Back home I was a frequent gig-goer. I enjoyed summer festivals filled with music and moshpits. Since my move to Japan, the meaning of ‘summer festival’ has somewhat changed; cue yukatas and bon dances. But good music travels far, so I occasionally peruse the net hoping for familiar bands to fly to this side of…
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…
Just Ask Ava Do you have a burning question or cultural conundrum? Well, the Hyogo Times is proud to introduce the scintillating and savvy Ava Hart, here to answer all your concerns in her new column Just Ask Ava.  Dear Ms Hart,  Winter in Japan is a joke. People here don’t know…
I’ve saved a special temple for January – temple 23 of our 33, the temple dedicated to winning. 「ã™ã¹ã¦ã¯è‡ªåˆ†ã«å‹ã¤ãŸã‚ã«ã€â€Everything you do is to win against yourself.†Now spelledå‹å°¾å¯º (win, tail, temple), formerlyå‹çŽ‹å¯º (win, monarch, temple), it is said that the characters were changed when Emperor Seiwa regained his health after the offering of fervent prayers…
Hyogo AJET Book Club (3) Happy New Year Hyogo! It’s time to stop kidding yourselves and write off those generic, unattainable New Year’s resolutions now. You might join the gym this January, but are you going to GO? Here are some realistic resolutions to consider: socialise with more Hyogo Jets, venture to our…
This year Chinese New Year just about makes it onto January’s calendar, sitting firmly on the 31st. To celebrate the famous zodiac race, you could immerse yourself in all things sweet and sour, salt and peppered or egged and fried but why not try something a little more authentic? This month’s recipe has been stolen…
Having somehow managed to get through the Kobe Marathon in November and remain smiling for most of it (no I’m not sure how that happened either), I had almost forgotten that I’d signed up to participate in the Osaka Sweets Marathon in December. When signing up, I think my reasoning went something along the lines…
There is a lot I could have written about in the last three months, but I’ve been sick and busy. Those are easy things to say to an editor who is, albeit very kindly, urging contributors to write so that she doesn’t have to put an entire magazine together on her own, but those aren’t…
If there is one thing the year 2013 demonstrated, it is that the adage, “Secrets don’t make friends,†is as true for government as it is for people. Edward Snowden’s revelations of numerous National Security Agency programs, including those where the United States spied on its allies and collected enormous numbers of phone records, has…