Cherry blossoms off the beaten track

If you’re in Japan and it’s cherry blossom season in your area, you will find them in some surprising places.

“Confessions” by Kanae Minato

Recently, I started a separate blog exclusively for my book reviews. It’s called Lyssa’s Book Reviews. I posted my first review there late last week and I’m working on another now. Please feel free to check it out!

Here is a link to my review of Kanae Minato’s “Confessions”. Enjoy!

Lyssa's Book Reviews

My first foray to the local library in a long time yielded a thoroughly dark, thoroughly enjoyable Japanese school thriller (translated into English).

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One year on

Abruptly losing a parent when you’re 8000 kilometres away from them for most of the year still sucks, even one year later.

Cherry Blossoms 2017

I wrote this last year, thinking about the transience of everything in the face of my uncle’s death a year earlier. Five days after I posted it, my father suddenly passed away.

I thought I would hate the cherry blossoms after that, but I find that I don’t. I have so much sadness this week but I want to take these little flowers for just what they are – flowers, a beautiful, brief display of them, and a sign that spring has finally arrived. I’ll reserve my sadness for this Friday.

Cutting myself some slack

Occasionally, I learn something important about myself from reading my students’ English diaries.