If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Reiko left for Tokyo this morning for an entrance exam for a job she applied for in the Japan Times newspaper. Living in Osaka as we do, this means a 30,000 yen, 150 quid trip on the shinkansen. Good luck Reiko!

It`s not fair! I want to go to Tokyo. Reiko said everywhere is like Osaka city centre even when you`re miles outside of it the same can`t be said of Osaka. Of course I`m a very big fan of Osaka, home to Takoyaki and incidentally the most expensive train line in Japan (which I cunningly enough live on. Zanen.) but I want to go to Tokyo.

Most of the blogs in Japan are written by people living in Tokyo. Here is a good one Tokyo Times For Osaka there is a hilarious one Englishman in Osaka but he hasn`t written anything for a long time. Maybe he`s left. In the Japan blogging community, sites such as my own (newcomer English teacher to Japan writes about teaching, Pocky and vending machines) are looked down upon. Take it from me, mine is in the upper echelons of these (of course!) There are some incredibly good photoblogging ones with unusual views of Japan that differ from Geisha, bonsai and pictures of food I`ve eaten. Click on the Japan webring on the bottom left to be taken to many blogs in Japan (ie. Tokyo)

I am a big fan of the Kansai region with many large cities packed closely together such as Kobe (which recognises the ten year anniversary of the magnitude 7.3 Great Hanshin Earthquake killing 6,433 and injuring 43,000 others on Monday.) There is also Kyoto which is home to too many temples and also Nara which houses the site of the largest buddha I have ever seen. These diverse cities are all within easy access of each other but I want to go to Tokyo! Help Me!