“Are you supposed to eat that?” A Week in Japan

“Are you supposed to eat that?” We’re peering at something poking out of something else covered in delicious tempura batter. My dining companion shrugs and it’s gone. Five minutes earlier, he broke a chopstick vigorously attacking aubergine. Consider this a warning. In Japan, you will turn into a voracious eating machine - only a downside depending on your point of view.

We’re in Kyoto, having first visited Japan two years ago with a packed itinerary. This time, we’ve scaled back to two cities – Kyoto and Tokyo – to sweep up that food and drink we may have missed. We head to Sake Bar Yoramu.

Smog Resistance: Activate

I've never had brilliant skin. By the word 'skin' I mean my complexion in terms of blemishes and grease content - my skin as a means of generally holding my blood and stuff inside my body is doing a sterling job of course. I don't want to overstate it as it's not the bane of my life and I know people for whom it’s a way more serious issue, I just seem to get a fair few spots compared to other 30-year-olds (from my non-scientific study of looking at people's faces), I scar easily and have some pigmentation issues. I wear a lot of makeup, which you might think is a chicken and egg scenario, except the spots definitely came first during adolescence and only then did I become trapped in a vicious cycle. Also, I really enjoy putting makeup on so I don't mind that part of the cycle I guess. Erm, anyway, I've become pretty good at concealing and these days, it's rarely so bad I don't want to leave the house. However, when I got to China, my skin (I can only presume in some kind of fit of solidarity) reacted precisely the way the rest of me did: with panic.

Saying Goodbye: Bitesize London

When I first moved to London six years ago, I was prepared for city living to leave me cold. Or flat, like the headless beer I'd been warned about. I love home in Yorkshire. I love having a large, but close, extended family within easy reach, a big group of friends who’ve never lost touch, and a beautiful landscape that isn’t completely cut off from civilisation. By civilisation I mean more places to drink and dance.

I’ve only come to appreciate over the past few years how lucky I am to have had the childhood I had. However, career opportunities and a handsome Southerner beckoned. It took me six years to make the most of London life, and 2013 so far has been full of it – celebrating K’s 30^th at Sushi Tetsu, watching an open air play in Regent’s Park, rousing a friend from the depths of a serious hangover for a Sunday showing of The Dark Crystal at the BFI, managing to finally arrange a date with said friend and another good pal to eat birthday bone marrow at St John’s.

Then our background plan to live in another country at some point started to actually take shape, and it dawned on both of us that the life we’d been lucky enough to enjoy for a while was about to be fully remodelled on a Michael Jackson’s face kind of scale.

The five weeks between handing our notice in and getting on the plane to China were a blur of fun seeing as many friends as possible – and a pretty good snapshot of what we’re sad to leave behind. My bitesize rundown doesn’t include all my favourite places, but does include cheap eats, expensive cocktails and a tattoo in Soho – sounds like a good London night out to me.