About – English

Hej! Hello! ((Back to Japanese ver.))
Thank you for visiting “Always Dream of Scandinavia,” my website for my illustrations and blog.

About This Site

I will always love Scandinavia

I believe Scandinavia is a place I will love at any age.

For many years, I have followed my dreams at my own pace: “I want to live there someday.” “I want to talk with local people.” “I want to work there.”

Over the years, I have found different ways to stay connected to Scandinavia. I have lived there, returned to Japan, and continued to build my own connections from there.

Now that I live in a town in Scandinavia, I am still learning and trying new things. I want to become more a part of local life, and I also want to share the scenes I find in Scandinavia and on my travels through my drawings.

On this site, I share content about Scandinavia (mainly about Denmark and Sweden), as follows:

Through my illustrations and blog posts, I hope to connect with people who love Scandinavia. I plan to write summary of blog in each post in English in the future.

Instagram: @ryokos_drawing

About Me

A Junior High School Girl Who Fell in Love with Denmark

As a child, I was longing to see the world outside Japan. When I was in junior high school, I joined an international exchange program. Denmark happened to be the first foreign country I ever visited. Actually, I had expected to go to Australia. The program had sent students to Australia until the year before, so I simply assumed that I would be going there too. But the moment I arrived in Denmark, I fell in love with the country.

After returning to Japan, I continued to dream of living in Denmark. At the same time, I often went back and forth between thinking, “Maybe I can make it happen,” and “Maybe it will be too difficult.”

More Than 20 Years Since Those Junior High School Days

I continued to love the Nordic way of life and culture. While living in Japan, I worked for a company that imported products from Denmark, helped a Danish travel company with tours in Japan, worked at a Japanese store of the Swedish furniture brand, and worked for the Japanese office of a Norwegian ship management company.

At the same time, in my late twenties, I decided to try living in Denmark. After that experience, I created a small monthly newspaper called “Denmark Newsletter” (*1) for five years. I handed it to friends and people around me or sent it to them by mail. I looked back on my experiences, researched things about Denmark I did not know, wrote articles, and drew illustrations for them. I was completely enjoying the process and put so much energy into it. And throughout those years, I kept one thought in my mind:

“Someday, I want to live in Denmark again.”

More than 20 years had passed since my junior high school days. Before I knew it, I was approaching 40. I was starting to think about giving up on my dream of living abroad. I was beginning to tell myself, “There are still ways to stay connected to Denmark from Japan. Maybe I can visit sometimes for travel or work.”

From Denmark to Sweden

Then COVID-19 changed the world in many ways. It made me stop and think again. As one of my last challenges before turning 40, I decided to try living in Denmark once more. But after my time in Denmark, life brought me to Sweden. Since August 2024, I have been living in Sweden and starting a new chapter of my life.

I am still a slow-paced person, taking my time as I continue to follow the world I love. I would be very happy to connect through this site with people who share similar values, and with anyone who loves Scandinavia/Nordic countries.