Category Travel

travel photo

Personal accounts of living and travelling in Japan, Thailand, Europe and beyond. Not just a travel guide — more like postcards with opinions.

I’ve lived in six countries across four decades. The UK, Japan, Aruba, Hong Kong, and now Bangkok. Each place has left something on me — a way of seeing, a habit, an assumption quietly dismantled. I write about that.

Sometimes that means hotel recommendations and packing lists. More often it means the things that don’t make the brochure — the details, the surprises, and the moments that stay with you long after you’ve left.

London Trip

I had to go to a meeting in London yesterday; the meeting was about trade fairs and gave me the opportunity to meet with the person in charge of the fair. I was not going to miss this! I set…

Summer Holidays

On the 9th of August we made our annual trip to France. For our first night, we stayed in Novotel near Senlis, the first bedroom we were given was not quite clean enough as we found some hair in the…

The exam

Like 15,000 other victims I took the mismanaged and poorly organised Japanese Proficiency Test last December but this is not only a test of Japanese Language but also a test of patience. I’ve no gripe with the test itself. It’s…

The rubbish problem

Have you noticed when you come to Japan that everything you buy in the shop is packed for you nicely? Even chewing gums in a packet are individually wrapped!But this mountain of packaging material needs to be disposed off. Everything…

Japlish

I have a language problem, not because I find it difficult to get on with the Japanese language but to do with English.Please don’t misunderstand me. I appreciate all the efforts our Japanese hosts have made to help us around…

The invisible Gaijin

Nothing seems to phase us, Gaijins, as we skillfully skip past that seventh pool of vomit; not that mass of people racing towards us like world-class athletes nor the high-pitched ringing of that bicycle trying to weave its way through…