A short little post to celebrate a short little line of poetry found everywhere in Japan. 写真はイメージです。You can find “写真はイメージです。” written on a package of yoghurt, on menus at restaurants, in magazines and on advertisement boards just to name a small selection of places where you can enjoy the simple but beautiful sentence stating something […]
I always thought that the day had 24 hours, starting at 0 at midnight and ending 24 hours later the midnight after. At least all the time instruments I have seen have told me that, and when I want to set my alarm on my phone I can only choose between 0.00 and 23.59. Since
Even though it has no age-old traditions in Japan, celebrating Christmas the Japanese way is a very big happening here. It is a festive season leading up to the traditional New Year’s celebrations, and from what I have gathered so far, the important parts of Christmas in Japan are decorations, gifts for loved ones, chicken
In Japan so called 100 yen shops are very popular. They are stores that sell almost anything you need for your home and most items cost 100 yen. I guess they are the dollar stores of Japan. You can by paper, pens, cleaning and washing supplies, storage solutions and hobby materials. They have office supplies
In Japan, Swedish dental care is famous. Almost anyone in the dental profession I have met, hearing that I am from Sweden, comments on the good dental health in Sweden and the excellence of Swedish dental health care. Swedish dental products are on display in the super market. Looking at the image of Sweden that
Already a year has past since I in front of an open window enjoyed the rice frogs sining in the rice fields for the first time. And this year I have so come to love these fields – they feel like home. From the window I have been following them going from brown patches of dirt
Before meeting my wife, I always thought of Japan as a country where punctuality was deeply embedded in society, the image of trains always leaving and arriving on time being the prime example. Coming from Sweden where a train arriving on time is a bit of an oddity, together with my affinity for punctuality, Japan
Today I have finally realized that there are stars everywhere. I woke up this morning by my sun (I was going to write son, and when I reread my text I saw that I had written sun instead, but in this case sun works equally well if not better so I leave it like that)
Since becoming a father I have not had the time to work so much on my own art and poetry. Well that was a bit of an understatement – I have been too busy nursing our son, taking care of the house, moving from Tokyo, trying to find some daily time to study Japanese, that
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
The weather is always. No hiding from, no ignoring, no pretending. Every hour changing. There is always weather, day and night, every interval of time. That means that there is always something to talk about, no matter the circumstances. When not knowing what to say, comment on the weather. When meeting a stranger, comment on
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