Special Feature: Top Ten Must Have Applications…
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Special Feature: Top Ten Must Have Applications…

 for Android phone users (with some iPhone suggestions)   Okay, you’ve finally got your residence card, so at last you can get your phone. Now to put that baby to use! Here are the top ten applications I think you need for your stay in Japan. They are in no particular order, but grouped into…

Special Feature: Banished to the Inaka!
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Special Feature: Banished to the Inaka!

I live in a remote patch of Japanese countryside called Taka-cho. I’ll forgive you if you’ve never heard of it. Even the BOE has trouble remembering we exist out here, not even bothering to replace my predecessor’s name with mine in the prefectural English Dept. directory after two whole years! The town, to put it…

Special Feature: Once You’re a JET, You’re a JET All the Way
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Special Feature: Once You’re a JET, You’re a JET All the Way

Hello Hyogo-ites! By the time you read this, you will have uttered, “atsui ne” or “mushi atsui ne” at least once to anyone who will hear it. Well, ganbare – summer has only just started! For those of you who are returning home this summer though, you will get to leave the oppressive heat and…

Special Feature: Hints for Home-stay harmony
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Special Feature: Hints for Home-stay harmony

Three months into my Japanese sojourn, a family connection led to my boarding a bus to Sakaide in Shikoku to stay with a Japanese family I had met just once before. I’ve hosted and been hosted a fair bit, but as with everything, Japan’s a little different.  Right from my arrival when we went straight…

Restaurant Review: Ikkaku
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Restaurant Review: Ikkaku

After four months of gorging myself on sushi, devouring okonomiyaki, and practically inhaling takoyaki, I found that I had slightly overindulged myself in my favourite Japanese dishes, both old and new. It was high time for a good meaty meal. Recommendations took me to the Brazilian place in Harbourland which quelled my appetite for a…

Travel Japan:Kougenji (高源寺)
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Travel Japan:Kougenji (高源寺)

If you are looking for somewhere slightly off the beaten track for your momiji-viewing pleasure, how about heading out to Kougenji in Aogaki, Tamba. Access – maps and other information available on the temple’s website http://kougenji-tanba.or.jp/ (Japanese only) Photos by Clint Denison, Sasayama-shi, 2007-2012