I borrowed these books from my father, and finished reading them some time ago: Gouden Jaren (“Golden Years”) and Het Goede Leven (“The Good Life”) by Annegreet van Bergen.
Van Bergen is an economist, and in these two books she shows how every-day life in the Netherlands changed between 1950 and 2000. In that period, average wealth increased four- ( Read more... )

During our most recent trip to Japan, in 2019, we visited the Kanda shrine - it was on our way to the sake association’s tasting center 😉
Next to the shrine was a building with a ‘cultural space’: a cafe, a shop and an event space, clearly associated with the shrine. It was quite new - apparently the Kanda shrine featured in the anime Love Live!, ( Read more... )