Oita Sofukan High School October 2015 – January 2016 Oita Sofukan is a strange school, even by Japanese standards, much more like UK college than anything else here. Classes run for 90 minutes, from around 8am to 8pm and students attend...
Category - Lifestyle
Japan: Final Farewell Thoughts
“No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.” – Lin...
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Kuju: Climbing 久住山
Kota had the wonderful idea of meeting at 9am at his work office somewhere in Taketa – this off the back of a night in Mie...
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Situated in the southern part of Oita prefecture, in March of 2015 the city celebrated its 10 year anniversary since combining 7 small towns and villages: Mie, Ono, Asaji, Inukai, Ogata, Kiyokawa, and Chitose. While they have combined to form...
Oita City. The name has a certain grandeur to it. But to for all intents and purposes, Oita city is a city by name, and not much else, when compared to its neighbour Fukuoka. But nevertheless, being my home for 18 months, I’ve decided to pull...
Christmas 2015 saw my first return to the UK since moving to Japan 17 long months ago – so what did we learn about the UK? Well… English Only Please Even at the airport, all signs are in English! It was almost embarrassing! Having...
Many people are oftern concerned about driving in a foreign country. Luckily for British people (and many others) Japan has made the right decision of driving on the left hand side of the road. Similaries We both drive on the left hand side of...
Konbinis are the lifeblood of Japan. Seldom can you travel more than a few miles without seeing one, and so common are they that in towns and cities you can often stand outside one and spot another in the distance. They offer food and drink...
Kyoto – The cultural capital of Japan. Spared by the Americans during the bombing of Japan, today it is a throwback to traditional Japan and home to thousands of shrines and temples. From Mie to Oita, Oita to Osaka, Osaka to Kyoto took...
For the final instalment of my adventurous Summer holidays, it was time to climb Fujisan! Famous from its appearance in ukiyo-e block prints, its a iconic status can only be matched by anime and crazy Japanese electronics. Thursday:...
So the standard deck of Kanji stands around the 2000 mark. Using the Remember the Kanji technique, I”ll learn on average 25 new kanji each day until I Remember the Kanji come Monday 7th September! Kanji is the great barrier of entry for...
The view from the hotel Beer Garden in Miemachi It’s my Japanniversary! So the 3rd August marked my first year of living in Japan, and thus the longest I’ve ever been out of the UK! Purikura in...