Hannah in Japan

Hello again from an increasingly cold Japan. Brrr! It's getting chilly outside now! Winter is definitely on its' way here in Tokyo. Trying to stay healthy when everyone on the trains is getting sick will be a mission. I've been pretty lucky to not be sick too much this year, so here's hoping it continues. Christmas is just around the corner, and the illuminations are out in full force here in Japan. Many areas of Tokyo put on their own unique light show, and I'm keen to go out and look at them in the next few weeks. So now that I've experienced all 4 seasons here in Japan, I thought I'd do a comparison between Japan and New Zealand for you, bearing in mind that the seasons occur at the opposite times of the year-NZ summer December-February, Winter June-August and Japan summer June-August and Winter December-February. Hopefully this will help you decide when to come if you're planning a trip to either Japan or New Zealand. Let's get into it! Round 1:...

Hello again from Tokyo, where the leaves are slowly but surely changing from shades of green to shades of orange, yellow and red. Further north in Japan where it's colder, this has already happened, but it seems to be taking a while for it to happen here. I do love the autumn season, as I mentioned in my last blog, and I went to Kamakura on Thursday to try and catch a glimpse of it. It was unfortunately slightly too early as it has been kinda warm, but I'm sure the next few weeks will be nice. I plan to go to Mt Mitake on Thursday as the weather looks good, so stay tuned for that. Today is another expectations vs reality kind of post, and I wanted to touch on something that doesn't really get talked about a lot and that is the expectations people have when they plan to move abroad versus how it actually is when you go and live abroad.  People have expectations of always travelling, trying new things, meeting new people all the time, and just generally having the best time e...