Joy Blog
“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...
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...
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...
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...
My bestie and I got home from our exciting dinner in the vibrant city of Barcelona and our airbnb looked like a wedding proposal would happen here tonight. Soft electric candle light in the whole little loft we've rented. A bottle of wine and two I ...
You know Pippi Longstocking, right? She is so wonderfully famous on the whole planet. The writer of Pippi, Astrid Lindgren from Sweden wrote many more amazing stories for children. My all time favorite is: “Ronja the Robber's Daughter”. Of...
The first time I got an invitation for a scout-leader-camp I was too scared to join. I was fourteen, had zero self-esteem and preferred staying in our own scout division. The “hiking and sleeping outdoors in selfbuilt tents” - camp I went...
I tell you why in my world, wonderful connections around the globe are the best thing AND a very “normal thing” to have:
The short version is, my parents had many international friendships, I spent time in the US as a kid, I went to Japan...
“There was a young married couple up on the mountain last week and they chased sheep with their dog!” That’s what my parents heard when they went up to our mountain cabin in summer 1993.
Have you had gossip turning a big round in...
Do you ever indulge in happy memories, when suddenly the smell is in the air again, you can hear the sounds, maybe even sense the breeze or the temperature on your skin and you feel really vivid reliving these wonderful moments?
This is exactly what...
The gentleman who wanted to kick Newton out and change the mural on our world famous very traditional university facade was my roommate and we both studied food engineering together. Before I moved into that amazing shared apartment I was staying...
