It's the little things...

Can you find the treasure?

Living here in Japan you learn to make do without a lot of foods you took for granted back home; hamburgers, Mexican food, pizza that doesn’t have corn on it…being a hardy ex-pat you learn to replace them with more available alternatives.  However, every once in a while you stumble [...]

Blessed silence: a story of no tourists

‘Amanokuchi-whatsa,’ the word stumbled out of my mouth like a handful of scrabble letters. ‘What the heck is that?’ ‘Kochidaniamadaji. It’s a temple up in the mountains past Sanzenin. Trust me Mike, you gotta go there,’ Joe assured me. I looked at him a bit incredulously, ‘Go there? How [...]

No fate…

Sarah Conner

As I left work today, stepped out the door and into the night a line from Terminator 2 crept from somewhere in the back of my mind and slipped from my lips.  I said it not once, not twice, but three times.  Each iteration resonating stronger and stronger.  Where it came from I [...]

Not what it seems...

“Good evening” an older Japanese man said to me in English as he passed, entering the coffee shop I was sitting in front of.  I looked up from my computer where I was doing some work and replied, ‘good evening.’  My eyes once again focusing on the screen in front of me I secretly hoped [...]