One of my absolute favourite things about travelling (and especially living in a foreign country for a while) is the people you meet, locals and ex-pats alike. It's not surprising that the fellow ex-pats I've met while living abroad are some of my closest friends, because we obviously have a love of …
Japan
A decade ago in Osaka, my first home abroad, via Instagram
I will always have a special place in my heart for Osaka because it was my first home abroad, and because I truly loved living there and was so sad to leave. It is difficult to explain to someone who hasn't lived there quite why I loved Osaka so much. Even visiting as a tourist, I suspect, might not …
On climbing Mt Fuji and being both under-prepared and under-skilled in the local language
My two-year stay in Japan saw me based in Osaka and Nara, rather than the more common Tokyo area, and that meant the magnificent Mount Fuji (Fuji-san) was not quite round the corner. But it was so often present in discussions and very early on I decided that I wanted to climb it before I left Japan. …