Stay in a Book Hotel in Tokyo

It was Ebi-kuns birthday last week, so we had a short midweek break. He is a book nerd, always has been, he'd rather dig into a good book that play computer games or waste time mindlessly scrolling on the socials.

His other loves are football and food. having just wrapped up the men's World Cup, I figured we had had enough football and focused on food and books. 

My goal was to fill the two days with as much of each as possible...

He has also seen an art exhibit in Harajuku he fancied going to and in a previous conversation talked about going to the big Maruzen book store in Tokyo.

He had been asked to participate in something run at a university in the morning, so we met up in at Tokyo station, had lunch then hit the book store. I left him to it and headed to the 4th floor which is all English/foreign language books and stationery. 

Once we had our fill and bought some books we headed up to Jimbocho, which is otherwise known as book town. We have visited here before, its nice to have a mooch around, there are some lovely shops but its not really a foreign tourist destination unless you read Japanese. 

The Book Hotel is close to the metro exit and if you need supplies, there are 3 conbinis a few minutes walk away to choose from.

In the lobby there are sofas and walls of books, the check-in was quick and easy, the staff were lovely. You need a hotel room key to use the lift which is a safety feature I approve of.

We had picked the white manga room and well... it was all white and filled with manga of all descriptions. The light from behind the bookcase at the bottom left is one of the bed nooks, also has manga in there and lights and plugs so you can recharge your phone etc.

There are plenty of amenities, green tea and coffee, kettle fridge and manga, did I mention the manga yet! They are pretty much all in Japanese, we found two English language ones. My husband had booked the room and there was some confusion (not the hotels fault) about the beds so we ended up with an extra bed in the room, which is what you can see in the bottom right. I don't think the room s designed for a long stay, more over night for maybe a night or two. 

One thing visitors to Japan might not know, if yo look at the left side of the photo below, there is a line marked on the floor, this is where you take your shoes off, leave them on the side of the door. The black things you can see on the room side are the slippers provided by the hotel. This is common practice in Japanese hotels. If there is no physical line, just leave your shoes as close to the door as possible and change into the supplied slippers.

Up in the loft there was another double bed and yes, more manga. Ebi-kun bagged this bed, I ended up in the nook and hubby on the third bed. We all slept well!

Unusually for a Japanese hotel, there was no bath tub but instead a sauna and shower! Not that we needed it considering the weather in the middle of the summer in Japan, lol. It was nice to have though, maybe we will visit in the winter next time!

There were plenty of towels, night wear, bathrobes and toothbrushes etc. 

One of the little extra touches that I loved was the manga welcome guide, explaining what you can and can't do. They ask that you return the manga to the place you picked it up from, I think it was organised in someway but not sure how. 

Usually when we go to stay somewhere, the hotel is really just somewhere to sleep but this place forced us to slow down and spend time inside (the air-conditioned) room and actually chill and relax.

We did go out in the evening to eat and visit a bookish speakeasy - more on that soon. And I picked up pastries for breakfast, the hotel doesn't do food. The check out is 11am too so we had a lovely relaxing start to the day.

What do you think? Would you like to stay in a book hotel? Let me know below, or if you have stayed in one and have recommendations, we'd be up for trying more places!

To make a reservation of find out more, you can check out The Book Hotel here.

KEEP YOUR KIDS BUSY AND LEARNING WITH THE FREE 🔎 CURIOSITY FILES

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Book Review - Boater by Jo Bell

Sometimes, when I'm trying to choose my next book, I get totally overwhelmed by choice. That's what happened on this occasion, for some reason Boater was one of my recommended reads on Everand (formally Scribd). 

It's not my usual type of book but after spending so much time walking along the canal when I was back at moms and learning a little about the bridges nearby, it had me intrigued. 

This is the bridge in question, it allows the horse pulling the boat to cross the canal without being unhitched from the boat. Clever!

Boater by Jo Bell

Well friend, I have to say the book is a delight. It's the authors story of how she ended up living and working on the canals, her romantic entanglements all beautifully woven and intertwined with the history of the canals and their influence on the Industrial Revolution.

Having grown in around the area where a good chunk of the book is set, I was amazed at how little I knew of the canal history and importance. Of course, we would have covered this at school but no doubt what my dry and boring history teacher told us back then, went in one ear and out the other. 

I have to say, it has made me a little prouder of the area I grew up in as it often gets the brunt of jokes and it's definitely not one of the prettiest cities in the world and it's significance to world history I feel is very much downplayed. 

I was also surprised to hear my village mentioned in the book, which is hysterical because it is not important or significant other than it being the source of the River Trent. Every year in the scouts we had to go and clean out and tidy the area around the source.

I listened to the audio version of the book, which is narrated by the author herself and she does a fabulous job. I usually cringe when authors read their own work as it is so badly done, but not this one.

By the end of the book, I felt that I too had travelled the UK on the narrowboat (mot a barge) with Jo, enjoying tea, biscuits and bacon butties. And I do wonder if I could adopt to a life on the water. At sea, that is a hard no, but even walking along the canal there is a lovely sense of peace even when you are just a stones through from a housing estate.

I also like the idea of just living with the bare essentials, clutter and accumulated 'stuff' drives me potty. But it also looks like a tonne of hard work, she doesn't go into much detail about how things like toilet situation works or doing your daily shop. So I did leave with even more questions!

If you are looking for an easy read, with spoonful of history, a cupful friendship topped off with a dollop of wit, then this is a great choice.

Boater - By Jo Bell Available here (aff link)

If I were to move back and took to a. life on the water, this is obviously this is the boat for me... Spotted on the canal near Congleton.

KEEP YOUR KIDS BUSY AND LEARNING WITH THE FREE CURIOSITY FILES

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Beaten but not down...

I often get asked when is the best time to visit Japan, and my answer is always the same. Anytime except the summer. June brings the rainy season, the rain isn't like the monsoons of India but it brings the humidity and it is that combined with the intense heat that makes summer in Japan unbearable.

And yes, it's definitely getting worse. When Ebi-kun was a kid, there was always a posse of kids hanging out on the street having water fights and other summer high jinks. There are still kids living on the street but it is too hot for them to be outside.

This week, most of the week it was 38℃ with a 'feels like' temp of 44℃. It's brutal out there!

We used to do a lot of ice cooking and ice digging but these days I think I'd move it to the bath rather than the yard. I miss those days or squeals and laughter as the kids played as I worked.

Anyway, all of this to say that I am very grumpy because it too darn hot! I lived in Jerusalem for a time and it was hot there but the heat was dry, whole different ball game!  And because my daily walks have been scuppered I've taken to the treadmill, but I have to say, it's really not that much fun.

When I bought it I had this bright idea of using it as a walking desk, convinced I could MacGyver a set up... which I did, it lasted all of 2 minutes before I almost fell off, narrowly avoiding a serious injury. Thankfully none of this was caught on camera so you can just use your imagination!

After retelling the tale to Ebi-kun he went into fits of laughter "What were you thinking, with your lack of co-ordination?" He managed to squeak between guffaws. 

Ok, he has a point!

So the treadmill moved upstairs and my walking is down to a minimum. <sigh>

It is one of the drawbacks of working from home I suppose, at least I don't have to do the train commute anymore, squashed in the Takasaki - Tokyo train with hundreds of sweaty salarymen, also not my idea of fun!

I usually escape back to the UK for a chunk of the summer, but not this year. I'm in the process of organising the Celebration of Life for my mom in September, so I'll be flying back then - assuming the war in the Middle East hasn't taken a turn for the worse. 

I haven't quite got back into the habit of updating daily but I do have to say, it's so refreshing to just sit down and write again without the pressure of SEO and all that tech nonsense. 

Having Ebi-kun at home for the summer is great too, not only for the company, he is a joy to chat with. But he also loves cooking, last night we had carbonara, made from scratch, including the pasta. Top notch, giving myself a pat on the back for getting the kid in the kitchen from a young age!

KEEP YOUR KIDS BUSY AND LEARNING WITH THE FREE CURIOSITY FILES

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quince

To bring you up to speed, this year has so far been a roller-coaster. 

My mom, who had COPD took a turn for the worse in February, so I dropped everything and took the next flight back to the UK. I ended up staying for 2 months, helping my brother sort out care options and getting the house in order, decluttering, sorting paperwork and whatnot. As well as keeping up with my work. Which fortunately, I can do from anywhere. 

Oh yes, and a few days after I landed, that orange idiot in America declared war on Iran which meant flying back through the Middle East - my usual route was a hard no and all the flight prices shot up.

In the end I had to leave because I had a medical appointment and needed a top up of prescription pills which I couldn't get in the UK.

Not long after mom passed away, in her sleep, peacefully, for that I'm grateful for. She had had enough and just wanted to 'pop off' (her words), she wasn't going to get better so it was for the best. But still hard.

She hadn't wanted a funeral so that side of things was fairly quick and easy to deal with, I'll be going back in September - assuming I can due to the war. And we'll have a celebration of life then. 

My original plans had been to go over in June for my brothers wedding but that all got scuppered. My youngest brother is a bit of a Viking hippy, love the earth type of guy. He is looking for land to buy to start his own farm and homestead. 

I didn't want to buy a gift that was just going to clutter up the house, and decided on a couple of trees so he could plant them on his land when he gets it. I know he has a few fruit trees already and didn't want to get them something they already had. So I had to put my thinking hat on.

I decided weird was the way to go. He loves learning about plants and so when I stumbled upon the medlar tree I knew I had a winner.  The other one I found was quince, which you can make a great jelly from to go with cheese, always a winner in my books.

I ordered the trees and then painted some quince fruit to make into a card, I tried medlar fruit but well, if you read the line from Shakespeare below you'll understand why it wasn't really suitable for a wedding hard! Lol.

For thousands of years quince has been a symbol of love, marriage and fertility. It was a favourite of the Greek goddess Aphrodite! The ancient Greeks gave quinces to newly weds as a wish for happiness and prosperity. Clearly a better gift than an airfryer!

Medlar trees on the other hand...

Are gloriously old trees that refuse to do things the normal way. (Which seems fitting if you know my brother). Their fruit has to go through a process known as 'bletting' before it becomes sweet enough to eat. And the old romantic William Shakespeare preferred to call it open arse fruit! Make of that as you will.

So yes, keeping it weird and in the family. Nothing new there.

We also decided that we'd get a tree for mom and bury her ashes under it, perhaps a cherry blossom as they were always in bloom for her birthday. I think she would have liked that.

Stay creative!

Jo xx

KEEP YOUR KIDS BUSY AND LEARNING WITH THE FREE CURIOSITY FILES

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Here's to the rule breakers!

Well Hello!
It has been a while...

I know personal blogging isn't as cool as it used to be and I have my work blog still going over at jojoebi.com but you know, I miss old school blogging.

Where I didn't have to worry about SEO and AI and all that nonsense. I used to be such a prolific blogger, often blogging daily or at least several times a week but then all the techie crap came and sucked the fun out of it.

So I was thinking, maybe I'll just pick up here again, waffle like I did back in the beginning and forget all the annoying 'rules'.

This blog started out as "A bit of this and a bit of that" because I just wanted to share what I was up to and not niche down or be in a labelled box - yes, my punk vibe still going strong. So, I'm going back to that. I'll write when I feel like it and about whatever comes up. 

If you fancy coming along for the ride, all the better. If you are reading and still blogging, let me know in the comments so I can come and check yours out too. I do miss the old blogging community. I really wish Google hadn't done away with Google reader, I feel that was the downfall of the simple blog culture.

Here is a very brief update for anyone who used to read and stumbled back...

• Ebi-kun was homeschooled for junior high the went to a hybrid school in Japan called N-school for high school
• He is now studying for a degree in dietetics in Hungary and loving it, he wants to be a football dietician.
• I set up the 193 Little Adventures Club and create a new printable pack for a different country every month. I love it, it's so much fun and I have learned a lot!
• I still run a version of Wonder Moms although the current iteration is more about accountability and staying on task, we have a small and tight knit community and I really enjoy hanging out with the group. 
• I lost my mom in the spring, she had been very ill so it wasn't unexpected but still really hard when you are the other side of the world. She didn't want a funeral so we are having a celebration of life in the autumn. I'm not really looking forward to going back tbh. We also lost ji-chan last year and baa-chan is in the hospital, also very poorly. All in all, not a great time.
• I fell off the sewing wagon, I still have a cupboard full of fabric and a lovely machine but sort of lost my mojo, maybe I need a fun project to get going again.
• Last year I went on an epic adventure with my bestie Di, who had won money for a holiday on a radio competition. We visited Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, there was a lot of laughing, exploring and silliness, it was very much needed.
• My little brother got married in the summer, I couldn't make it back but I did enjoy researching and finding his present, I'll share that in the next post.

That's it for now. I have to go and face the awful heat as I need to print some bits out and we no lonbger have a printer. Hey-ho it's off to the conbini I go...

And I will leave you with one of Japan's great mysteries, what kind of animal is this... ?

Stay creative!

Jo xx

KEEP YOUR KIDS BUSY AND LEARNING WITH THE FREE CURIOSITY FILES

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Have you landed in the right place?

This is just quick update, in case you landed here accidentally.

This was my original blog started in 2007 and I have kept it (but not really updated it) because there are a lot of useful posts hidden in the depths.

Where you can find me now - on a regular basis is blogging at jojoebi.com. Where I'm still blogging about Montessori and helping kids learn at home but also expanded to helping moms get more done, bringing my productivity coach know-how to the blog.

If you have got kids in the 4-10 year old age range then 193 Little Adventures might be of interest to you, this is my passion project, helping kids to learn about the world.

If you want to connect, @jojoebi on Insta is for the productivity, time saving side of things and @193_little_adventures for the kids stuff. If you do follow, shoot me a message and say hello!

To get free access to the 193 Little Adventures Curiosity Files (new printable added each week) CLICK HERE

Where we are with our homeschool journey

Term time starts in April here, we took August off so this is where we are this September:

• ⭐️ Core subjects (Grade 3 Junior High): Maths, Japanese, and Science using Study Sapuri (in Japanese). He also uses Khan Academy for maths because he doesn't like the Japanese math teacher.
• ⭐️ English: He reads daily, works through a workbook together with me, and is doing a creative writing class on Outschool this term.
• ⭐️ French: After 300 days of Spanish, he decided to switch to French! He does daily lessons on Duolingo. Once he has the basics down, we will look for a conversation class.
• ⭐️ Humanities (High School): He is about halfway through those, so he will continue with them in Japanese using Study Sapuri.
• ⭐️ Game Theory: He has gotten really interested in this over the last couple of months. After researching it, we signed him up for a course on Coursera to go deeper (research in Japanese, course in English).
• ⭐️ Culinary Arts: Still a favourite! He is working through all the chefs on MasterClass and experimenting a lot in the kitchen (mostly English).
• ⭐️ PE: Aikido twice a week, climbing 3 times a week, plus home training to build muscle for climbing.
• ⭐️ Coding & Robotics: Lego Mindstorms EV3 with Zkai, alongside live lectures and classes debating various topics (Japanese).
• ⭐️ Occasional classes: With JUNEC (Japanese).
• ⭐️ Art: I signed up for an art course on Domestika and he has been joining in.

I think that is it! Looks like a lot, but some of these are just once or twice a month. He is enjoying being able to pick and mix whatever he wants to study and learn at his own pace.

Ebi-kun is happy. I would say the only downside is that he doesn't see his friends so much now—we knew this would happen and unfortunately, there are not many homeschoolers his age around.

We have developed a routine: he does the bulk of his studying in the morning while I work. We stop for lunch, and after eating, we watch a TED talk or Masterclass. Then we go bouldering, do something together, or he works on a project. In the evening, he meets online with his mates to play games and hang out—normal teenage boy stuff!

And that is it.

I've been missing the blog, so I plan to pop by more often. I miss just sitting down first thing and banging out a blog post! TBH my work blog is a lot of work—I have to consider keywords, SEO, the right titles, and all that jazz, which really sucks the fun out of things!

So over here it will just be my rambles and rants, like the good old days!

If you are reading, please drop me a comment, I'd love to re-connect with my old followers.

Keep being wonderful,
Jo

Homeschool Update...

To be honest, I haven't got much to update about!

So last time I talked about filling the forms in at city hall. That is about it really. We haven't heard anything else, which does have me a tad worried—you know how much the Japanese love red tape and bureaucracy!

Ebi-kun told his class teacher that he was going to homeschool for junior high. At first, sensei was OK: "If that's what you want to do." But then a few days later he said to Ebi-kun that he didn't think it was "allowed" and that he had to go to school. Hubby has explained all the rules to Ebi-kun in Japanese so that he can answer all these types of questions which no doubt will come up in the future.

Last week the 6th graders were going for a tour of the junior high. Any kids that are not going to that school were allowed to go home instead. There are a handful of students that will go to private JH schools and of course, Ebi-kun. I had to go and pick him up, so whilst the rest of the kids are touring the school, we went for ice cream #homeschoollife!

We then popped to the supermarket so he could pick up the ingredients to cook dinner. I'm telling you, I'm loving this already!

The other thing that has come up: Ebi-kun currently goes to football school once a week and wanted to continue, but there is no JH age class. On Saturday he had a make-up class, so afterwards I suggested we do a very un-Japanese thing and ask if they can let him join a class next year (the year starts April).

We had a long chat with the coaches and explained what was happening and why he couldn't join the JH team. We had to explain a bit about homeschooling and they were absolutely lovely about it.

They suggested he join a class for the next couple of weeks which is a higher level than the one he is in now to see if he likes that kind of training, and they would talk to the head coach to see about him being allowed to join a class or if there is enough interest to start a JH class.

They said that they really wanted to support us and would try and work something out.

Ebi-kun was chuffed to bits, so it's fingers crossed now that they are good to their word and do work something out.

Ebi-kun will keep doing his aikido and he has been trying the bouldering club out too, so I think if we can keep the football in the mix he should have enough to keep him busy out of the house (and me!).

I will keep you posted on what happens next—it's very much a see-how-it-goes type of adventure!

If you are homeschooling too, let me know!

Jo

The trouble with blogging these days...

The trouble with blogging these days...

I was talking to my biz coach the other day and she made a point of saying how much she loved my writing style and wanted to know why I don't write more.

I started with the same ole same ole excuses and lack of time yadda yadda yadda but then I though some more about it.

It isn't down to lack of time at all, if anything since Ebi-kun has been at school, I have more time! When to think back when I was most prolific with my blogging, that was when I was the most busy. So what really changed?

The business of blogging I think is a big factor.

You see when I started, I knew nothing about SEO (Seacrh Engline Optimization) or keywords, the important of alt text on images and the layout that coverts the best or any of that stuff. And to be brutely honest, I had zero interest in it either.

I was blogging initially for me and my family (this was pre-Facebook days, do you remember them?)

I wrote because I enjoyed it, it was a creative outlet. I didn't worry about the terrible grammar (confessin alert, I would type and hit publish, without even reading it through...!)

I didn't worry about how professional I sounded or if I was using the latest terminolgy and jargon. I just wrote whatever came to mind and that was that.

Totally random unicorn chocolate photos because... why not?

Being a multipotenialite meant that there was never a clear niche for this blog, it was always a general, this is my life and what I'm up to right now kind of thing. It was called A Bit Of This And A Bit Of That when I first started. No planning, not deciding on what will go out in Q1, Q2 or anything like that.

It was very much me, just writing.

Then when I started My Organized Chaos (now jojoebi) I discovered I hadn't been doing things properly and the following I had gained totally organically was a bit of a happy accident!

I started following the advice of the "gurus" on when and how to post, keyword research, optimised blog titles, SEO and all of that and you know what, it sucked the fun out of writing.

Combine that with how easy it is to write a quick update on what's going on over on Facebook and well, this blog took quite a beating.

I have had coaches in the past who told me to to move this blog over to the new site, my gut has always been against the idea, and my brain was screaming WHAT? 3000 POSTS, ARE YOU INSANE? Needless to say, we are still here and I'm happy with that.

So thanks to my current coach I was able to nail what it was that was holiding me back. This blog has never been about the money, it was always a creative outlet and connecting with like minded folk.

I want to get back to that just sitting down and rambling, spur of the moments kind of posts, those ones where you have a flash of inspiration in the bath and you just have to get out and share, even if you're dripping all over the keyboard.

I miss the days of the conversations and connections through the comments section, I feel like facebook spolied much of that. I feel like I'm on Facebook waaaay to much and the connections are not truely there, especially with the constant algorithm changes. I still love my groups but I do feel in the last 6 months or so I have drifted away.

So for the future...

Expect more of this, free form waffle, hopefully it will be a bit more amusing and exciting to read! I will be documenting our homeschool journey too, although now there will be less hands on stuff from me.

And of course the random comings and goings of life in Japan and our adventures.

I did contemplate remving everything and going for a total minamilist look but my inner entrepreneur called me bat-shit crazy for even thinking that, because at the end of the day, I still need to be making money!

The moms that I help over on jojoebi and The Kaizen Revolution, came from here initially so there still needs to be some kind of connection.

I'm looking forward to not doing keyword research, not going SEO crazy and not worrying about if I'm doing it it right or wrong. Just going with the flow!

I hope you enjoy it to!

I'll be seeing you again soon,

Jo

Create Every Week #4 - Blow Fish Party

I admit it, I have been slacking off on the creativity side but I did have a play around the other day with this.

I am hoping to up my "kawaii illustrations" game so I decided to combine different expressions with blowfish (fugu as it is known in Japan).

I'll probably paint it with water colours but upload and clean it up a bit so I can play around with digital painting too.

I have been using this book: Kawaii: How to draw really cute stuff as a reference book. Which I'm really enjoying, Ebi-kun too. It has step-by-step instructions for drawing all kinds of things from people to transport to buildings, and how to kawaiify them.

Obviously in Japan everything is kawaii, they have a knack of making everything cute—which other nation would come up with a cute poop emoji? I rest my case.
All the prefectures have their own cute mascots, we have a pigeon. I know right, of all the creatures they pick a bloody pigeon!

But it doesn't stop there: supermarkets, hospitals, schools, even prisons have mascots too—it's a HUGE business. One thing that surprised me when I first came over to Japan was seeing full-grown men with cute mascot pens, keychains, and the suchlike. After being here so long it all seems perfectly normal.

So... what have you been creating this week?