Dear Blog Readers, Last week’s blog can only be described as material for toilet reading, so I feel that this blog should start where we left off. I’ve not commented much about the toilet situation in Korea for two reasons. Firstly, they really aren’t that interesting. Secondly, I’ve experienced some of the worst toilets in India so the initial culture shock which would normally hit me upon first site of a squatter has become obsolete. However, I should now make some sort of comment. Like everywhere in Asia, it is not common to have toilet paper so you have to remember to bring your own. This means having the daunting task of predicting the amount of toilet paper you are about to us. Risks cannot be taken. Furthermore, there are squatters, and nobody really knows which ... read more

Dear Blog Readers, I’m very confused. I’m not really sure what is going on. In fact, nobody really seems to know what’s going on. I think the students are coming in on Friday then we have a week of lessons then they have a week off then they have a week back and then the school year ends. I think whoever made up the months of the year actually forgot about February. Firstly, the spelling of the month is weird, that ‘r’ after the ‘b’ is almost as subtle as spelling weird as wired. Secondly, I think they did a calendar trial run for one year and got to the end and thought, “Damn, we’re missing 28 days, or is it 29 days?” Then it may have dawned on them, “How many days have the other ... read more

Dear Blog Readers, Here is the fourth part of our Japan travel blogs. This one is dedicated to Hakuba. If you haven't done so already, check out parts 1, 2 and 3 by clicking here: Part 1 - Korea Part 2 - Osaka Part 3 - Tokyo Hakuba Sprinting to the subway station leaving the Tokyo/Eiffel Tower in our dust meant that we had to quickly grab some food before catching the first of many trains to get to Hakuba. There was the chance of getting the bullet train south and then buying a bus ticket to Hakuba and saving ourselves nearly 2 hours but we decided to do the whole thing on trains because we’d forked out for t... read more

Dear Blog Readers, This is a continuation of the Japan Travels blogs. To see Part 1, click here . Osaka After checking in, we needed to get things out of our suitcases and go our separate ways. The men and women have separate floors and bath houses. It was at this point we noticed two things. Firstly, Laura’s perfume that she bought for little over £1 in Korea had burst and actually melted her eyeliner pencil. She seemed more concerned about the eyeliner pencil than the fact that her perfume is potentially melting her skin. We also noticed we’d forgotten our swimming costumes, but fortunately, this was one of those ‘Oh Asia’ moments as swimming costumes aren’t needed for the bath houses and saunas! After dumping our things we went out into Osaka which really is ... read more

Dear Blog Readers, So I’ve found another gem of a café in Cheongju to do the blog. The sign outside said ‘Coffee and Tea’ – result, if I made a café it would probably be named something along those lines as there’s no room for misunderstanding or misinterpretation. Confusingly, the sign is posted outside a shop selling jewellery so I nearly cursed my luck until I realised, as usual, that every building in Korea has about 15 floors so the Coffee and Tea shop is actually on the first floor, or second floor, if you are American where the first floor is the ground floor. Anyway, I’ve ordered a pot of English Breakfast tea and it looks amazing – in fact, I’ll take a photo. Laura and Stephanie have gone to see Harry Potter. A bit ... read more