While I can confidently say that on the whole, this trip to Okinawa was a success, there is one thing tha I wish I did differently. I really would have liked to stop by more Michi no Eki. Michi no Eki is literally translated as “The station for roads”, though in my mind the Japanese… Read More Memory Rest Stops
When it comes to books on the history of Okinawa, I haven’t been able to find much in English. Most of the books I can see cover the battle of Okinawa, or they talk about Okinawa’s diet or karate traditions. So in this way, The Ryukyu Kingdom fills an important void because who doesn’t want… Read More Book Review: The Ryukyu Kingdom by Mamoru Akamine
Lately, I have been obsessed with buying Mamianqun (Horse faced skirts). It’s part of my growing fascination with hanfu — traditional Chinese clothing. While I have bought a few modernised Tang and Song dynasty outfits, the first piece of hanfu I bought was a mamianqun and the pieces I’m most often drawn to are mamianqun. … Read More Wearing Mamianqun in Okinawa
The first time I tied a memory to a song, I did it by accident. It was my first trip to Japan and my first trip overseas without my family. I was fifteen and it was 2008. In other words, I had just graduated from bringing one of those portable CD players around to bringing… Read More Soundtrack of My Life
I have been very used to “trying new things” by adding more and more things. For example: tried writing a book, tried publishing & marketing, tried being consistent on Instagram, tried a bunch of courses, etc. But this year is the first time I tried something new by removing something – the pressure to blog… Read More Hello from a serial experimenter
Before December started, I thought I was more or less settled with my blogging plans for 2024. I’ve been pretty happy off Instagram and I was considering how I’m going to narrow down my Internet presence for a saner year. And of course I had aaaaalllll the year end blogging plans. But then December rolled… Read More My New Year Resolution is to Stop Blogging
We’re approaching Christmas and… I don’t feel prepared! Mostly because I left my advent calendar somewhere I can’t reach it AND I didn’t bring the two books I borrowed for Christmas along (basically winter murder books). But oh wells, it’s not in the Christmas spirit to be a grinch so let me share with you… Read More Christmas Tea Review: Karel Capek’s Merry Christmas and Holly Greeting Tea
I stumbled across this book in the library and was very intrigued the subtitle: Searching for the Image of God in the Digital Age. Since selfies and more broadly, social media, is something that we are all affected by, I was curious about what a Christian response would look like. Drawing on art and art… Read More Book Review: Selfies by Craig Detweiler
A while back, I spent some time looking at “Princess” Der Ling, a fascinating figure who lived during the end of the Qing dynasty. Now, I went back a bit further in time to the Taiping rebellion, or as Platt characterises it, “the Taiping civil war”. Although he started this research with the opinion that… Read More Book Review: Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom by Stephen Platt
As with the past few years, I have another advent calendar!!! While last year’s Fortnum & Mason calendar was disappointing, I remain hopeful that I’ll enjoy this year’s calendar. I’ve been trying to listen to the Palais des Thés podcasts on tea and it seems like they are really serious about it! There were two… Read More Yearly ADVENTure – Palais des Thés 2023 Advent Calendar
