Tag Archives: earthquake
Ishinomaki – Then and Now
Recently arrived back in Tokyo from another trip North and still attempting to unravel my answers to the natural question of ‘how was it?’ Perhaps this will help. The following is a documentary from Paul Johannessen, which interviews tsunami survivors … Continue reading
Ishinomaki, December 2011
There is too much to tell you and not enough words. Everyone who was here on 11 March must have a story to make the hair stand on end, about where they were and what they saw, who they lost … Continue reading
Filed under Japan
Christmas in Tohoku Part 2
We got talking at the Free Tohoku and It’s Not Just Mud Christmas party, despite not sharing much language, our ‘conversation’ drifting over the head of her small boy, who wriggled in her arms in that way that children do … Continue reading
Filed under Japan
Christmas in Tohoku Part 1
Before I came to Japan, I wondered what Christmas would be like. It is not a Christian country and New Year is a much more important festival in the Japanese calendar. So I wasn’t expecting to see many Christmas trees. … Continue reading
Filed under Japan
‘The most photographed anonymous man in the world’
I got a really lovely thank you from the #quakebook team, despite only doing something very simple to help with the publication of an interview with Our Man in Abiko in the Embassy of Japan in the UK’s newsletter. Take … Continue reading
Filed under Japan
Six months
Today is a day of anniversaries, perhaps rightly, the 10-year one garnering more attention worldwide, while the six-month one occupies minds closer to home. As central and local governments in Japan set a 10 year goal to restore the ruined … Continue reading
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Where everybody knows your name
The lure of the perfect bar, like that of the perfect writing cafe, keeps me searching through the city streets. A place for rowdy celebrations with friends, knocking back drinks while sharing gossip and laughter, or for sitting not saying … Continue reading
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Doesn’t seem to be a shadow in the city
We had all suspected it, but the official confirmation that the rainy season had ended seemed to give summer an unrequired impetus. Barely into July and already with the mercury regularly nudging 30 before breakfast time, this is perhaps no … Continue reading
Filed under Japan
Scorcery
ten minutes hate is moving to a new location and, unfortunately, unlike in my dreams last night, my possessions are not jumping into boxes of their own accord to this soundtrack… Which is one very elaborate way to say that … Continue reading
Filed under The Golden Country
Obon festivities
Often in class I find I am learning as much as the students. While they pick up the essentials of English grammar and usage, along with certain vignettes about British life, I am gaining too. Not merely an insight into … Continue reading
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