A flying visit to Wakayama

We took a quick trip down to Wakayama to see Baa-chan (mother in law). She is quite poorly and unfortunately stuck in hospital. It's been a pretty rough 18 months all in all. First Jii-chan got sick and passed away, unfortunately Baa-chan wasn't doing well with his passing and her heath deteriorated and then she slipped and broke her spine.

And also my mom back in the UK also took a turn for the worse, she had COPD and a heart issue, she passed away in the spring. 

Baa-chan is still hanging on but she has lost so much weight and there was little of her in the first place. She was so happy to see Ebi-kun though and we spent a few hours each day chatting with her.

It's a 6 hour trip on the Shinkansen and express train to get to Wakayama but we wanted to see her whilst Ebi-kun was still here, he flies back to uni on September 1st. We did manage to co-ordinate dinner with brother-in-law, his wife and one of his kids, which was good. And we visited Jii-chans grave, Ebi-kun got to say his goodbyes, he was away at uni when Jii-chan passed and funerals happen really quickly here.

If you have ever wonder what a Japanese funeral is like or you have to attend one and have no idea what you are getting into, I wrote this post explaining how it works.

So, Wakayama, is it worth a visit?

If you are visiting Japan for a couple of weeks, probably not. Although a trip to the founding place of Japanese Buddhism, at Koya-san is a lovely trip, but give yourself a few days so that you can relax and enjoy the place. 

Wakayama does have a castle, we usually stay at Daiwa Roynet Hotel Wakayama (great buffet breakfast) which overlooks the castle. The castle isn't huge, you can see it all and the grounds in a couple of hours. If you are lucky, you might see ninja hanging out and about!

Wakayamajo Hall is a concert hall, just down the road from the hotel. You can enter the building for free, it is beautiful and from the top floor there is open decking where you can sit and relax, with views of the castle. Each time we have been up there we have the place pretty much to ourselves, its a great hidden gem in Wakayama!

Another spot worth a visit is The Museum of Modern Art, over the years we have seen some interesting exhibitions there.

And if you want to do something totally un-Japanese, visit Porto Europa, it's a port area that is designed to look like somewhere in Europe, it gives off Spanish/Italian vibes. We have been a couple of times, there are some rides and restaurants. I wouldn't go out of my way to g if you are on a tight schedule but if you find yourself with nothing to do in Wakayama, its worth an afternoons visit.

Needless to say, we didn't do any of these things this time, it really was train - hospital- dinner - sleep - hospital - train type of trip!

Here are other posts about Wakayama, some of them are quite old so do double check any info before you visit!

If you happen to be a Wakayama local and know of any good places to visit, do let me know, no doubt we will be down there again soon.

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Rishiri Island, Hokkaido

In my last post I told you about our trip to Rebun island, today we will do Rishiri. Rishiri is a volcanic island and from Rebun is has a similar feel to it as Fuji-san. We managed to get a few photos without the clouds, our guide told us we were lucky as its usually a cloudy view.

Unlike Rebun, Rishiri has one road that loops around the whole of the island. But as there is a whopping great volcano in the middle, there is no cutting across, you basically have to go all the way around. The island is also bigger in size and population that Rebun and this was noticeable as soon as we got off the ferry.

Ahhh, but before we get there I have to give a should out to these guys, I have no idea who there are but as the ferry left the port, in Rebun they were on the dock singing and dancing, thanking us for visiting and hoping to see us again. It was quite the send off. The ferry between the two island only takes about 30 minutes.

We were picked up by the hotel shuttle bus so didn't get to see much of the port when we landed, our hotel was basically on the other side of the island, so we got to enjoy the  scenery as we drove there. We checked in then went to explore the town and get our bearings. Unfortunately we left it too late to reserve bikes, which was a bit of a bummer because there are some lovely cycle paths. Instead we went for lunch.

The town centre is really just a couple of quiet streets, we decided on this old style cafe, not that there was much choice. It was very laid back, the food was good and it was interesting to sit in. They had shelves of local goods for sale and if you follow the corridor out to the back they have some antique bits and pieces but it also leads you to a small gallery. There we found pictures made of konbu and shells, it was quite interesting and free!

I Love Rishiri Cafe

We did attempt to got for a walk around shinrin koen but I'm telling you, those horseflies are evil. We soon gave up (admittedly, it was me because I was the one getting bitten through my leggings). We picked up some supplies from the one tiny conbini then went back to the hotel and chilled out for a while - it was quite a hot day!

That evening we went to Golly's Pizza. Do book ahead, they only slot they had for us was at 5:30pm which is when it opened and it was packed out. The pizza was great, proper oven and some interesting toppings. They also sell their own sauces and whatnot. Then after pizza we wandered down the road a bit to a place called Amber Shore. This is quite literally 3 tables, 12 chairs and a bloke selling booze out of his kitchen. He also has a few snacks on offer but we had just eaten so just stuck to beer.

The owner is an interesting chap, he told us how he ended up on the island and about his work at the whisky distillery. It was lovely just to chat along, enjoying the views, beer and the sunset.

We headed back to the hotel around 9:30pm and already everything was closing down, party town, this is not! We did go up onto the roof of the hotel - it's OK, it is allowed! To do a spot of star watching, there were a few shooting stars which was exciting.

The next day was another early start as we were meeting our guide again. We left the itinerary up to her as she know the area and what is good to see at this time of year. We started off at Hime Swamp, there is a hut on the way in that sells postcards including one with all the flower and birds that you are likely to see, a good idea to pick one up if you don't have a guide.

She shared lots of knowledge about the trees and plants, and showed us how to extract the pine oil from the tree, sticky but smells divine. We also collected water from a spring up the mountain, the spring is one of Japan's famous 100 springs! Yes, they love that stuff here, I have to say the water was especially good, sweet and cold. 

We went back to the town for lunch, the guide had booked us in a Bonten for 12pm, it was packed, they were turning people away, by 12:45pm they had taken the sign down and closed. Seriously, if there is only one thing you take from this post is should be that things happen early and you have to book early! 

The lunch was OK, home made soba noodles for me that they make using the spring water and of course, lots of fish for the guys.

I can't say I enjoyed the next park much but the lads did. These islands are famous for their kombu seaweed and uni - sea urchin. So off we went to learn how to crack a sea urchin and Kamui Kaigan Park. If you are new here you should know that I hate fish or anything else that comes from the sea, I don't want to smell it, let alone eat it.

But if your family are seafood lovers, they would probably find this quite interesting. The staff explained all about the sea urchins and then how to crack them and scoop out the edible parts. Which of course, they then ate, you can't get much fresher than that!

The whisky distillery is in the same area too, you can pop in and take a look at what they are doing and there is a small shop/bar too.

We then drove south and checked out a couple more swamps, even though they were in quite close proximity, the different in plants were quite amazing. And our guide was on it, she spotted all kinds of plants that we would have missed. 

And just to reiterate what I said in my previous post, there is a lot of poison ivy both in the trees and low down so covering your skin is a good idea and did I mention the horseflies? Two things, wearing loose clothing makes it more difficult for them to bite you, and if you arrive to a swamp by car, turn the car off and give it a couple of minutes before you leave the car, for some reason the sound of the car attracts them. 

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at another spring to refill our bottles, and also to check out some of the local landmarks like the tiny shrine and the sleeping bear rock. Not really worth going out of your way to see but if you have time and you are passing, make the stop.

Our final stop of the day was at CHICO GARAGE, it's a set of 3 shops, cool trendy island goods, adventure equipment and tours and bar. According to our guide they have life acts on at the bar at the weekend, bands that come over from the mainland. Laid back vibes. Unfortunately, the band they had on the night we were there classed with dinner plans so we didn't get to see them.

But I thought I'd share the info incase you make it there.

INFO

We stayed at the Island Inn Rishiri, I preferred this hotel over the one we stayed at on Rebun island. The buffet breakfast was really good, great selection of food and included Cava in the drinks selection. We also had dinner here one night, buffet again with full drink bar. The room was clean and spacious.

If you want to see the reviews of all the places we visited on the island, I'm a Local Guide on Google and you can see my reviews here. If you find any of my reviews helpful, please give it a 👍!

Our guide is from Hokkaido Guide Service and her instagram is here.

If you go, I hope you have a great time!

We loved both islands, but Rebun was my favourite!

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Rebun Island - Hokkaido

It was Obon last week and in recent years it has been stupidly hot. So... I got onto Google and found the coolest, as in temperature, place in Japan. And that my friends, are two small islands at the very north of Hokkaido. Rebun and and Rishiri islands.

Rishiri Island

It was quite a trek to get there, we flew from Hanada to Wakkanai, then took a bus from the airport to the ferry terminal. And then a 2 hour ferry over to Rebun where we were picked up by the hotel shuttle.

Rebun is the older of the two islands and has some incredible hikes and views. It is known for it's unique alpine flowers, many of which can only be found on this island. Due to the strong westerly winds and sea air the plants and flowers have evolved over time. 

Alpine flowers on Rebun Island

It's interesting that on western side of the island there are virtually no trees, there is no way to drive down the western coast and all the vegetation is very low to the ground. In the winter the winds blow all the snow over to the east so that is where you find the trees as they live to have the blanket of snow over winter.

We hired a guide, who happened to be the same guide for both islands, she is bilingual and great, we learned so much from her and she had a car so she could drive us around the islands. This is an important thing to note. Getting around the islands is hard, very few buses, rental cars have to be booked ahead of time as they are bought over from the mainland and taxi's are few and far between. 

Hiring a guide not only gave us insider knowledge but also a way to get around. Our first day we headed to the south of the island in the morning for some hiking and flower viewing.

The Cat Rock on Rebun Island

Our guide also told us we were having exceptional weather, that the islands are usually very windy, we just had a pleasant sea breeze! It was still quite hot and ended up covered up because of the horseflies, long pants are recommended as there is poison ivy all over the place too and some of the paths, although well maintained, are quite narrow.

Rebun has several hike routes available so the guide can adjust your trip to your levels. She did say that one of the hikes advertised on the company she works for says the longest hike is 8 hours, but it is a hard hike and rarely is it done in that time frame, so keep that in mind if you are booking something. 

Another advantage of having a guide is them knowing where to go to eat. Neither island has an abundance of eateries, on Rebun we went to a place fun by the fisherman's association, you can't just walk in, you need to book. If you are a fish lover, you will be in heaven but your wallet will be crying! Both hubby and son love fish, I don't eat it at all. Their meals were ¥6000 each compared to my chicken bowl which was ¥1300. 

Lunch from Kaisendokoro Kafuka

We all got excited to see seals basking on the rocks. I recommend bringing binoculars with you, and you are more likely to have seal sightings in the cooler months, we just got lucky. There are also sea lions that visit and are caught as a meat source. Thee are no farms on the island and so the majority of food is imported from the mainland, making it expensive. Ebi-kun tried the sea lion bacon, is tasted way too fishy for my liking. But if you know Ebi-kun, he will try anything once!

Sea Lion Meat and Basking Seal

The hotel... I think the idea behind this hotel is a romantic European vibe. Being European, it gave off grandma vibes, way too many teddybears and dusty fake flower arrangements for my liking. The meals were set with 2 times to choose from to eat. I asked for a non fish meals but I managed to get one fishy dish in every meal. That aside, the food was good, the guys enjoyed copious amounts of fishy stuff. 

They put on a drone show, not actually with drones, a video shown on a big screen of a drone flying over the island, as after dinner entertainment. And on our second night they weirdly stopped everyone mid meal to tell us there was a lovely sunset, so we could leave and watch it if we liked. Most of the people piled out and headed to the back of the hotel which has views over the sea. And a number of staff offered to take photos of the guests. Then we all returned to our meals. Weird!

We did get to see meteor showers at night and apparently you can see the Northern Lights in the colder months.

View from the cape

There was a small store a few minutes walk from the hotel but the opening times are not like the big city! Everyone we met was really kind and friendly which is a refreshing change after the hustle and bustle of Tokyo. It was much more laid back and slower paced,

If you are a stay up late, lay in, in the mornings kinda person, this is not the place for you. Both islands the breakfasts are served early, in Rebun the choice was 7.00am or 7.30am and dinner was at 6.00pm And everything closes early. Which forced us to take things easy and unwind. 

Out of the two islands, Rebun was my favourite, it felt kind of European with the alpine flowers and scenery, you could almost be in Switzerland in some areas and Ireland in others.  Plus you can't beat the view of the volcano of Rishiri across the way!

INFO

If you want to see the reviews of all the places we visited on the island, I'm a Local Guide on Google and you can see my reviews here.

Our guide is from Hokkaido Guide Service and her instagram is here.

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Lilliput Speakeasy Bar in Tokyo

For my sons birthday, we had a short break in Tokyo with a books and food theme. The Lilliput speakeasy style bar is almost next door to the Book Hotel we were staying in.

On the main street, this looks like a regular bookshop that specialises in kids books but at night... the front door is locked and the only way is is through the unmarked door around the back. Look out for this light, it's the only thing that marks the entrance, it's small and easy to miss.

When you enter, you come into a small whisky bar with a great collection of records. There are only a few seats available here, all but one was taken when we arrived. We were led by the friendly bar tender into a second room which looks like it is used for events. It was set up with tables and chairs and looked like it might be good for a book club or that sort of thing.

Finally were led into the bookstore itself.

The bar when you enter

At the back of the bookstore is a counter, which I think might be used as a cafe during the day. We were shown to a table and given a menu and table snacks (the snacks you get to justify the seating charge!) 

The menu is pretty basic, not a lot of choice. Beer, wine, a handful of cocktails and a few bar snacks. It's not the place to come for a meal.

We enjoyed just chilling with a drink and reading in a bookshop as the novelty.

You are allowed to wander and look at the books, they are all Japanese kids books, which makes drinking beer and cocktails in there that little more weird! I do love looking at the illustrations in Japanese kids books and we had a bit of a trip down memory lane as we found some of Ebi-kun's old favourites.

We had our own books in our bag, so we just whipped them out and settled in for a relaxing hour or so.

If you fancy a drink but don't want the vibes of a bar, or you are an introvert and want a change of scenery but still be able to stick your nose in a book with a beer, then this is a perfect choice.

There were other people in there but everyone was respectful and quiet, almost like being in a library!

When you leave, take you tab to the counter at the back to pay, and leave through the secret back door.

INFO

Lilliput Bar, Jimbocho, Tokyo

Read about our stay in the Book Hotel

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Stay in a Book Hotel in Tokyo

It was Ebi-kuns birthday last week, so we had a short midweek break. He is a book nerd, always has been, he'd rather dig into a good book that play computer games or waste time mindlessly scrolling on the socials.

His other loves are football and food. having just wrapped up the men's World Cup, I figured we had had enough football and focused on food and books. 

My goal was to fill the two days with as much of each as possible...

He has also seen an art exhibit in Harajuku he fancied going to and in a previous conversation talked about going to the big Maruzen book store in Tokyo.

He had been asked to participate in something run at a university in the morning, so we met up in at Tokyo station, had lunch then hit the book store. I left him to it and headed to the 4th floor which is all English/foreign language books and stationery. 

Once we had our fill and bought some books we headed up to Jimbocho, which is otherwise known as book town. We have visited here before, its nice to have a mooch around, there are some lovely shops but its not really a foreign tourist destination unless you read Japanese. 

The Book Hotel is close to the metro exit and if you need supplies, there are 3 conbinis a few minutes walk away to choose from.

In the lobby there are sofas and walls of books, the check-in was quick and easy, the staff were lovely. You need a hotel room key to use the lift which is a safety feature I approve of.

We had picked the white manga room and well... it was all white and filled with manga of all descriptions. The light from behind the bookcase at the bottom left is one of the bed nooks, also has manga in there and lights and plugs so you can recharge your phone etc.

There are plenty of amenities, green tea and coffee, kettle fridge and manga, did I mention the manga yet! They are pretty much all in Japanese, we found two English language ones. My husband had booked the room and there was some confusion (not the hotels fault) about the beds so we ended up with an extra bed in the room, which is what you can see in the bottom right. I don't think the room s designed for a long stay, more over night for maybe a night or two. 

One thing visitors to Japan might not know, if yo look at the left side of the photo below, there is a line marked on the floor, this is where you take your shoes off, leave them on the side of the door. The black things you can see on the room side are the slippers provided by the hotel. This is common practice in Japanese hotels. If there is no physical line, just leave your shoes as close to the door as possible and change into the supplied slippers.

Up in the loft there was another double bed and yes, more manga. Ebi-kun bagged this bed, I ended up in the nook and hubby on the third bed. We all slept well!

Unusually for a Japanese hotel, there was no bath tub but instead a sauna and shower! Not that we needed it considering the weather in the middle of the summer in Japan, lol. It was nice to have though, maybe we will visit in the winter next time!

There were plenty of towels, night wear, bathrobes and toothbrushes etc. 

One of the little extra touches that I loved was the manga welcome guide, explaining what you can and can't do. They ask that you return the manga to the place you picked it up from, I think it was organised in someway but not sure how. 

Usually when we go to stay somewhere, the hotel is really just somewhere to sleep but this place forced us to slow down and spend time inside (the air-conditioned) room and actually chill and relax.

We did go out in the evening to eat and visit a bookish speakeasy - more on that soon. And I picked up pastries for breakfast, the hotel doesn't do food. The check out is 11am too so we had a lovely relaxing start to the day.

What do you think? Would you like to stay in a book hotel? Let me know below, or if you have stayed in one and have recommendations, we'd be up for trying more places!

INFO

To make a reservation of find out more, you can check out The Book Hotel here.

Next stop Lilliput bookshop speakeasy bar

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Book Review - Boater by Jo Bell

Sometimes, when I'm trying to choose my next book, I get totally overwhelmed by choice. That's what happened on this occasion, for some reason Boater was one of my recommended reads on Everand (formally Scribd). 

It's not my usual type of book but after spending so much time walking along the canal when I was back at moms and learning a little about the bridges nearby, it had me intrigued. 

This is the bridge in question, it allows the horse pulling the boat to cross the canal without being unhitched from the boat. Clever!

Boater by Jo Bell

Well friend, I have to say the book is a delight. It's the authors story of how she ended up living and working on the canals, her romantic entanglements all beautifully woven and intertwined with the history of the canals and their influence on the Industrial Revolution.

Having grown in around the area where a good chunk of the book is set, I was amazed at how little I knew of the canal history and importance. Of course, we would have covered this at school but no doubt what my dry and boring history teacher told us back then, went in one ear and out the other. 

I have to say, it has made me a little prouder of the area I grew up in as it often gets the brunt of jokes and it's definitely not one of the prettiest cities in the world and it's significance to world history I feel is very much downplayed. 

I was also surprised to hear my village mentioned in the book, which is hysterical because it is not important or significant other than it being the source of the River Trent. Every year in the scouts we had to go and clean out and tidy the area around the source.

I listened to the audio version of the book, which is narrated by the author herself and she does a fabulous job. I usually cringe when authors read their own work as it is so badly done, but not this one.

By the end of the book, I felt that I too had travelled the UK on the narrowboat (mot a barge) with Jo, enjoying tea, biscuits and bacon butties. And I do wonder if I could adopt to a life on the water. At sea, that is a hard no, but even walking along the canal there is a lovely sense of peace even when you are just a stones through from a housing estate.

I also like the idea of just living with the bare essentials, clutter and accumulated 'stuff' drives me potty. But it also looks like a tonne of hard work, she doesn't go into much detail about how things like toilet situation works or doing your daily shop. So I did leave with even more questions!

If you are looking for an easy read, with spoonful of history, a cupful friendship topped off with a dollop of wit, then this is a great choice.

Boater - By Jo Bell Available here (aff link)

If I were to move back and took to a. life on the water, this is obviously this is the boat for me... Spotted on the canal near Congleton.

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Beaten but not down...

I often get asked when is the best time to visit Japan, and my answer is always the same. Anytime except the summer. June brings the rainy season, the rain isn't like the monsoons of India but it brings the humidity and it is that combined with the intense heat that makes summer in Japan unbearable.

And yes, it's definitely getting worse. When Ebi-kun was a kid, there was always a posse of kids hanging out on the street having water fights and other summer high jinks. There are still kids living on the street but it is too hot for them to be outside.

This week, most of the week it was 38℃ with a 'feels like' temp of 44℃. It's brutal out there!

We used to do a lot of ice cooking and ice digging but these days I think I'd move it to the bath rather than the yard. I miss those days or squeals and laughter as the kids played as I worked.

Anyway, all of this to say that I am very grumpy because it too darn hot! I lived in Jerusalem for a time and it was hot there but the heat was dry, whole different ball game!  And because my daily walks have been scuppered I've taken to the treadmill, but I have to say, it's really not that much fun.

When I bought it I had this bright idea of using it as a walking desk, convinced I could MacGyver a set up... which I did, it lasted all of 2 minutes before I almost fell off, narrowly avoiding a serious injury. Thankfully none of this was caught on camera so you can just use your imagination!

After retelling the tale to Ebi-kun he went into fits of laughter "What were you thinking, with your lack of co-ordination?" He managed to squeak between guffaws. 

Ok, he has a point!

So the treadmill moved upstairs and my walking is down to a minimum. <sigh>

It is one of the drawbacks of working from home I suppose, at least I don't have to do the train commute anymore, squashed in the Takasaki - Tokyo train with hundreds of sweaty salarymen, also not my idea of fun!

I usually escape back to the UK for a chunk of the summer, but not this year. I'm in the process of organising the Celebration of Life for my mom in September, so I'll be flying back then - assuming the war in the Middle East hasn't taken a turn for the worse. 

I haven't quite got back into the habit of updating daily but I do have to say, it's so refreshing to just sit down and write again without the pressure of SEO and all that tech nonsense. 

Having Ebi-kun at home for the summer is great too, not only for the company, he is a joy to chat with. But he also loves cooking, last night we had carbonara, made from scratch, including the pasta. Top notch, giving myself a pat on the back for getting the kid in the kitchen from a young age!

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quince

To bring you up to speed, this year has so far been a roller-coaster. 

My mom, who had COPD took a turn for the worse in February, so I dropped everything and took the next flight back to the UK. I ended up staying for 2 months, helping my brother sort out care options and getting the house in order, decluttering, sorting paperwork and whatnot. As well as keeping up with my work. Which fortunately, I can do from anywhere. 

Oh yes, and a few days after I landed, that orange idiot in America declared war on Iran which meant flying back through the Middle East - my usual route was a hard no and all the flight prices shot up.

In the end I had to leave because I had a medical appointment and needed a top up of prescription pills which I couldn't get in the UK.

Not long after mom passed away, in her sleep, peacefully, for that I'm grateful for. She had had enough and just wanted to 'pop off' (her words), she wasn't going to get better so it was for the best. But still hard.

She hadn't wanted a funeral so that side of things was fairly quick and easy to deal with, I'll be going back in September - assuming I can due to the war. And we'll have a celebration of life then. 

My original plans had been to go over in June for my brothers wedding but that all got scuppered. My youngest brother is a bit of a Viking hippy, love the earth type of guy. He is looking for land to buy to start his own farm and homestead. 

I didn't want to buy a gift that was just going to clutter up the house, and decided on a couple of trees so he could plant them on his land when he gets it. I know he has a few fruit trees already and didn't want to get them something they already had. So I had to put my thinking hat on.

I decided weird was the way to go. He loves learning about plants and so when I stumbled upon the medlar tree I knew I had a winner.  The other one I found was quince, which you can make a great jelly from to go with cheese, always a winner in my books.

I ordered the trees and then painted some quince fruit to make into a card, I tried medlar fruit but well, if you read the line from Shakespeare below you'll understand why it wasn't really suitable for a wedding hard! Lol.

For thousands of years quince has been a symbol of love, marriage and fertility. It was a favourite of the Greek goddess Aphrodite! The ancient Greeks gave quinces to newly weds as a wish for happiness and prosperity. Clearly a better gift than an airfryer!

Medlar trees on the other hand...

Are gloriously old trees that refuse to do things the normal way. (Which seems fitting if you know my brother). Their fruit has to go through a process known as 'bletting' before it becomes sweet enough to eat. And the old romantic William Shakespeare preferred to call it open arse fruit! Make of that as you will.

So yes, keeping it weird and in the family. Nothing new there.

We also decided that we'd get a tree for mom and bury her ashes under it, perhaps a cherry blossom as they were always in bloom for her birthday. I think she would have liked that.

Stay creative!

Jo xx

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Here's to the rule breakers!

Well Hello!
It has been a while...

I know personal blogging isn't as cool as it used to be and I have my work blog still going over at jojoebi.com but you know, I miss old school blogging.

Where I didn't have to worry about SEO and AI and all that nonsense. I used to be such a prolific blogger, often blogging daily or at least several times a week but then all the techie crap came and sucked the fun out of it.

So I was thinking, maybe I'll just pick up here again, waffle like I did back in the beginning and forget all the annoying 'rules'.

This blog started out as "A bit of this and a bit of that" because I just wanted to share what I was up to and not niche down or be in a labelled box - yes, my punk vibe still going strong. So, I'm going back to that. I'll write when I feel like it and about whatever comes up. 

If you fancy coming along for the ride, all the better. If you are reading and still blogging, let me know in the comments so I can come and check yours out too. I do miss the old blogging community. I really wish Google hadn't done away with Google reader, I feel that was the downfall of the simple blog culture.

Here is a very brief update for anyone who used to read and stumbled back...

• Ebi-kun was homeschooled for junior high the went to a hybrid school in Japan called N-school for high school
• He is now studying for a degree in dietetics in Hungary and loving it, he wants to be a football dietician.
• I set up the 193 Little Adventures Club and create a new printable pack for a different country every month. I love it, it's so much fun and I have learned a lot!
• I still run a version of Wonder Moms although the current iteration is more about accountability and staying on task, we have a small and tight knit community and I really enjoy hanging out with the group. 
• I lost my mom in the spring, she had been very ill so it wasn't unexpected but still really hard when you are the other side of the world. She didn't want a funeral so we are having a celebration of life in the autumn. I'm not really looking forward to going back tbh. We also lost ji-chan last year and baa-chan is in the hospital, also very poorly. All in all, not a great time.
• I fell off the sewing wagon, I still have a cupboard full of fabric and a lovely machine but sort of lost my mojo, maybe I need a fun project to get going again.
• Last year I went on an epic adventure with my bestie Di, who had won money for a holiday on a radio competition. We visited Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, there was a lot of laughing, exploring and silliness, it was very much needed.
• My little brother got married in the summer, I couldn't make it back but I did enjoy researching and finding his present, I'll share that in the next post.

That's it for now. I have to go and face the awful heat as I need to print some bits out and we no lonbger have a printer. Hey-ho it's off to the conbini I go...

And I will leave you with one of Japan's great mysteries, what kind of animal is this... ?

Stay creative!

Jo xx

KEEP YOUR KIDS BUSY AND LEARNING WITH THE FREE CURIOSITY FILES

New printable sent each week!

Have you landed in the right place?

This is just quick update, in case you landed here accidentally.

This was my original blog started in 2007 and I have kept it (but not really updated it) because there are a lot of useful posts hidden in the depths.

Where you can find me now - on a regular basis is blogging at jojoebi.com. Where I'm still blogging about Montessori and helping kids learn at home but also expanded to helping moms get more done, bringing my productivity coach know-how to the blog.

If you have got kids in the 4-10 year old age range then 193 Little Adventures might be of interest to you, this is my passion project, helping kids to learn about the world.

If you want to connect, @jojoebi on Insta is for the productivity, time saving side of things and @193_little_adventures for the kids stuff. If you do follow, shoot me a message and say hello!

To get free access to the 193 Little Adventures Curiosity Files (new printable added each week) CLICK HERE