Having had a few tough weeks with our son graduating from one cold to the next, there has been a lot of unusual lifestyle patterns forming at home. Our son waking up coughing in the middle of the night has been a frequent occurrence; when the coughing has stopped he does not want to go …
In Japan, the toilet is often found in a little room where nothing but the actual toilet can be found; I guess the space saving reason explains a big part of why often there is no separate basin to wash hands. The other reason I can think of is to save water – while normally …
Our little family tries to surf in the rough sea of languages every day, the waves sometimes so violent that I fall of the surfing board and wash up on the shore all bruised. Especially so after a morning with my son at the playground. My wife and I speak Japanese and English, I speak …
When I came to Japan the first few times I knew almost no Japanese and tried to pick up a few words by listening to other people talking. Standing in front of a traffic light I heard children saying 赤 赤 赤 青 (aka aka aka ao) – so I learned that red was aka and …
Hanami, 花見, literally meaning flower viewing but mostly used for cherry blossom viewing, is I think one of the most popular and favorite past times in Japan; this season everything has the cherry theme, from coffee to sweets to clothes, and everywhere there is a cherry tree, people are stopping and taking photos of the …
Sometimes when I start to think about what to write in the next blog post, I feel empty, like there is nothing to say, nothing that makes sense to make a post about; this feeling was stronger than ever this week. Thinking about Ukraine, feeling completely under the weather for a few days after having …
When I came to Japan for the first time 15 years ago, I was mesmerized by the Japanese toilets, not so much by their design as by their functions. In Sweden I was growing up having a toilet with a pull up handle to flush; when I grew older we got a state of the …
Before meeting my wife, I always thought of Japan as a country where punctuality was deeply embedded in society, the image of trains always leaving and arriving on time being the prime example. Coming from Sweden where a train arriving on time is a bit of an oddity, together with my affinity for punctuality, Japan …
Now it is two years since the first case of the new corona virus was detected in Japan; never had I believed two years ago that we would again find ourselves in a situation where the case count is going up and up, where the vaccines are not effective enough and the news is filed …
Once or twice a week, I take our son to different activities in the little town where we live. Tuesdays is the baby-activity in the shopping mall, where my son explores balancing on narrow objects, kicking small balls and picking them up and giving them to the teachers, dancing to music and interacting with other …
Finally the most beautiful time of the year is here. Before our son was born, I would take an early morning train and go to the mountains, searching for the autumn colors in nature, walking the trails with my camera and tripod and thermos with hot coffee. I would take an early morning train and …
Even though I met my wife four years ago and have been living in Japan more than three, even though I feel more at home here than I have ever felt and slowly but surely get a deeper feeling for the way things are done in Japan, there are still things in every day life …