Japan – Inherit The Earth

Tokyo: One Moment

“We say ‘Ichi-go, ichi-e’ – one chance, one moment. Appreciate the moment.”

Osaka: Second City

“People from Tokyo say we greet each other here with ‘Mokkari-makka (Are you making money)?’ – which is nonsense. We say ‘How are you?’ like anywhere else.”

AS A hairy 6ft 2in foreigner, you stand out anywhere you go in Japan – but perhaps nowhere more so than walking around the Chiran Peace Museum. Dedicated to the memory of some of the 1,400 kamikaze pilots who gave their lives for the Emperor at the end of World War II, the site isContinue reading “Kagoshima: History in the air”

Osaka: Yen for life

WHAT struck me during my first visit to Japan was our similarities rather than our differences. A small island, lying off the coast of a large continent which it has alternatively threatened or been threatened by during its history; a population that has developed an elaborate set of manners, much of it a legacy ofContinue reading “Osaka: Yen for life”