We entered autumn since September 🍁 but the heat is very much present🥵. While the summer air remains, we headed out of Tokyo for some barbecuing, lake swimming and exploring art in the open. Friday: head to Yamanashi Saiko 🏕 We snuck out of work early and escaped Tokyo before 6pm as the storm started … Continue reading A weekend of lounging by the lakes and appreciating art 🎨
Where did the year go? I cannot believe it's already September and that means summer is officially over in Japan once again. With the extended 梅雨(tsuyu or the rainy season)🌧, although the sudden change felt uncomfortable, it has been a relatively short spurt of hot weather. The nights has started to cool down and September … Continue reading Personal best of Japanese summer 2020
Like many people in the world, I’m sure, my youtube screen time has skyrocketed this year 📺. Youtube is my connection to my exercise instructor 🏋🏻♀️, my art teacher 👩🏻🎨, my makeup artist 💋, my travel inspiration ✈️ and my news source 📰. Just like many countries, Japan has its own popular youtubers and in … Continue reading My favourite health and beauty Japanese Youtubers
Waking up to 30 degrees heat inside an apartment that's hotter than the outside (when the maximum temperature is 36 degrees recently 🥵), the only way to cool down is head to the beach! In the last year and half that I have been living in Japan, we have visited 3 different Japanese beaches (Atami, … Continue reading Escape the Tokyo heat to beach town, Shimoda
Monday was a Mountain Day, another public holiday in Japan so we headed 2 hours north west from central Tokyo to 奥多摩 (Okutama) for some cooling riverside air and openness, while still being within Tokyo. 🌳🌳🌳 So much greenery! 🌳 🌳🌳 Riding the rapid Chuo line took us to the most outer edge of Tokyo … Continue reading Is this really Tokyo? Cooling off in Okutama
In last week's post, I shared a little bit about Yamagata prefecture located in the northern part of Japan's main island as well as our Day 1 and 2 itinerary from our recent trip. This post is about what we did on the second of half of our Yamagata road trip 🚗. Day 3 After … Continue reading 3 nights 4 days in Yamagata, Japan Part 2
Japan had Marine Day and Sports/Health Day back to back from this year to create a 4 day long weekend with the plan to celebrate the opening of 2020 Tokyo Olympics.The Olympic was 'postponed' but the calendars were all printed and plans were made so the 4 day public holiday has remained.Upon deliberating as mentioned … Continue reading 3 nights 4 days in Yamagata, Japan Part 1
One of the industries most financially impacted by coronavirus pandemic is tourism. Japan that was meant to host Tokyo Olympic 2020 (the opening ceremony was meant to be held yesterday July 24 2020!) but thanks to coronavirus, Japan has seen a dramatic drop in international tourism- 99.9% reduction compared to last year for April, May … Continue reading To go or not to go travel?🤔
Last week's major accomplishment and another step for me to feel like a Japanese local (again). I got my Japanese driver's license🎉. I haven't needed to drive in the last year and 4 months that I have lived in Tokyo as Tokyo's public transport is efficient 🚃 (I didn't even drive in Sydney and Sydney's … Continue reading How to update Australian and New Zealand driver’s license in Japan 🚗
July 5th 2020 was a momentous day - I voted for the first time in my life! Voting isn't compulsory in Japan and as I lived in Australia all of my twenties, I didn't vote for Japanese election. Last year, I felt like I didn't know enough or wasn't high on my agenda to be … Continue reading Tokyo needs you – 2020 Tokyo gubernatorial election
Native Expat 