Impressions of daily life in Japan
Every once in a while I need to get in touch with my inner geek. It usually lies dormant, but from time to time it wants to get out. So when we heard about the World Cosplay Summit in Nagoya in July 2011, my inner geek and I decided we were going to spend some... Continue Reading →
I was quite confused when I encountered the fruit in the picture below. It's shaped like an apple. But the colour doesn't seem quite right. Would it be alright to just eat this? Or does it need cooking first? After enquiring with the helpful store personnel, I found out that this is a pear! But... Continue Reading →
When people think of Japanese toilets - as I'm sure many of us often do - they think of the high-technology toilet with all the buttons, that looks more like a space-ship than an actual toilet. Standard functions include two sprays of water (one for boys and one for girls), a blow dryer and preheated... Continue Reading →
Today typhoon nr. 15, a.k.a. Roke, passed through Japan. It's the first typhoon since we've been here that passed directly over Nagoya and Toyota-City, and the first one that really had me worried. Yesterday on the news we watched images of Nagoya being flooded. And that was before the typhoon even arrived. The flooding was... Continue Reading →
During our recent trip to Hokkaido (see post about Hokkaido) we covered quite some distance by car. At one point we drove all the way from Hakodate to Kushiro, about 585 kilometers in one day. A large part of this route included highway, which is closed off by toll booths at the beginning and end.... Continue Reading →
Recently I've accepted the challenge of cooking Japanese meals at home. I had been putting it off for quite some time but there was no escaping it anymore. While 'just having moved to Japan' is an excellent excuse to eat out a lot (read: every night), after two months it really was time to do... Continue Reading →
The Japans 