Monthly Archives: April 2018

Pretty much everything in Japan has a mascot of some description. Companies, monuments, cities, even entire prefectures. I find they seem to fall into two categories: cute girls, and cute blobs. The “cute girls” category is basically anime-style anthropomorphised representations … Continue reading →

We returned to the hotel quite late tonight, so photos will have to wait. Quite possibly a couple of days, since we fly home tomorrow night. (So soon!) Subway stations in Tokyo (and, for that matter, other cities too) have … Continue reading →

Here’s a quick little lesson for those who want to learn Japanese (or who want to travel in Japan and want to sound like they know Japanese). English has a whole lot of loadwords which originally came from Japanese – … Continue reading →

Some Japanese place names are quite a bit of fun. Or, at least to me. There’s one train station near us named Nishinakajima-Minamigata Station. That particular mouthful of a name means “West Central Island, Southern Side”. One wonders how many … Continue reading →

After my last two trips to Japan, I constantly found myself discovering I’d passed within a block of – or sometimes even right out side – some place that’s a famous attraction, or looks really nice to try. Shortly after … Continue reading →