• The End (nearly)

    January 06, 2012  |  3  |  Category: Daily life

    So here we are at the end of the Japan odyssey and I must say, the end has taken me by surprise. It has always seemed like a matter of months, but now all of a sudden it’s less than a week. Today I looked at the weather forecast and saw what the temperature will Read more...

  • Happy new year

    January 05, 2012  |  1  |  Category: Culture, With pics

    Last year we failed spectacularly to do anything to celebrate the New Year, which is a big deal in Japan. As I understand it, you’re meant to go ring a bell at midnight, then go to bed and sleep in for ages, then wake up mid morning and have a massive meal with the entire Read more...

  • Denial

    December 25, 2011  |  0  |  Category: Daily life, With pics

    Now we enter a weird new phase of the Japan Chronicles: denial.
    Are we really going to turn our backs on the life we’ve known for the past two years and return to the life we knew for six years before that? Which one is the proper one anyway? It’s hard to know any more.
    In any Read more...

  • Countdown

    December 14, 2011  |  0  |  Category: Daily life

    Less than a month to go now, and the final countdown is well and truly underway.
    The last few weeks have been a flurry of catching up with people, touring all of our favourite eateries one last time, and packing up the house. Meanwhile I am still trying to maintain a semblance of working like a Read more...

  • Eight months on… lots of mud

    December 02, 2011  |  2  |  Category: Armageddon, With pics

    A couple of weeks back I went up north to do a bit of volunteering and, let’s be honest, to have a bit of a stickybeak at the situation up there.
    I hooked up with a volunteer group called It’s Not Just Mud, which is run by a young British guy who was happily teaching English Read more...

  • Last ever visitors

    October 17, 2011  |  3  |  Category: Culture, The kids, With pics

    Another one to add to the Last Ever list: a week ago we hosted our last ever visitors from Australia (unless of course a distant relative unexpectedly turns up on our doorstop sometime in the next two months). A great time was had by all as we shuttled them through the now-familiar roster of exciting Read more...

  • The Joy of Sox

    October 06, 2011  |  1  |  Category: Daily life

    I’ve been dreaming about writing this post for such a long time now, fantasizing, in fact, about how best to put into words that indescribable pleasure, that feeling of pure joy, that you feel in the moment when you wake up one morning and realise that the humidity’s finally gone away which means that SUMMER Read more...

  • Beginning of the end

    September 29, 2011  |  2  |  Category: Adventures, With pics

    That’s possibly a bit unnecessarily alarmist but with just three and a half months to go we’re now getting to the business end of the season, as they like to say in sport, which means we’re getting into Last Time territory.
    And last weekend was our first proper Last Time, if you get my meaning, because Read more...

  • Shimanami Island Ride

    September 21, 2011  |  1  |  Category: Adventures, With pics

    On Sunday I rode 120 kilometres on my bike. And as you might imagine, I’m pretty proud of myself.
    I’m also a broken man: my neck hurts, my right knee is killing me, some of my fingers have gone numb, my bottom is saddle-sore, and my lower legs have taken on a life of their own, Read more...

  • Sports Day 2011

    September 14, 2011  |  2  |  Category: School, The kids, With pics

    Ruby’s school had their annual sports day on Sunday. I wrote a post on it last year so I won’t go into great detail here, mainly because I can’t be bothered, although I will magnanimously give you a few consolation photos of the 2011 version.
    Here are the students all marching onto the arena with the Read more...

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