Well, two countries in completely different parts of the world, one an island nation sitting between the Japan Sea and the Pacific Ocean, while the other is a landlocked country neatly tucked away in the middle of Europe, with its southern-most point 160 km from the nearest coast. One with a population of 8.7 million, growing by 0.7% each year, while the other boasts 15 times as many inhabitants, but is shrinking by half a percent per annum. One can do the math to try and fi

This month marks 27 years since I set foot in Japan, together with my Japanese wife, to make a fresh start in a country that I knew little about, and where I had merely spent a few weeks previously while on holiday. I thought that I would use this occasion to start a blog to share my experiences of living in this fascinating - and sometimes confusing - country. It might seem an odd decision to pick the 27-year anniversary, but in a sense, it's kind of a logical choice. Becaus