Impressions of daily life in Japan
Japanese people have the remarkable ability to take a nap anytime anywhere. A favourite place for those power naps is the train. While most adults try to maintain a fairly upright position even while sleeping, these kids seem to have no such reservations and have comfortably settled themselves for a nap on the way home.... Continue Reading →
A typical image that Westerners have of Japan, is a subway car filled with business men and school girls, all wearing white surgical masks. In the West it is considered a bit suspicious to cover your face in public. Masks are usually reserved for bank robbers and superheroes. We think that those Japanese people with... Continue Reading →
I absolutely adore Japan. And I am not the only one. More and more foreigners are becoming true Japan-o-holics. But where does this fascination with the land of the rising sun come from? What is so special about Japan anyway? One of the most interesting things about Japan, at least to me, is that it... Continue Reading →
It turns out that the mysterious 'walking sausage' in my previous blog post was not a sausage at all. Thanks to the people who commented on that post, I can now tell you that the 'mystery sausage' is in fact a piece of cod roe (fish eggs), called 'tarako' in Japanese. The tarako mascot that... Continue Reading →
In Japan, you never know what you will see next. I know that I have used this sentence before, but that is because it perfectly describes life in Japan. In fact, if I had to summarize my year in Japan in one sentence, it would be just that: "you never know what you'll see next".... Continue Reading →
There are few Japanese animals as fabled and feared among expats in Japan as the poisonous Japanese centipede (called mukade in Japanese). Proof of this widespread fascination is the number of people who find their way to this blog on a daily basis, looking for mukade information. Having been a Japan geek long before moving... Continue Reading →
The Japans 