Author Archives: Joel

Yeah, ok. That’s not a place name or a word in kanji. But it was important to today’s events. I find that when I’m planning holidays, planned activities where timing causes stress create a kind of tunnel vision for me. … Continue reading →

I’ve decided to go back to my naming scheme from Volume II, just because – i.e. the out-of-context translation of the kanji in a place name relevant to the post. Though, this one’s not quite out of context – the … Continue reading →

I’ve mentioned this before, but so far on my trips to Japan, I’ve been pretty lucky so far as weather goes. On our first trip back in 2010, we encountered a record-breaking heat wave, yes, but we only experienced two … Continue reading →

I’m visiting Japan again! In a little under two weeks! Planning for this trip started way back in June, actually, because Qantas suddenly had a sale for flights to Japan. With a family holiday for this year looking a little … Continue reading →

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 →