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
Even though I met my wife four years ago and have been living in Japan more than three, even though I feel more at home here than I have ever felt and slowly but surely get a deeper feeling for the way things are done in Japan, there are still things in every day life
Early Sunday morning we gathered with our neighbors on the little road outside. Our house is one of eight sharing a narrow winding road that gets us from the big street to the bottom of the mountain where our group of houses is situated. Every autumn the neighbors gather and clean the road and this
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
Since becoming a father I have not had the time to work so much on my own art and poetry. Well that was a bit of an understatement – I have been too busy nursing our son, taking care of the house, moving from Tokyo, trying to find some daily time to study Japanese, that
One of the things I really love about Japan is the politeness, best illustrated by the custom of bowing. When I am outside playing with our son, and one of our neighbors comes driving home, they always slow down and make a bow in the car. When someone makes an errand to the house, they
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