I came to Japan for two years slightly over twenty years ago. A Japanophile, I love understanding and learning from the differences in life I experience around me every day.

Author of "The Beginner's Guide to Japan" I also write a blog under the same name designed to answer the questions people often ask when they first arrive; the questions I wish someone had explained to me when I first arrived.

My second book, "Fifty Six Days", looks at the time after the earthquake of March 2011 and tracks the events as they unfurled around me until early May when we had the first day without an aftershock. It had been fifty six days.