A bit of nostalgia came over me the other day. I was riding on the train with my son, it was a humid warmish day, few people on the train, the door between the cars open. I was listening to the sound of the wheels rolling on the tracks, listening to the metal parts holding […]
神待祭, Kamimachi Matsuri meaning waiting for kami festival, is an event held at our local shrine late every year. It is a festival to, with a bonfire, welcome the kami, god, who is said to return home from Izumo that night. We have never participated before, but since our son is growing up and had
There have been so many things happening this autumn and I would have had to write a couple of posts per week to cover what I would like to share. But since I am on a one post per week pace, my autumn stories will focus on the highlights, albeit sometimes presented a bit late. But
Living in a multicultural family, I want our son to whenever possible experience the cultures that both of his parent’s grew up in. I do my best to highlight Swedish traditions in our home, and when we visit Sweden he gets plenty of that. But equally important to me is to value the Japanese cultural
Another week, another museum, this time the immersive ukiyo-e temporary exhibition in Hakata, Fukuoka. I have all summer seen advertisements on Instagram for this exhibition, and I really got tempted to go and experience this for myself. It was the last week of the exhibition when we finally made it to Hakata station. I had
Summer holidays and 36 degrees outside – what can top going to a cool (and cool) museum, exploring art, culture and history together with your 5 year old son? Well, I would say going with your son and wife! This summer we have had the chance to do quite a few things together as a
Before the summer holidays begin and we will be focusing on small excursions, swimming school and other summery activities, I want to write a third kappa-related post. In my first post a month or so ago I introduced this mythological creature’s fancy for cucumber, and a few weeks ago I mentioned bowing being a kappa’s
Following the watermelon story from last year, time has come for a new story. A few weeks ago I wrote about the Japanese mythological being kappa and a red fish that I saw in the pond close by where kappa is rumored to live. When I asked my son to make a story about them,
I have made a habit of writing a blog post every week but sometimes, I have to admit, I find myself quite at loss as to what to write about next. Often there are things happening or occasions and occurrences I want to share, but there are weeks where I come up with a blank
I was introduced to the abacus as a child. My grandfather was fascinated by the abacus and tried to teach me, giving me a little abacus to play with. Unfortunately, living far away from him, I never got past the basics. My wife was doing soroban, Japanese abacus, in school as a child. She remembers
Having devoted the last two posts to travel, why not follow up with a little pottery post. Arita is an town in Saga-prefecture, Kyushu, famous for its porcelain. The tradition of porcelain dates back to the 17th century and the Arita ware, particularly the blue and white porcelain, is a well known export product of