Occasionally, I receive fan email or favorable comments relayed to me one way or another. Or they send me photos of their trip to Shiga. They find my Shiga site interesting and helpful. Some weeks ago, I mistakenly created a Shiga News post requiring a password which prompted a few people to ask for the password. And when I wrote a post in Japanese last week, one person (a professor emeritus in Michigan) pleaded for an English version.

These people certainly did not want to miss any of my posts. I was very touched. I consider them to be Shiga fans (not Philbert fans). They enjoy learning about Shiga. They include current, former and future Shiga residents; tourists who visited or will visit Shiga (including sister-city delegations); students and teachers who studied/taught or will study/teach in Shiga; people with spousal or family ties to Shiga (like Shiga Kenjinkai members overseas); people with friends in Shiga; and Japanese who are studying English. It’s certainly a niche audience, but what a fervent one it is.

Let it be known that I hear you and feel you (brainwaves and online vibes). Sorry about the mistaken, password-protected post. And if you can’t read Japanese, please ignore my Japanese posts which target the powers that be in Shiga. I’m only offering some practical advice (usually ignored) to the local Japanese establishment to improve or correct things. No use writing it in English since they don’t understand English. And writing anything in two languages requires a lot of work. I don’t do it unless it’s necessary or desirable. Hope you understand.

Rest assured that I shall continue posting interesting and informative stuff about Shiga in English. You could keep checking this Web site for updates, but a convenient way to keep up with Shiga News is to subscribe via email. You can easily subscribe by clicking on the email icon in the “Subscribe via…” box at the top of the sidebar and entering your email address. Then whenever I post something, you will receive an email version of the post within 24 hours or so.

Note that I don’t collect subscribers’ email addresses. That’s done by Google who provides the free email subscription service. I have no access to subscribers’ email addresses and have no way of knowing who my subscribers are (unless you tell me). So you can remain anonymous when subscribing. The only information available to me is the number of subscribers.

Also note that the email version may differ slightly from the blog version. Even after the email is sent out, I usually edit or update the original post to correct typos or add more info when it becomes available. If you’re a writer, you know how it is. Each time you read your text, you tend to edit yourself or make changes.

Also, embedded videos might not play in the email message. That’s why I provide a video link to my YouTube video so you can watch the video in a Web browser or YouTube app. Of course, you can also watch the embedded video directly on the Shiga News site.

With a fervent and increasing audience, I’ve been inclined to feature new things.

One new thing are my Shiga videos with English-speaking kids (and sometimes adults). As you may have noticed, from Jan. 2013, I started making Shiga videos with local kids introducing things in English. This has been very well received by everyone. It’s a win-win-win situation (or sanpo-yoshi as the Omi merchants would call it). My videos become more fun to watch, the kids get to learn and practice English for free, and the local area gets a free PR boost in English.

I plan to create at least one “kids English” video for each of Shiga’s 19 cities and towns. So far, we’ve covered Moriyama (fire festival), Hikone (castle), and Higashi-Omi (kite festival). The parents of the kids have been very cooperative and totally delighted to meet another native English speaker (me), especially one who is willing to coach their kids for free.

My idea for this “kids English” video series was planted in my brain when I realized that having local people introduce the sights would be more interesting and convincing than having a professional reporter or foreigner do it. After all, when you’re in Japan, wouldn’t you rather see and meet the local people? They give the place a human face. (No offense to foreigners who appear in sightseeing photos and videos.)

I was also spurred by Japan recently making English classes mandatory for elementary school kids from 5th grade. I wanted to support this initiative in some way. It is my hope to have my videos encourage and inspire educators, parents, and kids when they see these local kids speaking English. To demonstrate that it’s possible to be bilingual and that it can be put to practical use even from an early age.

Believe it or not, there are people in Japan opposed to compulsory English education in elementary schools. They’ve written books about it and usually claim that it’s useless or that the kids can or should learn English from a later age instead. They also say that kids should spend the time to study Japanese instead.

Based on my own personal experience and observations, I would tell these people about two major advantages of learning a foreign language at a young age. Firstly, kids can pick up a language much faster than when an adult. And secondly, when you are exposed to a foreign language from an early age, you develop a better ear for it. This enables you to pronounce the foreign language with better fluency than when you learn the language as an adult.

If you watch my videos, you may notice that some of the kids (as young as age 4) have excellent English pronunciation. They can properly discern and pronounce the difference between the “l” and “r” sound, for example. These kids have been studying English outside of regular school. Some take online lessons with Skype video chats, etc. They are blessed with parents who want them to have an international outlook. Through social networks and blogs, some of these parents network and share their experiences and thoughts of raising their kids with English. That’s how enthusiastic they are, even though they themselves can hardly speak English. They deserve my support (especially the moms whom I call eigo kyoiku mama).

Another thing that’s new is my “Best of Shiga” posts featuring Top 10 or Top 5 lists of things in Shiga. This is something that the local tourist bureaus don’t ever do. They don’t rank anything because it may offend the things or places ranked below No. 1. But I think it makes it more interesting, and outstanding things and places should be recognized as such. After all, Japan has official designations such as National Treasure, Important Cultural Property, National Historic Site, national park, etc. And the world has World Heritage Sites.

Shiga has an infinite number of interesting things, places, sights, history, events, news, etc., etc. There’s no shortage of material to cover. Shiga has all the top-notch, basic ingredients to attract tourists from overseas. But what Shiga lacks is a skilled chef who can prepare and cook these basic ingredients into a mouth-watering, sumptuous meal that people would travel far and wide for. This is what I’m trying to do, but in English. I’m always thinking about making new “recipes.”

Thank you for your attention and ardent interest in Shiga. It’s good to touch base with my readers now and then.