Way back in 2009 I had applied for the 2010 JET Programme, where the Japanese government takes in applications from mostly English-speaking nations and sends participants, named JETs, all throughout Japan. This is how I originally came to Yamagata. Even though I had extensive experience learning Japanese and even living in Japan, coupled with my […]

Ask Hoshino Sendatsu the reason why we do Yamabushi training, and he’ll tell you we do Yamabushi training to do Yamabushi training. This answer is both insightful, and annoying. In my opinion, Yamabushi training is to get you to focus on the now. A lot of the training we undertake is hurried, or there is […]

If you've spent much time in Japan, you will be familiar with the common questions Japanese people ask you, such as 'can you use chopsticks?', 'do you eat bread three times a day?', or my personal favourite 'aren't you cold?' when you're wearing a t-shirt inside on a winter day, seemingly ignoring the fact that […]

“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to our presentation. It gives me a great honour to introduce to you today the product that is about to change your lives. This product, ladies and gentlemen, has the potential to make your life 1000x better, while also being awesome!” There I was, sitting watching various groups give a sales […]

'Try never to be the smartest person in the room' - Michael Dell. Back in 2008-2009, I went through the greatest learning curve I have ever experienced. I was an exchange student studying in Japan for six months, and in that short span I feel I learned a few years' worth of lessons. I had […]

The best time to begin to invest was yesterday. The second best time is today. After much research and deliberation, I decided a few years ago to begin investing in index funds. If you're unaware, index funds are where you purchase the top (say 500 or so) companies of a market, on the basis that […]

My profile for my university job states 'In the communication age, knowledge is power. Find your power.' It didn't take me too long to realise that this is actually complete rubbish. If the greatest ideas in the world were stuck in the mind of someone without the ability to communicate them, then they're completely useless. […]