Wow! That was too long a break for me to take without explaining what happened. We lost two close friends in the first three months of this year, which was, to say the least, extremely saddening and, in some ways, traumatic. My wife and I still get tearful on occasion and are having a hard time believing that our friends are gone. They’ll both be sadly missed.

I lost my battle with the Japanese Tax Office. After more than ten years without issues, they decided to change their stance on how I calculate the tax for my Japan Tours, having sanctioned my original calculation method themselves. The result is that they did not pay me back a substantial amount of tax that they owed me from our 14th fiscal year, and have forced me to pay them an additional amount on top of that.

What’s more annoying is that they leave hordes of tax-evading businesses to cheat their way into profit, while going after companies like mine that have always put every payment received through our accounts, and been proud to run a clean business. I lost two years of revenue due to the pandemic, and was making up for lost ground financially before this setback. Now they’ve taken most of the profit from our 2024 to 2025 tours, and the pricing for my 2026 tours is already set, so we’ll remain behind for a few years.

We also had to cancel our third Winter tour for this year because the Japanese government is promoting travel to Japan without taking action to build the necessary infrastructure and services to maintain the current levels of tourists arriving. The tours I have left on my schedule are run at times that still work, but I’m taking a drop in profit to protect potential customers from poorly timed tours. This has all come at the same time as the tax issue, but you know me. I won’t let it get me down too much.

After all, I am still enjoying our new house, and now that Spring is here, after 24 years of living in apartments with tiny balconies, I’m enjoying working on our garden and watching the plants and trees we’ve planted start to flourish. Thanks to the tax man’s folly, I decided to put off plans to build a stone patio, but it’s not a big deal. I’ll share more on this as I create a few more images, and perhaps also discuss my thoughts on the photography-related benefits I hope to gain from specific aspects of the garden.

One last thing I wanted to discuss, as this has played a significant role in the reason for my hiatus from creating the Podcast, is the format of the Podcast. I received some advice from a trusted friend that I might consider changing the Podcast to a full video format. I must admit that I now watch videos on YouTube more than listen to Podcasts. The audio Podcast is an excellent format for people who spend a lot of time in the car, or walking and exercising. Some activities lend themselves to having something verbal to listen to, but I don’t listen to Podcasts like I used to. I still believe in the format, but I have questioned whether there might be a better way for me to interact with you, and perhaps even tap into a new audience.

I even made some videos based on this advice, but I didn’t like how they turned out, so I never released them. The problem is that I want to work from a prewritten manuscript, so I’ve invested in a teleprompter. As I’ve always done, I’ll write out my script first, and I’ll read it from the teleprompter. This will hopefully enable me to continue to create quality content as I’ve always strived to do. I’m excited to be back in the driving seat and have several topics to cover first. I’ll then start to revisit subjects I’ve discussed over the years, hopefully making it easier to understand the concepts covered via video.

When I create a manuscript, I’ll continue to post it on the blog, as I know many people simply like to read. However, the content is going to become more visual, so I would like to invite you to subscribe to both the Podcast and the YouTube Channel. There may also be times when I release a video without a post, and you’d still receive a notification if you are subscribed to the channel.

That’s it for the update on what I’ve been messing around with. Let’s jump into the main topic now and look at the highlights from my January Hokkaido Landscape Photography Adventure, including a recorded message from each guest on the last day of the tour.

Thanks for watching. Let me know what you think of the new format, and keep in mind that production should improve as I do this more often. If you enjoyed our chat, please give the video a like. I’d love it if you could subscribe to the channel using the buttons below. I’ll see you again soon. Have a great week.