On a beautiful Saturday morning in November, I went with two of my close friends and boarded the Shinkansen heading for Hiroshima. We had quite an ambitious plan: visit Hiroshima Peace Park and Memorial Museum, roam around Miyajima and then finish off the day playing with bunnies on Okunoshima. I have to admit that we…
This year, from 5 December to 16 December, Kobe will again glow in the multiple colours of the Luminarie, and you too can enjoy the spectacle whilst being carried along in a tide of people, neck craned skywards. The site, extending from the Old Foreign Settlement to Hiyashi Yuenchi Park, will be visited by…
This article comes from former Awaji island ALT Stephen Harmon’s blog A Walk in Japan. Having spent a year exploring all that the island has to offer, Stephen is the perfect man to tell us how to use this year’s Skills Development Conference on Awaji as an excuse for an unforgettable, fun-filled weekend trip on…
      Taking full advantage of the glorious weather over October’s only three day weekend, 17 ALTs assembled in Sannomiya to begin the four hour journey down to Kochi prefecture on Shikoku. After crossing the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge, the longest suspension bridge in the world, we headed over Awaji Island, and finally…
For undulating sand dunes straight out of Arabian Nights look no further than Japan’s least populated prefecture, our very near neighbour, Tottori. That’s right, just to our north west you can live out your Ali Baba fantasies, complete with camels and hundreds of other tourists. The Tottori Sand Dunes are Japan’s only dune system, and…
Taipei: Monday – Friday It’s a joy to live an easy 2 hour flight away from Taiwan, a country boastful of its cheap eats and nights on the streets (in reference to its famous night markets of course). I spent a good working week in and around the capital and was left satisfied and…
 At the start of February I dragged my hands from under the kotatsu just long enough to click ‘buy’ on flights to Okinawa as a congratulations to myself for surviving my first Japanese January. I have just returned from said weekend bringing the sun with me (you’re welcome) and thought it only fair to…
Paragliding in ‘Sky Sports Town’, Aogaki! Have you ever stared at a bird gliding about in the sky and imagined what that would be like? Have you ever taken it a step further and tried to make it happen? Well, here’s your chance! I work part-time in Aogaki, a town near the middle of Hyogo…
So why does anyone come to Japan? To be reborn into the manga world? To experience how high tech it is (then realise they still use fax machines)? To dress up in a kimono and call yourself a geisha? None of the above. They come to meet Hello Kitty of course! OK so I’m now…