Hannah in Japan

Hello again from Japan, hope this finds everyone happy and well wherever you might be reading from. Halloween events are currently in full swing. In Japan, it seems to be more of a week-long celebration rather than a one-day event. They really go all out, it's kind of insane. In recent years during Halloween, Shibuya has been the place to go. Huge crowds gather to party and drink in the streets, and this year I think there were a few arrests made! It's funny how such a western cultural event has become so popular in Japan. However, here, it seems to have lost any trace of its' origin and is just about who has the best costumes. Seems to be the case with lots of western holidays here... Last week I had my aunty and uncle here, and they came armed with lots of Whittakers chocolate for me! Only Kiwis will understand the deliciousness that is Whittakers chocolate. Definitely good to have that in my life again! They were staying in Shinjuku, right in the heart of the city, so w...

Hello again from Japan, Can you believe we are nearly in November? Where has the year gone? I've been fairly busy lately, working, socialising, and on Monday I went to Tokyo Disneyland! 10 years after visiting Disneyland in Los Angeles, I finally made it to Tokyo Disneyland, and it was a great day out. I relived my last trip by going on my two favourite rides (Space Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain), and did some other rides I didn't get to do last time (It's a Small World and Pooh's Honey Hunt). I also have more family coming to visit next week (my other aunty and uncle on mum's side). We won't be travelling around together as they're on a work trip, but they do have one free day, so we might go to Odaiba and maybe the Robot Restaurant. I'll definitely let you know what we decide to do! Recently, I've been doing some thinking, and I've come to the realisation that I think everyone should try living abroad at some point in their lives. It real...

Hello again from Japan, I've recently felt like putting a whole lot more effort into this blog, so I'm trying to post more and try to write things that are not just updates on my life, but about Japan and life here in general. The good, the bad and the ugly. So I thought I'd write a bit about culture shocks that myself and many others have experienced when arriving in Japan for the first time. After being here for nine months, I've gotten used to these things, but I can definitely still remember first arriving here and experiencing these shocks for the first time. The first culture shock is something that you may have heard about before coming to Japan, and that's high tech toilets! The thing you probably notice when you go to use the bathroom at a lot of public places in Japan is how many buttons there are on the toilet, and it may take you a while to decipher what each button does. However, after a while you can pretty safely guess which is which. On the other ...

Hello again from Japan, where we have just had another typhoon rip across the country. The past few weeks have been complete turmoil weather wise with many typhoons causing a lot of damage, particularly in Osaka and most recently Okinawa. In New Zealand, we don't really get typhoons as such. Cyclones and hurricanes hit the Pacific Islands of Fiji, Rarotonga and Vanuatu fairly often, but by the time these reach New Zealand, they are fairly weak and don't do too much damage. My first experience of a typhoon here was a bit of a build-up, just a bit of wind and rain, nothing too major, but recently the typhoons here have been making headlines worldwide and have been some of the biggest storms to hit Japan in the past 20 years, so it is kind of worrying. Tokyo has gotten off very lightly so far, but who knows what these storms have in store. Typhoons weren't something I was expecting to experience so often when I first came to Japan, so this leads me to the topic of this post......