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Recent Posts: M Thomas Apple Author Page
“Blood Moon” lunar eclipse across the Americas
Lunar eclipses occur when Earth moves between the sun and the moon and its shadow is cast on to the lunar surface. In Thursday night’s event 96% of the moon will be darkened by the Earth’s shadow at its peak moment. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/aug/27/lunar-eclipse-north-south-america WordPress has gotten really wonky with the “quotation” formatting, so I hope this […]
BOOK LAUNCH ANNOUNCEMENT!
If you open an early American historical ledger, you will witness a quiet, bureaucratic violence. On the yellowed pages of parish registers, military rolls, and census tracts, the names of ordinary people undergo a strange, unsettling metamorphosis. A proud Scottish surname is flattened by an English soldier’s hurried quill. A French-Canadian patronym is chopped and […]
I was not sleeping on my summer vacation…
Check this blog space later tonight (or morning, depending on where you are) for an important, dare I say, historical announcement! Doki doki. Waku waku. (I was definitely not sleeping much over the past three weeks, and my calloused fingers and discolored laptop keyboard are the proof…)
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Author Archives: MThomas
The end is the beginning
Our daughter is now leaving nursery school. From her birth to my wife’s maternity leave to my paternity leave, from building a new house to finishing a doctorate to switching jobs, from one daughter to another (who’s a completely different … Continue reading
Posted in coming of age, education, Japan, Japanese, parenting, school
Tagged ceremonies, child-raising, farewells, friendship, Japan, Japanese, spring
1 Comment
“Dutch backpacks” in Japan
It’s the end of February, and our oldest daughter is nearing the end of her nursery school experience. What a ride it’s been. Now she and her classmates are learning the “goodbye, our nursery school,” song which they will sing … Continue reading
Posted in education, Japan, Japanese culture, Japanese society, parenting, school
Tagged child education, child-raising, Japan, Japanese, Japanese customs
2 Comments
Come out, damned spot!
One aspect of bathrooms in Japan that surprised me at first was the water everywhere around the sink. I mean, everywhere. Not having a habit of waiting for people to wash their hands in public lavatories, I found it a … Continue reading
Posted in Japan, Japanese, Japanese culture, parenting, sickness, Uncategorized
Tagged child care, child-raising, health care, Japan, Japanese, sickness
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