Gakuranman.com – illuminating Japan

Here’s a gentle ‘living in Japan’ post for you all with a splash of language learning and colourful photography. Grape picking in Japan (ぶどう狩り – budou gari) is one of the many fruit-related activities one can do over the summer. And quite a delicious one, too!

The final day in my trip was a pretty relaxed one. I decided to head on over to Kaiyukan, the impressive aquarium at Osaka bay. I’ve been there once before some 3 years ago, but with my renewed interest in all things aquatic, a return visit would not go amiss!

Ahh, yappari. Manga cafes are too distracting. With all the free films, drinks, manga and ‘special’ photo books one can’t help but do everything other than sleep. So today, with a mere three hours under my belt I set out to meet fellow haikyoist Florian at 5.30am.

The day was already off to a bad start. I awoke feeling much more refreshed than usual in the manga cafe. Something was definitely off. Reaching for my phone, I checked the time: 7.30am. Bollocks… I’d overslept and missed my train to take me the river Oboke for rafting.

I was planning on going rafting in the wilderness of Oboke today, but I awoke in the manga cafe to the sound of heavy rain outside. I ‘borrowed’ one of the clear, plastic umbrellas left behind by other people at the exit and walked quickly to the station. The staff informed me the local trains [...]

Just a short update today. I think the heat has been getting to me, and the lack of sleep last night probably didn’t help either. I was up until the early hours searching in vain for a way to get down to Kashiwajima, an island South-West of Shikoku renouned for its scuba diving.

I awoke in a relaxed manner after a lazy night’s sleep with the early morning sun on my face. It looked as though it was going to be another beautiful day on Naoshima and I had plenty of quirky art left to see before catching my ferry over to the main island of Shikoku.

I was already on the train and leaving Kyoto at 8.30am after Ryosuke had dropped me off at the station. Today’s aim was Naoshima, the fabled ‘Island of Art’ on the Seto Inland Sea. What’s more, it seems that there is some sort of special art festival going on right now through to October – [...]

I must be crazy to take such a trip right in the middle of Japanese summer. The streets are empty in Tokyo and they’re talking about Gifu reaching the 1997 highs of 40 or so degrees Celsius. But it’s not the first time I’ve set out on a solitary trip in such stifling weather. I [...]

Philip from Nihongoup recently asked me for an interview as part of his growing collection of knowledge on learning Japanese. I’ve never really written a post about how I got to where I am today with my Japanese, so if you’re interested, head on over to read all about my younger days.

In a recent scuffle over the controversial whaling issue, I managed to seriously offend a couple of Japanese friends. Political and ethical issues are volatile topics, but add to that cultural differences when arguing and you have a recipe for disaster. So here’s some insight to help you avoid making the same mistakes.

Sakura Season is almost over and the final petals are falling gracefully to the floor. So before this ephemeral phenomenon has passed for another year, here’s a collection of 10 of the best pictures I shot in Okazaki, central Japan.