I always thought that the day had 24 hours, starting at 0 at midnight and ending 24 hours later the midnight after. At least all the time instruments I have seen have told me that, and when I want to set my alarm on my phone I can only choose between 0.00 and 23.59. Since […]
Hello Kitty is a popular cartoon character in Japan. She has got her own theme park in Tokyo. And since 2018 there is even a Hello Kitty Shinkansen, running between Fukuoka and Osaka on an almost daily basis. I learned about the existence of the train a year or so ago when my son started
It is happy when rain is a force of joy and not the opposite. My son cannot wait for the rain to come. And as soon as he sees the raindrops on the ground outside, he wants to put on his rubber boots and play in the puddles. I try to teach him patience, that
Being a Swedish husband and dad taking care of a two year old son in a little town in Kyushu, Japan, is as meaningful and happy a life as I could imagine. Sure, an everyday life of caring for a son and home from morning to bedtime has its challenging aspects, some a bit more
So one more pandemic year has past. Never could I have imagined three years ago that we would still be in a pandemic with alcogel everywhere and people’s faces behind masks. I sometimes feel like society has changed for good and I am wondering if there ever will come a time when there is not
I have been struggling with a persistent case of sinusitis for quite some time. It was the first time in my life to experience sinusitis and I still have the pain below my eyes. My wife had been reading up on what to do at home to make recovery quicker, and one suggestion was to
New year in Japan is arguably the most important holiday of the year, and as such is filled with traditions. There is the traditional osetchi-ryōji, many different kinds of new year’s food served in stackable boxes. There is the traditional hatsumōde, the year’s first visit to a shrine or temple. Otoshidama, new year’s money, is
A new year and I start talking about zero energy, that does not sound too good. But it is not about my energy or my wife’s or son’s (although we have been a bit low on energy due to all the colds and last year) but rather our house’s energy use that I am talking
Even though it has no age-old traditions in Japan, celebrating Christmas the Japanese way is a very big happening here. It is a festive season leading up to the traditional New Year’s celebrations, and from what I have gathered so far, the important parts of Christmas in Japan are decorations, gifts for loved ones, chicken
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