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…
Tony McNicol is a photojournalist based in Tokyo who has a great blog which covers his experiences both as a photographer and in Japan generally and, of course, always has great photos! Recently Tony did a piece on Miyazaki Hayao, one of my favourite directors, and he was given permission to take some photos inside…
What does a good short-shorts-wearing, kawaii (“cute”, well, cutesy might be closer) girl do in winter so as not to freeze her *%$ off? Of course! Why didn’t I think of that?
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…
Superman and I are off to Tokyo for a few days for a slightly over the top wedding anniversary (traditions must be kept and we have one that seems can only be done in Tokyo lol!) Not gloating, just letting you know in case more wonderful Blog Matsuri entries are sent my way and you…
As some of you will already know, November’s Japan Blog Matsuri will be hosted here at Narrative Disorder. Chris did a wonderful job stepping in at the last minute for October as you can see here and I look forward to finding out just how big a job it was! The most public part of…
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…
This past Saturday we went for a drive with a couple of our American ICT friends to the open air museum Meiji Mura. “Meiji Village” is a park with over 60 original buildings from the Meiji era (1868 -1912) transported and restored so that we can get a feel for what it was like during…
