It’s now well into November, and I am enjoying the beautiful fall colors here in Japan! Though while the mountains are like huge heaping piles of color that fill up the entire horizon, there’s something to be said on the smaller scale for the lush tree-filled avenues of New Jersey. Even Japan’s rural towns are asphalt jungles, and the only non-paved land is generally used for agriculture, so there are precious few trees in the towns. Oh well, I guess you can’t have it all no matter where you live!

This month’s Ecchan comic has been finished and continues the theme of separate trash. Looking at it here I often forget that we’re seeing a slightly incomplete version, as that funny brown bar at the top demonstrates. That empty space is used, along with a large area below the comic, for extra information on the month’s topic. So if it looks strange on this site, that’s normal! Today’s comic doesn’t make much sense on its own, but it headlines an article detailing the proper way to separate plastic trash from other nonburnable trash.

Ecchan #8

Panel 1: 「プラゴミ」って、プラスチック製のゴミのこと？
“Puragomi…” does that mean plastic garbage?
Panel 2: ううん、ちがうよ。商品の容器や包装に使われていたビニール製のゴミが「プラごみ」なんだ！
Not quite. Plastic containers and plastic wrappers are classified as “puragomi.”
Panel 3: ほら、このプラマークが目印だよ！
Look, here is the “puragomi” mark!