Summer Nights With Tokyo’s Magical Fireflies
May 19, 2017 By Bert Wishart
There are four key ways that you can tell that summer on its way in Japan. The top three are obvious: the convenience stores replacing nikuman with cold ramen; cool biz mercifully replacing suits and ties in the office, and everyone is saying "atsui ne!" every thirty seconds. But the fourth one?...[ Click to read more ]
Book-Off: Hiroshima’s Answer to Everything you Need
By Jade Brischke
As a foreigner in Japan (especially when you first arrive), life can be a little difficult adjusting to a new place and a completely different culture. You may need to find furniture, or at least things to personalise your apartment and make it your own and you may not want...[ Click to read more ]
Museum of Yebisu Beer, Tokyo
May 12, 2017 By Bert Wishart
In 1887, the Japan Beer Brewery Company cleared an area of farmland in order to build a brewery where they would make, using German methods, their new premium beer, Yebisu. In the intervening years, the area which came to be named after the beer (rather than the commonly held...[ Click to read more ]
Feeling Crafty – The Top Craft Beer Pubs in Tokyo
May 08, 2017 By Bert Wishart
While Asahi and Kirin beers are world renowned, it could be argued that, along with Sapporo, they do not have the most exciting tastes. As such, expats often have somewhat justifiable cause to pine for the beer of their homelands. While there are the usual chains of British and Irish...[ Click to read more ]
Getting Fit – The Best Places to Jog in Nagoya
Apr 28, 2017 By Bert Wishart
If like me you are struggling to shift those few extra pounds picked up over the winter, you may be looking at the coming summer months and wanting to get back into shape before you hit the beach. There are plenty of ways you can do this. You could head to one...[ Click to read more ]
TV Service in Japan
Apr 27, 2017 By
In the past, the best TV programming option for expatriates living in Japan has been to contract with one of the cable providers which offer a dozen or so popular English channels. In recent years, with the growth of internet-based content providers and VPN service usage to access geographically blocked...[ Click to read more ]
Internet Service in Tokyo
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Details current as of April, 2017 In Japan, there is one main provider of ADSL and fiber optic internet infrastructure called NTT, which is subject to several anti-monopoly restrictions. While they control the physical components of the internet infrastructure, they may not provide actual internet service. As a result, internet...[ Click to read more ]
Sake Breweries Around Nagoya
Apr 25, 2017 By Bert Wishart
Were you to take the evidence offered up by Japanese TV, you might be fooled into believing that the Japanese drink of choice was either humdrum lager or cans of whiskey highball. But you would be wrong. There is no doubt that the national drink of Japan is sake, or to...[ Click to read more ]
Art Exhibitions to See in Nagoya – May 2017
By Bert Wishart
[caption id="attachment_32433" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Night Snow, by Utagawa Hirose[/caption] While not usually considered a cultural heartland of art, like Tokyo, there are actually plenty of great exhibitions to see in the city. Below is our pick of the bunch for this May. Utagawa Hirose - Fifty-Three Stations of the Tôkaidô For anyone...[ Click to read more ]
Animal Rescue Kansai (ARK)
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ARK is a non-profit, non-governmental private organization with the aim of forming a network of people who love animals, believe in sharing their lives with them, and who work actively to rescue them from suffering. ARK was established in 1990 and became officially recognized as an NPO (Non-Profit Organization) in...[ Click to read more ]
