Oh the great outdoors! As it finally starts to get to a reasonable temperature (for what – about 3 weeks?) I find my eyes drifting towards the mountains (I’m a country lass, for now at least) and my feet itching to bound upwards. I used to hate my parents for dragging me out walking when I was younger. I wanted to stay at home where I didn’t have to haul myself up a load of hills, drink bad soup from
The (in)famous Takarazuka Revue is something everyone should experience once in their Hyogo career. If, like me, your Japanese is limited to daily pleasantries, fear not, just choose a story you vaguely know the plot of. It might help (a bit). Revue performers all train for the first two years of their seven year contracts at the highly competitive Takarazuka Music School. At the end of their first year of training, the students are split into otokoyaku (male roles)
It’s April and that means the brief, but beautiful cherry blossom season. The sales of blue tarpaulins are set to sky rocket and public intoxication in the middle of the day will reach giddy new heights. Whether it’s your first, final or other, 花見 season in Japan, Hyogo has a positive cornucopia of great spots to ponder the brevity of life. Here’s a few to consider – 夙川公園 (Shukugawa Park) Whilst not the largest collection in Hyogo, the 2300
琵琶湖 (びわこ; Lake Biwa) is Japan’s largest freshwater lake and covers a large part of Shiga Prefecture. It’s a haven for birdwatchers, watersports, camping, and generally having a good time outdoors. It’s also a very popular destination for cyclists with a well-kept cycle path pretty much all the way around. At around 220km in circumference, it wasn’t going to be the easiest thing to get around in 2 days, but there’s nothing like a challenge to get you motivated (and
Paragliding in ‘Sky Sports Town’, Aogaki! Have you ever stared at a bird gliding about in the sky and imagined what that would be like? Have you ever taken it a step further and tried to make it happen? Well, here’s your chance! I work part-time in Aogaki, a town near the middle of Hyogo Prefecture, north of Kobe. It is known here as Sky Sports Town. On clear days, I look out my window and I can see paragliders
Off to the city Now judge me if you will, but there were always two flights out of KIX (Kansai Airport) that excited me – the 0030 departure to Bangkok (daily), and the 2330 to Singapore (not every day, but it goes on the ever-important Friday night). Flights that I can catch without having to leave school early. Excellent. The catch – not exactly cheap. The Bangkok flight is with Thai Airways, and Singapore is Singapore Airlines. However, there are
Everyone loves a good acronym and in February I coined a new one. Admittedly PDDN is not as catchy as ATM, LBD, LOL or any of the other TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms) which have so sneakily invaded our everyday speech; no longer being used ironically but as words in their own right – who’s guilty of “lolling”? Don’t worry, I won’t rant about text speak destroying the English language at this point in time, I think the change is fascinating
