This blog has been quietly running since 2024. I started it because I needed a place to put the small things I noticed about living — things that weren't big enough for a book, and that I didn't want to compress into a tweet. A journal, essentially, that I was willing to let strangers read.
I live in a small apartment just outside Kyoto with my partner and a cat who acts like she owns the lease. I work part-time as a translator. The rest of the time I read, I walk, I write here, and I tend to a modest balcony garden with varying degrees of competence.
What this notebook is
It's a running journal about the texture of daily life. Mornings. Small rituals. The quiet maintenance of relationships and friendships and selves. Books I'm reading slowly. Products and places I've come to depend on. Occasional essays on whatever I've been turning over.
It's not a productivity blog. It's not a lifestyle brand. I'm not trying to sell you a system. I just write about what I notice, at the pace that feels right, and I publish when something is done. Which is usually every week or two.
I'd rather write four careful things a month than thirty restless ones. If the pace feels slow to you, that's fine. This probably isn't the blog for you, and that's okay too.
A few things, if you're curious
- I grew up between the United States and Japan. I write in English but think in a strange hybrid of both.
- I drink coffee in the morning, genmaicha in the afternoon, and almost never anything after 4pm.
- The notebook I'm using right now is a B5 Muji. Before that a Midori. Before that, pure chaos.
- I'm in my late thirties. I was in my late twenties when most of what I write about finally started to make sense.
- I have no social media presence on purpose. If you want to hear from me, the newsletter is how.
How to read this blog
Slowly, if you can. Most of what I write doesn't have a hot take. Almost nothing here needs to be read the day it comes out. A lot of it is better read twice.
The journal page has all the posts, organized under six topics. If you're new, I'd start with something from Mornings or Reflections. If you want to subscribe, there's a form on the homepage. One letter a month, nothing more.