Coming back after long holiday is always tough, even more so if this marks the start of yet another year and carries the weight of the widely common “new year, Continue Reading
I always thought that Japan has four seasons, or maybe five, if we count the rainy one. It was just recently that I discovered it was not entirely true. Based Continue Reading
“With clouds and mist In a brief moment a hundred scenes Brought to fulfillment” (Matsuo Bashō, translated by D. L. Barnhill) I have always been the one to claim that Continue Reading
Imagine a samurai in Saint-Tropez, a coastal town in the French Riviera. Sounds like a scene from a comedy movie? That was my first reaction as well. The fact remains Continue Reading
I wake up to the sound of rain, the start is not promising. By the time I am about to leave my hotel, it is pouring. If I told you Continue Reading
Some years back there was a movie called “Silk” with Keira Knightley. The story itself aside, it was about a Frenchman traveling to Japan for silkworm eggs, as at the Continue Reading
“The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places” (E. Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms). When Japan was a country of wars and samurai, and Continue Reading
Last weekend was a rainy one. With a typhoon passing through Western Japan, many of us living in and around Tokyo spent it at home, some cleaning, some having quality Continue Reading
August is the hottest and the most humid month in Japan. No surprise that most foreigners try to escape wherever they can, preferably to a more human-friendly climate zone. If Continue Reading
An old Japanese man keeps saying something to me in Japanese and I cannot understand. Finally, he switches to English and simple questions, asking where I come from and what Continue Reading