tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11902228343924776542012-02-10T08:08:11.920ZLukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07748054203542005315noreply@blogger.comBlogger141100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1190222834392477654.post-26535480372985618202011-03-02T04:50:00.004Z2011-03-02T08:48:51.358Z

"And once again, this weird sentiment... This weird strangling sensation... ...It's the jealousy towards her that constrains me, that suffocates me and makes me speak so dryly towards Masami. Deep down I know what this is." I read Blue, a manga by Kiriko Nananan, last week. A disclaimer before I write this: I don't consider myself to be a major fan of either manga or anime. 

Lukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07748054203542005315noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1190222834392477654.post-788420466997075432011-02-25T05:13:00.002Z2011-02-25T05:37:12.609Z

Living in Snow Country 雪やこんこ 霰やこんこ 降っては降っては ずんずん積る 山も野原も 綿帽子かぶり 枯木残らず 花が咲く 雪やこんこ 霰やこんこ 降っても降っても まだ降りやまぬ 犬は喜び 庭駈けまわり 猫は火燵で 丸くなる --------- The snow falls densely, the hail falls densely! It's falling and falling, collecting more and more. The mountains and the fields are also wearing their cotton hats, and in every tree flowers bloom. The snow falls densely, the hail falls densely! It's

Lukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07748054203542005315noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1190222834392477654.post-58596214845342636752011-02-25T03:28:00.001Z2011-02-25T03:36:45.551Z

I've finally bitten the bullet and crawled out from the depths of a rather.. uh.. lengthly hiatus. The reasons for that hiatus are plenty:  1 part writer’s block, 1 part laziness and 2 parts trying to strike some sort of balance between the seemingly perpetual ups and downs of my job. I can now say with some degree of confidence, however, that I have achieved the latter. It only took me,

Lukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07748054203542005315noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1190222834392477654.post-9044811752000853722010-10-15T08:06:00.002+01:002010-10-15T08:37:50.991+01:00

I’m pleased to report that there haven’t been any more signs of the earthquakes that dominated my last entry and the warnings that were set in the Joetsu region for the past 2 weeks have been lifted. It doesn’t mean there won’t be any more but everyone is going about their lives as if nothing happened, so I'm not going to be worrying. Regardless, I reckon we’re due a slightly less dramatic entry

Lukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07748054203542005315noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1190222834392477654.post-88477768723841263382010-10-05T05:39:00.005+01:002010-10-05T07:28:22.840+01:00

I might as well accept that by coming to Japan, I have signed a contract robbing me of ever having a decent lie-in again. After having spent the previous day climbing Yoneyama mountain, not too far from where I live, I figured I deserved a good night’s sleep and the chance to spend Sunday morning in bed. So, imagine my chagrin upon being woken up at 6am by what I initially thought was a truck

Lukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07748054203542005315noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1190222834392477654.post-88306994827181650282010-10-03T08:41:00.003+01:002010-10-05T05:56:06.779+01:00

Things have been tipping away at a nice steady pace here in Joetsu for the past month now. I am still shocked at how busy I am with work and other extra-curricular responsibilities but instead of every day being a completely unpredictable mess of lesson plans, teachers and classes I am unused to, things have evened out and I am beginning to develop a routine. However, I am doing everything in my

Lukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07748054203542005315noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1190222834392477654.post-67738275785785368682010-09-14T07:28:00.000+01:002010-09-14T07:28:03.333+01:00

I don't think it's possible to write a blog about any sort of experience in Japan without at least having some sort of feature post on that most pervasive of linguistic phenomenons: "Engrish" Being an English teacher, I certainly empathise with some of the difficulties that Japanese speakers of English might have with certain pronunciations. Most infamously, this is especially the case with

Lukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07748054203542005315noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1190222834392477654.post-75303493027166518812010-09-03T13:51:00.003+01:002010-09-03T14:07:47.176+01:00

I am backtracking a bit here in the chronological order of my updating but some occasions just have to be revisited before they are swallowed up in the mire of fickle human recall and I have legitimately been too busy lately to write anything sooner. But it is important to do it sooner rather than later. At least in my case. The human memory is a weird construction of organic, chemical and

Lukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07748054203542005315noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1190222834392477654.post-66678176223463155042010-09-01T14:52:00.010+01:002010-09-01T16:03:50.415+01:00

It has taken me a long time to contribute a decent entry to this blog. Work has been intense, to say the least and my weekends have been spent trying to settle into my new apartment and make it habitable, whilst also trying to socialise with the other people in my area so as not to remain entirely isolated. However, that’s not to say I haven’t come across anything since my arrival here that isn’

Lukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07748054203542005315noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1190222834392477654.post-85706418450128530822010-08-31T10:47:00.002+01:002010-08-31T11:13:18.035+01:00

The setting sun, taken on the train from Niigata city to Joetsu - presumably rising again over my home, miles away in the far West. A lot of hot and heavy days have passed since that surreal day when I sat in a café at Dublin airport, bleary-eyed after an overnight bus-trip from Limerick, watching the 5am sunrise while I waited for the plane that would bring me into the next chapter of my

Lukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07748054203542005315noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1190222834392477654.post-70752704561286990262010-07-19T11:34:00.015+01:002010-07-20T01:34:05.980+01:00

I spent the better part of an hour this evening sipping a freshly brewed pot of jasmine tea, trying to appreciate one of my last days of this blustery Irish summer before I am in the midst of the Japanese equivalent. Staring at my already out-dated blog, I racked my brain in an attempt to decide what to write about next. I initially considered that writing about Emei-shan in my previous entry

Lukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07748054203542005315noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1190222834392477654.post-19913716965999598542010-07-07T00:31:00.022+01:002010-07-19T21:54:59.769+01:00

It is only appropriate that I mark my first Weekly Nostalgia Post by giving some context to the image I have used in the header of this blog. Not exactly the Himalayan utopia described in James Hilton's novel, nor is it the safe haven described in Stevie Nicks' classic song (which this blog happens to be named after) but in my personal opinion, the sacred Emei mountain (峨嵋山, which

Lukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07748054203542005315noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1190222834392477654.post-7364986667037145872010-07-06T23:07:00.011+01:002010-07-08T16:06:28.606+01:00

In light of my last post's lamentation of my failure to successfully record my time in China, who says it's too late? Following that somewhat eulogistic testimony to my year in The Middle Kingdom, I couldn't help but become overwhelmed with nostalgia (an affliction you will soon realise I am prone to!). And what does one do when overwhelmed with nostalgia? Spend hours pouring over photographs

Lukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07748054203542005315noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1190222834392477654.post-89383483612616033822010-07-06T17:33:00.014+01:002010-07-20T17:49:57.881+01:00

Time is short, fleeting, cruel and all sorts of other clichés, as evidenced by the fact that I had initially created this blog in a failed attempt to document the year I spent studying abroad in Shanghai, China in 2008. That year flew by in such a whirlwind of insanity, random "you kinda had to be there" situations and anecdotes that I struggle to remember them when asked about my year abroad

Lukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07748054203542005315noreply@blogger.com1