Taking Leave: the Book!

Posted on November 12, 2015 by MThomas

TL-frontcoveronlyUPDATED.

Published through Perceptia Press (Nagoya), Taking Leave: An American on Paternity Leave in Japan is currently available through englishbooks.jp in paperback/soft cover format (retail price: 1500 yen plus tax).

I’d love to say the book is available through Amazon; however, it appears that because my publisher is a Japanese publisher, the book distribution laws currently state that publishers can use only one distributor at a time. Meaning that as long as the existing contract is with englishbooks.jp, Taking Leave cannot be sold through Amazon.

This seems a bit weird to me and I’m sure there must be a miscommunication somewhere between the publisher’s and the distributor’s interpretation of Japanese distribution laws.

At any rate, englishbooks.jp does ship worldwide via EMS (Japan Post), so please check out their website if you are interested.

There’s also nifty online preview of the first six pages. Enjoy!

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Summer Festival: Beat your own drum!

Posted on July 19, 2015 by MThomas

Four months ago, we gave away our long-used/abused baby barriers. Yesterday, we helped our children celebrate their nursery school’s summer festival. Time flies…

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Once again, my wife volunteered to be a member of the Ai-go-kai (愛護会, literally “love protection association,” but basically the PTA…without the T). So she had lots of meetings on random Saturdays leading up to the festival itself. Of course the teachers are there—they help organize the opening and closing performances, and even have their own dance routine and/or cosplay of a folk tale or movie scene (this year they did Peter Pan, complete with flying fairies and Captain Hook with a gigantic metal hook). But the parents are in charge.

Continue reading →

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The barriers go down…with the past…

Posted on March 30, 2015 by MThomas

IMG_3541As I recently posted on my Facebook page, we took down our “baby gate” this past weekend. We also finally stacked up our “baby barricade” and prepared to donate everything to a nearby city-run child-parent center. It’s the end of an era for our family. Continue reading →

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