100 Things We’ve Learned in 100 Days
1. While it’s probably true all around the world, breasts are literally worshipped in Japan – the Jison-in temple in Wakayama is covered in boobs. 2. If you tell a Japanese person something unexpected, an involuntary noise will escape from them: “Eiiiiiiigghh!” If you tell them something truly extraordinary, it will become deeper and longer: ...
A Gaijin’s Guide to the Ryokan
Staying at a ryokan – a traditional Japanese inn – can be an intimidating experience for the first-timer. With that in mind, we present our handy cut-out-and keep to surviving enjoying your stay. Step One: Take off your shoes. It’s preferable if you can do this by reversing neatly, thereby allowing a quick getaway when ...
Tea Time
“Fancy a cuppa?” “Ooh yeah, I’d love one.” “How do you take it?” “Milk and two, ta.” Then Person A slinks off to the kitchen, tosses a generic tea bag in a cup, drowns it in boiling water, stirs it around briefly, hauls it out, plops in the two sugars and milk, then takes it ...
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For Relaxing Times…
They say in the original Gaelic it means “water of life” but in most of my experiences it’s had the opposite effect. I first tried whisky at the age of 11 during a family holiday to the Scottish Highlands. We’d visited a distillery and had a tasting at the end, during which my father snuck ...
The Grape Escape
Travelling south in Japan at this time of year is like travelling back through time. This morning we made our way down from Matsumoto, to cross into Yamanashi prefecture and land in Kofu. The trees are still green, some of the rice hasn’t been harvested and it’s a good deal warmer than it had been ...
Sapporo Me Another One
It’s taken eight days of our trip to reach one of Japan’s big cities. With a little under 2 million inhabitants, chilly Sapporo, capital of Hokkaido, may be a fraction of the size of Tokyo, but there’s no doubting it’s a major city; if it were in the UK, it’d only have London ahead of ...
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Rain Delays Play
It was raining hard when we woke up this morning and it’s not stopped all day, here in Akita prefecture. It’s been pretty frustrating – especially for Katy. For a photographer, rain is a virtual guarantee of a wasted day, unless you’re fortunate enough to have assignments indoors. That’s not really been the case for ...
The Akita News
The Demon Drunk There’s a case to argue that parents in the west are getting too soft. Katy and I grew up well after corporal punishment was outlawed in schools the UK, and people said life was getting too easy for kids then. I’ve heard horror stories about schools being told not to use red ...