning 50 years old soon, and I needed a stable position. While browsing on job agent’s websites and platforms, I came across many temporary position open for young people newly graduated from schools and colleges. It reminded me of recent concern for the job market for young generation in Japan. As far as media reports said, many young college or university graduates in Japan were reportedly struggling to find permanent job. Many can’t get c

 It has been nearly a year and half when most of the countries in the world has closed their borders from travelers from abroad. After vaccine was rolled out in some of the countries, the borders are beginning to open up gradually. One of my former colleague travelled from Germany to Czech for his summer holiday. Depending on where you live, looks like travel for non-essential, non-urgent purpose is re-starting. I thought it was a good prospect. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Japan, there are 37 countries which accept COVID-19 vaccine certificate issued in Japan (as of 27th September, 2021). Which means, I believe, Japanese nationals can travel, possibly for urgent and essential purpose. On the opposite direction, Japan is not allowing inbound visitors for leisure purpose as of September 2021. Self-isolation period is getting shorter for people coming back to Japan, but apparently it is too early to welcome visitors from abroad, especially considering the surge

 On 10 September, the Japanese government decided to extend the state of emergency in 19 local authorities until 30September, 2021. At that time, the number of newly Covid contracted patients in Japan was around 9,000 per day. The number was still high enough to keep the restriction. 2 weeks have passed since then, and the number of COVID positive patient is now decreased to 2143 nationwide. The number of newly contracted patients in Tokyo and Osaka is still needs to be watched, but it is gradually but surely decreasing. Apart from working from home, washing hands, wearing facemask, limit the number of people when eating out and vaccine – what did we do to decrease the newly contracted patients? I went out today to bigger city in Kanagawa with my friend, and the station was packed with people. It looked just like any other weekend before corona. Only the thing that we noticed was that a department store s restricting the number of people coming in – the floor was already full

Since I left a travel company last year, a call centre in Tokyo gave me an opportunity to work. However, jobs at call centre did not agree with me. I discussed with my manager, and we both agreed that I should go and look for another opportunity. I left there in mid August. I started my 2 nd job hunt from July 2021. This time, job market was picking up its pace compared to last year. There were more openings, and more choices.   I also looked for temporary jobs in a hope that there might be a chance to get full-time contract. I heard from several people that when an astronaut came back to work, he sent out 1000 resumes to company for his next job. They all said that I should follow his example. Since July, I sent out about 60 resumes in three month. This is not a considerable amount compared to what I intended. I used several job agencies, and applied from their websites. This time, I had few chances to speak with agents online. Once they know that I was actively looking for a

 “Wold you go and buy some milk “? My mother stormed into my room while I was having an online job interview. The day before the interview, I informed my parents about my schedule, and asked them to be quiet from 13:00 on. Apparently, my mother needed fight an urge to interfere. She said she knew I will be having something from 13:00. By the clock struck 13:00, she could not help but walking up to my door and say something – and she did. It was an embarrassing experience, but it continued. My friends, who are expert on working from home, suggested to put a notice on my door while I am busy. I told my parents that I will put a notice on my door when I am having an online interview. However, my mother said she can’t be sure if she can keep quiet. “More I am told not to do, I get temptation to break the rule”. What a childish opinion. Later I learned that there is psychological theory called “ Psychological Reactance ”, the tendency for people to react negatively when they feel

Today is the moon festival in Japan. Apparently many people were looking forward to this annual event more than usual, possibly to be festive more than usual and enjoy the day thoroughly. Lots of text have been exchanged to talk about today’s weather forecast. Apparently it will be cloudy today, so the visibility of the moon may not be good. Some of my friend went out to see the moon last night, held a little party at home. Some of them cooked sweet dumpling with their kids, which looked fun. The reason why dumplings are chosen for the sweets of the day is simple : Dumplings look like full moon ! At home, my family was festive more than usual. We did went out last night to see the bright moon. My parent went out today, and bought some sweets which may be too much for the three of us.  They said some of the stores were offering Silver grass, a typical decoration of this day. Sadly the silver grasses at the stores were too mature, flowers were all open and fluffy seeds were almost