I could not resist to follow up the last post with a story of how we have enjoyed our lussebullar, saffron bread. The second of Advent we climbed the mountain at the foot of which we live. Ever since we moved here I have been looking up at the mountain, wanting to stand on its […]
Having given up our hope to go to Sweden for Christmas, we decided to try to do what we could to keep a few Swedish Christmas traditions alive here in Japan instead. In Sweden, December is dark and cold and the light in the darkness for me is literally the different lights we use when
The last week was special in many ways. The beyond earthly beautiful funeral of my wife’s dad moved me a lot and has left a big impression in me. There was something very honest and beautiful in the way his life was celebrated and the way his afterlife was prepared, and I feel honored to
I first met my father-in-law three and a half years ago when my soon-to-be wife introduced me to her parents and I explained my desire to marry their daughter. Since then I have felt part of the family and I am so grateful for my parents-in-law including me in their lives, accepting me as their
I never thought my baby would teach me science before learning to even speak; I thought I was the one that will finally make good use of all my science education when my son is growing up and needs a conversation partner when it comes to matters of physics and mathematics. Actually studying together after
Sometimes our son seems to grow more in one day than in a whole month. My wife and I were talking the other day about when we should stop call him baby; of course he is still our little baby (and I guess he will continue to be as long as we live), but we
With eight teeth in his mouth it had become time for our son’s first visit to the dentist. We had a very good image of our chosen dental clinic – it is a children’s only clinic and we had to wait almost two months for our appointment since it is very popular with so many good
Sometimes I am woken up at six am by a little finger poking my face and a voice energetically saying bumbum bumbum, and before I have time to properly realize it is already morning, my son is pulling my arm, urging me to go and open the cupboard where the vacuum cleaner is charging. He
I’ve been dreaming about this day for over a year, wondering how I would feel; would the stress diminish, would my outlook on the future change, would my hope of soon being able to go to Sweden with my family grow? I’ve been dreaming about this day, about writing this blog post, and now when
From our house, the first thing we see in the morning when we open the curtains, and the last ting we see at night while the sun is setting behind the big pine trees growing on a hill next to our house, is Imayama. Imayama, 今山 is a small small mountain close to the sea
In front of our house, we have a little vegetable garden. Or maybe that is a bit too much to say – we are planning to have a vegetable garden; so far we only have one kind of vegetables, two okra plants that my mother-in-law planted for us the first week after we moved in
I had been looking forward to the Olympics. We were living in Tokyo, pregnant with our baby, applying for tickets, talking about the the joy of sharing the once in a lifetime experience the Olympics are. Then the pandemic came, the Olympics were postponed, we moved to Fukuoka, the pandemic took a turn for the