• Daily Life

    Singing Praises of Unsung Heroes

    May is my favorite month of the year in Japan: it’s generally warm, dry and sunny with long days and the landscape is brilliantly verdant and lush, and that applies to my own garden. We’re only a couple of days into the month, though, so its full effects have yet to show, but that’s allowing lesser lights to take center stage, I realized this morning. Sitting in our living room and looking out into the garden I got to notice how delightful the bush rosemary is with its plethora of dainty little blue flowers. Despite being overshadowed by the bloody…

  • Daily Life

    Starred Woes* A New Hope(lessness?)

    I’m deeply grateful to my employer for many years of employment and, perhaps most importantly, guiding me and our family through the COVID-19 pandemic and the gut-wrenching fears it sometimes brought with it, which can be easy to forget now, many years down the track. But my Company has also made me an absolute wreck because it has sanctioned a reign of terror and harassment for the past few years that has deeply eroded by sense of well-being, confidence and savings. Part of the problem is that I am almost inextricably linked to my employer courtesy of having caused very…