In sake's footsteps

My teachers sometimes manage to positively surprise me. The trip to a sake brewery, where we were to see how it’s made, was first supposed to take place in December, but something didn’t work out there. Then the information we received got a bit unclear, it ended up as February 8th (right before a skiing trip – yay for health and safety!)… but surprise, it turned out that there’ll...

Read more »

Review: １リットルの涙

I finally got the guts and read my first whole book in Japanese. Not a comic, not a newspaper article, not bits of textbooks for classes – a book. Not only have I stepped up to the mini-challenge I set myself, but I also fulfilled the first of my New Year’s goals. “Ichi rittoru no namida” (“１リットルの涙”, eng. “A Litre of Tears”) is a diary by Aya Kitō who was diagnosed with spinocerebellar...

Read more »

The Small Towel Phenomenon

A small towel as such isn’t strange to anyone. Quite a useful thing, but usually only one is enough. And that’s why a few times already I had a conversation with friends when they expressed their surprise at this thing upon coming to Japan – so I decided to explain to you too the Small Towel Phenomenon, the so called tenugui (手拭), literally “hand wiper”. Tenugui in the Studio...

Read more »

Review: 花咲くいろは

After so many warnings and reasurrances, Kanazawa finally has snow and the temperatures got below zero (only by a little, but still). And if I ever need any excuse to binge watch stuff, then weather like that is good enough. So at an almost scary pace I watched the entirety of “Hanasaku Iroha” (花咲くいろは), a 2011 anime. When I read some synopses on Wikipedia, I expected something...

Read more »

Cat cafe

For my birthday I (finally!) went to a cat café, or neko café in Japanese (猫カフェ). And what can I say really: it turned out exactly as well as one could expect. Prices depend on the cafe itself. I remember walking round Tokyo and passing by a few cat cafes which put me off by their prices per half an hour. This one was relatively wallet-friendly: 30 minutes cost Y500, and 45...

Read more »

Around Tokyo

Of course, I did not spend all my time just in the capital – that’d be a bit of a waste. After all there are so many interesting and pretty places, and also how long can one stare at ordinary buildings? In fact I did not go around the places near Tokyo as thoroughly as I probably could’ve, but I feel that I saw what was really worth seeing. I don’t live in Tokyo, so I don’t feel...

Read more »