Swiss folklore meets Japanese winter traditions 6th December will be Saint Nicholas Day. In Switzerland, on and around this day you will spot two distinctly different figures walking up and down the streets and visiting houses, one with a bushy white beard and usually clad in a Bishop's robe with a mitre and staff (though sometimes dressed in a red-hooded frock with a tippet), the other rather sinister-looking, in a black robe, with a dark beard and a face covered in coal dus

A Swiss expat unpacks Japan’s take on foreign holidays It's Thanksgiving today in the United States. And Labour Thanksgiving Day in Japan. Which marks a not so common occasion where the two countries share a national holiday on the same day - at least this year. Because while the American Thanksgiving is always celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November, in Japan the holiday is tagged to a certain date (23 November) instead. This year the two coincide, hence the joint holi

Swiss flavours, nostalgia, and memories carried across Japan When you spend your childhood in any given country, you inevitably grow up with what I would call the 'taste of your childhood': Certain foods that are typical for that particular place, which will always remind you of the time when you were growing up, and which are not quite the same anywhere else, or may not be available at all. So if you choose to make another country your permanent home, almost inevitably you w

Music, traditions, and cultural contrasts in Japanese winter With Halloween firmly over and Christmas season officially upon us, my wife and I thought it would be a good idea to search for some concerts for December. Halloween decorations have given way to a grand Christmas tree at the Futako-Tamagawa Rise Shopping Mall. And with the pandemic (more or less) confined to the history books, foreign artists - who, along with pretty much everyone else, were banned from entering th

Japan’s gift‑giving culture through Swiss eyes Japan can be an absolute minefield when it comes navigating social code, and that is most evident when it comes to formal occasions such as weddings and funerals. Take weddings, for example. In Japan, it is customary for wedding attendees to give congratulatory money to the bride and groom. This money is called 'goshugi'. Now, that sounds simple enough, right? You decide on an appropriate amount, pop it in a nice-looking envelope

Ghosts, traditions, and cultural surprises in everyday Japanese life It's the Halloween season, and the ghouls, ghosts and zombies are out in force, also in Japan. Japan, though, has a rather interesting (one could even say 'spooky') relationship with festivals or traditions originating in the West. Take Christmas, for instance: Japan being a Buddhist country, it cannot really relate to the birth of Christ, which, of course, is the original reason we celebrate Christmas - alt

Travelling Japan as a Swiss expat in a changed world When you live on the other side of the world and far away from your nearest and dearest (and by 'near' I don't mean in the geographical sense, obviously), you want to make your trips back to your home country count and therefore plan them meticulously, in order to make sure they go smoothly and you can enjoy them as fully as possible. So when a few months back my other half hinted that she hadn't been abroad in almost five

Swiss politics, identity, and the shifting meaning of home One week from today, the clocks in Europe will be set back by one hour, marking the end of summertime (or daylight saving time, as it is known in some parts of the world). Meanwhile clocks in Japan will not change, and most Japanese will probably not even notice that the time difference to Western Europe is reverting back to 8 hours, from the 7 hours during summer. Except for the UK, where it's 9 hours instead of 8. F

More surprising parallels between Swiss precision and Japanese harmony In a previous post, I established how mountains feature heavily in the landscape of both countries, with the tiny difference that the Swiss tend to put up a flag at the top of their peaks, while the Japanese don't. That brings me to the next topic: What shows the identity of a nation more than anything else? Its national flag, of course. Another common theme between Switzerland and Japan. Their shapes may

A Swiss expat’s journey across continents, cultures, and expectations Today marks 27 years to the day since I boarded a plane in Europe on my way to start a new life in Japan. There used to be a time when air travel could be described with one word: Excitement. Especially when it involved a 12-hour flight to a far-flung destination on the other side of the planet. But in the last two decades, air travel has become much more complicated, and the words that are more likely asso

Two orderly nations compared through culture, habits, and quiet quirks Well, two countries in completely different parts of the world, one an island nation sitting between the Japan Sea and the Pacific Ocean, while the other is a landlocked country neatly tucked away in the middle of Europe, with its southern-most point 160 km from the nearest coast. One with a population of 8.7 million, growing by 0.7% each year, while the other boasts 15 times as many inhabitants, but is s

Half a lifetime navigating Japan, identity, and the Swiss abroad This month marks 27 years since I set foot in Japan, together with my Japanese wife, to make a fresh start in a country that I knew little about, and where I had merely spent a few weeks previously while on holiday. I thought that I would use this occasion to start a blog to share my experiences of living in this fascinating - and sometimes confusing - country. It might seem an odd decision to pick the 27-year