Joy Blog

If you are a Christmas-lover or hater…if you are celebrating this holiday or not…I’m sending you so much love, candle-light and warm, cozy, joyful feelings. You can create JOY - even a little glimpse of it - when you think about 

• something beautiful
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If you are here for a while you know how my wish for a white wedding with a huge party went… my husband opted out. If you want to read about our love story and our proper but tiny wedding party you can read it on my blog.

No big wedding, okaaaay, I’ll ...

Do you have friendships which are a miracle to you? Like too good to be true but very true and you enjoy every second spent together?

I met these 3 guys in 2012 and was their group-leader for a trip organized by their university. I loved that yearly job...

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 your hou...

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. They’re not doing ...

“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 about the do’s a...

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: “What drugs are YOU on??”

I find this says so much about ...

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 inspired ...

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 your best frie...

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 activities for m...

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 we stop suppressing ...