ski resorts Joetsu Kokusai Ski Resort
30 Jan
Joetsu Kokusai Ski Resort (上越国際スキー場) is located in Niigata's Minami-uonuma city, a 3-hour drive from Tokyo.
Notes
This section of my blog is a bit of a mish-mash of personal updates, random travel tips and anything that really doesn't fit into my other blog categories. I like the idea of a digital garden 🌱 - having a place where I can put my rough notes without having to worry too much about whether it's worth publishing. You can learn more about my notes section here.
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shimane 2025 Winter in Shimane, and on Lafcadio Hearn27 JanOver the past week, I've been spamming you all with a lot of little notes about my time in Shimane. I'm not usually much of a travel blogger (outside of hiking) but I recently added a map section to my blog and that's incentivised me to try posting a little bit more about the places I've been to. -
shimane 2025 Matsue's Fox Shrine: Jozan Inari Jinja26 JanIt's a little bit hidden away, but a short walk away from Matsue Castle is the Jozan Inari Shrine, which has a lot of fox statues. We actually visited it on twice - before and after Shimane had its first snowfall for the winter. I have the before set of photos up here. -
shimane 2025 Matsue Castle25 JanIf you're visiting Matsue, you'll quite quickly notice Matsue Castle, which rises up on a hill above the town. Completed in 1611, it's part of a very select club - one of only 12 original castles left in Japan (i.e. not reconstructed replicas). -
A fire has broken out on Tanzawa's Okura ridgeUpdated 25 JanJust a quick note for anyone who was planning on climbing any of the mountains in the Tanzawa mountain range - namely Mt Tonodake, Mt Tanzawa or Mt Nabewari. Update 25th of January 2026: The fire was contained, and the trail was reopened in under a week on the 17th of January. -
ski resorts Daisen White Resort24 JanAfter visiting Daisen Masumizu Highland on the 28th of December, we decided to do a second day of snowboarding at Daisen White Resort (大山ホワイトリゾート) on the final day of 2025. Since the snowfall this year had been a bit late, only a portion of the resort was open. -
shimane 2025 Misasa Onsen23 JanAfter visiting Tottori's sand dunes, we visited the Misasa Onsen town, home to apparently the "most radium-enriched hot springs" in the world. The town has a couple of hotels in the area, so their guests can enjoy the onsen baths located inside the hotel. -
shimane 2025 Tottori Sand Dunes22 JanWhile I was down in Shimane for the new year's holidays, we took a day out to visit the Tottori Sand Dunes (or "tottori sakyuu") - the largest sand dunes in Japan. When Japanese people think of Tottori, the sand dunes is one of the first things that come to mind. - 🌱blogrolls Blogs with designs I likeUpdated 21 JanThese just tickle my brain in a good way. https://so1o.xyz/ Very pretty animation of the solar system
- 🌱blogrolls Blogs with photography pagesUpdated 21 JanSimilar to my list of blogs with book notes I'm curious to see what sort of bloggers out there have pages compiling their photos. Here's a couple I've found so far: iamrobin Anthony Fu Dries Buytaert Derek Kay (with write-up)
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ski resorts Daisen Masumizu Highland21 JanWhile I was down in Shimane over the New Year's break, we decided to make the most of it and also do some snowboarding. The main ski fields near Shimane are the ones on the side of Mt Daisen, which is in the neighbouring prefecture of Tottori. -
coffee Matsue Roasting Place, Shimane20 JanAs we were wandering around the streets of Matsue city (after visiting its castle and taking some bird photos) we happened across a coffee roastery called the Matsue Roasting Place (松江焙煎所). - 🪴My Life List at 3019 JanI turned 30 last year and got married as well - both pretty big milestones which got me reflecting on the rest of my life. What do I want to do with it? That reflection turned into this page, which is sort of like a mix between a bucket list, or goals list.
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things to do in tokyo Walking between Shibuya and HarajukuUpdated 19 JanHaving lived in Japan for nearly 4 years now, I often get asked for recommendations from friends who are visiting for things to do in the Tokyo area. Generally, I like cafes and drinking coffee, enjoy doing a fair bit of walking, and where possible, skipping the crowds and long lines. - 🌱coffee Cafes where I like to use my laptop in Tokyo18 JanI work fully remotely, and usually from home, but sometimes it can be nice to get out of my apartment for a couple of hours if I feel like I can't focus.
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coffee Honey Beans, Sugamo15 JanNear Sugamo station is a local coffee bean roaster called Honey Beans. Most helpfully they also have a recommended pour-over temperature noted on each bean which I've found to be pretty spot-on. -
coffee Sarutahiko Coffee, Ikebukuro15 JanSarutahiko Coffee (猿田彦珈琲) is an upscale coffee chain, and is where you would go if were looking for the Japanese equivalent of Starbucks. Arguably Sarutahiko might even be a little bit better - their interiors tend to be on the fancier side. - 🌱What I'm up to nowUpdated 15 JanThis is my now page, where you can see what I've been up to lately and what my current focuses are. Think of it as the behind-the-scenes page of my blog. It's also linked on nownownow.com along with all the other blogs that have now pages.
- 🌱blogrolls Bloggers who are also MumsUpdated 3 JanRaising kids and having a tech career at the same time is hard, especially for mums. Kudos to people who can pull it off. (Definitely a non-exhaustive list, just a couple that I noticed).
- 🌱blogrolls Blogs with book notesUpdated 3 JanIt's interesting how many people (including myself) have a page on their blog to record the books they've read. Might try and make this page a bit prettier or pull out some highlights, but for now here's the list!
- 🌱coffee Coffee Pourover TechniqueUpdated 3 JanSo I'd been diligently testing different grind sizes and temperatures when making my pourover coffee (it's fun, makes it like a science experiment), but had completely neglected looking into how I should be pouring.
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board games CatanUpdated 2 JanA classic. In Catan each resource hexagon is assigned a number. You start the game by building towns that sits at the intersection of the hexagons. When a dice roll lands on that number, you get the resource from that hexagon (wood, brick, wheat, and others). -
coffee My Coffee CornerUpdated 2 JanWe recently moved into a slightly larger apartment, which has given me room to have a little coffee station in the corner of my living room. Spare space is quite hard to come by in Japanese apartments so I'm quite pleased with the setup for this one! -
board games ViticultureUpdated 2 JanIn Viticulture, you plant grapes, harvest them, turn them into wine, and then sell them. Selling wines give you points, and you'll need a certain number of points to win the game. It's a lot of fun! - 🌱Furusato NozeiUpdated 12 Dec 2025Japan has this interesting tax refund system called the "Furusato Nozei". Basically, when you pay taxes in Japan, they're split into "national" and "resident" taxes, and the resident taxes are paid towards the prefecture you live in.
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coffee Peace CoffeeUpdated 12 Dec 2025So this pack of coffee beans wins the award for the absolutely cutest packaging! As a bit of backstory to how I bought these beans, recently I've been watching Peace Wanko's videos on YouTube. - 🌱Japanese Snow Resort ReviewsUpdated 11 Dec 2025Just some notes from last year's snowboarding! Fujimi panoramadai insane views 3 courses
- 🌱Australia introduced in YouTube videosUpdated 1 Dec 2025Some videos I've shown my husband in an attempt to introduce him to Australian culture (lol).
- 🌱An ex-Sydneysider's guide to Sydney, AustraliaUpdated 1 Dec 2025Just some random advice I gave to a friend of my husband's who was staying near Central station Surry hills is a trendy (expensive) area to live in so you can head in that direction if you want fancy/good food etc. eg burke street bakery pastries
- 🌱How to get to Shinjuku's west exit bus terminalUpdated 27 Oct 2025If you are planning on taking an overnight hiking bus from Shinjuku, chances are you'll be getting on at Shinjuku's west exit bus terminal (新宿西口都庁大型バスＰ) Shinjuku station is a maze as it is, and it might be a bit hard to using Google Maps - so here's a few tips that should probably help.
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Itoigawa, Niigata: the Jade Beach and Fossa Magma Museum30 Aug 2025After climbing Mt Amakazari, we spent another night in Niigata before heading back home to Tokyo. We were so close to the Sea of Japan, so there was no way I wasn't going to go check it out! - 🪴photography Two months with my Fujifilm X-T5: my hiking camera setup5 Jul 2025A little over 2 months ago I got my first ever mirrorless camera - a Fujifilm X-T5. I'm still very much a beginner at photography, but it's been a lot of fun trying out this new hobby, and I'm pretty happy with some of the photos I've been able to take so far.
- 🌱photography Fujifilm XT5: Managing your jpegs and raw filesUpdated 8 Jun 2025I recently bought a Fufjilm XT-5, and set it up to save each of the photos I take as both RAW and JPEG files.
- 🌱On periods and productivityUpdated 29 Apr 2025Something that's been sticking with me for a little while now is how your menstrual cycle can affect your productivity. I've never paid too much attention to my period and how it affects my mood - I've just treated it as an annoying fact of life, really.
- 🌱Ulysses vs ObsidianUpdated 20 Apr 2025I'm currently trying out Obsidian after 3 years on Ulysses. In hindsight, I maybe wasn't the target audience for Ulysses - although I do write a lot of blog posts, Ulysses is supposed to also work for people who are writing full-length novels, which is a completely different experience.
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driving in japan Car camping in Japan: sleeping in my Suzuki JimnyUpdated 15 Apr 2025I've owned my Suzuki Jimny Sierra for a little over a year now. The front and back seats can lie flat, which makes it perfect for sleeping in. This comes in handy if I'm making a drive to a mountain that's a bit too far away to do as a day hike. - 🌱Japanese language learning resourcesUpdated 1 Apr 2025Just a random note on some things you might find useful if you are learning Japanese. Wanikani I have a lifetime subscription for Wanikani, a kanji flashcard app. it's that good. Youtube: Hello!
- 🌱Mandarin language learning resourcesUpdated 19 Mar 2025I'm still not very far along my Chinese language learning journey, so this is more of a list of things I want to try rather than things I'm already trying. What i'm using: Pimsleur HanziHero
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driving in japan Can you fit a snowboard in a Jimny?Updated 2 Mar 2025The answer is yes. If you're driving alone, you can easily put your board in after collapsing the passenger seat. If you still want the front passenger seat up, you can fit it in between the two front seats. You'll have to remove the bindings though. -
How to ride the Laview express trainUpdated 2 Mar 2025The Laview is a futuristic-looking express train that takes you from Ikebukuro out to Saitama. I've used it a couple of times, on my hike out to Mt Buko and to the Hanno Alps. To board the Laview train, you'll first need to get to Ikebukuro. - 🌱things to do in tokyo Things to do in ShinjukuUpdated 2 Mar 2025Eat omurice at Coffee Seibu (珈琲西武) About a 10 minute walk from Shinjuku station is a really cute coffee store called Coffee Seibu (珈琲西武). Their speciality is omurice, and the portion size was really decent for only 1300 yen.
- 🪴Completing Pimsleur Mandarin Level 125 Feb 2025I've recently completed the first 30 days of Pimsleur for Mandarin. Thirty days in, I thought I'd give my thoughts on how it's going so far. As a bit of background: although I'm half-Japanese, I wouldn't consider myself a native-level speaker of it.
- 🌱driving in japan Dealing with traffic on the Chuo expresswayUpdated 22 Feb 2025Most of my driving in Tokyo is usually to get out of it, to some far away mountain.
- 🌱driving in japan Driving in Japan: general tipsUpdated 22 Feb 2025I got my driver's license at the end of 2023 in Japan. I've since racked up over 14,000km on my car, thanks to a lot of early morning drives to the mountains.
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board games Splendor DuelUpdated 11 Feb 2025A recent obsession of ours has been Splendor Duel, which is a 2-player version of the original Splendor. It's a lot of fun, and I really recommend it! Although in saying that, that may be because I am on a recent winning streak against my partner. Oddly, our wins aren't very evenly distributed. -
china Swallow Cave (Jianshui, China)18 Jan 2025After visiting Kunming we headed south towards Yunnan's Jianshui County. One of tourist attractions here is the Swallow Cave (燕子洞, yàn zi dòng), named after the swallows that nest here each spring. We came here in early winter, so it was the off-season and the cave was very quiet. -
china Stone Forest (Kunming, China)14 Jan 2025After visiting Kunming's Western Hills, our next nature outing was to Stone Forest (石林, shilin), a UNESCO World Heritage Site. About a 90 minutes drive outside of Kunming, the park is full of limestone structures sticking out of the ground, somewhat like massive stalagmites. - 🌱How to export from Ulysses to ObsidianUpdated 10 Jan 2025The easiest way to export all your notes from Ulysses and import them into Obsidian seems to be via it's "External folder" feature. This lets you hold onto any folder structures you may have as well. If you follow the same instructions as you would for Bear: In Ulysses, click the .
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Camping in HokkaidoUpdated 10 Jan 2025In my Hokkaido roadtrip last July, we did over a week's worth of camping at a couple of different campsites around Hokkaido. All were in the range of 500 yen to 1000 yen per person a night, and did not require any prior reservations. And this was during the peak of Hokkaido's summer holiday season. -
cooking The search for high-protein Greek yogurt in Japan23 Nov 2024Whenever people ask me what I miss about Australia, one of the things that come to mind are 1kg tubs of Chobani Greek yoghurt. The protein content was really good, and I like how it's on the sour side as well. -
A beginner's guide to airsoft in Japan2 Nov 2024One of the hobbies that I picked up when I first moved to Japan was airsoft. -
To Aka14 Sept 2021As a kid I really wanted a dog. After begging my mum, she gave in with the proviso that I would be in charge of feeding and walking it twice a day. And so I got my dog, Aka, in 2005. Aka was a year or two old in that photo (and that's me and my younger brother).