Hi, I’m Toeps!
WordPress developer, sometimes photographer and author of But you don’t look autistic at all (also in Dutch, German and Italian), children’s book Ik ben autastisch! (I’m autastic!) and This autistic girl went to Japan (in Dutch: Deze autist ging naar Japan), about my recent move to Japan.
I love Polaroid camera’s, trains, Disney parks and vintage clothes. I live in Tokyo, Japan.
New: This autistic girl went to Japan
When Bianca Toeps first set foot in Japan in 2008, she just knew: “I’m going to live here someday.” Flash forward 15 years, and she’s finally traded her tiny apartment in the Netherlands for an even tinier one in Tokyo. But it wasn’t always easy. Between that first visit and now, Toeps was diagnosed with autism at age 26, suffered several burnouts, and switched careers a time or two (or three) before becoming a web developer and a best-selling author. And just when she was all set for the big move, the pandemic derailed everything.
Read more about my new book, This autistic girl went to Japan – And you won’t believe what happened next here!
Featured
We got married!
I’m a pretty practical person. Romance isn’t really my thing, and when François asked me a few days ago if I knew when his birthday was, I was off by five days. (He’s the same way—last year, he wasn’t even in the country for my birthday—so luckily, no hard feelings.) I was never really into the idea of marriage. I don’t want kids, I don’t want a big party, and I don’t wear rings. And yet, today, we got married.
Back to the RSS
Why are we all on social media when the best platform for writing is your own? I gave my RSS feed a more prominent place and dusted off my RSS reader.
PR
Last April, François celebrated a milestone: ten years of living in Japan! He’d already studied there before that, but that doesn’t count—at least not according to the immigration office. But now the clock officially hit ten years, meaning he was eligible to apply for PR (permanent residency)!
Toeps, cat lady
There are some things that, if you’d told me a few years ago, I never would have believed. Moving to Japan, for example. But even that would’ve seemed less unlikely than this: living with a Frenchman and being responsible for two cats.
Toeps Rewind 2024, part 2
Welcome to part two of my 2024 rewind! It’s recommended to read the first part first, unless you’re some kind of barbarian or something. In this overview, we pick up where we left off, in the Netherlands, in July.
Toeps Rewind 2024, part 1
Welcome to Toeps Rewind, 2024 edition. It’s an annual tradition on this blog—except last year, when I spent most of my time complaining about life in this post. In March, I did write something that resembled a year-in-review, here. But I ended 2023 feeling a bit lost, and I can already tell you, that feeling didn’t entirely disappear in 2024. Anyway, let’s start at the beginning.
Buongiorno and konnichiwa
It’s-a me, Toeps, business manager. This blog is a selection of the things I have done in recent months. Because a lot has happened, and a lot is still going to happen! What exactly, you ask? Well…
We went to an abandoned island near Nagasaki. No, another one.
If they’re good at anything in Japan, it’s…. Anime? High-speed trains? Bustling metropolises with illuminated billboards everywhere you look? Sushi that took ten years to study for? Finding your ikigai? Well, yes, also maybe, but today I wanted to talk about that other talent of Japan: leaving places and buildings behind and then letting them decay.