Author’s Note: This was my prose submission to the 2020 George Town Literary Festival under the theme of ‘life under lockdown in the time of COVID-19’. Unfortunately it didn’t win but I’m pretty proud of it and so decided to… Continue Reading
The living in Japan equivalent of making lemonade out of lemons is to treat yourself to sushi. No matter how bad a day or a week you’ve had, plonk a bowl of chirashi or a nigiri selection in front of… Continue Reading
The number of covid-19 cases in Tokyo is on the rise again, but several weeks ago when we enjoyed a moment’s optimism, we made a break for Saitama prefecture. We were able to avoid prolonged hours on public transport by… Continue Reading
We’ve been really fortunate here in Japan so far with dwindling covid-19 cases in comparison to a lot of countries around the world. It’s reflected not just in the relaxing of all state of emergency requests, but the people of… Continue Reading
Hana Kimura passed away this weekend. She was 22 years old, with bright pink hair and quirky, glamorous costumes that she wore as part of her thriving career as a female professional wrestler. Some of us might have come to… Continue Reading
While I may have lost count over how many days its been since I last stepped into a Muay Thai gym, what is irrefutable is that this is the longest I’ve gone without guided training since I began practicing in… Continue Reading
According to digital documentation (read: photo album on my phone), Anxiety Baking started on March 30th. It was around this time that I began not really sleep and wake up around 4 am, no matter what time I went to… Continue Reading
This is the final piece covering my winter vacation to Aichi Prefecture. Prior to meeting Emi, it was never really in my mind to specifically visit Aichi (despite having a lofty 47 prefecture goal a la Cheeserland), let alone spend… Continue Reading
It’s a Hakone hat trick with my third visit to this getaway town, being the most memorable to date. This time we’re journey-bound to visit the IHG newborn, Hotel Indigo Hakone Gora, a jewel amongst a many star-studded locale, famous… Continue Reading
Last Friday I was at Midvalley Megamall in my hometown of Petaling Jaya, on the verge of the world’s worst migraine. The rush of finishing up work in Tokyo before an extended holiday, having almost zero sleep on the flight… Continue Reading