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 […]
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
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
Learning Japanese has become somewhat of a lifestyle for me. Given the amount of care and attention a little baby needs, I have tried to incorporate the learning process into daily life as seamlessly as possible. Soon I am sure our son will have Japanese skills far surpassing mine so if I want to be
Today I take a little dive into the beautiful and (unintentionally?) sweet and funny English translations that can be found everywhere in Japan (please catch up on the story poetry on a mountain if you are curious). There is a spacious park area next to the river close to where we live. In these Corona
I love my life in Japan. I feel more at home than I have ever done. Yet in these holiday times, there is a longing to go back to Sweden and celebrate Christmas and New Year with my big family over there, especially so this year since my European family has not yet had the
In times of Corona, when traveling is off the table but still the urge to visit Sweden is great, what do you do? Visit the shining magical Christmas splendor of the Swedish Embassy of course. Though that sounds a bit more romantic than it was. And the reason we went there was not because of
One of the cultural challenges I experienced when moving to Japan was when visiting the post office. I could not speak much Japanese, and they could speak no or very very little English. Add to that the need to fill out form after form when sending parcels or express documents to Sweden, and we have
At the same time as the second wave of Corona infections is unsettling Tokyo, a heat wave is sweeping through Japan. Even the nights are too hot for a walk outside with our baby, but being in a one room apartment day and night is also not ideal, so we have been taking walks underground
Living with a baby is learning to live in a new world, and beside all novelties such as sleep deprivation, diaper changing and experiencing new levels of previously unexplored worries and wonderous joy, there is also a whole new set of words that move in with the baby. Some of of them I think my
Whether it is my age or the humid summer in Japan I do not know, probably a bit of both, but since moving to Tokyo I have come in contact with skin problems I never had before. Those and the accompanying visits to the doctor, together with all the hospital visits that having a baby
Having been engulfed by the baby bubble, my awareness is now on things I did not think about before (and vice versa I am sure, like having to think really hard to know what day it is). Being a first time father, I have no experience of being in the Swedish baby bubble, so instead