Recently, after not having returned to Australia for 5 years, we made a trip home to celebrate Christmas and New Year with our families. After so long away, it was great to see all the various fare that I had loved, growing up on the Gold Coast. My sister cooked up her delicious recipe of […]
Living in the Land of the Rising Sun
A friend recently asked me what it’s actually like for a non-Japanese person to live in Japan, (knowing that my wife and I have lived here for 14 years). The hardest part about answering that question is fitting it into the length of an article, but as the Japanese say, “Ganbarimasu!” (I’ll do my best!) […]
Climbing Fuji-san
In the year 2000, my wife Mandy and I celebrated the new millennium by climbing Mt Fuji, which straddles the border of Shizuoka and Yamanashi prefectures in central Japan. When we arrived back home two days later, every muscle in our body ached, our feet had blisters, and our toes were bruised, but it was […]
Summer Customs in Japan
Japanese summers are usually introduced by a warm, sunny spring season, but this year, the temperatures and conditions have been wildly erratic. However, ‘Tsuyu’ (the rainy season) has arrived on schedule as usual, bringing with it the typical heat and humidity that can be expected at this time of the year, and the realization that […]
Japanese Year in Sync with the Seasons
One of the first things I noticed, as a schoolteacher in Japan, is that so many countries start their school year in a different month. I come from Australia, where the school year is the same as the calendar year, and so the students begin their classes in January. Being in the southern hemisphere, Australia’s […]