Tips!

Anyone who cooks even slightly, and probably many people who don’t, gives at least some thought to buying a knife or two when they come to Japan. It wouldn’t be stretching the metaphor too thin to equate a chef’s knives to a Samurai’s swords so it makes sense that many cooks dream of having knives forged using the same methods as those swords. Unlike electronic goods, or virtually anything else, in Japan you do actually save a LOT of money buying Japanese made knives here in comparison to... More...

Since moving to Nagoya I have, I’m sure like many other expats, become fairly reliant on the Japan Postal Service and they just never let me down! I think I’ve mentioned before how much faster Amazon orders arrive here than in Australia but I think that is partly due to orders probably waiting Stateside until there are enough orders for... More...

The subject of learning Japanese while one is living here can get a little heated. There are those who don’t want to learn the language at all, for various reasons and there are those (many of them in the blogosphere) who think none of those reasons could possibly be legitimate and subscribe to the wtf-of course-you-should-learn-the-language-what-are-you-some-arrogant-jumped-up-tourist-learn-the-language-or-gtf-out-of-the-country... More...

As with any house move the greatest stress, I find, comes with the juggling act that is needing to leave packing to the last minute because, frankly, you are using your stuff to live! When moving overseas, particularly for a finite amount of time based on a project or some such, there is (more often than not) the extra stress created by the fact that... More...

Now that the sea shipment is unpacked and this move which feels like it’s taken 4 months is over, I figured I’d write a post which would have been great to find at the beginning of the process. I guess a couple of qualifications first: 1) I am in Nagoya, I’m sure that there are many differences moving to, say, Tokyo or to a rural... More...