personal

images of sweden

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 […]

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as bad a match as they come

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

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love and culture shocks

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

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off to sweden

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

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a song for two

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

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swedish-japanese

That children are innately creative I know, but I still almost every day marvel at our son’s way of creating and explaining the world around him, particularly so when it comes to languages. The other day our son woke up from his midday nap and started to speak English, talking about a white house and

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wife 2.0

Ever since I met my wife she has has long hair with various degrees of hair dye. At first she had a bit curled hair in a brownish tone. Later she went towards black and straight before getting pregnant and therefore letting the gray hair she wanted to hide grow, (much to my appreciation and

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evening exercise

The warm summer days in Fukuoka do not suit the active life of a two-year-old who wants to be out playing all day. It is a long wait for him between the morning outing (sometimes we go to the community center in the mornings, sometimes to the local shopping mall, if the sun is behind

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rainy season

It seems to be here – this year’s rainy season. Looking at the weather app on the phone, all I see is rain and thunder ten days ahead. I am sure it will be some blue sky in between the thunder clouds, but the oppressing humid heat will not go away and time has come to

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two years old

Today our son has his second birthday. Looking at my son sleeping on a mat in the floor, I find myself thinking about all that has happened this past year when we just had moved to Fukuoka and was celebrating his first birthday. Many many memories show up; sleeping on the floor in the kitchen

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seaweed saves the day

I like the image of eating with your five senses – we try the best we can to make meals for our son that are not only appealing in flavor, but also have an eye-candy property as well as pleasant smell, touch and sound to them. I admit, more often than not, we are not

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triple punched

Times are changing; when starting to write this I feel like this will probably be my shortest blog post so far. Why? Because of a recent triple punch on my stamina (catch up on another triple punch story here). It all started when my wife was going to Tokyo and left my son and me

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