Minimalism - Online Income - ESL - Japan
At three months old, Rikuto’s neck is getting stronger and stronger. His head still wobbles occasionally, but now I can put him on my chest while I lay back on the sofa, and watch him move his head around like a tortoise. Since I’m just posting a photo, Rikuto would like to take this opportunity to say a big hello to his granny, grandad, and uncle Mark in the U.K. He hasn’t met […]
Walking around the shops the other day, I saw that Christmas goods are already for sale - in mid-October, in a country that doesn’t even celebrate Christmas (they celebrate Kentucky Fried Chicken instead). It’s not really a surprise to see the biggest commercial festival of the year starting well before the event itself, but I am surprised to see all the Christmas cards… With a tradition of New Year’s post cards (nengajou), sending greetings cards like we do back home isn’t common practice […]
We moved into our new house last December and never really went shopping for furniture. We had a few things which we brought from our old apartment, but unlike most newlyweds, we didn’t have the luxury of filling our new home with furniture, particularly not Traditional Office Furniture. If we could do it all again, and had some money set aside for it, we might have considered shopping at FurnitureFromHome.com. […]
I don’t think Halloween is anywhere near to reaching its full potential in Japan, but I have definitely seen the shopping centers step up their bid to impose this spooky holiday on the masses. The orange on black colour combo has taken over my local shopping center, and Tokyo Times report the same happening in the capital. I wonder how long it will be before Halloween reaches the horribly commercial levels of Japanese Christmas? […]
For my wife’s last birthday, I bought her a top of the range colour printer from Canon. She actually wanted one of those mini photo printers so she could print pictures of the baby, but since my old printer wasn’t compatible with Vista, it was a good chance to upgrade. It’s an awesome machine, and has the printer cartridges for seven different colours. That keeps the price down because you […]
Time for a quick rant about my job as an English teacher in Japan. Before continuing, please read my disclaimer. This post is about children who forget to bring a pencil to class. Do I even need to say more? Surely that’s like going swimming without you’re trunks! If you’re going to school, take a pencil. It really shouldn’t be any more complicated than that, right? Why then, do I have kids who repeatedly […]
If you saw the video of me ballroom dancing with our 3-month old baby, Rikuto, then you’ll know that once he’s able to stand I’ll be splashing out on these awesome parent and child dance shoes from Sala Shop. I originally came across the shoes picture on Molly McGinn’s I am Kindermusik blog. Molly has a lot of great finds from around the net including this wonderful video of shadow puppetry which […]
It’s been nearly a year since we moved into our first house. Most house hunters will have saved enough to put down a hefty deposit on a new house in Japan, but in our case, we had to find a mortgage to cover the whole cost of the house. Mortgages in Japan usually run for 35 years, which is actually longer than the lifespan of a Japanese house. Typically, after 15 years you’ll need […]