We can buy anything in the middle of the night when you live in Japan. Grocery stores and pharmacies are open everyday. Life is easy as a consumer, but when we are a worker in Japan, things change. Despite the…
In Japan, we have a tradition of cleaning the entire house at the end of year in December. It’s like spring cleaning during which we clean the house before the coming of the warm season. I like the ritual of…
I am strangely fascinated by hoarders. When YouTube recommends clean-up videos, I am clicking them without giving much thought. Those videos show the room filled with garbage and trash before professional cleaners help hoarders to clean up their cluttered houses.…
We have all heard that good things take time. We work on things without getting any results for many years, hoping that one day it will bring good things. We all want to have enough patience and determination to keep…
I loved going to my grand-mother’s house in winter, because she would set up her kotatsu and I could just sit there and watch TV with her in a warm blanket. I know that dinner is ready so I have…
The work has been hectic. You are stressed. There is no time to prepare food, so you just buy pre-made food on the way home and eat it in front of the TV? You know that it is not good…
Halloween in Japan feels different. Walk through Tokyo’s streets in late October and you’ll see carefully wrapped treats, handmade decorations, and a quietness beneath the celebration—a kind of restraint that makes you pause. Here, even seasonal fun carries an awareness:…
Summer is getting hotter and hotter every year. We really feel the effect of global warming. People rely on air conditioning to cool down. In Japan, summer seems like impossible to live without air conditioning. We become so dependent on…
The summer is getting hotter every year. It’s hard to go outside and enjoy the day without running the risk of heat strokes. Yet we still want to enjoy the sunny day as much as we can. In Japan, there…
When you go out or go to the beach, it is important to protect your skin from the UV light. There are so many brands that offer sun protection on market, but it’s not easy to see which one is…
