For anyone who has ever been to Japan, seen pictures of Japan, read books about Japan, or seen movies set in Japan- you've heard of Mt. Fuji. After returning from my year abroad in Japan, I was often asked by my elders if I had the chance to climb Fuji. Sadly, I had to tell them no. I had been to the 5th station, as far as cars can go- but I ha...

Well, here in Japan, the school system works differently than what we are used to back home. The school year here, for example, follows the old calendar of Japan. The old calendar started the new year in April, quite logically aligned with spring and the birth of new life. While modern Japan has adopted our January-led calendar, schools still fo...

Since less than 5% of the Japanese population is Christian, I wondered whether or not Christmas would be a holiday recognized in Japan. But sure enough, following Thanksgiving Day, some of the usual Christmas trends began popping up around town. Most shopping stores put up a Christmas tree or two of their own. The city also put up a big Christma...

One of the really great things about living in Japan has been the amount of opportunities I have been given to sing my heart out at karaoke! The people here just love to sing. I have never seen so many people in one culture who enjoy this pastime as much as I do. As silly as karaoke can appear on the surface, there is also something about being ...

Righto, and here we are again. Ive had some people email me out of the loop because they just joined the mass following of those cool people who read my blog. If you have just joined us, basically the deal is that I am here in Japan, from New Zealand, on a university exchange, so hopefully I can learn Japanese. Ask me in a year.(Whoa what pressu...

i now withness all kind of animals...love the safari