When I ask my son what he would like to do today if he could decide all by himself, he normally gives me one of two answers. The first is to go on a bicycle trip. Where, I ask him. Imajuku, he says. Imajuku is where we live, so then we take a ride to …
There is a place called Thomas Town, a small Thomas the tank engine theme park, located in a shopping mall outside Tokyo. We had seen it on the Internet long before and when we finally went to Tokyo I decided that I wanted to take my little boy there as I was sure he would …
Recently we went to Tokyo for a shichi-go-san (7-5-3) celebration of our son’s cousin who turned 7 this year. 7-5-3 is a traditional Japanese celebration for the growth and well-being of children, at the ages of 3 and 7 for girls, and 5 and sometimes 3 for boys. Our sons loves his cousins and hasn’t …
As the the temperature started to drop and the colors of the trees started to shift towards the warmer tones of the spectrum, I started to plan our nature outings to enjoy the colors of autumn. However, the autumn colds has coincided with the colors so my son and I have had to postpone our …
A year ago I had never heard of Thomas the tank engine, as far as I remember. Now I am familiar with not only Thomas but many of his friends thanks to my son. He tells me about James and Percy and Hiro and Rebecka, and his Thomas puzzle we bought last week has already …
My little boy has really started to enjoy exploring different ways of expression, and I am so happy that the things we can do and explore together become more and more numerous. At home we have started to enjoy water colors in addition to crayons, and also my baby has become interested in sewing. We …
Sometimes I wonder if there is a kind ghost living in our house or if our baby has some kind of special powers. A little red wooden toy car had been missing for weeks. I had been searching for it everyone including the bathroom and I was convinced that it must have somehow ended up …
I have only started to collect my impressions of our son’s first trip to Sweden. Finally he could meet all of my family – my parents, my European brothers and sisters and their partners and children. It was the first time for me as well to meet a nephew and a niece, so it was …
Before going to Sweden I was intrigued by the requirements of the Japanese government to be able to return to Japan, seen together with the possibilites in Sweden to follow those requirements when it came to o PCR-testing. Japan still basically requires a negative PCR-test (for a few more days when writing this) in order …
In the last post I lamented the shock of coming to Copenhagen airport and being met by tightly packed crowds of non-mask-wearing people. Going from Copenhagen airport to Sweden by train, I could not see anyone else wearing a mask. Having been living with masks every day for two and a half years, not actually …
Sometimes it is difficult to like crowds of people. I really try, I do, but sometimes it is just not possible, especially when you are tired after an almost 40-hour-journey with a two-year-old who did not let you sleep, and you arrive at an airport where social distancing is unheard of and the sport seems …
I am already behind my son in language skills. Almost every week he uses some Japanese word I do not know and I am sure he sooner rather than later will start to read faster than me too. In one area we are on the same level though, and that is when it comes to …