Blog
From Tower of the Sun to Data and Dreams: The Long Arc of Osaka’s Expos
In 1970, Osaka presented a dream of the future. In 2025, it’s trying to live one. Expo 70 gave Japan its coming-out party on the global stage, a kind of kinetic national debut that swept away the ashes of war and declared its high-tech rebirth. With its translucent...
Glimpse Back at a Future City
Twenty–five years ago, I wrote ‘Glimpse Back at a Future City’, a 30-year look at Expo 70. Now, at the 55-year mark, that event still crackles with relevance. In 1970, under the banner ‘Progress and Harmony for Mankind’, 64 million people streamed into Suita to...
How About a Nice Cuppa?
Bilingual Edition おいしい紅茶はいかが？カッパ：バイリンガル版 Originally published in Kansai Time Out, February 1999. Shortened for 2025. Contact information, prices and statistics may be out of date. This bilingual edition contains the full English article first. Please scroll down...
Northern lads, lasses and lights, southern stars
It's been a year of travel, in- and outbound, and a couple of years of cutting ties, letting bad blood and re-connecting with those and that important. Waking up properly after hibernation a couple of years ago, we realised some were still sleeping, or were afraid to...
Lover Wanted
My writing career began in December 1998 with this piece in the monthly English-language features and listing magazine, Kansai Time Out. At the time, there was also a weekly free, A5, black-and-white, classified ads paper, Kansai Flea Market. It listed jobs,...
The Spanna
The Spanish City and Whitley Bay Pleasure Gardens opened in May 1910. Recently refurbished into bars and restaurants, it has also previously housed amusement arcades, a ballroom, the Starlight Rooms bar, and of course the famous rides and sideshows. Immortalised in...
Evolution of Our Schools: Past, Present and Future
I’ve been interested in evolution and our simian ancestors since reading Darwin and Morris in my teens. I also like The Who. Computer programs, when I was young, were noted as generational languages. 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. Our work has evolved and we are approaching the...
Learning is Good; Education be Bad
Our company offers a variety of products and services, and I felt we needed a parent brand which would care for them and we and clients could relate to. We chose ME Learning as we foster learning, and are not involved in education. I’ve written widely on this. I’ve...
Stats Entertainment
Moran actually outperforms Elon Musk.* Not only does the frivolity restart with the borders reopening, but I'm finally updating and re-posting articles from my archives. Back in May, 2022, Elon Musk suggested on Twitter that if Japan didn't start doing a lot more...
Have Bag (and Net) Will Travel
On October 5th, 1992, 30 years ago today, I left England. I had a one-way ticket to Australia via Bangkok, and, save a few months dossing at me mam’s on the dole, I've never returned there to live and work. When I left, I was 25, a pint of beer cost £1.49 and...