June; July; August in Japan are a season all on their own; yet colloquially called summer. June was pleasant with frequent rain to cool the hot and humid days. Then July stepped up the thermometer, humidity and far less rain has fallen...thus leaving us hot and sweaty (unless you find an airconditioner to remain under all day) August is still on its way. I do wonder how we will go from this heat to snow in a few months. Surely the vast change in temperature ...

Airborne Trains #in-flight This may look like a standard train, but in fact it is the new maglev train, which is air borne, using powerful electromagnets. Maglev is short for magnetic levitation, which means that these trains will float over a guide way using the basic principles of magnets to replace the old steel wheel and track trains. Maglev trains do not have an engine to pull typical train cars along steel tracks. The magnetic field created by...

One word you'll hear a lot in Japan is "gaijin", which is the commonly used form of "gaikokujin" (outside person). The term gaijin refers to you and anybody else who is not a native-born Japanese. It dates back to the days when Japan was closed to most of the world, thus anybody who wasn't Japanese was most certainly an "outside person". Some foreigners in Japan are uncomfortable with the term and its implications of "us" (the Japanese) and "them" (anyone else)....

Sticky, bittersweet orange & lemon marmalade is a taste explosion, not only for toast. It wasn't, on reflection, the wisest of days to marmalade. My fingers had many openings from too sharp a knife for my haste. Thus each drop of bitter orange juice, each squirt of lemon zest & juice sent me a sting of a reminder. The orange season is over in the blink of an eye SO, my F.O.M.O got the better of me! Having to fork out R60 for 30ml of jam is another m...

Two Step Turn (some countries call 'Hook Turn') The procedure illustrated here is that used in Japan (for moped bikes, engines smaller than 50cc) where cars drive on the left. Other countries may refer to this as the 'hook turn', it can be a challenge to process, but let me try explain: Approach and enter the intersection from as near as possible to the left. If there is insufficient room to enter the intersection due to other cars waiting to two-step/hook-...