The second GAJET photo contest is underway! Please vote for the photo most deserving of the top prize. The theme is “Festivals” and there is a 2000 yen Yamada Denki gift card up for grabs. Please only vote once.

Each month the lovely GAJET committee posts a new photo challenge to get you out of the house and looking at your world through the viewfinder. Each challenge is unique and inspiring, but broad enough to allow total creative freedom.

I must confess my stupidity. During my first 12 months in Japan I have been confusing the Japanese emoticon for ‘smiley’ with the one for ‘angry face’. It suddenly dawned on me, with a cold chill of realisation, that every time I emailed a new friend for the first time, or made a plan to meet up at the weekend, or sent an SMS to one of the teachers at my school, I’ve done it with a dirty look.

With every summer, there comes a time when a crop of ALT’s International Drivers Licenses are about to expire. To ensure my life of comfort continued, while others sweat or freeze outside of my environmentally controlled metal steed, I subjected myself to the Maebashi Practical Driving Examination.