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!
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?
I recently got asked "why do you always have a 5 yen coin in your back pocket?" My response? For luck.
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!
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.
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".
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?
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.
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.
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?
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?
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
Welcome ladies and gentlemen to the write up of my BeerCon2 talk, "Tokyo Takedown: How 10 seconds can change the world?".
Japanese 101
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
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
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.
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
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
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.
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
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
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
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
"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".