On an unexpected Friday evening in May, Kate and Joe came to us with an idea; going to a concert in Shimonoseki. We have been to one music gig, Time Masters, and it was wonderful and very intimate with and audience of only around ten people. This gig, on the other hand, was taking place…
Part 3 (Of Lessons Learnt Living Abroad)
Part 3: Only you can choose. So by this lesson, I mean that deciding to move abroad is a pretty personal decision. Once you have done it, it is amazing how it opens the world up to you, and with technology like Skype, you will probably end up speaking to your loved ones more than…
Walking on Air
During our Golden Week holiday 2018, we visited a famous walking bridge in Miyazaki Prefecture. The bridge, Aya Suspension Bridge, sits at 150 metres above the valley and river below. The bridge is 250 metres across and you walk from one side, swaying side to side, to the other. Such fun! The view, I am…
Lush Miyazaki
After a few days of natural beauty in Aso during Golden Week 2018, we decided to hit the road and head to Miyazaki. We had an airbnb booked in the city, and were excited for real walls and city sights for a few days. The drive down showed Miyazaki prefecture to be beautiful, with lush…
Part 2 (Of Lessons Learnt Living Abroad)
2. You can learn a lot. I love learning. In fact, I would go so far as to say I am a learning addict. Every day I fly through information on a quest to learn a little more. It is this insatiable drive that perhaps makes me Jack: “A jack of all trades is a…
Life on Mars
Mount Aso would make the perfect location for filming of a space adventure. It was as close as I could imagine walking on Mars would be, with nothing green, but a sea of reds, whites, blacks, golds, and browns. In our quest to get as up close and personal with the volcano as safely possible,…
Aso
Our Golden Week adventures in 2018 took us to the Aso area of Kyushu. To save some pennies and enjoy this beautiful part of natural Japan we decided to camp, just like Golden Week 2017. The differences was this year we had hired a car from Shimonoseki, and so we packed our futons and camped…
Golden Week 2018 Photo Gallery
The Golden Week of 2018, so called because of several well-placed bank holidays in Japan, we chose to complete a mini tour of Kyushu island. The journey took us to one of the most active volcanoes in Japan, Mount Aso, and then down to the so-called sunniest city in Japan, Miyazaki. Here are a few…
Six Lessons I’ve Learnt Living Abroad: Part 1
My current job as an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) on the JET programme is coming to an end this July. As it is only May, July is still a few months away. Still, I had to make the decision on whether I would recontact for 2019 in December 2017, so leaving our home in Shimonoseki…
Cherry Blossoms 2018
2018 was quite a year for the infamous Japanese cherry blossom season. In Japanese, the cherry blossom is known as Sakura, さくら。Japan loves Sakura season, as it marks the start of spring and the new range of drinks and food at Starbucks. Cherry blossoms are celebrated throughout Japan, as they represent delicacy and fleeting beauty….