Ben - YellowCapped Blog - Adventures Through The Neon Wonderland.

Could someone turn down the heat, please? A guide to Japanese Onsens.

Ever been wrapped up in a really cosy blanket with the steam of a hot drink wafting past your face? Maybe you are hidden away on a mountain while the sound of a waterfall can be heard in the distance? Does that sound appealing to you? This is what a onsen is like!

Daily life in Japan.

Time to celebrate! 1 year of yellowcapped blogs - Q&A blog

Ladies and gentlemen, we made it! It has officially been a year since I started this blog and it is also 6 months of me being in Japan. So, to celebrate this moment, I thought I would do a blog to mark it down. The only problem with that is what topic would I do for a celebration blog?

Daily life in Japan.

How to become the luckiest person in the world. Japanese Temples and Shrines 101

I recently got asked "why do you always have a 5 yen coin in your back pocket?" My response? For luck.

Daily life in Japan.

It's alive! Japanese toilets and how to use them.

It's finally here, I have reached the peak of my content or maybe I should say I have reached the bottom instead! Toilets, one of the few things that everyone has, from a hole in the ground to a suctioned powered one in a space shuttle!

Daily life in Japan.

Karoshi: Death from overwork

There are many discussion points that always pop up on infosec Twitter every year: password managers, imposter syndrome, burnout, etc. But the one that I want to talk about today is burnout and why Japan is struggling to deal with it.

Japanese Food Series

Preparation for the great food adventure - Japanese eating etiquette

In preparation for the first free weekend of my stay, it would only be respectful to revise some Japanese table manners. Now don't panic about forgetting any of these rules but do try to keep them in mind as they will stop you from "losing face".

Japanese 101

The age of partying - Coming of Age Day

Finally, we have reached the second Monday of January of 2021 and it has already been an eventful year! Covid, the events at the congress in America and half of the world is back into lockdown, so why is the second Monday of January important?

Daily life in Japan.

The festive season of KFC - Christmas in Japan

Christmas in Japan is something special to me as my first trip to Japan was Christmas of 2017. I remember wandering around Tokyo, surrounding by Christmas lights and meeting Colonel Sanders. Wait, Colonel Sanders? Yes, the founder of one of most known fast-food chains in the world.

Japanese Cyber Security

Do you know the basics? Japanese Cybersecurity Laws

The first thing I was taught when dealing with organisations was they always care about two things: profit and laws. When either of these is left unchecked, any organisation can be crippled and even completely shut down.

Daily life in Japan.

Who put ice cream in the post-box? A scoop of Japanese laws.

The whole time I was reading those comments, all I thought was how lucky we are to have our justice system and our police force in Europe/UK. But how are we lucky? Am I saying you won't be lucky if you end up in the Japanese justice system?

Daily life in Japan.

It's the season to be wrapping! The mystery of the plastic wrapping

I believe it is time to talk about one of the biggest mystery of Japan, why does Japan wrap everything in plastic? I bet everyone has seen the pictures of single pieces of food being wrapped in plastic. Like a single citrus fruit for example. But why?

Japanese 101

A starter of Kanji, sir? Japanese 101: Basic Kanji

What is Kanji? Well, have you ever seen someone with a tattoo of some mysterious Japanese characters? There is a good chance that the characters are kanji characters.

Japanese Cyber Security

BeerCon2: Tokyo Takedown: How 10 seconds can change the world?

Welcome ladies and gentlemen to the write up of my BeerCon2 talk, "Tokyo Takedown: How 10 seconds can change the world?".

Japanese 101

On a need to know basis! Japanese 101: Essential Phrases

The most daunting thing for most westerners who are about to visit Japan is learning Japanese. When you look at the Japanese language, it is quite scary with the difference in pronunciation, sentence structures and the fact that they use three different writing systems: kanji, hiragana and katakana.

Japanese Cyber Security

The treacherous trio of APTs: Bears, Pandas, and Chollimas.

APT. Ooo cyber buzz word, anyone up for a game of cyber security bingo? This is the first cyber security blog so I thought it would be a good idea to do a word that pops up everywhere.

Pre-Japan

Sensei, how expensive is Japan?

The main concern I hear from people who want to go to Japan is how expensive Japan is. But is Japan expensive? No, let me be clear, I am not saying it's cheap but apart from the initial scare of flights and medical insurance, the actual country isn't as expensive as it is rumoured to be.

Daily life in Japan.

Excuse me, where do I put my trash?

One of the first things everyone notices when they visit Japan is how clean it is, then they notice how hard it is to find a rubbish bin! Then add the fact that Japan is known for having tons of vending machines everywhere you go. It begs the question why is it so hard to find rubbish bins in Japan?

Japanese 101

Hello from across the world. Japanese 101: Greetings

Greetings are an important part of any language because they allow you to connect and communicate with others, even as a beginner. Especially in Japanese as the Japanese culture is based around proper social etiquette.

Pre-Japan

Things you should know before stepping on a flight to Japan!

If I got a pound for every time, I hear the sentence “I would love to go to Japan” I would have enough money to travel to Japan and back every four months.

Daily life in Japan.

Red, Yellow, Blue. The traffic lights of Japan!

If there is one thing that most people will guarantee about anywhere, is that red means stop, and green means go. It is a simple lesson that we all learn way before we sit behind the steering wheel. So, what happens when you see a blue light instead of green?

Japanese 101

Itchy, knee, san? Japanese 101: numbers

Out of all the Japanese words that I know, I don't think I will ever forget 1, 2, 3 in Japanese. Why is that you ask?

Japanese Food Series

The first bite: how kitkats changed the world

When I come back from Japan, I am never asked to bring back noodles or rice which are the staple food of Japan. But there is one food that is always mentioned! Those weird KitKats!

Pre-Japan

Let's talk about my weird and wonderful Japan

Last week, I talked about the west's view of Japan being weird and strange but this week, I want to talk about what I find weird about Japan. Firstly, let us start with the one thing that you will find anywhere in Japan... MASCOTS!

Pre-Japan

Let's talk about the weird and wonderful Japan

"Have you ever seen a used panties vending machine?" ... Well no. This is the question that I asked the most when talking about "how crazy and weird Japan is".

Pre-Japan

10 trips and counting...

My first blog post, another page of my journey and a massive step into the uncharted digital desert. This post is a "Hello this is me and this is what I want to do with this blog" post. So, let us get started!