Monthly Archive for January, 2013

Lazy weekend in Tokyo…

Published on January 22, 2013 in Uncategorized. Closed

After a big night out in Tokyo Yurakucho, where we ended up being interviewed as part of a documentary to promote Tokyo nightlife to foreigners, we decided to take it easy for the rest of the weekend…

Link to our interview – we are famous, after all!

The weather was stunning: super sunny but a bit cold all the same. So, we decided to kill the hang over with a really long invigorating walk … and a lovely lunch, of course! I had recently bought a magazine about the best restaurants in our area. It’s really handy! So we picked an Italian restaurant, La Canna. Food was superb and lunch deal unbeatable: 1300 yens (i.e. around 10 euros) for a really fancy starter with a mix of meat, veg and fish (unusual but delicious combination) followed by an amazing pizza, a great caramel panna cotta, a lovely snowman cappuccino and a very friendly waiter … What a feast!

Photos on Flickr

Weekend in Kagoshima, the southern prefecture of Kyushu

Published on January 17, 2013 in Uncategorized. Closed

Back in October 2012, while studying in Fukuoka, we took a trip down to Kagoshima for a long weekend. The area was gorgeous, especially the great views of the sea from the “Herushi Lando” (i.e. Healthy Land in Japanese) stunning hot spring… What a treat it was to bathe in that hot spring!

Kagoshima was surprisingly animated and the two nights out we had were good fun! A lot of “salary men” on the street, gone for a few drinks after work… and obviously where there are lots of “salary men” there are hostesses… Hostess clubs are quite a strange cultural aspect of Japan, but I guess many countries have their equivalent of an hostess club. However, the concept of host club (a host is the male version of hostess) is quite weird and the definition of a sexy man in Japan is … not mine.

Photo credit for the hot spring photo (cameras were forbidden in that place).

Memories of Fukuoka…

Published on January 4, 2013 in Uncategorized. Closed

We spent four weeks studying Japanese at GenkiJACS in Fukuoka. We learnt so much in so little time… Teachers were great craic and did not just teach Japanese but also gave us a lot of good tips on what to see and do in Fukuoka and in Japan! On graduation day, it was sad to say goodbye!

 

A fellow French student from the GenkiJACs school took Dave and I for lunch to Chikae, an amazing Japanese restaurant. In the evenings, it’s what’s called a “very expensive restaurant” but they have that amazing lunch deal for 1,500 Yens (about 15 euros) where you get a huge set meal including sushi, tempura, crab soup and other wonders… We were told they cook about 400 set meals and when they’ve all been eaten, you have to go “A La Carte” or leave… Food was deliciously fresh! No wonder, the fish are alive, swimming in tanks in the middle of the restaurant, until you order them for your lunch! Japan loves freshness… Bon appétit!

 

We had a great time in Fukuoka! We went to school every day to study Japanese as well as experiencing the Fukuoka life. We met some great people on the course and also friends of friends who showed us around. We rented a furnished studio during the time of the course. It was conveniently located 15mn walk from the school. Our area was full of delightful restaurants, some of them were just “yatai” (outdoor stalls) very popular during summer!