the Way to Japan

Put the kettle on & enjoy an enlightening chat with the charming Charlie, a tea shop owner in London with real passion for Japanese culture. I got INSPIRED with so many TEA BREWING TIPS from talking with Charlie, and I think you will too!A milliner by training, Charlie has established the tea shop Tencha with her husband Chris, a jeweller after they fell in love with the taste & aesthetics of all things tea in Japan on their honeymoon.The couple study Urasenke Chado (tea ceremony) her...

I'm SO chuffed to finally catch up with my talented friend, Yuki Gomi, a professional chef, teacher and cookery writer. I can still remember the taste of the delicious aubergine dish we made when I attended one of her wonderful Yuki's Kitchen cooking classes in her home near my old haunt, Crystal Palace, about 10 years ago!Since then, Yuki has gone from strength to strength, with her first book 'Sushi at Home' published in 2013 by Penguin, and her Japanese cooking expertise has reached many t...

It was SUCH a joy to speak with my writing mentor & bestselling author, Beth Kempton, who is an award-winning entrepreneur and producer of online courses, a Reiki Master, a yoga teacher, a mama of two young girls, and a self-help author whose books have been translated into more than 25 languages.Even if you don't have a copy of her book 'Wabi Sabi', you would likely recognise it from it's gorgeous pale green cover... I see it in practically every book shop, gift shop & boutique! ...

WELCOME back to the Way to Japan Autumn 2022 interview series! I hugely enjoyed talking to my inspirational friend Anna, who is a Devon-based nutritionist and a mum in a busy Japanese British family day-to-day. I met Anna through an online course have since been relishing her Japan-inspired approach to food over on Instagram. Anna has gained much first-hand insight into the Japanese ways of approaching food through her varied experiences of living in Japan, first teaching in rural A...

WELCOME to the Way to Japan Autumn 2022 interview series! I'm delighted to kick off with my wonderful friend Masa, a London-based 'Zen POP' singer/songwriter & artist from Yokohama, Japan. I first met Masa about 12 years ago, and shortly after that, O-ARC played their ambient 'Zen Pop' at the JapaneseLondon.com launch party!Some of O-ARC's other highlights have been playing at Tate Gallery, Whitechapel Art Gallery, ICA, Le Pop in Paris and Myosaiji Temple in Tokyo. 4 songs from EN al...

My 7-year-old's middle name is Zen.No, really, it is.We gave him the name hoping naively that it might, I don't know... infuse qualities of calm into his nature?He is, ermm, not calm. He is like a tightly coiled spring, ready to bounce off unpredictably in any direction. His spirit animal is, I think, Tigger.2020’s adventure in ‘home schooling’ rapidly led to clenched fists, hyperventilating, hiding under the desk, shouting ‘NO!’. And that was just me!All the lessons in the meaning of Zen are...

Have you ever been to a kaiten-zushi restaurant? I love the weirdly futuristic simplicity of the conveyor belt concept. Tantalising morsels of white, red and orange fish, laid like glistening gems on their thrones of rice glide regally past.We grab what delights us most, and devour it. Actually, the kaiten zushi experience is such an apt metaphor for Japanese study – in fact, for life in general.The choice can seem overwhelming, and we aren’t sure what to pick. Sometimes we get put off by acc...

When I lived in Japan, it was before the smart phone-era. I had a large map of Tochigi city and the whole surrounding area pinned to the wall in my apartment, and I studied the routes to the many elementary and middle schools I needed to visit. Some of them were quite far away by bicycle.I’d be on my way to school in the morning, zig-zagging gingerly along narrow paths between the rice fields, perched on my mama-chari bicycle, and clutching in my fist a small, damp note for security. On ...

When I was 15 years old, my father went on a business trip to Japan.My father was a Yorkshireman, and not at all given to gushing enthusiasm, except perhaps for a chip butty. Given his usual world-weary demeanour and workaholic tendencies, I was gobsmacked when he came back from his Japan trip all lit up like Akihabara electronic district on a Saturday night.He had cool Japanese souvenirs too: some weird ‘coffee’ gum, a hand-carved wooden Hokkaido bear, and a lovely crane-printed summer yutak...

You might not be offended by the F WORD, but I am.In the last month, I’ve had two consultation calls with Japanese learners where they just kept dropping the F BOMB – without even thinking about it.Fluency.The learners, both complete beginners, wanted to get fluent in Japanese. Quick! Now! Yesterday if possible! One had a time scale of 6 months, and the other a year. Now, I’m not one to rain on anyone’s parade, but I needed to break to the sad news that going from zero to Japanese hero in suc...