Komal and I had breakfast together yesterday and both of us were a little taken aback when two guys walked in and ordered beer. Before 9am. Today I went for breakfast alone at 8.30am. As I was arriving, a group of 4 people chatted to me as they were leaving, […]
Japan 2012
Much better day today. Despite waiting ages for Hideyuki in the hotel. Anyway, when he eventually arrived, we all went over to Kansai University. Hideyuki had some work to do, so me and Komal sat in a classroom and were very studious. Hideyuki joined us after his work and I […]
Kainan
Komal and I discussed research further this morning. He asked me to put together a simple plan of what I want to do, and also possible interviews in the UK and Japan. I then closed myself in the hotel room until cabin fever started setting in later in the afternoon. […]
Quiet day
Checked out of the hotel at 11am because Komal and I are moving to a cheaper hotel for the week. We sat in the foyer waiting for Hideyuki for two hours! He was very apologetic. But I won’t get those two hours back, in which I felt like I got […]
Moving hotels and Discussing research
A thoroughly boring day. Met Komal and Andrea at breakfast and said I wanted to catch up on work while they went shopping. Basically spent the entire day in the hotel room but didn’t feel like I accomplished that much. Decided I should probably get some fresh air around 5pm […]
And then there were three
Today the Gaijins almost brought Japan to a standstill. Well, a Brazilian one in particular. Andrea held up the shuttle bus from the hotel by 5 minutes, then the train to Kyoto was late, and much later, Komal and Bernard’s meeting ran over. Coincidence? I think not! Late trains in […]
“The worst that can happen is we end up on the other side of the ...
The conference is basically over, but everyone has a couple of free days so we decided to do some sightseeing. Liv, Shaun and I had decided to go to Nara today, and Marion, Andrea and Dorota came with us. Nara used to be the capital of Japan and has loads […]
Big Buddha
We had a much more relaxed start to the day today: breakfast at 7.45am and no educational stuff until 9.30am, which meant we had enough time to go for a walk and see orange trees, bamboo plants, and a random shrine or two in the countryside around the hotel. It […]
International Study Tour Day 3: Kamikatsu
And so the inevitable suffering after the night before. Chris was pretty certain he was still drunk at breakfast. I felt OK then, but got worse as the day went on. We took the shuttle to the station and got a train to Nagata, Kobe. We started our day at […]
Kobe and Awaji, or Fish Potato
Official start of the conference today. Started with a 6am phone call from Komal telling me to be at breakfast at 7.30am. Which we had already been told the night before… We took the shuttle bus from the hotel to the station and walked in what was probably not the […]
International Study Tour Day 1, or Auto Face Focus
The not so great view from my hotel room We arrived in Kansai Airport 10am but had to hang around until 11.30am because Neill’s plane was delayed (Neill is Assistant Chief of Northumberland Fire & Rescue). Once he arrived we took the train to Takatsuki Kyoto Hotel, which took about […]
Arriving in Japan, or Fish Paper
1 Thanks to this book that Rebecca bought for me, I know not to say “chin chin” in Japan! Apparently it’s slang for ‘penis’. So it’ll be “kanpai” (cheers) all the way! On my way to the airport. It’s been about 2 ½ years since I’ve flown anywhere. At least, I […]
Flying to Japan
So off to Cardiff to get my flight to Japan. I think Komal assumed Cardiff would be my nearest airport because it is in Wales like me. I don’t think I’ll bother telling him that Liverpool, Manchester, East Midlands, Leeds and Birmingham are all closer; and Cardiff is only slightly […]