百円ショップ (Hyaku-en shoppu)

Simply: a shop where everything costs Y100 – well, actually it’s Y105, the price in the name doesn’t include the 5% VAT, but it does sound more catchy this way. It’s neither a new thing nor one limited to Japan only. There are Poundlands in the UK, €1 shops in Germany (and other countries in the Euro zone, I guess), “all costs X zloty” in Poland – hyaku-en shoppu are just the...

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The old and the new

After quite a wet last week it’d be a crime not to take advantage of the gorgeous weather we had today: maybe a tad too windy, but sunny, clear skies and warm (I think it was around 16°C at its highest today). So after the one period of class that I had, I looked at my tourist map of Kanazawa, thought for a moment and then took off. I decided to first visit one of the geisha...

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Saturday rally

When my new Japanese foster family invited me on a hiking trip, chich was supposed to end in an onsen (温泉, hot springs) and an alcohol including dinner, I said “yes” straightaway. I may not be a massive fan of hiking as a sport, but I kind of like walking, and if we add a goal to this walking, especially as nice a goal as food and onsen, could I really refuse? As it turned out...

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A few weekend adventures

With a slight delay, as it took me a little while to get my strength back after the trip we took over Thursday and Friday, but I’ll shortly describe what was most interesting there. All of us Nikken students went to the city of Suzu, 珠洲, in the Noto area, 能登. It’s worth noting that Suzu is a city only from the administrative point of view – both in views and in the atmosphere...

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Kenrokuen and the Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Traditional Arts and Crafts

WARNING! This post is heavily packed with pictures and thus may take a while to load. Apologies for any inconvenience. Taking the opportunity which was a day off (due to Sports Day, so happy for such national holidays), I finally went to Kenrokuen (兼六園), a very well-known park in Kanazawa. I was hoping to see the famous tying up the branches of karasakinomatsu pines, which...

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