You are here: Caroline Pover » 2011 » April
Yesterday I visited three different schools in my hometown, and by the end of the day we had filled the van twice. I started off at Plymouth College, where I found the entrance to one of their buildings half full with items the students and their parents had brought into school. And a Tokyo friend’s [...]
At the end of 2011, my personal income was 20% what it was at the beginning of 2011. I know a few people who run their own businesses and really struggled last year, and we all know people who are employed by others and worry for their jobs and therefore their income, but for me, [...]
This year I sent three Mother’s Day cards — one to my mum, one to my ex-mother-in-law, and one to my ex-stepmother-in-law. Richard’s family has been amazing this past twelve months and I really wanted to thank them. Oh and I remembered that Mr W’s two-year-old needed one for his mum, too. I’d already checked [...]
Yesterday Hiroyuki sent me a YouTube video that actually made me sob. He said he wanted to thank me so he’d sent me that video of Japanese people thanking people from all over the world for their help. I had seen it before and it had made me cry then, which was a few months [...]
This week, Mr W and I announced that we are getting married — it feels funny thinking of us as engaged, even though we actually made the decision last September so have had lots of time to get used to the idea. We’ve both been married before so it’s not the getting married bit that [...]
Being A Broad and GPlus Media are happy to announce a new partnership, commencing March 1st, 2012. GPlus Media will be developing a new website for Being A Broad, maintaining the existing services for foreign women in Japan, as well as creating more services for members and sponsors alike. Caroline Pover, who founded Being A [...]
I got an email from a blog reader telling me I hadn’t written in a week and she was missing it, so here I am, on an Air France flight to the UK, with the first spare time I’ve had since the drive back from Oshika. (And let me just say how the loos on [...]
Today was my last day on Oshika and I spent most of it relaxing; after Saturday’s six hours of food preparation, and yesterday’s five hours of cooking I am glad I didn’t plan anything for today so I could just spend a bit of time at the Sasakis’ and watch my last Ohara sunset (at [...]
I came here to offer a bit of practical and emotional support and to maintain awareness, but I also came here to find some small projects to fund from donations I collected in the UK and also in Japan. I found three projects costing ¥75,000, ¥150,000, and ¥100,000; each making a big difference to people [...]
I’ve been rather inspired by some Tohoku before and after photos going around on Facebook and thought I’d like to start recording Oshika’s progress for the Ohara community. The photos aren’t always as uplifting as some of the ones circulating on the Internet, but that’s the reality here — the shrine is falling apart, people [...]
I knew the tears would come at some point, but I didn’t expect them to come three times in 24 hours. I’ll leave the third time for another blog entry, as it relates to the Sasakis and I have so much more to say about them. So for now….. The first time was quite unexpectedly, [...]
