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Happy Birthday Coco!
Happy Birthday to you… So, it’s late and we forgot to write a blog post and as it’s nearly tomorrow, here we are! One day late, but we would like to say Happy Birthday to Coco (Jason’s family’s dog in Liverpool). His mum Paula made the most amazingly-delicious-looking cake for him out of dog food. Very inspired! I wonder if you can guess how old he is? Good night folks 🙂
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SO big!!
The bigger the better? We are super busy today, but as we have promised to write a blog post every single day this month, here is a photo of something funny we have discovered in Germany this week: Yup – possibly the world’s biggest cucumber? And check out the size of the cornflakes box – I’m surprised it even fit on the shelves of our little local supermarket! Until tomorrow then folks, have a great weekend 🙂
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Boardgaming in Amsterdam
Our flight to Japan first took us via Amsterdam where we had several hours to waste before our connecting flight. I had never been to Amsterdam before and Vanessa suggested we pop into the city to have a look around. She has been several times with work in the past and knew exactly where to take us (which is quite the role reversal as I am usually the one guiding Vanessa around!) We walked around the town and she mentioned that she visited a nice local boardgame store during a previous visit and that we should go check it out again. Obviously I was very excited. We found it straight away…
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Friday Links
You’ve got a friend in me… For our trip to Japan, we drew a blank on things to bring as presents from Germany. On the one hand, chocolate is famous, but it melts immediately. Here is a good list for our next trip. If you have ever struggled to think of a blog post to write about or just want to write a couple of lines a day, here are some great tips. Have you heard of Eyebombing? This is the cutest thing I have seen for a while and it definitely put a smile on my face 🙂 And on the same topic, if you are interested in why…
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Travelling light…
Wherefore art thou? It’s always exciting to arrive in a new country. Most of the time, your luggage arrives too, but when we got to Japan it didn’t come around the belt to greet us. The very friendly staff were apologetic and sweet and immediately gave us 10,000 yen (about £60) per suitcase. She said it would surely be at our hotel by the next morning, so we didn’t worry at all. These things happen. All the time in fact. I have had my luggage not turn up so many times. Usually it’s actually very convenient. Once in France, a friend and I had a horrendous journey from the airport…
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Food Travelling
Hungry hippo? So anyone who has travelled or generally been anywhere with me will know that I am obsessed with food. It is definitely something I have inherited from the male side of my family. I love my father’s stories about food, which include making an amazing curry for his father and realising it was actually too delicious to share. So instead, he ate the whole thing and got a takeaway for his dad. I would do the same… ahem… Anyhoo, on arrival in Japan we discovered it was extremely hot and muggy. So much so it was almost hard to breathe, especially when you emerge from an air-conditioned airplane.…
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Living in Germany for exactly one year…
Happy Birthday to us! Vanessa: Yup, exactly one year ago today, we set foot on the land of sausages and beer. We would like to say thank you to all of you for reading, whether you were there from the start or you have joined us during our journey. It’s been a fabulous year, full of cheesecake, finding a beer I actually enjoy drinking, making some amazing friends and doing a variety of jobs. We have moved into the most amazing apartment ever and Jason has amassed a huge collection of board games. I have dabbled into photography and gardening, whilst trying to get my craft on. It’s been so much…
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Purikura
Papa-papa-razzi… This is one of my most favourite inventions ever. It’s like the old passport photo booths you can find all over Berlin, but a million times better. When I first lived in Japan, I was 18 years old and attending a girl’s high school. My classmates were obsessed with Purikura (comes from shortening the words Print Club which are written as Purinto Kurabu in Japanese). We would spend all our money in these booths taking photos of ourselves smiling. Then we discovered making silly faces was also lots of fun. And as there were basically no other foreigners where I was based, random people constantly came up to me…
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Japanese toilets
Where is the smallest room in the house? Okay, so I know I’m meant to be an English lady and we don’t talk about toilets, the loo, the lavatory, the bog or the bathroom. In fact, I only go and powder my nose. But I am going to have to go there. My dad is a urologist, so I’ve heard every joke in the book and more. And if you are going to Japan, you need to be made aware of the smallest rooms in the house. I remember as a young teenager travelling to Malaysia with my father. We were in the car and we stopped off on our…
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Travelling cheaply by Train in Japan
Choo Choo Choo… During August we shall take you on our Japan trip with us. We spent two weeks eating and seeing friends whilst discovering new places in the Land of the Rising Sun. As so many of you have asked about our trip, we thought it would be best to share it all with you. Most of it will of course be food-related, but we might even recommend some sights and fun stuff to do for when you plan your trip! Read along and let us know if you have any questions or would like more information etc – we would love to hear from you 🙂 Our…