Archive for July, 2011

I have car insurance so can now collect the Japan van!

Posted in: Earthquake Relief- Jul 04, 2011 No Comments

I have car insurance!!!!!! Hooray!!!!!! Now I can collect the Japan van from Hitachi and move on to my next location! Another hooray! I’ve been trying to get insurance companies to support this trip by donating the car insurance. I managed to get a quote from Robert Edward Southern Limited’s Tony Smalley, who was absolutely [...]

top

Not the best patient in the world

Posted in: Earthquake Relief- Jul 01, 2011 No Comments

I had a bit of a mopey day yesterday — I’m not the best patient in the world and really resent any time being sick when I’d rather be doing stuff. You would have thought the strokes might have taught me how to accept that sometimes we get sick but it appears not to be [...]

top

Latest News

Earning Less & Living More

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, [...]

Mother’s Day

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 [...]

Thoughts one year on

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 [...]

Stepmum

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 & GPlusMedia partnership announcement

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 [...]

Flying to the UK

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 [...]

One month in Tohoku: goodbye Oshika, and thank you

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 [...]

One month in Tohoku: where your money went!

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 [...]

One month in Tohoku: then and now photos

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 [...]

One month in Tohoku: tears

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, [...]