Stepping outside in Tokyo these days is like walking into a brick wall. The humid air clings to you like wrapping film around a sushi roll, and you wonder if Japan has secretly relocated to the equator overnight. However, Google Maps insists we’re still in the same spot. So, there can only be one explanation: Summer has arrived! 35 degrees Celsius for the last couple of days, and judging by the forecast, this is just the warm-up! Technically we are supposed to be in the mid

I have just returned from a 3-week long trip to Europe, to visit family and friends. Apart from the observation that everything is jaw-droppingly expensive over there now, 'curtesy of' an ultra-weak yen, I came across something that is incredibly popular in Europe, yet is seemingly unknown in Japan: Aperol Spritz. For anyone not familiar with the drink: The Aperol Spritz is an Italian wine-based cocktail, commonly served as an apéritif and consisting of Prosecco, Aperol (a bo

It may come as a surprise to many outside of Japan that most streets here don't have a name. The notable exception are main streets, expressways and toll roads. But your ordinary residential street will always be nameless. Why is that? Japan uses a highly complex, area-based addressing system dating back to the Meiji era (1868 - 1912). Towns are typically subdivided into smaller areas with names, and then into smaller blocks with numbers, and finally into individual lots with

With days - and evenings - getting warmer, I feel myself drawn to restaurant terraces and street cafés - not that they can exactly be found in abundance in Japan, mind you! Since my other half is away for a few days and the weather is absolutely glorious at the moment, last night I decided to stroll to the nearby shopping area and have dinner at our favourite Italian-Spanish restaurant, the only one left within walking distance that offers outdoor dining. There used to be ano

A few months ago I mentioned that my old Swiss Driving Licence was going to lose its validity this year, as Swiss authorities will now only accept the new licence in credit card format. I appreciate that Switzerland is moving with the times. The conundrum is that the new licence is only issued to folks residing in Switzerland, essentially leaving Swiss nationals living abroad out in the cold. So in order to continue to drive legally in Switzerland, getting an international li

Japanese banks and credit card companies take security very, very seriously. Which would seem to be a good thing, right? Except, they often take it to such extremes that it can be super frustrating for the user. The thing is that I travel and shop overseas quite frequently, and ever so often when using an overseas website, my card is blocked because the purchase is flagged as potentially fraudulent. When I say overseas websites, I'm not talking about shady websites, but major

As I'm writing this, it's 3 degrees Celsius outside in the middle of the day, and the mercury is not expected to rise much further than that today... Hard to believe that barely 3 days ago I was having lunch on the terrace of a pizzeria in the centre of Tokyo, with a balmy 23 degrees, and with one specific type of cherry tree ('Kawazu Sakura' ) already in bloom nearby! This being February, I knew, of course, that the lovely pre-spring weather was not going to last, though the

As my Swiss passport was due to expire in a few months' time, I thought it best to get a new one ahead of time. Always be prepared, is one of my mantras. These days the process of renewing a passport is very straightforward: I just had to fill in an online form and submit to the Passport Office in Switzerland, and within less than 24 hours I got confirmation that they had the necessary confidence that I am indeed who I said I was (which is always a relief!), and they asked me

Monday saw a blizzard in Tokyo, which dumped 8 cm of snow in the capital. Although 'dumped' doesn't quite seem to hit the right note, as it would seem to be more adequate in connection with at least half a metre of snow... 8 cm doesn't sound like much, and it isn't - at least not to someone from an Alpine nation used to snow (heck, I even did my driving test on snow-covered roads). Yet, whenever there is more than a centimetre of snow on the ground in Tokyo (and this was the

As I enter my 28th year in Japan (and my former life on 'planet Switzerland' is drifting more and more into the obscure past), I have been reflecting on the fact that some of the questions I face when meeting new people in Japan have never changed over the years. Japanese people generally show great interest in other countries and cultures, and especially so, it seems, in Switzerland. Switzerland enjoys kind of a special status in the world for a number of reasons: It's a ric

6th December will be Saint Nicholas Day. In Switzerland, on and around this day you will spot two distinctly different figures walking up and down the streets and visiting houses, one with a bushy white beard and usually clad in a Bishop's robe with a mitre and staff (though sometimes dressed in a red-hooded frock with a tippet), the other rather sinister-looking, in a black robe, with a dark beard and a face covered in coal dust. Often they are accompanied by a donkey. Santa

With Halloween firmly over and Christmas season officially upon us, my wife and I thought it would be a good idea to search for some concerts for December. Halloween decorations have given way to a grand Christmas tree at the Futako-Tamagawa Rise Shopping Mall. And with the pandemic (more or less) confined to the history books, foreign artists - who, along with pretty much everyone else, were banned from entering the country for the best part of two years - have started to co

When you live on the other side of the world and far away from your nearest and dearest (and by 'near' I don't mean in the geographical sense, obviously), you want to make your trips back to your home country count and therefore plan them meticulously, in order to make sure they go smoothly and you can enjoy them as fully as possible. So when a few months back my other half hinted that she hadn't been abroad in almost five years (whilst I had been able to sneak in a couple of

One week from today, the clocks in Europe will be set back by one hour, marking the end of summertime (or daylight saving time, as it is known in some parts of the world). Meanwhile clocks in Japan will not change, and most Japanese will probably not even notice that the time difference to Western Europe is reverting back to 8 hours, from the 7 hours during summer. Except for the UK, where it's 9 hours instead of 8. For those doing business with Europe, it does have an impact

Today marks 27 years to the day since I boarded a plane in Europe on my way to start a new life in Japan. There used to be a time when air travel could be described with one word: Excitement. Especially when it involved a 12-hour flight to a far-flung destination on the other side of the planet. But in the last two decades, air travel has become much more complicated, and the words that are more likely associated with it these days are stress, anxiety and exhaustion... I gues

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