Dan recently entered his first Kyudo competition. Kyudo is a form of Japanese archery, and a new love of ours! It is focused, calming and about having great form and a calm mind. If you show great form and hit the target, you have been successful. As a Japanese art form, Kyudo requires discipline and…
Category: Life in Japan
The Japanese Grand Prix 2017
It’s Hammer Time! On the weekend of 6-8th October 2017, we realised a wish and attended the Japanese formula one at the legendary Suzuka circuit, near Nagoya. I had gifted Dan the experience (being the excellent gift giver I am, the perfect gift, wins all round for me and him!) and so I was a…
Running Around
Dan and I are training for a half-marathon. This feels like a pretty big deal, because we have only recently decided we quite like running and have taken on no run anywhere near as big. Yet, we are not the type to chill out and take it too easy, so we gave ourselves the reasonable…
New Beach-front Cafe in Ayaragi!
Our local area is in the process of having a face-lift. It used to be an area of social housing, but in the past ten years big changes have taken place there. The social housing lives on amongst the new builds of big family homes. We arrived nearing the end of the changes, as our…
The Best Days are Beach Days: Sunset Live 2017
Marking the end of the summer holiday in Japan this year fell to a weekend away at a festival. We had seen pictures of the festival beforehand, but hadn’t wanted to hope it could possibly be as beautiful and laid back as it seemed. But, ahhh, bliss, it was! The festival, called Sunset Live, took…
Musical Conversation
The Beat cafe provided us with another musical and conversation delight during the summer holiday (I hate that I now call this a ‘vacation’) Although we were tired and sitting on a wooden bench for three hours had its own challenge, we got to enjoy three musical acts as the sun set over Ayaragi beach….
Shrooms and Typhoons: “The Earth without art is just Eh”
In September, we were lucky enough to visit Naoshima Island, Japan’s infamous ‘Art Island’. The island is home to an extensive collection of artwork owned by the Benesse Group. The collection includes six of Monet’s ‘Water Lilies’, David Hockney pieces, striking architecture from Tadao Ando, and unique mushroom sculptures from Yamoi Kusama. The long weekend…
J&J visit the Inaka!
At the end of August we were lucky enough to host our first oversees guests as James and Jade visited us from the U.K. On Thursday we took a day at the beach and relaxed the hell out of that. The sea was like bath water, but alas, it is quite the temptress! After a…
Playing at Paddle Boarding
During the summer holiday in 2017, we visited our good friends, Lauren and Brittany, on their beautiful Island home, Suo-Oshima. We last visited the island in autumn, and it was a nice enough place. However, summer is the season for Suo-Oshima! The sea was glittering and the mountains were lush. It looked like the most…
Shimonoseki 花火 Hanabi (Flower Fire = Fireworks!)
A year ago Dan enjoyed his second day in Japan at Shimonoseki fireworks. Fireworks are a big summer festival favourite in Japan, known as flower fire. A year on, now we were part of the group blocking off space with our massive tarpaulin, and we got to witness the beautiful show once again! An hour…