7/7/2025 - 3/8/2025 Weeks 17, 18, 19, and 20 in Japan!

Firstly, I feel I need to apologise for how long it has been since I have written a blog post. I feel like I was doing quite well with writing once every two weeks, but since school finished for summer break, I’ve been non-stop doing things and have found no time to write. But, that does mean that this is a jam packed blog post that covers a three week period where a million different things happened. 

I also want to take a moment to say an absolutely massive thank you to everyone who has donated towards my Marathon fund for Pride House Tokyo! I never imagined that I would manage to reach my target amount in just over a week, let alone surpassing the amount by over 20%!! I’m so thankful and appreciative to everyone that donated some money. Not only does it spur me on to train as hard as I possibly can, but your money will be going to an amazing charity here in Japan. To those of you who donated, I will be keeping you up to date with my training as we get closer to the date. But for now, thank you so so much. 

So, since my last blog post, I have broken up for summer vacation here in Japan! The last week of school was very busy with lessons continuing up until the last day despite students becoming restless as the temperature got to about 33 degrees each day. Unlike in English schools, where lessons tend to wind down in the last week, Japanese schools keep them going up the very last moment! However, despite being busy, spirits were high as all the students looked forward for some time off class. That being said, for many students, summer vacation isn’t a massively relaxing time for them. Many Junior High schools still continue with club activities in summer break and many students still come into school nearly every single morning, and then about 90% then head off to cram school for the rest of the day. So, as much as some have holidays to look forward to, many other students just see the vacation period as more study time! 

The first week of summer vacation was packed full of admin tasks that needed to be done, like visiting the city hall, and getting copies of paperwork. Sorting things like this out is never easy, plus, with the language barrier, it can quickly become quite stressful.

However, nothing will be as stressful as mine and Chloe’s visit to Chiba Driving Test centre to get a Japanese drivers license. We travelled up early one morning and arrived at the test centre at about 8:30am with the sun already blazing down. After being turned away from reception because the queue was too long, we made plans to kill some time before going back to the centre at about 12 to start queuing for the 1pm afternoon slot. As we had submitted and got confirmation that our documents were adequate before this date, we thought that the process would be nice and simple…… little did we know.

After waiting in a busy, extremely hot, non-air conditioned building for about 3 hours, Chloe and I finally got pulled to the front of the queue. Just to be told that our documents were not correct and we needed to show evidence of four flights we took from the UK, all dating back to about a year ago!!! When you’ve been waiting in a hot, stuffy building where everything’s in Japanese and you get told that you need to find old tickets from holidays you don’t even remember booking, it honestly takes all the wind out of you.

So, Chloe and I sat there, on sticky, plastic chairs and trawled through anything and everything to find some form of evidence that we took those flights. After about 30 minutes of searching, we find the evidence needed and take it over to the desk, just to be told that the tickets have to be printed off!! So, as it gets near to 3:30pm, we run across the road to a local convenience store to print off 14 tickets in total. But not before we get stuck behind 2 OAPs who cannot work out how to use the printer for about 10 minutes…… Luckily, the print out worked and we managed to get all of our documents sorted out at 3:58,,,,before the kiosk closed at 4!!

However, we weren’t finished then, we still had to wait for another 3 hours at the test centre for them to hand check our documents 4 times before printing out our licences. Bleary eyed, we stumbled out the building at 6pm, ready to start the drive back home (after eating some comfort food), only for me to turn the wrong way on the motorway!!!

Let’s just say, we were very ready for that day to be over. Sorting out documents and paperwork in Japan is definitely one of the worst things to do here, especially when your documents are rejected!!! 

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The weekend of the first week of summer holds the yearly Tanabata Festival in Mobara. The festival celebrates the story of two stars who are forbidden to fall in love but, even so, one night a year, they cross the Milky Way and meet. Japanese people celebrate by writing down wishes and hanging them on bamboo trees as decoration, and many cities hold festivals during July.

The Mobara festival is one of the largest in the Kanto region and it attracts over 800,000 visitors. Over the weekend, my friends and I visited three times, once during the day and twice in the evenings. I definitely preferred the evenings, as the temperature dropped and all the lights illuminated the stalls and decorations. The middle of Mobara was overrun with decorations; hanging bamboo signs and colourful tinsel, lanterns, and stage areas!

It was a magical transformation and walking around, taking in the sights, was a great experience. The streets were also jam packed with stalls selling food, drinks, and games! I ate loads of Japanese festival food including Takoyaki (Octopus balls), Shaved Ice, Okonomiyaki (cabbage pancake), and Ichigo Ame (strawberry candy). Most of the games were lucky dip and I managed to get some Pokemon Cards, but they also had a typical fish catching game where you have to pick up a small goldfish with a round piece of paper called a poi! 

It was my first festival here in Japan and I had a great time. I also got to see loads of my students who were all very excited to see me which was super nice! Summer festivals are very popular here and I can definitely see why.

It was a great way to see a different side of Mobara and experience some traditional Japanese culture. 

Last week was my 23rd birthday and I definitely had a very Japanese birthday. My original plans to head to the beach were quickly thrown off as we received a tsunami warning for our local area and we were even told to head to an evacuation point!

It was my first experience with a natural disaster here in Japan and so it was definitely pretty scary, but Chloe didn’t let it ruin my day! She quickly researched a zoo closer inland and so we headed there for the afternoon. It was the furthest thing from a standard zoo ever. It was more like a mega petting zoo where you could enter cages of lemurs, feed capybaras, feed giraffes and hug elephants. It was amazing! I had such a great day walking through the enclosures and meeting so many animals, I even got to see some elephants doing some painting.

I finished off the day enjoying a meal and some birthday cake with my friends, finishing off a really good and unforgettable birthday. 

Then, the next day, Chloe and I headed to Tokyo DIsneysea for the afternoon and evening. We had a magical time and managed to get on loads of rides. The park is one of a kind, the only Disney with a water theme, and we had a great time walking through all the different areas of the park. I'd say my favorite ride was "Journey to the Center of the Earth" but "Tangled" was a close second! The evening parade was magical too, with characters putting on a show on moving boats and speed boats letting off fireworks and lasers.

To round off a great three weeks of summer in Japan, I headed to Ichinomiya beach with my friends to watch a firework show. The show was right by the water and lasted over an hour as they let off nearly 1,000 fireworks in total. Firework shows are really popular in Japan and it definitely shows. It was the best fireworks I have ever seen, there were some amazing 3D ones, colour changing ones, and even Hello Kitty ones.

It was really spectacular and definitely unforgettable. It's been a really exciting and memorable few weeks here in Japan. Chloe and I are making the most of this adventure.

So, that finishes up a mega blog post covering some highlights from the past three weeks. It has been an incredible time and I’ve had so much fun. This week we are heading to Tokyo and then next week we are going on holiday to Osaka and Kyoto! 

If you’ve got this far, thank you! And again, thank you so much to everyone who donated!! 

See you soon! (｡•̀ᴗ-)✧