2025 has been quite a year, the second half being a distinct improvement on the first. The first six months saw various troubles come my way, including a) the threat of redundancy for me and my Cardiff colleagues; b) my brother having a serious stroke; c) the Supreme Court changing the meaning of the Equalities Act to the opposite of that intended by its authors, and the EHRC turning that up to 11; and d) the roof having to be removed from my house and rebuilt, due to a design flaw in its construction.

On these various fronts - work, family, societal, domestic - 2025 took quite a scunner to me, and the feeling's been mutual. However, the second half has mitigated some of these issues. The threat of redundancy passed, at least for me; my brother is recovering, although it's a long road; the EHRC appears to have overreached itself and its more radically exclusionary policies are getting some pushback, though we're currently in a very fragile place and the country is being kept in a perpetual ferment against imaginary enemies, of whom I am but one; and the roof situation is (almost) resolved, with the scaffolding coming down just yesterday.

Nevertheless, I needed a holiday, so when my daughter told me that she'd be away for Christmas I saw the opportunity to come to Japan on my own for a couple of weeks, which is where I am now - staying, for the moment at a friend's flat in Akasaka. The area is full of embassies (my friend and her husband are both translators/interpreters among other things, so it's handy for work) and the new Prime Minister lives about 10 minutes' walk away, so it's quite a swanky area, though the swank is mostly hidden behind high walls and fences.

Coming to Japan these days is in large part about seeing friends. I took Naoko and Eric, the flat owners, to dinner on the first night, and the next day went to a lovely party at Miho's, where I discovered that my Japanese is still good enough to have good conversations, and even (like everyone else) to make a little speech, even if my jetlagged appetite wasn't quite up to making the most of the goodies begroaning the table.



Yesterday I took a side trip to Kawagoe in Saitama - just a 45 minute train from Ikebukuro - which contains a district known since the early Edo period as 'Koedo' or 'Little Edo'. If you're based in Tokyo it's probably the easiest place to get to if you want to see 'old-time' Japanese shops and houses, which escaped the various depredations of the twentieth century. It's also a good place to buy a pickled cucumber, as I did in honour of former tenant Yuko, whose grandfather (I think it was) used to be a cucumber farmer in the area.



Kawagoe seems to be the kind of place that everyone knows about, but despite (or because of) being so easy to get to surprisingly few Tokyo-ites have actually visited, and I will be recommending it highly to my friends, as I do to you.

This is my first time in Japan in December, so I'm not sure it's a fair comparison, but I've been struck by the relative sparcity of tourists. In particular, there are very few Chinese here, no doubt in large part because the Chinese government (which has taken offence at some of the new PM's more combative remarks) has discouraged people from visiting. It's not quite 2022 levels, but this is the first time in a long time - certainly in Tokyo - that I've see so few foreigners, other than in the mirror.

Then to the 'Blue Cave' illuminations in Harajuku/Shibuya, where I met up with Yoshiko, who translated my book into Japanese, before going with her to meet her publisher, Manabe, in the fanciest tonkatsu place I've ever seen, The Pretty Pork Factory - with an extensive menus that allows you to choose the breed of pig and the cut of meat, for an experience of fine-tuned gourmandism.



As you'll have noticed, there's no escaping Christmas in this non-Christian country, even if you wished to. I've been Whamageddoned several times, and in Kawagoe I was even treated to Noddy Holder telling me that it was Christmas at the top of his voice, not far from this fish and chip van. Not that I've any objection!