Water safety is an incredibly important topic for parents and children to discuss. A key component to water safety is not to panic in the event of a water emergency. This is easier said than done, but to be aware of the importance of not panicking is a huge step to staying safe. Follow Mikaela’s adventure with her friend, Water, as she learns that importance of this lesson, and happily passes it on for generations to come…

This is a collective biography—a written portrait of the life stories of five real people I met in a small seaside town in Japan. Each chapter is one life story written in third person, capturing each person’s essence, energy, and voice.

In these pages, you will meet: 

– a spunky 39-year-old Japanese female who has always considered herself unique.

– a kind 25-year-old male digital nomad who is originally from Germany and has traveled the world for years on his own. 

– a wise 43-year-old Japanese male who is an accommodation owner, freelancer, videographer, and surfer. 

– a creative 46-year-old Japanese and Welsh mixed-race male musician and model who is also an established freelancer and local theater owner. 

– a beautiful 28-year-old Japanese female who comes across polished and put-together but has internal struggles she shares that she is hopeful to overcome. 

I wrote this book because… 

The Hapa Way is a small business I have owned and operated for over seven years. I am a professional organizer and decluttering coach. I have a lot of passion, knowledge, and expertise that I’ve cultivated over the last decade, and help clients to clear clutter and create the living environment that they hope for and dream of. It is within reach. There is great power in the context of our environment. The environment in which we spend a lot of time has a butterfly effect on the other aspects of our lives. 

I have dreamed of being a writer since I was a child. I have always been an avid reader, absorbed in books. Books are an incredible vessel of years of knowledge and expertise, neatly summarized into several hours of informative entertainment. Books are one of the best contributions of man to civilization. 

I hope to help, inspire, and motivate individuals through the books that I write. Currently, I am working on a series about ‘How to Have Good Vibes in Your Home’. This series has thus far taken ten years of research, along with five years of writing. Now it is time to put it out into the world. 

My curiosity and near-obessession with the concept of home started when I was a child. My first time on an international flight was when I was six months old, and I spent my childhood between the United States and Japan. My homes in both countries were obviously far apart. And they were very different, but very similar at the same time… they were similar because they both had that familiar, safe, warm feeling one can only get from home. This gave me an appreciation and curiosity of the concept of home from an early age…