Rick Gundlach, Esq. CPA hoofin

Amamiya Shingo 雨宮真吾　works! A Narita-based Chiba Prefecture Assemblyman was pamphleting outside JR Narita Station on one of my early insomnia walks, earlier this week. You can see him in the center of the picture on the left. I had to wait until the Nari Koku school girls passed by. (You know, because of the look.) Here's Amamiya's handout, on an angle. He is social media literate, with a YouTube channel.

Amamiya Shingo 雨宮真吾　works!

A Narita-based Chiba Prefecture Assemblyman was pamphleting outside JR Narita Station on one of my early insomnia walks, earlier this week. You can see him in the center of the picture on the left. I had to wait until the Nari Koku school girls passed by. (You know,…

19.02.2026 11:40 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Thanks for reading. It's really appreciated.
読んでいただき、ありがとうございます。

19.02.2026 04:15 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

An ATM receipt sends me to a Narita Koban–but it’s not like it sounds! Here is a picture of Narita New Town earlier this month, on a clear day where you can easily see Mount Tsukuba in the backgound, reigning over the inaka. The police box is the copper-green pyramid roofed building in the lower left. Continuing my client mailing project, I walked to the Akasaka post office, hoping to get some very nice 110 yen stamps of the "Greetings Spring" series (

An ATM receipt sends me to a Narita Koban–but it’s not like it sounds!

Here is a picture of Narita New Town earlier this month, on a clear day where you can easily see Mount Tsukuba in the backgound, reigning over the inaka. The police box is the copper-green pyramid roofed building in the lower…

17.02.2026 04:37 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Hand-writing the addresses to client letters in Japan, in Kanji, humbles me and gives me writer’s cramp. Off I went to mail some. This morning, I got off another batch of client letters. I've done this for eleven seasons in Japan. I produce a traditional, 20th century-style client letter, and I mail it out the old-fashioned way. Especially for many people who I have only met through digital means, the signature and the envelope is my real, personal communication with them. Not electronic, not software generated.

Hand-writing the addresses to client letters in Japan, in Kanji, humbles me and gives me writer’s cramp. Off I went to mail some.

This morning, I got off another batch of client letters. I've done this for eleven seasons in Japan. I produce a traditional, 20th century-style client letter, and I…

16.02.2026 13:08 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Thoughts about the 2026 Japanese Diet (Parliament) election. Regular readers of me know that I was an observer to this. It's been a noisy couple weeks since the Takaichi Government announced a snap election for yesterday, February 8. I saw some party activity by what arguably *had* been the two main parties (LDP or Jimintou and CDP/Komeitou rebranded has "Chuudou"/Centrist Alliance) in the weeks prior. For the Chiba 10th District Lower House seats, the main rivals were the incumbent, Masa'aki Koike, and the challenger who had held a proportional seat, Hajime Yatagawa.

Thoughts about the 2026 Japanese Diet (Parliament) election.

Regular readers of me know that I was an observer to this. It's been a noisy couple weeks since the Takaichi Government announced a snap election for yesterday, February 8. I saw some party activity by what arguably *had* been the two…

09.02.2026 12:29 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

When neighbors in Japan treat the delivery boxes like their own personal storage spaces. A totally unnecessary headache. The building I've lived in for over three years is just five years old. It's very modern, and, unfortunately, has housed a sizeable number of rude people. You hear about all this "polite Japanese" stuff. It's partly bullshit. I ordered a product on Amazon Japan. I clicked, "leave in the delivery box". After getting NO indication all day that the thing was "out for delivery", I get a phone call while at an event that there was a delivery and I wasn't home to accept it!

When neighbors in Japan treat the delivery boxes like their own personal storage spaces.

A totally unnecessary headache. The building I've lived in for over three years is just five years old. It's very modern, and, unfortunately, has housed a sizeable number of rude people. You hear about all…

04.02.2026 14:58 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

My visit to the Tomisato Tokushuukai Hospital yesterday for a private “ningen doku” (health check up). I was lucky to have a longtime friend of mine who's an American but Japanese help me set up an appointment for a health check here in Japan. I never seem to get the municipal one offered by Narita City under way. This year, I really wanted at least *something*. So yesterday, I made my way down the hill in Kamicho to the Tomisato (city) Tokushuukai Hospital.

My visit to the Tomisato Tokushuukai Hospital yesterday for a private “ningen doku” (health check up).

I was lucky to have a longtime friend of mine who's an American but Japanese help me set up an appointment for a health check here in Japan. I never seem to get the municipal one offered by…

03.02.2026 14:21 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Chat GPT’s moment of brilliance this weekend: “Digital clients treat you like a vending machine.” I push major questions through "Chat". And one I've been having recently was why *some* clients that I have almost exclusively electronic communications with just seem to pepper me with last minute demands, frames as "asks" (but they're demands because there is a ticking time clock introduced. I like to serve clients, so I fall into such a trap. The clients that I meet routinely, face to face, for over a decade now, don't do this.

Chat GPT’s moment of brilliance this weekend: “Digital clients treat you like a vending machine.”

I push major questions through "Chat". And one I've been having recently was why *some* clients that I have almost exclusively electronic communications with just seem to pepper me with last minute…

01.02.2026 11:50 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Japan’s February 8th election season in full swing in Narita city, Chiba 10th District I saw the signboards go up around Narita Machi and the New Town last week, and now the spaces are filling up with the candidates for the recently called-for national election. As an American, my vote is in Pennsylvania. So I am happy to be an observer in all of this, and, also, that I don't have any "dog in the hunt".

Japan’s February 8th election season in full swing in Narita city, Chiba 10th District

I saw the signboards go up around Narita Machi and the New Town last week, and now the spaces are filling up with the candidates for the recently called-for national election. As an American, my vote is in…

28.01.2026 06:32 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

A tree gets taken down at Narita-san Temple. It might be hard to tell, but the picture to the right shows a lot of sky. To the left, there isn't. That's the missing tree. It came down sometime when I was stateside over the New Year. I've walked this path for years. My nickname for it is "Saido Sandō" (Side Approach). There is an Omote-sandō in Narita (not just Tokyo!) And also an Urasandō and Ura-mon.

A tree gets taken down at Narita-san Temple.

It might be hard to tell, but the picture to the right shows a lot of sky. To the left, there isn't. That's the missing tree. It came down sometime when I was stateside over the New Year. I've walked this path for years. My nickname for it is "Saido…

26.01.2026 10:53 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

I finally went to confession at Our Mother of Perpetual Help Church in Ephrata PA, and got absolution for my sin of attending an Episcopal Church. It was one of my stateside projects, and I achieved it on January 10th. This goes to my earlier desire to reconcile with the denomination of my birth, after the disastrous flirtation with this so-described "Anglo-Catholic" offering of the Episcopal Church, in Philadelphia in the late 1980s/ early 1990s. It is surprisingly easy to get into good graces with the Roman Catholic Church if you ever leave it.

I finally went to confession at Our Mother of Perpetual Help Church in Ephrata PA, and got absolution for my sin of attending an Episcopal Church.

It was one of my stateside projects, and I achieved it on January 10th. This goes to my earlier desire to reconcile with the denomination of my birth,…

22.01.2026 15:09 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Yes! Let’s go! My mail to myself talks to me. Since I've come back to Japan, I expected a couple of letters (ones containing payment, ehem) to come through. Now, about one week back--nothing. Makes me wonder a bit, and hesitant to send reminder messages. So I wanted to make sure my mail isn't being forwarded or trapped somehow. I send a letter to myself whenever I have that concern.

Yes! Let’s go! My mail to myself talks to me.

Since I've come back to Japan, I expected a couple of letters (ones containing payment, ehem) to come through. Now, about one week back--nothing. Makes me wonder a bit, and hesitant to send reminder messages. So I wanted to make sure my mail isn't…

21.01.2026 11:35 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

I just spent fifty times that to check two items in a blood test in America. That’s after insurance.

19.01.2026 06:45 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Plane spotted ANA’s “Flying Honu” as I was going in the apartment! What are the odds? This was a first in three years from this location in Narita! (I usually see it from the sports park or on the way to Aeon Mall.) NH 183 moments before it landed on Runway 16R (?), January 18, 2026. This one is nicknamed "Lani".

Plane spotted ANA’s “Flying Honu” as I was going in the apartment!

What are the odds? This was a first in three years from this location in Narita! (I usually see it from the sports park or on the way to Aeon Mall.) NH 183 moments before it landed on Runway 16R (?), January 18, 2026. This one is…

19.01.2026 00:25 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

ANA sends me a gift for becoming a Million Miler–even with half a million miles flown! The remarkable airline that I just got off a flight back to Japan on, had a present waiting for me here in Narita City. Japan Post got it to me special delivery moments ago! I have looked at this luggage tag for years in the various ANA lounges, and counted how long it might take for me to one day have one.

ANA sends me a gift for becoming a Million Miler–even with half a million miles flown!

The remarkable airline that I just got off a flight back to Japan on, had a present waiting for me here in Narita City. Japan Post got it to me special delivery moments ago! I have looked at this luggage tag for…

15.01.2026 03:04 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

US coins are 19th century and useless. I was looking at hotel prices in Narita, Japan in dollars the other day. With the coincidental news that the second Trump Administration is finally stopping the US Mint from coining pennies (the Lincoln Cent), it had me thinking about how coin money changed in my lifetime. If I explain the chart above, it should make sense. Every month, the US issues a consumer price index ("CPI") and that is the egghead-best-guess of what prices are relative to years ago, for the average of what people buy.

US coins are 19th century and useless.

I was looking at hotel prices in Narita, Japan in dollars the other day. With the coincidental news that the second Trump Administration is finally stopping the US Mint from coining pennies (the Lincoln Cent), it had me thinking about how coin money changed…

08.01.2026 12:48 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Hearting the Comfort Hotel in Narita. You see it there, to the left of city hall. The spring green building. The entrance is inside the alcove at the bottom. Very Japanese! It's the first hotel I stayed in, in Japan. Here it is, a little bit closer. I was chatting with someone online who is considering staying in Narita Town after their flight. I always point people to this hotel.

Hearting the Comfort Hotel in Narita.

You see it there, to the left of city hall. The spring green building. The entrance is inside the alcove at the bottom. Very Japanese! It's the first hotel I stayed in, in Japan. Here it is, a little bit closer. I was chatting with someone online who is…

05.01.2026 18:43 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Six years already into a decade that started really slowwww . . . My iPhone offered me up one of these pictures yesterday, which featured "Blonde Haired Guy" I think he was a Japanese guy, but he had blonde hair. This was the last picture I took in the 2010s. December 31, 2019 at 11:59 pm. I remember that flight. I think we landed late, or there was some immigration delay. A Chinese guy grabbed my luggage off the carousel--but then quickly put it back.

Six years already into a decade that started really slowwww . . .

My iPhone offered me up one of these pictures yesterday, which featured "Blonde Haired Guy" I think he was a Japanese guy, but he had blonde hair. This was the last picture I took in the 2010s. December 31, 2019 at 11:59 pm. I…

30.12.2025 22:42 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

He was a European guy used to being recognized by the public . . . in Japan?

30.12.2025 15:40 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

My old Pennsylvania “J-series” plate is no more. I used to be JFE-9606. Almost thirteen years. Pennsylvania license plates nowadays are three letters, four numbers. This version is nicknamed the "Visa Logo" design. Because if you look at it, it kinda looks like the idea came from the Visa card. Notice the resemblance? Anyways. In Japan, I don't drive. But stateside, I don't have much of a choice. I like the Nissan, and whenever I rent in Hawaii, I try to get a Nissan.

My old Pennsylvania “J-series” plate is no more.

I used to be JFE-9606. Almost thirteen years. Pennsylvania license plates nowadays are three letters, four numbers. This version is nicknamed the "Visa Logo" design. Because if you look at it, it kinda looks like the idea came from the Visa card.…

29.12.2025 19:37 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Fox on the run.

28.12.2025 15:12 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

I wait until late January, and send them to stateside tax clients. They love them. Waiting allows me to know the lottery numbers. I usually have enough to send those to the children of Japan-side US tax clients. I tell them that we celebrate Chinese New Year. For most, 1st winning card ever.

28.12.2025 15:11 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Charles Gaba | Substack Click to read Charles Gaba, a Substack publication with hundreds of subscribers.

Charles Gaba - Most of you who follow United States' Affordable Care Act headlines and sabotage highjinks probably already subscribe to Gaba. He was one of the first, if not THE first, to discuss the numbers on the internet, circa 2013 (think he was first.) charlesgaba.substack.com?r=25v45&utm_...

28.12.2025 15:08 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

“Royal Kingdom” is turning into a shithole country for me at Level 166. The ANA Pocket feature turned me on to this game, which I know doesn't get me more miles. I thought this was basically Tetris. But it isn't. It's Tetris like if Tetris were a panhandler in front of the Wawa in the early 1990s. Or nowadays, I suppose---since I avoid Philadelphia. I broke down and spent 99 cents the other day around Level 160.

“Royal Kingdom” is turning into a shithole country for me at Level 166.

The ANA Pocket feature turned me on to this game, which I know doesn't get me more miles. I thought this was basically Tetris. But it isn't. It's Tetris like if Tetris were a panhandler in front of the Wawa in the early 1990s.…

26.12.2025 13:30 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

It was the best they could do.

26.12.2025 13:04 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

I live in Narita, so naturally my flights are out of Haneda . . . I like to fly ANA, as you know. (This isn't a paid spot by the way!) But it's so funny, because when I moved to Narita in 2016, I thought, "great, I can get the nighttime Kennedy flight from the airport. Later that year or 2017, the evening Kennedy flights got rerouted to Haneda! So I've gotten good at hauling ass to Haneda.

I live in Narita, so naturally my flights are out of Haneda . . .

I like to fly ANA, as you know. (This isn't a paid spot by the way!) But it's so funny, because when I moved to Narita in 2016, I thought, "great, I can get the nighttime Kennedy flight from the airport. Later that year or 2017, the…

24.12.2025 15:18 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Ninety-five years ago today, my great-grandfather, Steven Pajersky, died in a coal mine at age 42. I've got the holiday rush and client concerns hitting up against blogging, but I meant to commemorate this. Some of my ancestors came from Slovakia and settled in what was coal country of western Pennsylvania. Life was a lot rougher than it is for a Japan-side US tax preparer almost 100 years later, that is for sure. My great grandmother, Steven's first wife, died in the 1918 flu pandemic, and the second wife had sent their kids away to New Jersey.

Ninety-five years ago today, my great-grandfather, Steven Pajersky, died in a coal mine at age 42.

I've got the holiday rush and client concerns hitting up against blogging, but I meant to commemorate this. Some of my ancestors came from Slovakia and settled in what was coal country of western…

23.12.2025 05:28 — 👍 6 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Did Elmer Brewer of the Green Knoll section of Bridgewater, New Jersey actually have an “Estate”? (Part 2 from yesterday.) Readers of my blog in Japan, I have to apologize to you. This blog actually started out in May 2003, on Lawton Road, in Bridgewater Township, New Jersey USA. I am apologizing to you ahead of time. Maybe that doesn't sound very American, and does sound Japanese. But I am an American. As I told Sora the Troll, "I can't but be an American."

Did Elmer Brewer of the Green Knoll section of Bridgewater, New Jersey actually have an “Estate”? (Part 2 from yesterday.)

Readers of my blog in Japan, I have to apologize to you. This blog actually started out in May 2003, on Lawton Road, in Bridgewater Township, New Jersey USA. I am apologizing…

22.12.2025 12:18 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

(Cognos and IBM Japan were confused contract situations, not haken gaisha assignments.)

22.12.2025 05:22 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Yeah, right! That would have been really weird, working as haken in companies like Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers (before it went bust the next year), Cognos, IBM Japan---all on 90 days', for five years. Sorry the blurb reads like clickbait.

22.12.2025 05:21 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Posts by Rick Gundlach, Esq. CPA (@hoofin.bsky.social)