Today’s look at budget digs centres on Japan, where I’ve been living now for two year and first visited in April 2011. Japan has some pretty awesome hostels. Not only are they friendly, with great facilities including kitchens, wifi and more, but they often organise free or very cheap tours and are simply a great …
Category: Japan
A Traveler’s Guide to Toilets in India
Howdy all. I wasn't going to blog today, I was thinking it was a good day to rest from blogging. But I was working on 'Short Journeys: India' and decided to write a small section in it about toilets, and well, I thought it was interesting and a little amusing, so I thought I would …
Where the Wild Things Are.
Well, today was an interesting day! Not too far from Ichinoseki - perhaps 30km or so, is... wait for it... you won't see this one coming.... A SAFARI PARK! I kid you not. Somehow for 2 years I have resisted going. Perhaps it was the cost, or the fact that I didn't know where it …
Anniversary Dinner, in the middle of nowhere, happy surprise!
So, for those who don't know me, on Friday my wife and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary. We headed out in the car to a small restaurant run by a friend of my wife, not quite sure what to expect. But I have to say we were more than happily surprised by the quality …
Continue reading Anniversary Dinner, in the middle of nowhere, happy surprise!
The Self-publishing continues from home – Short Journeys: Japan
Whew! Well folks, I have finally managed to epublish Short Journeys: Japan. It's been a lot of work and it felt like I would never get the thing finished, to be honest, but finished it is and finally ready to buy on Amazon, Payhip and Lulu, all at the same time! Which is a first …
Continue reading The Self-publishing continues from home – Short Journeys: Japan
The Final Wrap – School’s Out!
Well... that's that! In a blink of an eye, somehow I am finished with teaching schools in Japan. Today, at my second school, a special needs school, I went to graduation. It was an interesting day, some happy faces, some nervous ones. It is interesting to me that comparing the two, very very …
Three years on – Great Tohoku Earthquake
It's now been three years since that fateful day in 2011 when the Great Tohoku Earthquake struck. I remember the day well. I was in Vietnam, in a town called Dalat. I had just arrived, and went out for dinner with a nice chap I met at my guesthouse. We were talking through dinner and …
In which I try to show off my photoshop skills and fail.
Hi everyone, just a quick word from home here in Ichinoseki. Today, it snowed again! Didn't anyone tell them that it is supposed to be Spring here? Anyways I have been editing Short Journeys: Japan, the next in my ebook range and hope to have it available for download by the weekend. Here …
Continue reading In which I try to show off my photoshop skills and fail.
A Day in Morioka
Well, yesterday I paid what could well be my last visit to Morioka. I needed to collect my new spouse visa at the Immigration Office - my contract is nearly finished but I will be in Yokohama for 6 weeks from the end of March, and return a heavy bag of text books to my …
Powerful Last Day
I didn't think I would do it. I was sure I wasn't. I don't do it, not because I don't want to, it just doesn't seem to happen. But today, a little, a tiny bit, I did. Last classes today at one of my two schools, at the other, tomorrow. I had to give …