Bye Bye January 2024

Bye January, the month that promises so much and hello February, the month that makes me realise that the promises were all empty.

Kasai Rinkai has loads of daffodils out at the moment near the big wheel.

We got a new futon! I don’t want to be dramatic, but when we first moved here, we bought a very cheap futon and have been using it for the last 7 years. When I say it was flat, I mean, it was almost pointless sleeping on it, we probably would have felt just the same level of comfort sleeping on the floor! ...

an autumn day: ochanomizu + todai

I’ve lived in Tokyo for about 7 and a half years and I’d never been to Ochanomizu before. My husband had an appointment in the area and I went to meet him. As you can see from the pictures, if you like gingko, it’s the place to be.

We trotted to Yushima Seido, a Confucian temple focused on learning – there are lots of universities in the area.

Then we headed over to Kanda Shrine. It was very busy. Both are definitely worth a visit.

It was quite late by this point, so we headed off for curry at Ethiopia ...

golden week 2023

昭和の日 290423

I cleaned and did homework today. I have a Japanese lesson each week where (at the moment) I review N1 vocab and then read a couple of newspaper articles with my teacher. Then for homework, I review and Anki words I don’t know. Last week we read about exchange students and difficulties getting jobs with regards to Japanese language ability and then about ChatGPT and concerns unis have about it.

憲法記念日 030523

A beautiful spring day in Tokyo reaching 22ºC. We stayed local this year and today was really local. We enjoyed the new greenery that’s sprouted up ...

国内旅行: Tokyo to Hagi 5of6

It was a buffet breakfast at the hotel which had a section for making your own seafood rice-bowl. There was lots of choice but slim-pickings for the veggies.

Today saw us whizzing along on the train straight-across the middle of Japan, from west to east. It was still very snowy in places.

We arrived in Kurashiki which has the beautiful Bikan Historical Quarter. The overcast day only seemed to highlight that. It was crowded and this was off-season in early Feb, so be warned if you are going.

First stop was to Ohara Museum of Art. It was crowded but ...

a day in okutama

Happy belated Mountain Day! To celebrate, we went to Okutama・奥多摩 , Tokyo Prefecture. It took a bit over 2 hours to get there from over the other side of Tokyo, so we were up at 5:45 on a Saturday morning. We managed to get seats on the trains, which was my number one concern of the day and the trains are cool, so not a bad place to be in the middle of Japanese summer. When we arrived, they were gearing up for the festival, with stalls lining the streets but they weren’t open whilst we were there.

This month ...