I’m just back from teaching English to the housewives in Nara. They completely spoil me! Everytime I come they have coffee and home made cakes for me. After the class was over they showed me how to make some Japanese vegetarian food. We made onigiri rice balls filled with seaweed and umeboshi, rencon (japanese […]

Hola. It’s a sleepy Sunday morning in Kamigyo Ku and Giita’s about to go help some kids with their halloween party. She’s sitting beside me opening her seasonal Pula Loli Hello Kitty (”gothic, lolita and punk”) that we got in the convenience store last night.

They love halloween over here and make a big fuss about […]

Since Cormac started with the Large Mound references, I thought it best to keep it going. He finally jetted off to Ireland this morning circa 9am, golden Totoro in tow. Here is a grey Totoro.

He was told variously that he would be leaving last Thursday, then Friday, then that he would be leaving the hospital […]

This is a blog entry that Cormac wrote from hospital 4 days ago. Only got around to getting it from the USB drive now, but here it is, slightly out of date:
I’ve been in the Otowa clinic for 5 days now and I guess that it’s just like any other hospital, in that it’s full […]

Thanks for all of your messages about Cormac. Latest is: he needs to have some more aggressive tests, so they reckon he’s better getting those at home. Nonetheless, they haven’t let him out of hospital yet and are being vague about when that’ll happen. They do love the ‘vague’ over here. Two doctors came to […]

When Cormac first arrived in Japan he wasn’t feeling too well. His face swelled up and he felt knackered. This had happened a little over the Summer too. Then his ankles and feet started swelling and it began moving up his legs. Giita suggested he see a doctor, but being Irish and male he was […]

Not much has happened in the last few days, Joss has been busy studying and I’ve been going to my Japanese classes and teaching a boring grammar class. Joss’s teacher told him that he had to do at least three hours of homework a day and get a television so he could watch Japanese programmes. […]

From last weekend’s photos you can see how sunny it was in Nara. It rained heavily the following day and, aside from a couple of bright moments here and there, it’s been breezy and wet since. This must mean autumn has arrived. Bugger.
I could feel a cold coming on early in the week. After getting […]

Just saw this in the news section on www.icelandreview.com yay! Cheaper flights to Iceland FROM dublin!

10/04/2006 | 12:29
Ryanair adds Iceland to destination list
Low-cost airline Ryanair plans to take up regular scheduled flights to Iceland.
Next summer passengers can book flights to Iceland from London and Dublin with Ryanair, according to the newsletter of the Icelandic Airline […]

Yep I started teaching this week! I was very nervous before my class and only had five hours sleep that night. Then I had a disastrous journey getting to Nara. First of all I had to cycle to Nijo station which took about ten minutes, got on a packed train for Kyoto Station where I […]