Welcome to Karoyakani!

Karoyakani is part of the title of my Japanese language blog. It means ‘lightly’ or ‘airily’; an image of a carefree young girl effortlessly leaping up in the air…
 

I’m originally from Tokyo but it’s been over 20 years now since I moved to New Zealand. Since I was little, I was excited by anything Western and I would secretly wish that I could live abroad someday. I can now see why I was so drawn to that idea. It seems I had to leave my own culture behind in order to redefine who I really was.

I work in the education sector and have been trying to adopt approaches more in line with Holistic Education, with three key elements being balance, inclusion and connection.

In September 2011, I set up a Japanese blog and started sharing my thoughts. And, to my delight, I can now offer English translations of some of those posts. This is all thanks to my former student and fellow tutor, Alec.

Please feel free to post questions or comments. We’d love to hear your thoughts!