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-...

Little bit of excitement looms as the warning has gone out for an anticipated typhoon this weekend, in our region. When asking one or two people, we understood it was going to be a little more windy. We didn't think much about this, cos we would welcome a breeze in this stincking heat! I then hoped onto good old google and found out a little more about this wind. Well, perhaps wind is the only term the Japanese know to explain this natural disaster. I would ...

I have turned up again! Welcome black...no no, that's not right! It's a turnip; and it sure is white! Yippee, my first turnip turned up ;-) One massive white carrot for those who haven't met before. How to cook, when to use, more about it fullstop; please speak to google not me :-) Sumimasen (Japanese). Sorry I can't help (Eng).