Well Andy has gone and I'm all alone in my shoe box apartment. I have lived alone in Japan before so it's nothing new and not daunting at all, but …

Emma : We got back from our trip to Hokkaido a couple of days ago. While it's good to be home, the sad reality that Andy is going home in…

We went to Shakuji-koen for something different today. Bitterly cold today - the coldest day yet.   A few weeks ago we were looking for somet…

Andy and I went to Kamakura for one night a few days ago with Jack, Andy's employer. We went to the holiday unit of a friend of Jack's who we met a…

This is Andy's and my favourite place to hang out in Ikebukuro when we feel like a rest and a bit of a treat. The Kensington Tearoom is an oasi…

Christmas has come and gone. Japan is in general a secular country and Christmas holds little significance for most people here. In fact Dec 25 is …

More pics..can't get enough of them. We're desperately clinging on to the last vestiges of Autumn!

Here are some photos I took with my phone yesterday during a cycle through Hikarigaoka. This is my favourite time of year in Japan becaus…

It's been a while. I guess we've been pretty busy. Let's see. I went to Penang a couple of weeks ago for 4 days for a conference. I presented a pa…

Going to the gym today for the first time in a while - waiting for Andy to come home from teaching so we can go together. Our trip to Hakone was p…

I just finished preparing a presentation for a conference in Penang and am so relieved to be finished after weeks of agony. I celebrated by go…

Emma:  Well, Andy and I are both getting over a strange fluey virus we caught in the recent cool weather. Andy was in a soccer tournament the…

Thought I'd add an entry seeing as I haven't for a while. And some photos too. It has cooled down a little, but it's still unusually hot for this…

Andy:  Well it has been a little while since I posted something here and Emma has been occasionally reminding me to do so, so here goes... I …

It has been raining for a couple of days now. It has really cooled the place down, and I can safely step outside the house with jeans on without fe…

There is a typhoon off the coast of Japan at the moment, near Tokyo and it is raining really heavily at the moment! Andy and I just got a…

Now it's my turn to be home alone. Today is Andy's first day of training for his teaching job at 'Shane' English school. It's literally the first t…

Andy:  Emma took me out the other night to dinner and we went to this traditional Japanese okonomiyaki restaurant. You sit down on the floor o…

I am still reeling from being assessed as 'borderline chubby' in a health examination we underwent at the gym a couple of days ago.....hahaha. Andy…

I have discovered an ice-block that looks and tastes like a slice of watermelon - brilliant! It even has seeds - tiny balls of chocolate!!

Andy:  I am home alone this morning as Emma has gone into the city to meet up with a friend. Our neighbours are a young couple - the guy is ca…

It is still scorching hot. Every day the same temp....35 during the day and around 27 at night!!! That's ridiculous. Today we went to lunch w…

Everything here seems to move so slowly.......I think it may have to do with the heat. It took 2 weeks for our 'alien registration cards' to be iss…

Well, my supervisor is being very aloof and I have decided to go out on my own while waiting for him to get his act together. Trouble is, I need hi…

It is so hot that we have our aircon on constantly when we are home - constantly, even when we sleep. We go outside and everything is lit up like a…

  Andy:  Yes it's me again !  After a few days in the wilderness, metaphorically speaking, I am back with a new scintillating entry…

Emma: Today we decided to go to the Hanabi Taikai - fireworks display - at Yokohama. There is a Chinatown in Yokohama so I thought we could wander …

Emma: This evening Andy and I joined the local publicly-run gym. It is inside Hikarigaoka park and to become a member you just have to be…

Emma: I have finally received an email from my supervisor, so I will go and meet him next week and from then on I can start working. It's been love…

Emma: Well, I gave up on the other blog because it kept showing error messages and became dodgy when I tried to upload photos. Before starting toda…

Andy:  I went out yesterday morning and poked my head inside the door of a couple of local english schools. The first one seemed quite promisi…