No matter how much someone likes travel, there really is no place like home. Home means comfort, safety and love. It’s a place you know you belong and a place where you fit in. Unfortunately when you live in Japan, home literally is thousands of miles away. I wrote about the first time I felt homesickness…
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New Years-eve in the UK usually consists of either a house party, paying an extortionate amount to drink at a bar you go each week or freezing to death outside whilst watching fireworks tumble into the sky as the clock strikes 12. Pretty tame eh? When I was travelling on my RTW trip, I was…
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I’ll let you in on a secret. Last summer I was regretting my decision to move to Japan. I found Japan an extremely frustrating place to live and found the culture quite claustrophobic. I was done. Then I spend a week or two in one of my favourite countries in the world, Thailand. So many…
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I must have been a teenager when I first heard about Kobe beef. I was watching a TV programme that said it was the best meat in the world and it’s only found in Japan. The cows were reportedly massaged daily and given beer instead of water to drink, secrets to make the meat so…
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When I opened the email I suddenly felt numb. I was moving to Japan! Now I`ve travelled to many countries in the past, but never actually lived in a different country. Now I just needed to decide what to pack in my 30kg of luggage. Japan is an extremely developed country yet surprisingly many things…
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My hands shook as my fingers tapped on the keyboard, my knees crashed together nervously. Usually I`m never lost for words, however I now couldn`t remember what I was supposed to write. How does one hand in their notice on a job that you`ve done for over 5 years, a career no less? One that…
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My jet lagged eyes struggled to open, it was as if they were stuck together with a viscous glue. I sleepily turned and looked out of the oval shaped window and saw a tall, triangular snow-capped mountain. ‘Mount Fuji’, I thought. This meant that I was finally in Japan. My heart started to beat fast….
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January is such a depressing month. The days get shorter, the nights get longer and the weather gets colder. Despite this there is a strong feeling of anticipation as soon as the clock hits 12 on New Years Eve and the sight of luminescent fireworks fills the sky. The feeling that anything could happen. A…
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My suitcase lies in the corner of my room. It looks so small and insignificant. Just a suitcase packed with a few summer clothes and Christmas presents. Eight months ago the same suitcase looked very different. The first time I saw the suitcase in my room I thought it was humongous and imposing. My whole…
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I was sat on my comfortable corner couch in Liverpool city centre; the 42 inch plasma TV screen that was usually blasting out noise was turned off. Outside I could hear children playing, but I wasn’t paying attention to them. It was my first attempt at meditating. Anything to rid myself of that horrible feeling…
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