There is something special about summer – the heat, the breeze from the ocean, from the mountains, the smells. Walking barefoot. Today it was 35 degrees outside, humid. You have to be careful about not getting heatstroke this time of the year, so we try to keep awareness of the need for hydration and the […]
The mountain Raizan and the Sennyoji temple lying on the mountainside – I feel strangely drawn to this place, especially so when it is raining. There is a calm, a stillness that is accentuated in the rain, and the colors, the sounds, the smells feel like they come from a magical place beyond this world.
As I wrote about last week it has been raining a lot, and the rain has continued. I have bad memories from times of heavy rain. When I was living in Sweden I experienced a big flooding in the village where I was living and houses were all surrounded by water from the overflowing river.
Our home is lying at the intersection of city and wilderness, but sometimes when I look out the window I feel like we must be living in the middle of the forest. Last week I twice saw a snake slithering its way down the road in front of the house, and one morning a monkey
We got a message from a friend who lives near a little river half an hour away. There are a lot of fireflies here now, do you want to come? Of course we wanted to! It was Sunday, a beautiful evening, and we made our way to see our friend just as the sun was
It has become a yearly spring time tradition since moving to Fukuoka – forest adventure with our son’s cousins. But this year was different since it was the first time mummy could join. There is a company called Forest Adventure that has locations all over Japan where nature loving people can experience the thrill of balancing
We were so fortunate as to have my parents staying with us for three weeks during one of the most beautiful time of the year – Japanese spring. Together we had picnics among the cherry blossoms, went for country side drives, spent an afternoon walking barefoot in the edge of the ocean, and made the
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
If I had to choose between the seasons, I would choose autumn. The colors, the air, the cool after a long hot summer, nabe (Japanese hot pot), and most of all the mountains. When we were living in Tokyo I always took the train to go and enjoy the mountains outside of Tokyo in autumn.
Every October, there is autumn cleaning going on everywhere. The parks are getting their final trim of the year and people are tidying up what is left of the summer from their gardens. Now that the temperature has dropped and nature’s extreme growing power has slowed down, it really feels quite satisfying to clean up
While the summer days in Kyushu are like a wet sauna, the evenings are actually quite enjoyable. Even going out with the trash after the dishes are finished is a pleasure, but nothing beats an evening trip to the beach. In July the water in the sea is on the warmer side but still cool
It is not an understatement to say that my son is in to bugs. Especially so the pill bug, or ダンゴムシ (dangomushi) as it is called in Japanese. It started a year or so ago when they were searching for insects and bugs at kindergarten. My son came home and talked very vividly about dangomushi