Impressions of daily life in Japan
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 →
Our time in Japan has come to an end. [insert dramatic silence] Yes, that's right. After only one short year, it's back to Belgium for us. Our pleads to Toyota to extend our stay have been to no avail. The project is finished and new projects await in Toyota Motor Europe. Resistance is futile. That... Continue Reading →
One thing that's typically Japanese are the ridiculously clean cars. I have no idea how they manage to keep their cars that clean. It's not like all the Japanese are collectively washing their cars on Sunday. In fact I hardly catch anyone cleaning their car ever. But somehow all the cars in Japan are sparkly... Continue Reading →
While attending Kyoto's Aoi Matsuri (Hollyhock Festival) last week, I came across an endearing scene. A huge black butterfly had decided to have a rest in the sun, right on top of someone's head. The person in question was keeping very calm, quietly posing for photographs. After a few minutes the butterfly took off and... Continue Reading →
The Japans 