When we arrived in Sweden it was already time to prepare for Christmas. Almost as soon as we had settled in, my son wanted to go by himself with grandmother and grandfather to buy a Christmas tree. When they came back they had picked out the most beautiful pine tree and we decorated it with …
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 …
Being in Japan for the winter holidays for the third year in a row, both my wife and I miss, apart from seeing our close relatives of course, the Swedish Christmas smorgasbord. My mother makes the most beautiful meal with all the seasonal delicacies including my favorite, pickled herrings, and I can only hope that …
Once or twice a week, I take our son to different activities in the little town where we live. Tuesdays is the baby-activity in the shopping mall, where my son explores balancing on narrow objects, kicking small balls and picking them up and giving them to the teachers, dancing to music and interacting with other …
Having given up our hope to go to Sweden for Christmas, we decided to try to do what we could to keep a few Swedish Christmas traditions alive here in Japan instead. In Sweden, December is dark and cold and the light in the darkness for me is literally the different lights we use when …
Happy new year. Our first New Year spent in Japan, and quite different from Sweden. After trying to celebrate a traditional Swedish Christmas (something that was quite unsuccessful, since my wife are very particular about what she eats and the range of pickled herring anyway is very limited) we decided to try to do a …
December is always so special. Winter is coming, the beautiful autumn colors are replaced by beautiful trees filled with LED-lamps. In Omotesando the lights in the trees are even dancing to music – it is easy to sense the magic of being alive in a beautiful part of the world. The cool air, the lights, …