The time you can spend with your child deeply is not much longer than you think. Maybe kindergarten to 5th grade for about 5 to 6 years. Is 5 years long enough? maybe yes, maybe not.
Web magazine “otonto” inspires fathers to cherish the time with their children.

The word “otonto” is a combination of two Japanese words. “Oton” is a casual way of expressing “father”, and “to” means “with”.
Taro Fuse (Chief Editor of “otonto”) explains how he came up with this idea.

As Creative Director of residential advertisement, my job was mostly to suggest people to cherish their time with family.
And one day I thought to myself, ‘How am I spending time with my own family?’. As my job gets busier and busier, I realized that I wasn’t spending enough time with my three children.

Taro Fuse
Playing, cooking, running, catching etc. “otonto” gives you suggestions of how to spend memorable time with children. It even inspires fathers to think back on their own childhood playing.

Even a child’s tumbling could be a memorable moment!

‘Visiting Oton’s Company’

One of the unique projects in “otonto” is called ‘Visiting Oton’s Company’. This gives children an opportunity to see their father as a ‘working man’ which they usually don’t see.

Children attending an advertisement meeting
Baseball player, soccer player, or flower shop are typical jobs which children think as an adorable job. This is because they know it, they’ve seen it. But there are more jobs in the world which children might say ‘I want to be like that!’.
By visiting their father’s company, children will know and learn more jobs. This will widen their choices and possibilities of the future as well.

Taro Fuse with his three children
“otonto” is not teaching you or forcing you. It is giving you better choices to have a great relationship with children. If you feel a sense of sympathy, try it. And if you don’t, you can look for other choices.
Taro Fuse says,

It is like a youthful days of ‘oton’. Have fun and enjoy being ‘oton’. I would like to make a better relationship with my children by enjoying fully my every single ‘oton’ days .

When is the last time you played with your child? Yesterday? A week ago? A month ago? Can’t remember?
It doesn’t have to be a big action. Maybe just taking 10 minutes for playing would be a precious moment for both father and child.
[via Greenz.jp written by Yoshihito Higashi]
[text by Yoshikazu Eri @Yoshi’s Abroad]

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Take a look at some more articles of otonto. Even if you don’t understand Japanese, you will be inspired by their impressive pictures!
http://otonto.daa.jp/