Photo by Anna Petek And in a blink of an eye, we’re now at the end of 2021. Overall, it’s been another weird year with a lot of confusion and the non-stop lockdowns in Japan as this life-threatening pandemic continues. But even if almost half of the year was spent indoors, we’ve still tried to retain some level of the old normal and to find some joy in the little things. This post is the 8th in a row that I’ve written in attempts to encapsulate 365 days into a single blog post, you can read 2014- here.  Health, Gut Dysbiosis and Other Problems Towards the end of 2020 and for most of the ..read more

Kismet. Destiny. Fate. Powerful words that I’ve been fighting against for most of my life. In Year 12 I submitted an essay in my application to an undergraduate degree for medicine. I wrote about not believing in fate but instead in hard work and taking control of my own future. I didn’t get into the program, not even close. But it hasn’t stopped me from trying to steer life towards where I wanted to go, even if the current was taking me in the opposite direction. In honour of the 21,081 lives lost to suicide in Japan, 12 hiking enthusiasts and guides made their way up Mt Tanigawa. The funds w ..read more

I recently stumbled across a website which streamed old PlayStation 1 games. Unlike the age-old process of downloading an emulator and looking for ROMS, the site only took a few minutes to load before a game was 100% playable. This allowed me to comb through a pretty extensive archive of old games and play with them for a few minutes each, which got me incredibly nostalgic for the games I had spent almost my entire childhood on. Below are some that I still think about until today and some that I had completely forgotten about until this week. Herc’s Adventure Herc’s Adventures is a video game ..read more

I caved in recently and bought a single dragonfruit from my local supermarket. I saw it at the entrance where there was a fruit display that sat separately from the rest of the fresh produce. It had been hastily decorated, enough that you could recognise that it was dedicated to ‘exotic’ fruit, even if the striking features of durian and Thai mangoes that graced the space didn’t already give it away. I picked it up, took note of the price and turned it over in my head a few times. Quickly, without giving my mind a second chance to deliberate, I stuffed it in my basket and moved on. When I arri ..read more

Last month, I produced a series of travel stories around my trip to Utsunomiya for The AU Review. They are very comprehensive and I will link to them below. But I wanted to carve out a bit of space on my blog to talk about the trip from a different perspective and for posterity I guess. Japan is so much more than the big name cities like Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto. Since moving here, I’ve been to quite a few inaka locations and each of them really do have their own character, charm and story. Utsunomiya and Oya by extension were definitely not places I would have originally visited. But I’m glad ..read more

Recently, I got to catch up with my friend and former Tokyo resident, Tao Lin, for her new podcast, Not Your Token Minority. We met during her time living in Japan and we’ve always gotten along, whether through our love of food, dancing or perhaps more prominently, our shared battle scars of going through law school without having a passion to become a lawyer. After we wrapped up the call, I definitely felt a sense of anxiety. That I had just rambled my way through and wasted two hours of Tao’s time, that my story wasn’t the “norm” and no one would be interested in it as a result. Now that it ..read more

The recent TheGamer announcement on the closure of PS4, PSP and PS Vita digital stores has left gamers like myself scratching our heads. ‘Where did I last put my PS Vita?’ I thought. Of all of the gaming consoles and handhelds I’ve owned, the PS Vita was probably the most forgettable for me. This is most likely a me problem, as I was never able to truly immerse myself into handheld games past the Pokemon series, Ace Attorney and a bit of Harvest Moon. I always found it hard to become truly immersed in the world of a handheld game, mostly because of the tiny screens and the lack of storyline fo ..read more

I’ve been living in Japan for over two years now and have made countless of trips here over the years. But pinch me because this week is the first time I’ve ever been to Eggs ‘n Things! Eggs ‘n Things is a chain of restaurants that can be found all over Japan, plus one lone outlet in Hawaii. As you might have guessed from its name, it is rather synonymous with brunch and Western-styled breakfasts, thus is very popular with the younger demographic here in Tokyo. What does separate it somewhat from other brunch spots is its distinct Hawaiian vibe, prevalent in some menu items and the staff memb ..read more

After a bountiful stay in Aomori, the next leg of our Tohoku travels is Sendai. Despite not being one of the ‘big name’ cities like Tokyo and Osaka, Sendai definitely isn’t a city to sleep on. Boasting a population of over one million, it holds an important position as the economic centre of the Tohoku region. For those looking for tertiary education options, Sendai also houses many universities with world-renown research institutes. A big first impressions upon disembarking off our train is the abundance of green that laces through the concrete jungle. It’s not uncommon to see tree-lined str ..read more

Restaurants and bars are a universally competitive industry, but never is it more so than in Tokyo. A city with an estimated 60,000 establishments coupled with an income destroying pandemic certainly is akin to playing the game on a God-tier level of difficulty. The closure of Inua at the end of 2020 was a sad but sobering reality, that even fine dining businesses would not necessarily be exempt. One other fancy establishment that still remains standing for now is Eneko Tokyo, and in today’s story, the setting of my birthday lunch. Eponymously named after the chef himself, Eneko Tokyo is a mod ..read more