Here I am sitting on a bus heading for Hamilton, New Zealand, with a group of about 30 Japanese students. For all of them I imagine it’s their first time to this country, and yet they’re all asleep! Look outside at the beautiful scenery, Huntly’s pretty nice at this time of year. But I guess …

Sometimes you just can’t take the culture out of someone. Read More »

In a recent Akimbo podcast by Seth Godin, one of the listeners called in asking about putting out a ‘bad’ quality daily blog post. Say all your blog posts were of a generally good quality but one day you were just having a bad day, and your post wasn’t of the quality of the others. …

Get your ideas out Read More »

I have a general dislike for how the public service is run in Japan. Firstly, those who want to become public servants have to take exams, which apparently dates back to Confucian China. Judging on the other exams I've seen, I imagine they would be very broad and would require rote memorisation of a large …

Public service and serving the public Read More »

The typical Japanese meal comprises of multiple small plates with a variety of different foods. Fish, rice, miso soup and pickles typically make up the core, but of course for more variety other dishes are often added. The dishes are all of a reasonable size, so that you can control how much you eat, but …

The Default Option Read More »

When I was learning Kanji, focusing on having the correct stroke order was of the upmost importance, almost as important as forming the right character (which I think is more important). Knowing what number stroke a single stroke is is also part of the Kanji Kentei tests, although thankfully I think it's only at the …

Making an effort vs. getting results Read More »

When you're in the middle of a creative project, and the ideas stop flowing, I often find it helps to take your mind off the project by doing something completely different. When I'm working on a creative project, like an article or translation, I find that getting away from my work environment and doing something …

The Life-Changing Magic of Taking a Break Read More »

When you say yes to one thing, you are saying no to another. -Peter Mallouk from his Tim Ferriss podcast. By having a list of basic principles or things that you prioritize over others, when someone asks you to do something, you can say no with a bit of confidence. If the person was truly …

Saying no Read More »