This year finally had my winter holiday in the UK! This was the first time I had arrived back in the UK since I left in August 2016. My first observation, nothing much has changed – the motorway leaving Heathrow Airport quickly instructed us it was 50 miles an hour for the next 100 miles…yep,…
Category: Living it
One Year in Tokyo Town
1st August 2019 marks one year of living in Tokyo and three years of living in Japan. It is hard to believe how quickly and slowly the time has passed! Life in Tokyo has been full of energy, new experiences, bureaucratic challenges, and most significantly, change. The past year has marked some incredible and life…
Our First City Onsen
Dan and I used to go to the onsen quite frequently when we lived in the Japanese countryside. An onsen is the name of a Japanese hot spring bath, and it is a popular way to unwind and relax. It is a communal bathing experience, so only for those who feel comfortable with this. There…
Reflection: Future Me
Teaching English as a Foreign Language is often both rewarding and frustrating, for the teacher and the students. Some days the learning can go so well, with key learning points being embedded and easily recalled by students. On these days the atmosphere is high and the engagement even higher! Yet in other days, the activities…
Four Years
27th May 2019 saw Dan and I celebrate our fourth wedding anniversary. However, perhaps even more significantly, 2019 marks our tipping point. We have known each other for half of our life times this year, and so from here on in we have spent more time together than apart. That feels pretty special. Of course,…
United Nations University: Conversation Series
Dan and I recently attended an event at the United Nations University in Tokyo. Every couple of weeks the university hosts a speaker in their conversation series. The week we attended it was the turn of Izumi Nakamitsu, the United Nations Under Secretary General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs. She was talking about “Threats…
10 Reasons to Apply to ICU
As I have started on the process of becoming a Rotary Peace Fellow in the summer of 2019, I have started to engage with Rotary through writing a few blogs. This is my first one, which went LIVE on #Rotary and #PCDNetwork and so I can now share it. Please please please feel free to…
Ten Days, Ten Tokyo Universities
The new academic year has started in Japan, and with it brings a new job for me. This term, I am going to be working in a Women’s University in Tokyo, supporting women to communicate in English and understand more about global cultures. My new university says that it aims to create global women (it…