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: ...
Sight Beyond Sight
Often towns specialise in a certain product because nature makes it easy for them. Take Arita back in sleepy Saga prefecture. It exploded because of an enormous mine which made pottery craft a cinch. Once something becomes easy, it’s only a matter of time and dedication before it transforms into expertise. On the surface, there’s no ...
In Fair Kyoto Where We Lay Our Scene
Zen Meditation It’s fair to say I’ve got a lot on my mind at the moment. Our great Japanese adventure is drawing to a close. The unmanageably massive question of “what next?” needs to be answered. I have an impending job interview. I don’t yet know what I’m going to get my mother for Christmas. ...
Read More
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 ...
Read More
The Fat and the Furious
In Europe, we’ve got our own sport for the big lads. Yes, there are some rugby players, who are much larger than average, but they’re only suited to certain positions. But I’m referring to darts, which allows a person to be as obese as they like, so long as they still have the strength in ...
Brought To You By The Letters R, L and The Colour Red
In most countries, you find that people speaking English as a foreign language make the same mistakes. It takes a long time for Italians to drop the sing-song of their native tongue; the French will resolutely never pronounce an H; and the Spanish find swap Bs and Vs like footballers swap jerseys. Actually, they’re not ...
50 Things We’ve Learned in 50 Days
Today was unfortunately a bit of a wash out in Wakayama prefecture. The seasonal gloom made pictures pretty hard and created a strangely flat feeling to mark what has been an amazing 50 days so far. So rather than try to scrape butter over too much bread with what happened today, we thought we’d bring ...