Already a year has past since I in front of an open window enjoyed the rice frogs sining in the rice fields for the first time. And this year I have so come to love these fields – they feel like home. From the window I have been following them going from brown patches of dirt …
Having had a few tough weeks with our son graduating from one cold to the next, there has been a lot of unusual lifestyle patterns forming at home. Our son waking up coughing in the middle of the night has been a frequent occurrence; when the coughing has stopped he does not want to go …
In Japan, the toilet is often found in a little room where nothing but the actual toilet can be found; I guess the space saving reason explains a big part of why often there is no separate basin to wash hands. The other reason I can think of is to save water – while normally …
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 …
Our little family tries to surf in the rough sea of languages every day, the waves sometimes so violent that I fall of the surfing board and wash up on the shore all bruised. Especially so after a morning with my son at the playground. My wife and I speak Japanese and English, I speak …
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 …
Tonight my son fell asleep lying on my chest; I cannot imagine anything more beautiful. His whole existence is beautiful – the pure innocence of a child. The trust he puts in us without even thinking about it – I was lying in bed thinking of what I possibly could have done to deserve it, to …
When I came to Japan the first few times I knew almost no Japanese and tried to pick up a few words by listening to other people talking. Standing in front of a traffic light I heard children saying 赤 赤 赤 青 (aka aka aka ao) – so I learned that red was aka and …
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 …
Every now and then my wife goes to Tokyo for work. This time she was away for three days leaving my son and I to handle two nights without her milk. So what to do between morning and nightfall to enjoy the day and also to make us as tired as possible to make the …
I have never seen our son as happy as the past week. His cousins and uncle came to visit us and it was like a new bigger world suddenly opened up to our boy. Not being stuck with his dad all day, but instead having two children giving him their complete attention made him grow …
Hanami, 花見, literally meaning flower viewing but mostly used for cherry blossom viewing, is I think one of the most popular and favorite past times in Japan; this season everything has the cherry theme, from coffee to sweets to clothes, and everywhere there is a cherry tree, people are stopping and taking photos of the …