Idioms of the week:

Tongue in cheek

You snooze - you lose

Lessons October 2025 Week 1

Kokichi Akuzawa set the record for the oldest person to climb Mount Fuji.

He was 102 years and 51 days old when he reached the summit.

He made the climb after recovering from several health problems, including heart failure.

He climbed the Yoshida route, which is the easiest of the four routes, but still far from simple.

It usually takes about six hours to climb, but he spent three days to reach the peak.

He felt like quitting on the ninth station, but his 70-year-old daughter told him to just take it one step at a time.

When asked if he wanted to climb Mount Fuji again, Kokichi said, "never again".

September 26 is National Bakers Day.

Selling baked goods in a dozen dates back to ancient times.

The word dozen comes from the French word for 12.

It is believed that this number was used because there are 12 cycles of the sun in one year.

A baker’s dozen means 13 items of baked goods such as bread or cookies.

In England, bread was sold by weight and if the dozen loaves were less than the required weight, the baker would be penalized.

“Hang on” means “to wait for a short time.”

Hang on, I’ll be finished in a minute, then we can leave.

“A hassle” means “something that is troublesome.”

Sometimes it is a hassle getting things done at the city office.