みどりの日, or Greenery Day as it is called in English, is a holiday during the Japanese holiday week called Golden Week. GW has four public holidays during a period of a week, and Greenery Day is celebrated on May 4th, although I like to think of the day as the literal translation instead – Green […]
During the school spring break we had dear visitors from Tokyo who used their little holiday to come and spend some days in Fukuoka with us. It was such a happy occasion and our son was thrilled to spend time playing with his older friends. The difficult thing with being the youngest though, is not
It is one year now since our son started kindergarten. In Japan the school year starts in April and there is a little holiday for the students between the end of one school year and the beginning of the next. It is difficult to believe that it has already been one year, and when I
For some people, spring is cherry blossom, sakura, late March pick-nicks in the park under the cherry trees (and accompanying hay fever). For others spring is warmish February days when the plum trees are in bloom, when you can leave your winter jacket at home and enjoy some vitamin-producing sunlight. Tough I love the cherry
I have come to love Japan, the nature, culture, food, the people – I feel at home here. But sometimes there is a little part of me missing Sweden, thinking of my old home with a twinge of longing. I have my parents there, my sister and her family, my dear friends, there is the delicious
In our little garden we have a Japanese maple tree, or momiji as it is called in Japanese. It is my favorite tree, I adore the small star shaped leaves that shift from green to orange to the most intense shade of red in autumn. Coming home after having picked up my son from the
When our son was born he got a kimono from my wife’s aunt. It is a kimono that is often used when a family goes to a shrine in November to celebrate their son’s health and well being (a Japanese rite of passage called shichi-go-san named after the age seven-five-three when children are celebrated like this, boys
I have probably said it many times already on this blog, but I cannot keep myself from saying it again – I just love autumn in Japan. The colors, the skies, the way the wind feels on the skin, the sun shining at an angle, shining trough the leaves making them sparkle in all shades
Our son’s kindergarten is situated a little way up a mountainside. It is close to nature, a place to experience play, a place to run around as much as little legs can handle, and freedom to discover who you are. My son loves running around, and sine he started kindergarten I have also created new
Typically October is a month with beautiful weather, blue skies and comfortable temperatures, in short weather perfect for hiking. Every year the community society where we live organize a hike up the nearest mountain in the end of October and just like last year we joined the group. Early morning we met at the local
It feels like yesterday when my son and I were walking past the rice fields on our way home from kindergarten while looking at the little tadpoles swimming around the all but non-existent rice plants. It was late spring and there was a long hot summer lying before us, nature outings, trips to the beach,
Summer in Japan is festival time, and especially so this year. Because of the corona pandemic many festivals have been canceled for a few years, and this summer they finally start to happen more full scale again. There are all kinds of festivals such as dance festivals, festivals celebrating local deities, and of course the