It's the same thing. It took me a while to realise this, but learning English in Japan is the same as learning Maori in New Zealand. When people in Japan talk about learning the language, they only talk about the actual learning of the language, the vocabulary and grammar mainly. Likewise, New Zealanders only see […]

I've talked before about the downside to stoic philosophy being how it can affect other people who see you as cold, well there's a flipside to that too; when you know that you should be stoic and accept a situation, but you just can't for whatever reason. When you're on the receiving end of a […]

It's not about doing things well, it's about doing things. This morning the pool was being used for aqua-aerobics, so there weren't any spare lanes when I got there. One lane had an old man who often spends a long time slowly swimming backstroke up and down the pool. So I hopped in the other […]

Conan O'Brien used to have an hour-long show. Over time, he realised that he was just creating content to fill time, just using interviews with people he wasn't really interested in to make the show an hour long, rather than filling it with stuff that people wanted to watch and he was interested in. So […]

Midnight. On top of a mountain. Inside a small shrine. Only candle light to guide you. It flickers as you recite the Heart Sutra non-stop and enter a trance. Every year from the 6th of May, Yamabushi belonging to Daishobo spend 3 consecutive days at Prince Hachiko Shrine on the top of Mt. Haguro praying […]

I often hear people excusing the way Japanese people behave by saying 'it's because we're an island nation', as if that holds any truth. New Zealand is also an island nation. Does that mean our culture is the same as Japan's? No way. That doesn't mean to say that Japan isn't at all different. Not […]

When it comes to fighting fires, co-ordination is key. When a fire breaks out, if it's small enough for the municipality to cover it, then that's fine, let them do their thing. But when the fire gets a bit out of hand, back-up from other fire services is required. I feel that the local tourism […]