One overcast Saturday and one out-of-prefecture friend on an 18-odd hour visit. Did I mention the friend doesn't like snowboarding/skiing? (no offense my friend who shall remain nameless for safety reasons - my safety) Yes, I do actually have some non-snowaholic friends, quite a few actually. Whether that's still the case after next winter and my first full season owning a snowboard.......... Anyway, I picked my friend up from one of the train stations in Matsue and we headed off to Izumo to show her around Izumo Taisha, one of the more famous shrines in Japan. It started snowing just before we left Taisha, which excited my friend enough to want her photo taken among the flurry of white flakes. Maybe there's hope for her yet I thought........ On and back to Matsue we went looking ... read more

I don't remember being around the stuff as a kid. Given the effect it seems to have, I doubt I would have forgotten had someone given me some of the white powder to try. Should I be concerned that having had a taste of it, I enjoyed it enough that I went and bought the tools to enable me to indulge in its use more easily. I mean, it's only recreational use. Surely it won't turn out to be that harmful? Will it? Snow people, I'm talking about snow! Winter used to translate in my dictionary as "cold, wet, to be tolerated unless able to get away somewhere warmer on holiday". Now it means getting away to a skifield whenever possible (usually at the weekends, preferably during the week if I can wrangle it) with my ... read more

The three short weeks were over - but I wasn't ready to go back. It wasn't that I really didn't want to be back in Japan, but as it turned out I had missed NZ way way more than I expected. Rushing round catching up with as many friends as possible, trying to go back to favourite places had made the time fly. The fact that Auckland's weather had been uncharacteristically reliably brilliant didn't do any harm to the experience either. Spending time with family, hanging out with friends as though the past 18 months never happened - all great memories. Seeing Pohutukawa again, and so many of them was great. Pohutukawa trees grow up to about 20 metres tall and flower between November and January with brillant crimson flowers. The flowering peaks around Christmas so ... read more

To be honest, when I came to Japan this time knowing it was for at least 2 or 3 years I was undecided on whether or not to make a trip home in between time. But once I had booked the ticket and started to tell people I was coming I got quite excited about being back home, and was really looking forward to three weeks of summer which didn't automatically mean it was going to be in the mid-thirties before breakfast (unlike the stinking hot summers you can get in Japan). Pretty much everyone knew I was coming home - except Mum. I can't remember how many times I dodged the subject or just plain didn't seemed that interested in the idea. Sorry ;-) Enter a couple of the siblings, and their part in the ... read more

"Yeah, sure, that sounds like a good weekend away" I thought when the invite email came around. A weekend with friends (some I hadn't yet met in person, but knew they'd be good company) somewhere I hadn't been before - I'm always up for that. I checked out the place online, the Hattoji International Villa, 20 km from a middle of nowhere train staion. Yep, that's what you call getting away for a quiet weekend. Hang on...... that's the weekend of the taiko (Japanese drums) festival. B****r, I was going to go to that. Can't be helped, already have my name down for the Okayama trip. (I had recently started going to the group's practises, but was very much still in the beginner department :-) A month or so later when the taiko practises picked up ... read more