David Chart's Blog

Category: Japan

  • In My Sleep

    Yesterday, Yuriko told me I’d been talking in my sleep. Apparently, I told her that there was a blue light inside the light in our bedroom. When she said that, I remembered saying it, and seeing the light. It was like a bit of blue lightning, moving around inside the lampshade. Of course, the really…

  • End of the Year

    I’ve just written an enormous post for my Japanese blog looking back over the year, so this version is likely to be a bit smaller. The Japanese blog does tend to get prioritised over this one, I’m afraid. So, from a personal perspective, it was a good year. It was our first full year as…

  • Boil the Scrapings from Under His Fingernails and Drink Them

    This is, apparently, a standard Japanese phrase: 爪のあかを煎じて飲む. It means “learn from him by imitation”. Yuriko suddenly used it last night, with reference to me, and it was the first time I’d heard it, so there followed a short clarificatory discussion. (“Why do they want to boil my fingernails? What have I ever done to…

  • New Diary Entry

    Yet another new diary entry, finally bringing my diary up to date.

  • Busy Lives

    I’ve not had time to get the diary caught up yet, even though there’s only one entry to go, because I’ve had to do lots of work. Yuriko has been busy as well. On Tuesday she went to the Taira Children’s Culture Centre for a talk on food for babies from one to two, which…

  • New Diary Entry

    I’ve put up another new diary entry. That means that there’s only our trip to Atami to do, and that was this month.

  • New Diary Entry

    Yet another new diary entry, you lucky people. There may be a slight hiatus in the near future, however.

  • New Diary Entry

    I’ve added a new entry to my Japan Diary, about a shrine visit I went on back in July. I hope to fill in to more recent events soon.

  • Day Trip

    Today we went on a family day trip to Atami, a coastal hot spring resort town a couple of hours away by train. This means that I’m even further behind on the diary than I was yesterday, because this is a diary entry sort of thing, with pictures. I’m going to have to deliberately set…

  • Five Years in Japan

    Today marks the fifth anniversary of my arrival in Japan, as well as Yuriko and my second wedding anniversary. When I arrived here, I thought that I would be studying for a year and then returning to the UK. I certainly didn’t imagine that five years later I’d own a flat in the Tokyo area,…