Notes from the Obstacle Course Dr. Michael Peckitt I have mentioned ‘Priority Seats’ before in my blog posts for Notes from Obstacle Course, they are the seats found on trains, buses and ferries in Japan, set aside for children, the pregnant, the elderly and those with disabilities. They are usually Read more…
From a work of fiction, being written by Michael Gillan Peckitt, tentatively entitled ‘Foreigner’. Mornings seem forced to me. – Osamu Dazai Sleeping on a futon has ruined me, it is too comfortable. There is something about a bed I now find to be too soft, I prefer a harder Read more…
Notes from the Obstacle Course Dr. Michael Peckitt I don’t mind Mondays, but its rainy days that always get me down. A low pressure system is hovering over Japan, so for twelve hours or so, it will rain solidly, the kind of rain that that Bob Dylan used to sing Read more…
Notes from the Obstacle Course Dr. Michael Peckitt It is 2016, four years until the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, and Olympics fever has begun to spread Japan. Japanese television has programs celebrating the achievements of previous Olympians from the Land of the Rising Sun, the breaks between sections of television programs Read more…
Photo: Lost in Translation, © Focus Features Notes from the Obstacle Course Dr. Michael Peckitt A few years ago, as I was teaching students, who were mainly from European countries about Japanese culture and philosophy and, I came across two unsettling realisations, that I was old, and did not really Read more…
Notes from the Obstacle Course Dr. Michael Peckitt It is New Years Eve in the average family household in Japan, at about a quarter past seven in the evening. This can mean only one thing: it’s time for the Kohaku! The Kohaku Uta Gassen (in its 64th year), often simply Read more…