This has been the happiest week of my life, but in some ways also the most difficult. Let me back up to last Friday, May 29. When I start writing this, I am sitting in a car park outside a children’s hospital in Tokyo. The time is 2.25 and the rain has finally stopped. We came …
I love the ceiling in our apartment; in a way it feels like we live in an old factory when I look at the ceiling and see the uneven surfaces, the rough unpolished cement, the imprints that the wood used for making the ceiling has left behind. I fantasised about living in an old factory …
Names. Names has always fascinated me. I remember when my little sister was born and I had a favourite name that I was trying to convince my parent’s to give her. I really loved that name, and eventually it became my sisters third name – that is how it is in Sweden, you can have …
I could not imagine Tokyo being this quiet. It has been Golden Week, the longish Japanese spring holiday, and with traveling out of the question and shops and parks closed, people seem to have been quietly staying at home; streets almost empty and only a few trucks on the nearby highway. I woke up early …
Tokyo is under state of emergency and my wife is on maternity leave from today – a beautiful symmetry in the middle of all worry and despair. She has dutifully been going to the office, taking great care to stay as safe as possible. お疲れさま my love. Now finally our maternity leave begins and we …
What do you write about when a pandemic is announced? That is the question that kept me awake this morning. Pandemic is all there is. Normal life cancelled. Schools are closed, sports competitions are being called off. I had been looking forward to the start of the Formula 1 season all winter, and although everything …
Japanese is a difficult language. Even easy things have a tendency to end up being difficult. My wife says that I like to complicate things, that I am happy when I do, but I feel rather more happy when I manage not to. I think. Which is not that often. (Maybe this means my wife …
Today is Emperor Naruhito’s coronation day. This year is the start of a new era – Reiwa. Beautiful harmony seems to be the official explanation of the word Reiwa, 令和. Today is the Emperors coronation day and we are at home celebrating nine weeks of pregnancy. Reiwa. The customs of Japan – I find them fascinating. Even …
There is something very meditative in the process of rinsing rice; it is like time slows down, just me and the bowl, experiencing the cold water between my fingers, letting the rice rattle around, feeling the grains touching my skin. And repeating the process, rinse wash rinse – there is something very meditative about rinsing …