Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category

I discovered the following thing about blogs: It’s hard to keep up with the hard work of posting things on a regular basis… you need to find something interesting to talk about and to find time to create the artwork for the post (in my case)! So I thought that to keep it interesting, I would challenge myself with a new theme, “Photo of the week”. So, this new theme does exactly what it says on the tin: it’s a selected photo per week! However, the photo does not have to be taken that week though, but it can.

And I will start with the following photo. It was taken late October when I was finishing my intensive Japanese study at the Meguro Language Centre in Tokyo. The sunset light that day was amazing … so bright and orange. I took the photo thinking it would never show well the feel of that moment, but it did! Since that day, there have been many days with such light… we’ve been extremely lucky with a really sunny and dry winter. Thank you very much, Japan!

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

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!