Matsumoto + Lake Suwa – Feb ’24: part three

It doesn’t really warrant a part three, but the last post was picture heavy, so I’ve split it.

Before breakfast I went down to the onsen and it was just me!

Breakfast was amazing. The lady was talking to me, asking about what I eat/don’t eat and said that it was helpful eating katsuo dashi. So, if you can be flexible in Japan, they can usually offer you something inline with what you can eat – it’s a different debate about whether you should have to be flexible but I will be, so it was good enough for me.

We ...

A summer afternoon at Nezu Museum

My husband took a half day off this week and we decided to head to Nezu Museum in Omotesando/Aoyama. I’d been wanting to go for a bit, mainly for the garden and it didn’t disappoint. It was also quite small and not very busy, so it was a nice way to while away an hour. We booked online but I think you can just turn up. If it’s busy though, they might turn you away.

I misread the sign in the garden and thought it was called ‘The Forbidden Garden’ but on closer inspection, it was pointing out forbidden items. ...

golden week 2023

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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.

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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 ...

2022 golden week trip to hagi, yamaguchi: part 4

boat on the water with buildings and mountains in the background

We’ve made it! This is the last you’ll have to read about Yamaguchi for a while!

Day seven and our final day (not really, but I’ve kind of written them that way – we stayed for about three weeks in total).

We headed back over to near Daishōin Temple・大照院 to go to Moco Cafe that we’d seen but not been brave enough to venture into. After some research, we decided that it looked nice and took the plunge.

I had egg sandwiches which had ham on, so I removed that and proceeded to eat. They are a bakery and the ...

2022 golden week trip to hagi, yamaguchi: part 2

myojin pond

We’re back and straight into day three where we found ourselves getting the bus to Myojin Pond and Kasayama.

Itsukushima Shrine at myojin pond
view from kasayama

We walked to the top which is very doable – it’s just a road and this was the view. There was a coffee shop at the top which we went to, but I’d pass if we were to go again. We sat on beanbag seats which I struggled to get up from and staggered about whilst being watched by a group who were pretend staring out the window, pretending not to watch, but they were watching! I could feel their side ...