Kotatsu, for those who don’t know, is a low table with a built-in heater and a detachable tabletop. During the summer, it’s used as a normal coffee table, but once it gets cold, you can turn up the heater and add a thick blanket, and voila! Instant cozy lounge space. You may have seen this …
Although the area where I live in Japan is technically classified as “suburban,” the same as my hometown back in California, there are some notable differences in the city’s layout and the way that the city blends with the countryside here. For one thing, back in the US, everything was split into different zones – …
I could praise public transportation in Japan up and down for being efficient, affordable, and punctual.
Back when I lived in America, I never realized how incredibly wealthy my home country is, and how incredibly high the standard of living is. There were so many things I took for granted as basic, necessary tools that everyone has – whereas here, those same things are considered luxuries. I could name a lot …
When I was in the States, I’d heard a statistic that most Asians are lactose intolerant. As such, I was somewhat surprised to find that milk and dairy products are in fact pretty common in Japan, and most Japanese people I’ve met have no issue eating ice cream or adding milk to their coffee. Lactose …
I have always been firmly of the belief that if you’re going to go to another country, you should make an effort to speak that country’s language. So, naturally, before I came to Japan, I started learning Japanese – only to realize that a couple of years of self-study is basically useless in actually navigating …
Summers in Japan – as well as a lot of East Asian and Southeast Asian countries – are brutal: hot, humid, and ripe for typhoons. A lovely combination, as I’m sure you’ll agree. For now, we’ll focus on the “hot” problem because I just recovered from a mild bout of heatstroke the other day, so …
Note: originally published April 26, 2017, on an old blog. Photo quality is meh; register complaints in the comment section. Thank you. It’s April, and in Japan, that can only mean one thing: cherry blossom season. Granted, I’m a little late to the ball in writing this, as cherry blossom season is more from the …
And by “breasfeeding mishaps,” I mean, specifically, mastitis. For those who don’t know, mastitis is a rather unpleasant infection that sometimes happens to breastfeeding mothers – the breast gets red and very sensitive to touch, and you need to take antibiotics to help the infection go away. This is a brief account of my own …
