Category: Japan
Taipei Diaries: Jiufen, Raohe Night Market, and Yongkang Street
Here’s the last part of my August Taiwan adventures! August 13th: It was time to bring my friend to Jiufen, because as a first-time Japanese tourist to Taiwan, you must go to live out your Spirited Away dreams. She also wanted to go to Shifen to set off the lanterns, so I planned to stop…
Taipei Diaries: Exploring Tainan, Taichung, and Taipei 101
Continuing on with Part 2 of my August 2024 Taiwan adventures! We head to Tainan to meet up with my cousin, explore Taichung, and then chill at Taipei 101 for a magical Din Tai Fung experience. August 10th: Because we wanted to maximize our time in Tainan, we had reserved our shinkansen/high speed rail train…
Taipei Diaries: Spring Family Trip, Taipei 101, and Ximending
This year, my schools’ Spring break is March 23-April 7, which means two weeks of deskwarming for me. I decided to take the first week off to go travel to Taiwan again (I had lots of fun last year and couldn’t wait to go back at a warmer time!), and it just happened to also…
Cars in Japan
When you don’t want to take public transportation or you’re traveling to an area where public transport doesn’t reach, you can always take a taxi or rent a car (provided you have an international permit with you). Now as a disclaimer, I haven’t driven in Japan, so this post is purely based on what I…
Egg Cartons in Japan
Any American (I can’t speak for other countries) out there would know that eggs come in a dozen (which for anyone who doesn’t know, means a count of 12). Sometimes if you didn’t want to buy that much, you can get half a pack, or 6, but not necessarily for half the price. Or even,…
Otaru Diaries: Showing my Family Around!
My family came to Japan! They’re staying two weeks, exploring one by themselves in Otaru and Sapporo, and the other with me in Tokyo, and other places. They flew in on July 1st, and I met up with them in Otaru on the 2nd and showed them around. My boyfriend and I took the 10:30…
My First Japanese Elementary School Undoukai (Sports Day)
On June 9th, I attended one of my elementary school’s undoukai, or sports day (I’ve seen it translated as “field day” somewhere too). Basically, the kids start practicing for runs and relays a few weeks in advance, and they prepare dances as well. An all around day to promote health and sports I suppose. I…
My First Japanese Elementary School Ensoku
On May 16th, I attended one of my elementary school’s ensoku, or field trip or excursion, as it could be translated. I still had to go to work, but because it ended up on a day I was going to this school, there were no classes for me to teach. Instead of deskwarming all day,…
Taipei Diaries: Seeing Grandma and Taipei 101
It’s Golden Week in Japan! What’s Golden Week? You might have read in previous posts that I’ve gone out on weekdays, and that’s because I got the day off since it’s a public holiday. Golden Week essentially is a week in May when there are 3 public holidays in a row (not exactly sure how…
Japanese Hole Punchers
I guess I never really thought about it, but since I spend a lot of time at school (go figure), I’ve seen my fair share of Japanese school supplies and stationary. Now, obviously some Japanese things will be the same (pencils, generally erasers, pens), and some will be different. Now I don’t know if this…