On the Sunday before the Sports Day public holiday, Oct 11th this year, the All-Japan Ninja Competition is held at one of Japan’s surviving original Ninja training compounds: Koka Ninja Village. As part of our ‘making the most of the last few months’ campaign, we decided to head down on this day and we were…
When we first came to Nagoya to find a home here it was late May and it was the Summer green of the trees in the street, which filled the view from the study window, that sold me on our house. The bark of those trees also filled me with a quiet hope – I…
Our trip to Kyoto last week was scheduled to catch the first night of the lantern festival in Gion. I’m doing this quick post because the festival is still on and it’s well worth a visit – especially if you haven’t been to Kyoto yet and you’ve been waiting for a reason to go. I…
Hello. It’s been a looong while, I know. Since returning from Sapporo I’ve have had all sorts of exciting experiences including a genuine bout of Influenza A (not something one experiences in Australia, really) followed by a delightful secondary chest infection because the Aussie in me didn’t think a fever and a bad cough was…
Happy belated New Year everyone! Superman and I rarely make much of New Years Eve but since we were here in Japan we decided to join in the local tradition of heading to a shrine (that’s shrine as in Shinto, not temple as in Buddhist) for the turning of the year. Atsuta Jinja is one…
One of my local Supermarkets is called Paré Marché and at the moment its walls are littered with posters wishing us “Merry Paré Marché!” Stores all over the city have similar posters and I’m not quite sure whether they are misunderstanding the phrasing or just approaching the whole issue of the commercial overload of this…
One of the things I am really enjoying about living in Japan is re-discovering my love of and respect for the seasons, which had faltered somewhat due to various stressors and, frankly, living in Sydney which doesn’t really have them. The seasons are celebrated here with gusto! Throughout the year there are various religious festivals…
Though I am basically just hiding from the heat while Superman works and sleeps and works again, we did manage to get out on August 2nd and take in the fireworks in Gifu. Gifu is somewhere that I have longed to go all my life as they have some astonishing flower festivals in Spring. I’m…
