I took my four-year-old nephew to the cinema this morning, to see Cars 2. He was so excited that he’d actually put on his Dad’s aftershave! The film didn’t have me quite so excited at first — I sat there thinking how dreadfully boring it was, and how stupid to have all these cars acting [...]

What do you do with an engagement ring that is no longer appropriate to wear? I guess you could have it made into another kind of jewellery but I think my engagement ring is so beautiful that I wouldn’t want to turn it into something else. I don’t want to wear it again but don’t [...]

I thought it would be fun to post some of the questions that kids in England ask after my talks on Japan — feel free to use these for any Japan trivia quizzes or anything! (I had to look up the answers for an embarrassing number of them and do correct me if my sources [...]

So I am back in Newbury, where this whole “mission” started on March 20th — home of the fabulous Hitachi Capital office and their lovely staff that organized the Japan van, without which none of this would have been possible. As schools are closed for the holidays I have time to follow up on those [...]