BY HEATHER SHIDA For the first few weeks of school, teachers in Japan have the task of visiting the home of each and every one of their students. When I first heard about this I was amazed. Both of my parents were teachers and I can’t imagine teachers in America having any success with this. [...]
BY HEATHER SHIDA One of the biggest challenges for us when my daughter started elementary school was being asked to join kodomokai. This is like a neighbourhood kids’ club that is very common in Japan. Few things are required in Japan for your child, but so many things are very strongly encouraged. One of these [...]
BY HEATHER SHIDA (image to left: flickr.com / kanko*) April is here and that means back-to-school! Everywhere you go you can hear the oddly disturbing song that declares that a child has become a first-grader and hopes to have one hundred friends. For stores, it is one of the busiest times of year. Not only [...]
BY HEATHER SHIDA Graduation is a strange time in Japan. It is celebrated at every level of school. I don’t recall having any graduation ceremony, really, except for when I was in high school and university. We have a celebration here for graduating from kindergarten, elementary school, middle school, high school, and university. To say [...]
BY LEIGH WELLSVIEW For BAB’s own ‘American Housewife in Japan,’ Heather Shida, the inspiration to actually sit down and commit the time to write her first E-book The True Stories of Dream Fairies: Bloom, came from an unlikely source: “To be honest, I was playing SIMS 3 and I had my character learning a new [...]
BY HEATHER SHIDA (Image to left: Wayne Harrison) It is February and the coldest days of winter in Japan are still come. I am originally from Colorado and so I know a little about cold days and snow. Snow is so beautiful in Colorado. I realised that when I spent some winters in Minnesota and [...]
BY HEATHER SHIDA (image to left: (c) Flickr.com / Timothy Takemoto I think the biggest thing that most people–friends, and complete strangers–were worried about when I married my husband and moved to Japan, was how I was going to deal with a Japanese man. They have a reputation of being cold and removed and expecting [...]
BY HEATHER SHIDA (image to left: flickr.com / Bert Kimura) I love New Year’s in Japan. I do miss the crazy way we celebrate in the States, but I think that now that I have a family, I really like things here. It is a little somber, and when it is, I feel a little [...]
BY HEATHER SHIDA (image to left: flickr.com / Bill McChesney) On a recent Monday, we celebrated our daughter’s ninth birthday. It is funny to look back on this time all those years ago and think about all of the craziness that happened then. We are so happy to celebrate, not just because my daughter was [...]
BY HEATHER SHIDA Image to left: (c) Bert Kimura I have lived here in Japan for long enough that you would think that I would be more used to things here, but I am still always a little annoyed with how very little attention is paid to Christmas. I am not religious, but I love [...]
