EDUCATION

Here’s a gentle ‘living in Japan’ post for you all with a splash of language learning and colourful photography. Grape picking in Japan (ぶどう狩り – budou gari) is one of the many fruit-related activities one can do over the summer. And quite a delicious one, too! I got a phone call from a Yonesaka-san at [...]

Alrighty then. It’s high time I announced the winners to my recent competition with Flutterscape! There were a great selection of insightful entries with advice on how to best learn a foreign language which made it really tough to choose the best, but it had to be done. See below if you’re getting goodies from [...]

It’s been a while since I looked at some interesting Japanese, so “Let’s Nihongo!” it up with a frisky little word I learnt during my intercourse with Japan. Oh yes, be afraid. Here comes a terrible orgy of puns for ‘Aokan’ (青姦), the little-known word for getting busy under the stars. Aokan can refer to [...]

I know, what a title eh? Words have failed me. Or perhaps I have failed them. It didn’t seem like much at the time, but having gone through the batch of photos from my latest haikyo outing, it’s now obvious that I had passed through another world without quite realising it. As I began in [...]

A collection of haikyo articles penned by Japan Times staff writer Eriko Arita ventures into the deeper meaning behind ruins exploration and its popularity in Japan. A mention of my thoughts of the subject are included in one of the stories. Lost worlds of Japan – Exploring the popularity of haikyo, the nostalgia for all [...]

It’s that time again. Yet another spasm of tinkering, tweaking, coding, designing and, of course, consuming copious amounts of sugary goods well into the early hours has resulted in Gakuranman.com version 7 and a logo. Here’s a history of the website’s design evolution! (Note: This article was originally posted on 17th February 2010 but has [...]

Flutterscape. What a marvellous idea. I wish I’d thought of it myself. Japan is packed to the brim with unique and tasty goods and usually the only way you’ll get your hands on them is through a Japanese friend or one of those dubious-looking companies. *Update* Here are the winners! Flutter me quick Flutterscape though, [...]