international study tour

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

This entry was posted in Japan 2012 and tagged photography takatsuki kansai university kansai international study tour bike on 21 January 2012 by aventurafranji

map_kyotostation — 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 ...

This entry was posted in Japan 2012 and tagged photography kansai university international study tour ryoanji kyoto station kyoto kinkakuji kyoto university norio okada kamikatsu on 20 January 2012 by aventurafranji

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

This entry was posted in Japan 2012 and tagged photography climate change takatsuki international study tour kamikatsu adaptation shikoku on 18 January 2012 by aventurafranji

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

This entry was posted in Japan 2012 and tagged photography kansai university international study tour kamikatsu shikoku nojima fault disaster reduction kobe awaji earthquake on 17 January 2012 by aventurafranji

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

This entry was posted in Japan 2012 and tagged photography climate change takatsuki kansai university international study tour adaptation sake on 16 January 2012 by aventurafranji

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

This entry was posted in Japan 2012 and tagged photography msc disaster management and sustainable development takatsuki kansai university kansai international study tour adaptation disaster management electric toilets northumbria university on 15 January 2012 by aventurafranji

gaijin — 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

This entry was posted in Japan 2012 and tagged international study tour osaka disaster management cafe ritazza midnight in paris green lantern airport disasters on 14 January 2012 by aventurafranji

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 […]

Leaving for Japan

This entry was posted in Japan 2012 and tagged msc disaster management and sustainable development kansai university international study tour osaka adaptation disaster management northumbria university disasters resilience on 13 January 2012 by aventurafranji