The year is already coming to an end, so that means: Toeps rewind! Last year ended with my wish to simply take it easy for a while. Just sit behind my computer building websites. So instead, I released a planner together with Cynthia, started writing a whole new book, and oh right, we also got married!
January
In January I briefly turned into a full-on cat lady. François was in France, and for those three weeks I was solely responsible for Madame and Boulon. After about a week, Madame finally decided to curl up on my lap – something she normally only does with François. (When François came back, I was immediately out of favor again.)
I had planned to do more around the house, but taking care of the cats turned out to be more tiring than I expected. Still, I managed to frame some things and hang them on the wall. A surprise for François!
At the end of January, François received his permanent resident status much earlier than expected. He had applied for it after living in Japan for ten years, but in many cases the waiting time for PR was around a year and a half. So when he got good news after only seven months, we were pleasantly surprised.
This immediately set everything else in motion for the rest of the year. PR also meant: getting married! But first, of course, we had to deal with all the paperwork.
February
In February, I finally had a bit more time to make things. I replaced a paper lampshade with one I made myself from kimono fabric, and I made cushions for the couch. (The second purple-and-white one took months, but let’s not talk about that…)
I was also busy on the work front. I worked on the Prikkelplanner, scouted locations for upcoming shoots, and filmed a YouTube video together with François. The plan was to do that monthly, but so far we’ve only made two; editing and adding English and French subtitles is a pretty time-consuming task.
On to more home improvement DIY! I ordered more checkered fabric and turned it into curtains for my bedroom. (Second cushion? What second cushion?)
March
Between all the work and DIY projects, I was also busy with something else throughout February and March: a whole lot of paperwork. To get married as two foreigners in Japan, you need permission from your embassy. And to apply for that, you first need a pile of certificates from your home country. Luckily, the Dutch embassy was modern and efficient, and I could arrange most things by email. The French, on the other hand…
We eventually received the French documents as well. After that, our marriage form had to be signed by two witnesses. It didn’t have to happen on the wedding day itself, so a few days before the big day we met up in Yokohama with Kei (my witness) and Swamika (François’s). With the signatures secured, we decided to head up the Landmark Tower.
And then the moment had finally arrived: we got married! Me in my Uniqlo dress (880 yen at the thrift store), François in his work suit. After all, this was just handing in a form at city hall. The real photo shoot wouldn’t happen until a month and a half later.
Meanwhile, the cherry blossoms in our neighborhood were in full bloom. But I didn’t get to enjoy them for long, because just a few days after our wedding I got on a plane to the Netherlands!
The flight to the Netherlands was really special. The passengers were fun, people knew my book(!), I had a lovely chat with a flight attendant, and we even saw the Northern Lights! Of course, it’s impossible to capture through the tiny window of the galley emergency door, but I saw it with my own eyes!
I checked into a hotel in Almere and didn’t have to miss the blossoms entirely. Though, well… in Almere it hits a little different.
April
So April began in the Netherlands. I was only there for two weeks, but I did an incredible amount in that time: two lectures, three shoots, and a panel for the Prikkelplanner that Cynthia and I were still developing…
I saw Riemer, Ruud, Charlotte, Maan, Aafke, and Effy, and even my friend from Japan, Elyse, happened to be in the Netherlands, so we went to see K3 together at Ahoy. Besides staying in Almere, I also stayed in Utrecht and at my brother’s place. He gave me a fantastic (wedding) gift, by the way: a new camera! If you want to read more about my whirlwind Dutch adventure, I wrote this blog post with all the details.
I flew back to Osaka this time. There I met up with Maan and her boyfriend Yves, who had also just travelled to Japan. That wasn’t entirely a coincidence, of course – I had asked Maan to shoot our wedding photos. Turns out that was the perfect excuse for her to come to Japan, and to stick around for a few weeks.
Anyway, more on that later. First, I had to deal with some dreadful bureaucracy. I had to move myself from BUILDING NAME to Building Name, and at the immigration office I discovered that even though we were married in Japan and had received embassy approval, we still had to register the marriage in either the Netherlands or France as well. Ugh.
On top of that, I decided it was smart to get to know my new camera better. I had a few shoots coming up, but on this new model some buttons were in slightly different places, and then there were all the fancy new functions… I dragged François along as my first test subject, and later I went out shooting with Max. After that, I had my first real job with the new camera: a family shoot in Takahatafudo.
April 27th was, of course, King’s Day, so I asked Maan and Yves if they wanted to join me at the Dutch café in Kokubunji. Naturally, we ran into plenty of other familiar faces there.
Our wedding shoot was split into two parts, since I had planned different outfits and locations. The first day we shot in eastern Tokyo, around Kameido and the Skytree. A week later we did the rest, so more on that in May!
May
In May, we shot the second part of our wedding photos, this time in the western part of Tokyo. We used my office as our base and shot near the river, on pedestrian bridges, and of course on the famous octopus slide. You can see all our wedding photos in this post.
And then it was time for our honeymoon! We decided to stay within the country and take our beloved Sunrise Seto (night train) to the island of Shikoku. There, we had four digital Starbucks medals to collect – one for each of Shikoku’s four prefectures. We also visited the Ashizuri underwater observatory, a bizarre apartment complex in Kochi, and an abandoned cable car in Takamatsu. We travelled back by ferry. You can read the full account of our trip here, in part 1 and part 2.
Besides our phones and François’ digital camera, I had also brought my analogue Canon Autoboy. Every now and then we handed it to a surprised passerby, and that gave us the nicest snapshots.
Once we were back in Tokyo, François left on a three-week business trip. In the meantime, I took photos of Sarah.
June
In June, it was starting to get really hot in Japan – ideal weather for… indoor BBQ?
June was mostly all about photography. I did two shoots, one of which was a Shinto wedding. I wrote this blog post about that special shoot. I’ve said it several times already, but I’ll say it once more: Want to book a shoot with me? Then click here.
Besides photographing, I also love scouting locations. When I wander through Tokyo like that, it feels a bit like those first times again. You can sometimes lose that feeling when you live somewhere, because everything becomes so normal.
On June 19th it was François’ birthday, and we went to DisneySea. Of course my Canon AutoBoy came along. (And my AutiPas – that works in Japan too.)
Also in June: work, work, and more work. Websites, photos, and the transition from my Business Manager status to Spouse of Permanent Resident.
Everything had to be finished before I would fly back to the Netherlands on July 1st. But more on that in part 2 of this year in review! (Coming soon!)
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Two Dutchies and a Shinto wedding ceremony
Some time ago, I got an email from Ingrid. She had been following me on Instagram for a while and now wanted to hire me as a photographer. At first, that sounded like a regular job—I often do photoshoots in Japan, usually of couples, families, or friends visiting on vacation. But Ingrid had a special request: in honor of her and her husband’s wedding anniversary, the couple wanted to hold a Shinto wedding ceremony. I immediately felt a little wave of panic.
A different pilgrimage through Shikoku – Part 2
Just like in Shimanto, I had booked two single rooms in Takamatsu. Not so much to recharge this time, but because most hotels near the station were expensive, and Toyoko Inn only had single rooms left. For smokers, no less. Luckily, when we checked in, it turned out that 1) this was a brand-new hotel that had only opened two months earlier, and 2) there were still two non-smoking rooms available, which they were happy to switch us to—especially for me, a loyal Toyoko Inn Club Card holder.
It was still too early to check in, but we were able to leave most of our luggage at the front desk, which let us head into the city a lot lighter. Our first stop was a udon restaurant. Udon is the local specialty in Takamatsu, after all. I had been to Takamatsu five years earlier too, and back then, I’d eaten udon at this very same restaurant.
A different pilgrimage through Shikoku – Part 1
Those who walk the 四国八十八箇所 (Shikoku Hachijūhakkasho), or Shikoku Pilgrimage, visit 88 temples in honor of the Buddhist monk Kūkai, covering a route of about 1,200 kilometers. Originally, the pilgrimage was done on foot, wearing a white jacket and a woven conical hat. Nowadays, pilgrims also take the bus or train—though we still occasionally saw a die-hard walking along the highway. The journey takes pilgrims through the four prefectures of Shikoku: Tokushima, Kochi, Ehime, and Kagawa.
We were not doing this pilgrimage, and only visited temple 84: Yashima-ji. Though that was for another reason, which we’ll get to later. While pilgrims collect a stamp at each temple in their booklets, we were collecting something else: Starbucks medallions. In the meantime, we also visited strange, abandoned places, and a castle that wasn’t there.
Building Name
Anyone who’s read This autistic girl went to Japan knows that this country can be quite bureaucratic. As a newcomer, you first have to break through the magical triangle of address–phone number–bank account, before you can finally pay with something other than the credit card you were actually supposed to have canceled already, or gift cards from the convenience store. By that time, you’ll probably also discover that you should’ve chosen a different way to write your name, because spaces, special characters, or middle names are guaranteed to cause problems: they don’t fit in the box, or your input won’t make it through verification. And have you learned how to write the number 7 the Japanese way yet? I have—after my direct debit form got returned for being “illegible.” (Tip: no wavy line at the top, and definitely no slash through the middle.)
After all these lessons in 官僚主義, I thought I had it figured out. But when I moved in with François a few months ago, I made a rookie mistake.
We got married!
I’m a pretty practical person. Romance isn’t really my thing, and when François asked me a few days ago if I knew when his birthday was, I was off by five days. (He’s the same way—last year, he wasn’t even in the country for my birthday—so luckily, no hard feelings.) I was never really into the idea of marriage. I don’t want kids, I don’t want a big party, and I don’t wear rings. And yet, today, we got married.
Toeps Rewind 2024, part 2
Welcome to part two of my 2024 rewind! It’s recommended to read the first part first, unless you’re some kind of barbarian or something. In this overview, we pick up where we left off, in the Netherlands, in July.
Toeps Rewind 2024, part 1
Welcome to Toeps Rewind, 2024 edition. It’s an annual tradition on this blog—except last year, when I spent most of my time complaining about life in this post. In March, I did write something that resembled a year-in-review, here. But I ended 2023 feeling a bit lost, and I can already tell you, that feeling didn’t entirely disappear in 2024. Anyway, let’s start at the beginning.