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Credits: TheTalkingDad.com & FeedWind.comRecent Posts: M Thomas Apple Author Page
O Captain My Captain Picard—Be Optimistic
Why oh why do I bother to read “reviews” of shows I like? It’s not as if they’ll tell me anything useful, interesting, or helpful to understand the content. And it’s much more likely that they’re written by people who don’t understand the show and/or are chomping at the bit to be as snarky as […]
Boldly going where we already went fifty years ago
🖖 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-51245262
Have some Proxima Centauri with ESPRESSO
“Proxima is our closest neighbor in an immense universe. How could we not be charmed by it?” Well, the planet may or may not exist (the confirmation data won’t be publicly available for another couple years). And it is most likely not inhabitable — despite being dubbed a “Super-Earth” (which really only refers to size […]
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Tag Archives: haafu
Ten Years of Taking Leave
Looking back, it’s amazing to me now that I dared to even apply for a year of paternity leave while living in a foreign country. But I’ve never regretted the decision. As I told an audience of university students and … Continue reading
Posted in book, day care, education, gender roles, Japan, Japanese, Japanese culture, Japanese society, parenting, Paternity leave, school
Tagged bilingualism, blogging, child care, child-raising, children, education, family, family leave, fatherhood, gender roles, haafu, Japan, Japanese, Japanese kids, parental leave, parents
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The Joy of Reading
We were eager to have books readily available for our kids…and not just available, but in a location where the kids could choose the books they wanted, when they wanted. So we arranged for the cubbyhole built into the staircase in the living room, and we had two small bookcases put into the kids’ play room.
It was up to us to provide the materials… Continue reading
Posted in education, Japan, Japanese, reading
Tagged bilingualism, books, child care, child education, EFL, ESL, haafu, reading
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On the Pond
This past Sunday, my wife, daughter, and I joined in an outdoor barbecue at a prefectural park originally built for a Japanese emperor. Sounds impressive, I guess…Taisho Tenno wasn’t a particularly long-lived emperor by modern standards, and was in poor … Continue reading
Posted in family outings, hobbies, parenting, trips
Tagged child-raising, family leave, fatherhood, haafu, half-Japanese, Japan, Japanese, parental leave, parenting, Paternity leave, Shorinji Kempo
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Getting chores done for a song and a dance
After my ranting about the isolation of Japanese men from their families and the archaic attitude toward parental roles, I thought it might be nice for a little levity… My wife and I resisted the impulse to show videos and … Continue reading
Posted in entertainment, kids shows, parenting, TV
Tagged child care, child-raising, educational TV, edutainment, haafu, half-Japanese, Japan, Japanese, Japanese kids, Japanese TV, kid shows, NHK, Paternity leave
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Half? Which half?
This weekend was a three-day weekend in Japan. Monday was “Coming of Age Day” (成人の日), which is when cities around the country hold ceremonies to inform those who have turned 20 years old of what it means to be a … Continue reading
