October 2024年10月 Many years ago we were on a family holiday in Yorkshire, that beautifully hilly county in the UK. We had decided to go...

End of August 2024 年8月末 Poor old violin. You've seen a lot haven't you? You were very likely knocking around in some orchestra when...

August 8月 We start this week with a dragonfly. Well, actually, the simple logo on a ball point pen. It was my prize for taking part in a...

( n.b. Only countries with a historical significance to Japan have their own kanji character ) 2024年8月15日 "Expat blog for hiking, music;...

2024年8月7日 The conversation went something like this: Me: "....so when you were in Wiesbaden, did you visit the hot springs?....."...

Late July - ７月 So what do you do when the midday temperature is hitting 35°c and going out the front door is like going into a huge...

2024年7月19日 Now I don't mind admitting it: I'm pretty hopeless at Kanji - those Chinese characters used in Japanese. But there is one...

2024年7月14日 I walked over the footbridge near Langen station the other day, and saw this: the latest stretch of the Darmstadt - Frankfurt...

2024年7月6日 Quick! Get out of the house before the game ends. Because when it does, the streets of Langen will be filled with the sounds of...

2024年6月29日 It must be the time of year. My hiking colleagues have scattered to the four corners of the world...the furthest away would...

2024年6月23日 Hey, just a minute............. I thought I ordered sandpaper........not sand.....😮 ちょっと待って、サンドペーパーを注文したと思ったんだけど…砂じゃなかった But...

2024年6月14日 There used to be a family in-joke when I was a child. It was when we were were looking at holiday photos. It was just one...

2024年 6月 8日 I briefly mentioned the Darmstadt Mathildenhöhe and the famous Rosenhöhe in my blog last week. The Rosenhöhe (lit. the hill...

2024 年 6 月 2 日 It's Sunday morning and I am determined to avoid the motorway roadworks whilst driving back from Nuremberg. Cutting across...

2024 年 5 月 26 日 Look at number 55......... 55番を見てください…… Rauschpfeife.......What a funny name for an organ stop. At first sight I thought...

2024 年 5月 19日 English is not a phoenetic language, I am told. Ok. So let's try this: Yesterday I was in the Langen woods. The beech trees...

2024 年 5 月 11 日 Now what have we here......? Tea? No, the tin is too heavy. My visitors from Beijing have left me to discover what this...

2024 年 5 月 4 日 Georg Friederic Händel recognized a good story when he saw one - a story with power, sex and self-interest. And he knew...

2024 年 4 月 27 日 👉 Put headphones on 🎧 ヘッドフォンをつけてください Why was the swan silver? I have no idea. In my experience swans are either white...

2024 年 4 月 20 日 Welcome back to Germany. I saw this wholly unnecessary and ludicrous sign in Bingen this week. It actually says, would...