When we decided on going to Kurokawa Onsen, an onsen town located in Kumamoto, we were overwhelmed with the choices of ryokans (traditional Japanese inns) available. There were almost 30 ryokans, each one attractive in their own way. How were we to choose just one?!…
Gosh, how are we on the last day of May?! It really flew by too quickly! There goes my favorite month, with an upcoming month of rain :/ Well, at least there will be hydrangeas in full bloom in June! Here’s May in photos! May’s weather…
One of the questions I often receive is “How did you come to Japan?” Today, I will answer that question, as well as reminisce of how we came to be here. The first time we came to Japan was several years ago; I was working…
The other day when I was out with my Japanese friends, we touched on the topic of salaries in Japan. One of my friends works as a realtor, and in Japan, many Japanese rent because they may not be from the area (e.g. originally from…
Today marks the start of Golden Week in Japan! What is Golden Week? It’s a rare period of consecutive, extended holidays at the end of April and early May where several days of public holidays are clustered together. Take a look at this year’s calendar…
Although the cherry blossoms have long scattered in Tokyo, the cherry blossom is not over for me yet! There is one place I want to visit, and I’ve been keeping my eye on the sakura forecast. When the place I wanted to visit finally updated from “70% bloom”…
A Japanese friend recently was craving udon, and she brought us to Tsurutontan (which I thought was such a cute name and so fun to say!) which is apparently a famous place that serves up good udon. I was expecting the usual traditional udon shop, but was surprised that it…