Joy Blog
Ken normally doesn’t like surprises and likes to celebrate his birthday quietly and preferably at home. When I saw this offer of a restaurant during a school-team-event I thought: THIS is the perfect present for my husband: A limousine comes to...
I’ve met so many people - especially women - that live their lives according to somebody else’s expectations. Or general expectations. Or their own expectations that have grown from outside expectations.
Yes, they live decent lives....
“I want a bigger audience!” That was my wish, that was my plan. Every month I held my small but very fun event in a Japanese restaurant in Zurich where I talked about Japan and how to have an amazing time there while traveling. I taught...
Rice is grown on every patch of flat ground in Japan. That's why you don't see animals grazing outside, rice comes first. There are many large fields; I like the ones in the residential areas and backyards best.
The rice harvest is taking place now in...
When I was asked at a party how I was doing and I replied with: “Amazing”, do you know what the person’s answer was?
Not “that’s great to hear” or “oh that’s wonderful”, nope, the answer was:...
The cooperative living place in which we rent our apartment celebrated its 100th birthday during covid-restrictions so they had to postpone the big anniversary party. Last November it finally happened and they invited every resident to a 1920s...
It really is THAT simple, although I’m perfectly aware that this doesn’t mean that it can be easily done.
Can you remember a situation from your life where you were bathing in feelings of joy and fun?
Like when you were on a walk with...
I don’t want to let you wait to know about the awesome paper-making-postcard-sending experience you can book in Osaka downtown with Miwako.
When Mika and I went to Japan in 2017 a few weeks earlier than Ken I booked some fun traditional...
All of us know on some level that pushing our feelings away all the time isn’t helping us solve our problems. And yet it makes sense that we still do it because, whether we’re conscious of it or not, many of us fear what we’ll do if...
I was sitting there in this zen meditation with the 3000 golden Buddha statues next to me on the tatami-mats and was moved to tears. Japan has touched my heart deeply since I’m a child but this felt like a next level connection to this beautiful...
Do you know the feeling when you get up on the wrong side of bed, it’s freezing cold, you didn’t sleep a lot and, above all, a really busy day lies ahead of you and you already feel exhausted, 15 minutes into the new day?
All you want to...
But even when you resolve to respond differently next time, it just feels so easy to go on autopilot and respond the same way so that, again, that one bad moment turns into an entire bad day.
Thankfully there are many things that we can do on...
