a best friend

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 …

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vaccine

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 …

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now mountain

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 …

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喜怒哀楽

Having a baby is being a student of human emotions. Every day I live in my son’s sea of feelings ranging from anger to absolute joy and excitement. It never ceases to amaze me how he can angrily bite on my finger one second, and hug me like a koala bear the next, not letting …

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obon

Obon is a Japanese Buddhist custom that is celebrated each summer, where the particulars differs between different parts of Japan. My wife explains it as a three day celebration of the spirits of ancestors who during these days come back to visit graves and house altars, and the living relatives offer food and sake and …

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eggs in the garden

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 …

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sommarlov

Being a parent of a baby going to hoikuen, kindergarten, is a very labeling experience, literally. Every room at the hokiuen has a name, and in the entrance to our baby’s classroom they have provided a little basket with our son’s name, and in this basket we are to make sure that there are diapers …

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the heat is on

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 …

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a future career

Moving to a new house has meant a lot of IKEA furniture. Coming from Sweden and moreover from a town very close to the first IKEA store, I have grown up with IKEA furniture so using the hex key to assemble a bed or a set of drawers makes me feel like I am back …

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tanabata

Not long ago I found use for the bamboo growing next to our house when we were celebrating Swedish Midsummer. This week it was Japan’s turn to use bamboo for a cultural celebration called Tanabata. Tanabata basically means 7th night, and is a festival usually celebrated on July 7th. Tanabata is a love story with …

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battle of wills

When I saw the image of the bicycle on the used items sales site, it was love at first sight. When imagining what bicycle me and our son would be riding around on, a pink ladie’s bike never came to my mind, but seeing this photo took me to a very happy place, and following …

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a different midsummer

Being the first summer living in a house with a little garden in Japan, being father of a son having just turned one, I wanted to make a little Swedish imprint in our daily Japanese life and celebrate Midsummer together. Midsummer is a big festivity in Sweden, and apart from eating an drinking, the Midsummer …

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