Furuyama-san gazed towards the bright morning sun. She slowly shifted her balance from foot to foot, her right hand idly gripping a pair of shears. A shadow moved slowly towards her, framed against the natural angles of the village houses. The shadow became larger. Furuyama-san slowly leaned down and plucked up a…
Day 1 – 14:00 I was expecting a beautiful young woman in a maid costume. But my supervisor turned out to be a middle aged man with furry eyebrows. Major bummer! He didn’t drive a suped-up Civic with pounding bass either. But the passenger door opened at the push of a…
Hello! Resident Yama Girl Caitlin here. Did anyone feel inspired to climb Mt. Seppiko after reading my column last month? This time I will introduce you to a slightly higher, but significantly easier climb. Mt Sengamine (åƒãƒ¶å³°) is a 1005m peak in the Kanzaki district. I set off at around 10am, along…
Once in a while in September, Japan has a series of holidays known Silver Week. Many employees are able to have a consecutive 5 days of holidays and make use of this time to travel around Japan or go overseas for a short break. This means flocks of tourists at major tourism sites and crazy…
Reading Japanese literature in Japan is a wonderful experience. If you’re a massive nerd like me, you can take literary pilgrimages to the places you visit in the novels. I have traveled to some incredibly beautiful places because Mishima sent his melancoly protagonist there to describe the beauty of the landscape while pondering…
Moving to Japan, a land of practically nothing but mountains, has been a dream for me. I come from Western Australia; probably the flattest state in the very flat country that is Australia. However, for as long as I can remember I have dreamt of huge, rocky, snow-capped, mountains. While Hyogo’s mountains are a…
Sarah Leck, Fourth Year Kobe Jet Having wandered far and wide, scoured the furthest reaches of the Earth, Japan gives one very compelling reason for one to stay. The country teems with beautiful creatures, and it’s a privilege to simply breathe the same air as them. (Should I try to be more politically correct? I’m…
Everyone is different in their reasoning for what might benefit their careers, fuel their interests, or what will be either more or less a vacation or an occupational burden. My time in Japan has luckily been a combination of many experiences, which I feel helped contribute to my decision to stay in Japan yet another…
I’m from the UK. Scratch that, I’m from England- I think I need to unlearn to say ‘The UK’ or even ‘Britain’. You can probably already tell where I’m going with this. Recently, my country made an extremely massive decision; I’m not going to discuss the politics because this isn’t the place for that and…