Of course, the big new from Japan this week was the earthquake on Saturday evening. We went to bed early to try to get some sleep before getting up again to watch Wales v Scotland rugby. We were fast asleep and were woken by the bed shaking and the building swaying. It was a bit scary! Thank you to all who sent messages asking if we were ok. We had no damage … not even anything falling off shelves. The…
Valentine’s Day is celebrated in Japan …. but with a wonderful twist. On February 14th, women buy men chocolate gifts. Not only for boyfriends & husbands, but also for male relatives and colleagues. ‘Honmei Choco’ is the gift to a romantic partner and ‘Girl Choco’ is the term used for chocolate to relatives & colleagues. ‘Tomo Choco’ is chocolate gifts to female friends. But on White Day, on March 14th, all those recipients of chocolate gifts on Valentine’s Day are…
First of all, my apologies to those in lockdown (especially all in UK) and quarantine, but I was able to have my hair cut. My first hair salon trip in Japan … fortunately the lovely hairdresser lived in London during the 1990’s so has brilliant English. My hair cut came with a head massage, a hot towel across the back of my neck after rinsing and then a shoulder massage. Fabulous! But a first for me was the little elasticated…
I discovered a new garden the other day …. lots of play areas for children, trees, roses, a wet flower garden … all built alongside and on top of a water treatment plant. Smoking I’m not sure about the jump from roses to cigarettes, but here goes … 20 is the legal age of smoking in Japan so I couldn’t understand how cigarette vending machines worked. Apparently, you need a Taspo card issued by the government to prove your age…
In addition to the myriad of restaurants serving lunches, there are many stalls selling bento boxes on the sides of the streets for people to purchase to eat back in their offices. Below, you will see a number of food vendors who have set up their food carts at the base of a large office block. In the photos above, you choose your lunch and pay for it via the vending machine, then walk into the shop to collect it….
First of all, a blast from the past … Tower Records is alive and well here in Japan! We visited this store in Shibuya, Tokyo … 8 floors of music. The great excitement was all about a J Pop group, Snowman, with long queues of women & girls on two floors waiting their turn to be photographed alongside a large poster or cutouts of their favourite band member; with 9 members of the group, I guess there is plenty of…
Geoff is waving to you ….! And on the map, ignore the ‘You are Here’ red box & look for the red squiggle and that is where we are located. So this is where our post is delivered, on the ground floor. And packages are left in the white lockers with a note posted in the mailbox. Or at least that is the theory. The other day we were waiting for the delivery of an ironing board and we were…
Chocolate tales My purchase of what I thought was bran flakes turned out to be chocolate flavour cornflakes. Yuk. I like chocolate but not chocolate flavoured cereal. I treated myself to a bag of chocolate & now I realise why most Japanese are slim! The bars are tiny, with 18 – 23 calories per ‘bar’ These stairs at our local railway station put those tiny bars into perspective; according to this walking up 54 steps uses up just 5.4 calories….
And hopefully that is the last move for ages, And ages! The only downside I can see is that I now have to do my own cleaning, but fortunately I have low standards. We have moved 8 km northwards with close & easy access to the train network and also to the metro system so access to the entire city is easy. Well that is the theory, but I am sure that I will still manage to get lost. We…
In an attempt to prevent large scale get togethers and parties, this year all public transport had ceased by 10 pm, unlike other years when it runs throughout the night. New Year’s celebrations in Japan are much more similar to our Christmases. A family time with lots of cooking, eating and playing games. One tradition, started in 1951, is to gather around the television to watch a four hour show, the Red & White song festival that pitches male performers…