Monthly Log April 2025: School Entrance Ceremony and Trips

April felt like a continuation of the previous month—full of ceremonies and travel. One of the highlights was my daughter’s entrance ceremony. Despite our best intentions, we arrived a little late, and I take full responsibility for that ! Thankfully, we managed to quietly slip in and find our seats before she walked onto the hall, so it was not too late to witness her big moment and snap a few memorable photos and videos.

Later in the month, I took a business trip to Montreal—my first time visiting a French-speaking region of Canada. Although I’ve been to Vancouver a few times and to France as well, I still experienced a bit of culture shock. For instance, at a restaurant, I was surprised when the waiter/waitress said "bon appétit" after handing me the menu—not after serving the food! It almost felt like they were encouraging me to eat the menu itself. I shared this story to one of my colleagues who originally came from France, and he laughed very hard :D 

Another thing that stood out in Montreal was the graffiti—there was a lot of it, but surprisingly, some of it looked like it had been commissioned rather than just randomly spray-painted. It gave the city a creative and edgy vibe.

And then, there were the squirrels. So many cute squirrels! Some of them were even darting across the streets. Adorable.

After returning from Montreal (still battling a bit of jet lag), I welcomed my in-laws to Japan, and we took a trip to Mount Fuji together. Although I hadn’t fully recovered, the experience was wonderful and full of fun. This photo was taken during our visit to the Fuji Shibazakura Festival. We were lucky to have such fine weather—at first, it was so cloudy that we thought we wouldn’t be able to see the mountain at all.

Alright then, that’s all for now—see you in my next post!