On Friday, it was Setsubun. This is one of those random Japanese festivals that occur throughout the year. Setsubun has 2 purposes. The first is that we throw beans to get rid of the demons and allow good luck to enter, and to celebrate, school lunch includes beans. The second, and the one I find… [Read more…]
January 5, 2012
I arrived back in the much beloved city just after 6am. I was dead. I had barely slept again. I fell into Amici for breakfast again, before visiting the toilets to clean my teeth. I then sat outside Starbucks until 7am, thinking that it opened then. It didn’t. I went to the other one that… [Read more…]
January 5, 2012
I arrived in Hiroshima on Boxing Day evening and made my way to where I was staying. I unpacked, and spent the evening drinking green tea and watching football. In the morning I washed, dressed and breakfasted, before heading out for some exploring. I got on a train and went to Iwakuni. A friend had… [Read more…]
January 4, 2012
I arrived in Kyoto early on the 23rd. I had hardly slept on the bus from Sendai, so I was absolutely shattered. I headed into the station to Amici, one of my favourite breakfast spots, and tucked into fried eggs, toast, ham and salad (if you are ever in Kyoto and want an early breakfast,… [Read more…]
January 4, 2012
Happy New Year! Am back in my much beloved Shirataka, and having spent the last few days trying to get sorted a bit, I’m now ready to begin my winter holiday blog. I’m going to do it over 3 parts as I did quite a lot and it will take a while to write. I… [Read more…]
December 21, 2011
Tomorrow I’m off to what I’m thinking of as my soul’s home. The beautiful Kyoto has been calling for a while and I’m off to spend my winter holiday there. I’ll also be popping into Hiroshima and Miyajima for a few days. I’m very excited. The last week has been a bit of a planning week.… [Read more…]
December 19, 2011
Japan is quite small. A lot of the land it does have tends to go in an upwards direction in the shape of mountains. As such, there isn’t a lot of room for landfill sites. Japan has therefore come up with a wonderfully complicated rubbish disposal system. When I first got here, this system greatly confused… [Read more…]
December 18, 2011
A few months ago, we started learning a new piece at taiko. It was fabulous. Incredibly dramatic. It sounded like music that you could imagine an army of samurai marching off to war to. After only 2 rehearsals suddenly we discovered that we were playing the piece at a meeting of all the towns firemen.… [Read more…]
December 17, 2011
Finally. I’m back. Where have I been? At the beginning of the year I began toying with the idea of doing the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test). This is an exam which you can take all over the world to get an idea of where you are with Japanese. It has five levels, with 1… [Read more…]
December 9, 2011
My computer is currently ill and I can`t use it. As such, until it`s fixed, I won`t be able to update my blog properly. Currently I`m on a school computer that I`m borrowing to check my emails. If you are someone who actually enjoys reading this blog, I apologise for this. Alas, there isn`t… [Read more…]
February 5, 2012
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