Amrita — Banana Yoshimoto
The story of an extraordinary few months in the life of an unusual family in Tokyo. The narrator is engagingly curious, with a tendency to wax philosophical; the plot starts off conventionally but then comes over all mystical. Quite fun … Continue reading
Hakone — near Mount Fuji
Stayed in a ryokan with an onsen (spa), fabulous food and, marvellously, good heating. And the view of Mount Fuji from the aerial cable car was stunning – no fog, no obscuring cloud, just a magnificent white mountain. Link to … Continue reading
Sasebo
We spent the new year in Sasebo, a town outside of Nagasaki. We stayed there with Joanne’s host family from when she was an exchange student here. That was fun, though it severely tested my rudimentary Japanese language skills. I … Continue reading
Karaoke stripper
A lot of karaoke machines display a “Calories” rating after each song to show how well you sang the somg. Some are a bit more fun. One night in Sasebo, our hosts took us to a bar where the karaoke … Continue reading
Fugu
At the same restaurant in Sasebo where we ate live fish, we were treated to some fugu, the famous blowfish that is supposedly fatal if incorrectly prepared. It was good, with an exquisite texture, and there were no ill effects … Continue reading
Eating live fish
We were taken to a very nice restaurant during the new year. Among the many delicacies we had were a fish that had been freshly filleted and turned into sushi. The rest of the fish was artfully arranged on the … Continue reading
New Year in Sasebo
Japanese new year in Sasebo (Nagasaki prefecture). Sake, sashimi, rice cakes, temples, cats, snow. Link to website Continue reading
Whale meat
I tried a bit of whale at somebody’s house at new year. It was nice enough, if a bit chewy, but it seemed odd eating whale (even thought it was presumably killed purely for scientific research purposes). All my life … Continue reading
Harry Potter to Himitsu no Heya
In deference to the small Japanese children in our party, we went to see “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” dubbed into Japanese. It seemed a bit slow, but maybe that’s just because I only understood every 20th word. … Continue reading
Waking Life
Amazing animation, though Joanne found the pervasive floatiness a bit disorienting. Lots of interesting talk about dreams. Link to website Continue reading