It’s Saturday night, and I’ve arranged to meet a friend from language school in a bar in Ebisu for a drink. Happy Hour at the Hub ends at 7pm, and he texts to say he’ll be late – there’s a body on the line. Trains are so rarely late here. They are sleek,...
As I alight the train at Kawasaki I’m greeted by the pleasant sound of bird song. Sadly it only takes a few steps down the platform before I realise these are pre recorded chirps and much like canned laughter it numbs the effect. Kawasaki is where national hero Mitoma...
Workmen gather at the start of their shift in matching blue hard hats. Reminds me of the nursery kids from yesterday in their matching yellow caps. Forming a circle around their foreman, the engineers receive instruction before taking a group bow, now ready to begin…...
The other day, Taiga lost a tooth. He told me about it when he got back from school but played it down. “Nah it didn’t hurt Daddy – it was shaking like an earthquake for ages anyway, and ready to come out”. I know they don’t share the tooth fairy myth over here...
There have been two earth tremors since I arrived in Japan on November 6th. One last night in bed, one this morning in the coffee shop. This morning I witnessed a fellow coffee drinker look up from her phone and out of the window for a brief moment, before turning her...
