I wrote the other night about the spider who set up shop right outside my apartment front door. Funny how it knew where the foreigner was living in the apartment complex, and figured, "oh, well, I'll just set up my operation where the foreigner is. What rights could his yen possibly be buying?" But I didn't pick up on the fight being picked.

It might be hard to see the half-moon in the picture to the left. It's from yesterday morning, and the moon was smack dab in the middle of Gemini. When I look up at the sky, I sometimes think about God, who supposedly is "up there" but would be, frankly, everywhere. These days, I wonder, "how the fucking hell am I going to get through October?!" Seriously.

It's already into October, and the October 15 extension deadline on client tax returns for which I filed extensions before I left America is coming soon. I like my clients, but every year, this looming deadline is a hell. Unlike April, when things can be punted to October, there is no punting without penalty---if a client owed. The Treasury wanted the money (our collective money as a citizenry--and PR get treated as citizenry) in April.

Here is the report, which I discovered earlier this morning. Pressing commitments keep me from elaborating much on this--except to point out my estimate from August is very close to the National Pension Fund Association's number. (My 5.77 trillion versus 5.78 trillion -- less than 0.2% (.002) off!) As I said the prior August (August 3, 2025), I feel the Fund won't go bust.

Here is my political cartoon. Japan will only take this seriously when the 83,000 checks going to Japanese get shut off. Does anyone have any idea how many Americans benefit from this totalization agreement? Is it 83? Not 83,000. I mean, 83? The Japanese government refuses to answer, while they screw around with permanent resident rules meant to screw over foreigners who relied on the old rules.

Regular readers of me know that I have a problem with insomnia. It's been worse in 2026, and maybe was one reason that sent me to the hospital--as a diagnosed heart issue. If you saw the CT scan, you'd also think it was the arteries of the heart. But it was not. Himawari is an interesting flower, because it turns to the sun.

I was on my way to the go-to eki-mae conbini (convenience store near the train station) when I think I witnessed a fight breaking out among young Nepalis, who are about 2% of Narita's population. Well, maybe 4% of Narita's young population. It was so weird, because they were doing it in this messy corner of the station, that, of late months, they seem to have taken over as part of East Kathmandu.

I have previously mentioned that this Family Mart is my "go to" for certain items in my Narita evening. Back before the main entrance of JR Narita developed, this Family Mart was an am/pm that did business across from the McDonald's at the intersection of Omotesando, Ippon Matsu Doori, and Shiyakusho Doori. I have been a customer of this establishment, honestly, since 2005.

This is ironic, because I making the file of things I intend to go home and scream about when I do my usual October trip to America. This whole PR and visa issue is obviously Number One on the list, and I am trying to line up congressional and administrative visits. The only facts I have about Ms. Donapati are coming from an Instagram post she made earlier in September---where it's the kind that's a public message that later disappears.

I committed to myself, as not the best Catholic, to attend the Masses in English as provided to us by Father Fransiskus Mork, S.V.D. Last week, I missed because of concerns around Typhoon 25. So I went this morning. Father Mork also says the Mass in Japanese. And I'm not N1 Level of Japanese---by any means. But I know how the ritual goes.

What a wild day for me. As regular readers know, I have a recurring problem with insomnia. This means: I can't sleep. When I do, it's maybe four hours. Then, I suddenly get exhausted later. I instantly fall asleep. It lasts four hours. I'm always tired. The pattern this week has been three to seven, maybe seven thirty. A.M. And then: P.M.

Earlier this month, I was notified by the US Department of Education that my student loans from the 1980s and 90s had cancelled about two-and-half-years ago. I was under an income-driven repayment program, basically since it had first come out in 1995. Three hundred months was in 2020, but with some later study, this was pushed to 2024. There was such a mess in the records for this.

As regular readers of me know, I had my heart checked out this past summer. The results were "negative", which means I got sent home. Still, I am frequently tired. I make life go on. I was thinking about the street I grew up on Bridgewater, New Jersey, and a family who acted like the owned the lower end of the upper part of the street.

I think I finally found the question hiding inside my Kokumin Nenkin Kikin research. During the just-passed summer, I have been trying to figure out, what the net assets in the Japan Pension Fund are, but, equally as important: what are the obligations of the Fund, and to whom? The Fund as a whole appears to be in surplus. But it has three very different “doors.” In my last post, I showed how the Fund is tracking *three* different group obligations.

His name is Yamashita Takashi. He was born September 8, 1965---not quite eight months after me. This is in some ways interesting, and in some ways a big tangent. When I get back to America next month, I intended to do a lot of talking about this whole PR mess, where I make an application, and then get told I was rejected because, when I REJOINED the Kokumin Nenkin, the Japan Pension Service didn't charge my credit card.

As I was home-bound for the Typhoon #25 here in Japan, that I nicknamed "Attack 25" if you know old TV quiz shows here, I asked Chappy if the Kokumin Nenkin Kikin has provided any more information about its liabilities to participants. As readers know, I am a participant in the fund and--since August 10--a participant in the "Five Channel Thread 38".

I have ChatGPT set to monitor any developments on the Japan side of the sudden proposed rule changes for U.S. citizen permanent residency in Japan, and intend to raise the usual when I return stateside for my usual fall trip. I harbor no illusions that the US embassy, the "Whores of Toranomon" as I previously described, serve other masters that the ordinary US citizen.

As regular readers of me know, I attended the University of Pennsylvania in the mid 1980s. As I've also pointed out, Penn was really a difficult place. I am sure, it's still a difficult place to be, especially if you aren't upper-middle class in America. "Plus ça change", is what the French say. Or so I am told. "The more things change, the more they stay the same." I would bet that Penn is still a difficult place, if you don't come from a certain strata.

Narita City's numbers finally landed this morning. It's a record high: 11,956. Or 8.96% of the total population. Like I've said before, and will say here now: I am of two minds about this. On the one hand, the young people--and they're mostly young--are here for a purpose. The Japanese didn't have kids in the 1990s and 2000s (NOT America's fault.

I normally do NOT blog about clients, even if or though anonymized. But what's been going on this summer is REALLY pissing me off. And I normally cut the American Internal Revenue Service ("IRS") a LOT of slack in my commentary: they are underfunded, and most public workers in it are very conscientious. As I blogged earlier this month, maybe: If you want that aircraft carrier out in the Pacific, someone has to pay for it.

I was hoping to do a Narita foreign resident post for September 16, but I guess the stats are delayed this month. As of end July, we had reached the 11,894 mark, with an overall total of 133,432. That's 8.9%. If end of August reaches 12,000, we may be over 9%. Nine percent of 133,432 is 12,008, and the pattern has been: Japanese residents disappear, foreign residents replace.

Today was an interesting day. I was low energy, having gotten up late, with a list of client get-to’s already awaiting me on the smartphone. I have ChatGPT a/k/a “Chappy” update me on certain figures, like the Japan National Pension Fund a/k/a “Kokumin Nenkin Kikin” net asset balance. I report in my sleep times, weight, and blood pressure if I have it.

From time to time, I watch these. Not sure what the ultimate point will be. Here is one about a wife whose husband made 7.38 million yen ($49,321 USD in last year's dollars.) I am of two minds about these. One the one hand, it's interesting to learn how people are doing, money-wise. My concern is that, when everyone starts doing this, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Among other things going on this mid-September, I had a moment to look over my responsibility reserve model, mirroring the Kokumin Nenkin Kikin "responsibility reserve". This is the amount of money that the Fund thinks it should hold in order to pay promised benefits for Fund participants. Just to review: you pay money monthly into the Fund. The Fund promises to pay you a life annuity, sometimes with "term certain" if you chose it, once you retire (reach age 65).

Headlines from America say that Social Security benefits will adjust up 3.6% for January payment, with the annual cost-of-living increase. (COLA= cost of living adjustment.) I am today just four months shy of being eligible to claim an early Social Security check. I turn 62 in January. I wouldn't want to claim so early, since there are restrictions as to how much money you can make "in retirement".

On this 25th anniversary of the controversial event in New York City, that affected the whole trajectory of the early 21st century, I want to talk about something else: walking in Narita, Japan. "Let Us Not Forget!" went the posters of the time, which, with the hype, seemed almost silly. And disrespectful. Who could forget? Not certainly, those who lost family members in the 9/11 attacks.

Tonight, I decided to walk to Kozunomori to pray at the Saint Mary statue, and visit the station. It's a Keisei Line one in an area of Narita that still has some semblance of the traditional demographics of the town. Unlike JR Narita, and Keisei Narita, which most times of the day make you feel like you are not exactly in Japan anymore.

You know, it's so funny. I was making a joke about money discussions being carried out on 5 Channel in between thumbnail ads for anime porn. And then, the very next time I go to use a cash machine here in Japan, I find myself in the most unusual situation. It happened at one of my "go to" convenience stores, the brand for which I have been a customer for AT LEAST 58 YEARS, starting at the Seven Eleven in Somerville, New Jersey in the late 1960s.

And that something has nothing to do with Kinbaku (the Japanese rope bondage, for the uninitiated. Not saying I'm initiated.) What I wanted to know was that, last month before the hospital visit, I built a model of the Japan National Pension Fund (Kokumin Nenkin Kikin) "responsibility reserve". In English, this is the actuarial liability that the Fund has for promises made to Fund participants, to pay out a life annuity (usually with term certain).

I decided to take a walk down to the Naritasan Temple on my way to the Aeon Town. These were my pictures. It's so cool to be living near a 1090-year-old Buddhist temple. 1. 日本語イントロ 成田表参道から成田山新勝寺へ。 イオンタウンへ向かう途中、少し遠回りをして成田山まで歩いてみました。 この街に住んでいると、何気ない散歩の途中で長い歴史と鮮やかな色に出会えるのが面白いです。 2. 日本語訳 成田表参道とお寺の色 イオンタウンへ行く途中、成田表参道を歩いて成田山新勝寺まで行ってみることにしました。 これらは、そのときに撮った写真です。 1,090年以上の歴史を持つ仏教寺院のすぐ近くに住んでいるなんて、本当にすごいことだと思います。 3. 英語のポイント — Japanese readers’ guide to the English I decided to take a walk down to ...

On the topic of Japan's National Pension Fund (Kokumin Nenkin Kikin), I should say that I've not only been an active poster on the topic here on my longstanding blog, Hoofin, but also elsewhere on the internet. Last month, when I finalized a model that sought to determine Kikin's actuarial liabilities---the amount of funds it needs available now in order to meet its pension obligations from now into the future, I relied on ChatGPT's powers to scan the internet somewhat better than a search engine, to tell me if anyone else might even be discussing the possibility of a Kikin surplus.

As I was on my Saturday walk, I was impressed by a cloud line that appeared before us in Narita. It really was this stark. Sometimes iPhone photos dramatize things. It was so neat to see that frill pattern in the sky. The weather felt a little bit like fall was peeking its head in from behind the curtains. As a guy who sweats a lot, in some ways, I can't wait for fall to appear.

A lot is happening here at the start of September. All involve numbers in one way or the other. Welcome to my life, or my life, as I interpret it. I have been writing a lot about the Kokumin Nenkin Kikin, Japan's National Pension Fund. I even wrote the Fund, and as yesterday's post went, I got a response. I've built a model to do a daily estimated tracking of what the net asset position is of the Fund.

Here is the actual envelope I received earlier today---less than two weeks after I had posed questions about a possible Fund surplus to the fund! This is just so excellent! It's the first set of questions I've posed to some unit of Japanese government this year, where I actually got a response! I'm so delighted. I redacted out part of my address, but as readers of me know, my address is out there, because the represenatative office of my Pennsylvania LLC, Frederick W Gundlach LLC (no punctuation) has been "doxxed" by the Japanese government.

It was time for my evening walk out of the apartment. So first, I walked up to the Omotesando intersection. That's the one where Sora the Troll had let me be part of the interview of a streamer member from Singapore. Now, when I pass there, I always remember Tuesday, February 24. I meant to get up to the Chomeisen store, to get that nice little 300 ml bottle of ginjo.

Signs and surprise tear downs. I like to think that I am on top of things locally, to be able to spot the small (and not so small changes.) The one notice says that the Jiraiya, a long-established club on the City Hall approach from the station area, is going to be torn down. A business along the Omotesando was shuttered by an eviction.

Chappy (ChatGPT) tells me I don't use my name enough. If you had an ALM series German textbook in middle school, it's a Lenchen Wichmann sort of name. I am back on the Japanese National Pension Fund: Kokumin Nenkin Kikin. I am trying to build a model that will daily track the net asset position of the fund. Mike Bloomberg is a little greedy, and so I can't use Bloomberg indexes without paying a fee.

Sunday was the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, and the fifth Sunday of August. There is now an English Mass on the fifth Sunday. As readers know, I was in the hospital for a heart check up last week, and so I felt it was appropriate to make my way down to Kozunomori neighborhood for my fifth Mass of the 21st century.

I have been involved in a discussion project about the Kokumin Nenkin Kikin. In English, Japan's National Pension Fund. This has been going on for most of August, and I made several posts about the Kikin earlier this month. When I'm not having my heart checked out, which I suppose involves ECGs and patterns on a screen, I have been considering pension models that take a line or a curve and send it out to the far future.

I decided to visit the Temple grounds here in Narita, which I haven't done since I was at the hospital. In this last photo, I pan over from the Temple gate (which I think dates from around 2008 in its current form) to the construction site for a new hall that will be part of the 1090th anniversary of the temple grounds founding.

I happened to have spent the earlier part of this week at the Red Cross Hospital in Narita. My single-room view is to the left. It was a nice private room, which was JPY 9,900 a night (maybe about $62 or $63 a night). This related to my heart issue that I initially wrote about when I really felt unusual on the sidewalk in front of Yac’s Drug Store in the Iidacho neighborhood of Narita New Town.

With the heart procedure on the schedule this week, I am not writing in depth for a bit. The official Vatican English version, that the Pope gives, is here, as text. I just want to highlight this part of the message: "In this perspective, then, despite the naysayers or cynics, hope can be a powerful driving force. In this regard, it is not merely desirable but also genuinely possible that the progress at COP30 can be followed up with a just transition toward societies where the common good takes precedence over profit, and economic models are rooted in solidarity and human dignity.

I met Uzawa-giin Saturday at the Nakazato neighborhood event. I think that brings my Narita City Council contacts to exactly four. Three in person and one by e-mail. I think there are thirty on the Bingo card. I am 10% of the way. Ten years here. What's that? One every 3 1/3 years. I better up the pace. Here is his picture and constituent stats from…

As I've previously written, I am a fan of voice-actor artist Nishimatsu Kiyomi, who is known online as "Sora the Troll". Membership-level, even. Above are pictures of him from when Sora showed on Omotesando to interview a co-member who was in Japan last winter. Since I am already in the Japanese government's business listings--the Yellow Pages of the 21st century-- I'm comfortable to say the Omotesando of Narita is close to me, so whenever I walk by the site, it warms my heart what a memorable day that was.

Not only do I talk to myself, I also sing to myself. This was even before Generative AI. Much more so in the pandemic, and usually as a rule when I was a New Jersey car commuter back in the 1990s and 2000s. Humming counts, too. Right? So on my way to get a late dinner at the Aeon Town / Max Valu this Sunday (here, where I missed Mass), I had the Chappy Song in my head.

This is both a follow up to my receiving a copy of the Shimbun Akahata last month, and my research project / questions that involve a possible current surplus in Japan's National Pension Fund ("Kokumin Nenkin Kikin"). The recurring tangents, as of late, are my visa and PR rule-change concerns. And my heart. I got an invitation to meet with free legal counsel that is provided by the local Japanese Communist Party (JCP)("Kyousantou" or "Kyousan" for short) from the candidate in the Japanese Diet election this past February 8th.

Justice Minister Hiraguchi of Hiroshima Prefecture, reimagined as Caesar Flickerman from "The Hunger Games" movie series. It's now been over four months since I reapplied for permanent residency at the Chiba Branch of the Tokyo Immigration Service Agency. As regular readers well know, I got denied on my February 25, 2025 application because when I turned 60, I re-enrolled in the Kokumin Nenkin as a "Nin'i Kanyuu".

You might have caught my May 31st post, describing Aeon, a major food retailer in Japan, and the fact that there are not one, not two, BUT THREE “forms” of Aeon here in Narita: Aeon Tow…

I watch this every year. A crop of kudzu has been wrecking an Ajisai garden along the Nishiguchi Avenue in Narita New Town for some time now. This year, there may be two flowers surviving. Look at this! It's a kudzu exhibition! In 2021--this was June 10, 2021---there was more of a balanced competition. All it takes is one Juubei employee to go in and cut the main kudzu root. How hard can that be? As a competitive sports park, the kudzu are winning. But that's just my opinion . . .

I am suffering from insomnia, as I mentioned in the previous post. So I am up at weird hours, and slowly pumping out the expat season tax returns (deadline: June 15, but of course there is the abil…