The first week of September

Though accurately September starts from this Wednesday, on my calender it is the first week of September.

Though it's really hot, in the entrance hall autumn comes.

Yesterday, after doing house chores, I attended a Toast Master meeting. A woman made an interesting speech, the title is "a myth of vitamins". The contents are like that, "We are always exposed by excessive information about vitamins. We can get enough amount of vitamins from our daily life. We are not victims of vitamin addiction."

Autumn is the best season to rethink about our daily diet, I hope we can harvest a enough crop.
This rice ball work is drawn by my elder daughter probably when she was 10 or 11 years old. "Rice balls evoke our Japanese spilt"

After the meeting, Yuki picked me up and we went to a big home center, and we bought some seedlings, Brussels sprouts, and red-leaf lettuce.

I wondered whether I bought them or not because of this heat temperature. Anyway this early morning I planted them. I hope they will survive and grow up.

I did Sunday's housechores.

Before writing about today's house chores, well, well--- Thanks for voting the poll. And as I expected, octopus is not popular (or some people dislike it). Octopuses are really popular in Japan, and for some elderly people they are too to chewy to eat. Squids are also chewy, but probably octopuses are more chewy than squids.

About me I don't like avocado Sushi, some one said it tastes like sea urchin eggs. Unfortunately I don't like sea urchin eggs either.And I like eels, and SHIRAUO.

If you are interested in SUSHI more, look at this site.

This morning, I cleaned the house, once a week I clean the rooms of upstairs.

And "finally" I weeded the garden, though it's not perfect.

Well, it's almost noon, I'll prepare lunch--- cold UDON. And I'm going to go to Toast Master meeting. Today I don't need to make my speech. Have a nice afternoon (in Japan).

How many times do you say or are you told?

As you know, I like reading the newspaper. I read an interesting article.
"20 times a month", can you guess what?
And another number is "15 times during the summer vacation".

Mothers who have 9 or ten years old kids say to their kids "Do study!" about 20 times a month.

And during the vacation the kids are said by their mothers "Did you do (today's)summer homework ?" about 15 times during their summer vacation.

So, How many times do you say this question (if you are mothers) to your kids? or how many times are you told it by your mothers?

Well, I was a kid, I have never been told it by my mother -- because "I was a perfect kid" ( of course, it's a joke.)

And to my kids, I tried to say that instead of this question "Let's study together". While they were studying, I helping them or I was also studying English. According to my behavior, my daughters seem not to like studying. So my elder daughter went to art college, and my younger daughter studies interior architecture.

Today's wordbox quiz is here,

1.zig counterpart
2.time since birth
3.golly

ATUIDESUNE----

Everybody says, "ATSUIDESUNE". It means, yes, you can guess, "It's hot, isn't it?" The rhubarb in the garden couldn't survive this heat. I hope the rood is alive.
On the other hand basil is fine, and the leaves are not eaten by bugs. (Shiso-leaves (kind of Japanese herb) are almost eaten bu bugs.)

The other day I attend a reunion of ---, you'll be surprised, mothers whose kids went to the same kindergarten. My younger daughter M 's class was called NIJI-GUMI (rainbow).There were about 30 kids, and on the day more than 20 members attend to the main party. I had a class so I couldn't attend it. But at 10:30 PM when I just finished my lesson, the phone rang. "Now follow-party starts, it's your turn." So I went there. About 10 members were there.

I often meet one of them, because I get my hair cut at her beauty salon. I sometimes meet and talk with another . Some of them I see at supermarket because they live nearby. And I meet other year others at the reunion once a year or every other year. Our reunion is held once a year or every other year.

Though the kids were in the same kindergarten, but they went to different elementary schools, junior high schools, and high schools. And now some of them work.

When our children are young, they were actually "cute" , "innocent", and apart from the world of grade. Probably it is a rule not to say where they go to school, where they work.

Friend "How's M-chan (my daughter) doing?"

I "She's fine, she is in TOKYO and lives with my daughter, the house is next to my mother."

Friend "Oh, you're lucky."

I "Oh, no I pay the rent to my mother"
Friend "How is your mother? Is she fine?"

I "Yes, she's fine, thank you, she is getting old though"

Friend "we too"

We had an idle talk for a while. It seems that we waste our time. But to have such in idle talk is a secret to keep the reunion.

TOCHGI's usual weather

Everybody had said "this year we don't have much thunder" --- before last week.
This week, we have usual weather, it means
Anyway it's really hot, the temperature is always over 34 degrees centigrade at noon.
Yesterday's case, it came at 4:30 PM. Though the sky was clear, big drops started to fall down, and in a few second it changed into a big storm. I went up to the upstairs to close the windows in hurry, but when I went down --- the floor of the sun room was already soaked.
I closed the windows and wiped the floor, and it came, big thunder started to roar. We had three-minute blackout.
5:30, everything got into normal as if it were nothing, just the garden was enough wet. So I didn't need water the garden in the evening.
We had humid, hot,unpleasant night. (We sleep with an electric fan.)
This is the usual TOCHIGI's weather in summer.

Well, today's' wordbox quiz is easy. I could solve it.!

1.decay
2.rowboat tool
3.attempt

It's my mistake.

The poll question this time --
yes means safer, and no means more danger.
I tried to edit it, but someone already voted it (thank you), so I couldn't edit it.
Sorry, it's my mistake.

Why???

I know I have a hard head, so I'm really weak at solving quizzes.

1.bound paper stack
2.what's in the hole
3.study

and the answer is

1 p a d
2 a c e
3 d e n


why? something that is bound paper stack is pad, is OK.
What's in the hole? ace? It means hole in one???
Do the word of study and the word of den have something with??

Well, as usual Monday came, September is just around the corner. Now Japanese pear (NASHI) season has come. So yesterday I went to a orchard nearby. And some boxes of NASHI sent to my brothers, my mothers, and my friends who lives in another prefectures. Because of the bad weather of this spring, NASHI of this year look a little bit small. This morning Yuki and I ate the NASHI for breakfast, though they were delicious, but compared with the last year, they are a little bit short of sweetness.
I hope my brothers and my friends would like them.

TACOs

We made it. (Can Tarrah see it?)
Yesterday five students tried to make TACOs. One of them said " I only know the name". One of them said "I've eaten at TEKIYA"

Well, I thought TEKIYA is a Mexican restaurant, but I've never heard of the name, though "I" am famous as a gourmet among my students. So, I asked him "where is it?" -- he said "It's not a restaurant, I ate them at a festival" And I understood that TEKIYA means a kind of stall at a festival.And the others don't know TACOs. I was wondering they would be too spicy --- but they ate them in a gleeful mood, though a student said "I 'm weak in something spicy"

Of course YUKI knew that we had made TACOs at lesson. So today's breakfast is TACOs. He said "Were they really OK, they are really spicy, though I love them."

Can you guess what is the picture?

They are jangly cherry tomatoes, though you might see any tomatoes. I used the tomatoes to cook our TACOs.

Well, today other 5 students come in the evening, so we are going to make TACOs again. Junior high school students , high school students, and elementary school students in the lower grade don't do that --- it's a secret, though I hear some junior high school students whose younger sisters are also my students, are complaining.

Thanks Beth

Since yesterday my lesson has started. In the evening, one package came from the U.S. There were a book and a CD. Thanks Beth. Yuki and I were really surprised that during such your short staying, you realized what we liked. Yuki said "Did I tell her my favorite Jazz player?"

About the book, the sentences are like a poem, simple. So at night my students and I read the book. Thanks.

This week, junior high school students take one-hour lesson and another one-hour, they do their summer school homework. They are given a special workbook, and most of students do finish only a

few pages.

On the other hand, elementary school students, they also are given a thin daily workbook. And I promised them to help them with a page. So this week, we are going to make TACOs. On their picture dictionaries they use, there is a picture of TACOs as one of famous Mexican food. But they didn't know that. So I said to them "OK, during the summer vacation, we'll make it." I bought this box of TACO set.

My usual day has started, though for students they are getting to the final part of their summer vacation.

OBON vacation has finished.

Now there are two members in this house, and since tomorrow my usual life starts, it means to have dinner alone. So tonight we went out for dinner at OKONOMIYAKI nearby. The restaurant is Yuki's favor.

During this OBON vacation we had really good Japanese cuisine.

TEMPURA with my elder daughter, STEAK with my family.
Well, steak is not Japanese cuisine, but at the restaurant they serve steak with soy sauce and mastered for dipping.

Crabs with Yuki's reunion meeting, and another TEMPURA in TOKYO with my mother.

The last dinner was OKONOMIYAKI.

Where's SUSHI?????? probably another opportunity.

On the other hand this time we missed the opportunity to eat AYU (sweet fish, or Japanese trout) in TOCHIGI.

Since we came here we knew the taste of AYU.

But instead of the, we got them.

Can you guess what they are?

While our elder daughter was coming back here, she went to a fishing hole near the lake??? ( I don't know where it is.) According to her, they fished some trout, and next day the smoked trout came here.

Though the SAKURA chip is popular to smoke in Japan, they seem to be hickory smoked trout.

They were really delicious.

We really recognised, the common favorite things of our family is "eating".

You migth have a question, what we ate at home --- TAKOYAKI!

vacation with art

For these two days we went to two art museums. At a museums, the exhibit content is "innocent". Works and pictures that were drawn by disabled (mainly mental disable) persons and works that were drawn by some present-day famous painters who tend to focus on "life" in their works.

If you are interested in the present-day painters, drop by these sites.

They are active internationally.

KUSAMA YAYOI, NARA YOSHITOMO, TASHIMA SEIZOU

Well the works that were drawn by disabled persons are too strong too me. I understand how seriously they face on their daily life.

Another museums is in MASHIKO that is famous as a pottery town.

Works by Lucie Rie are now on the view.

The prototype asked by Wedgwood company is also on the show. The color is "Wedgwood blue". I knew, unfortunately it finished as a prototype.It seemed to be ill-suite to mass production.

When I saw the work, "It is the color of Wedgwood". When I was young (in my thirty's), I had really wanted something of Wedgwood. And at that time what I could buy are cups with wild strawberries. At that time I was into porcelain. When I came here in my twenty's, I was into pottery, so I used to go to MASHIKO once a month.

And at that time the Wedgwood jasper ware was thought to be betwixt and between for me. So I was not so interested in them. Now---- no, no, I decided not to buy extra cups.

On the other hand I fall down my elder daughter's mug cup, and "Naturally" Yuki's SYOUCHU mug was cracked.

So I bought two cups from necessity.They are not extra ones.

Today, the elder daughter went (or saw) fishing with her friends, so Yuki was discharged from Dad's work, and he went to golf. And in the evening the younger daughter will come back, so I'm stay in the house as a mother.

This is a homecoming souvenir my daughter made --- the color is vivid, so I like it, but -- too big, not piratical.

In the middle of OBON vacation

Yesterday's duo made with success without "quarreling". In spite of OBON two couples were there, and the family of the owner of KARAKU was there. So we really enjoyed playing, and the audience seemed to enjoy too. When we played YAGIFUSGI (Japanese old dance song) they clapped in the rhythm to the piece.

At noon my elder daughter comes back, according to the schedule I think she is on the train,,, I hope! Because we reserved our seat at a TENPURA restaurant.

She works as a assistant at the college where she graduated this spring. And as one of her business, in the afternoon we are going to a art museum in this area.

Though our younger daughter was supposed to come back tomorrow, she was asked to come to the office where she works part-time, so she doesn't come back. On Sunday we meet her. On Saturday I'll take my elder daughter to the bar where Yuki plays once a week. Actually he plays on the day. Only she hasn't seen (or listen to) him at the bar.

I've already bought for something to mothers and brothers in TOKYO.

GYOZA-pie, GOYZA is fresh food, so it's difficult to take them, but many things GOYZA-flavored are sold here. It is one of them. It is a kind of "sweets". The sign is GOYZA-pie.

Anway we have to rehearse our duo

Yuki has recovered. We have such a proverb, "Oni no kakuran", in English --- seeing a dictionary "it is like the devil getting sunstroke".
In the morning I did usual house chores. Monday is a regular trash day, so I had some garbage bags out on the decided place. Some of our neighbors seemed to go out, because the amount of garbage was less than usual.

I recommend Yuki to go to a clinic to get further medicine, but --- he is sitting at his TV (he can see golf programs anytime)

On the other hand, we changed our Obon schedule, so in the afternoon I'll go to a clinic to get "my" usual medicine.

And anyway we have to rehearse our duo for tomorrow's play at KARAKU.




Today sometimes it rains, so it is really comfortable day to spend in this house without airconditioner.
We are really spending relaxed time now, it is "ARAHI NO MAE NO SHIZUKESA" The quiet before the storm.

I'm still here.

According to the schedule, my 'busy' Obon vacation was supposed to begin already, --but Yuki and I, only two of us are at home.
Unusual thing happened, Yuki have caught a cold with a high fever. Today he is getting better, though he has a little fever. Once every other year he catches cold.
Anyway visiting my mother is canceled.

But I can introduce the TENPURA restaurant we were supposed to go. I found this site on the web.



What would you like to eat when you have a (bad) cold.
He "wants" melons and -----'s ice cream.
Can you guess what brand ice cream does he want??

Before one-week vacation

Next week is called "OBON", Yuki has a official one-week vacation. So I organized to have no classes for the week. (I can organize my schedule.)
I told a friend, "one-week vacation makes me busy".
She said,
" That will make you busy? I see vacation as a time for relaxation and fun!"

Yes, she is right, from her thinking my sentence sounds strange.
But actually "busy".
We "have to " go to TOKYO to meet my mother to check her health condition, and take her somewhere to make her fun. We "have to " go to Tokyo again to attend Yuki's family reunion and take his mother somewhere to make her fun. Both of them are looking forward to our coming. And we have to do our daughterly and filial duty.
On the other hand, what to "our" daughters think of their "daughterly duty"???
They'll come back and stay with us for a few days ---- probably without doing chores.
They think "coming back" is their daughterly duty.

I know both of them are alike. ---Like father (or mother), like daughter.

Well, if our mothers get older, we think "we don't know when will be the last time to see her, so we do anything as possible " sincerely. But so far, sometimes we want to say this phrase "Don't talk like that to me! I've bend backward for you!" .
And when my daughters come back, I always say "to what did you come back?????"

Anyway it means my mothers and we, and my daughters are fine.

And the main thing that makes me busy is, I have to cook mostly three times a day, I'm used to live alone at day time.

But anyway going to TOKYO is fun, and staying with my daughters for a few days is fun.

I'm murmurrng at????

One of my hobbies ?? , no, routine things is looking over the newspaper every morning.
And I like to read the advice column. I always thought what good ways the advisers to deal with the problems (troubles, or unhappiness). Today's poster is murmuring about her peaceful life though she is surrounded by her boy friend, her family and her friends saying "I feel sometimes empty".

Well, Well, I always murmuring "empty". So I put my eyes on the answer, and after reading that, "Hmm, it's nothing special, but it's true, it's the life" and I realised that "even though I'm getting old, I'm still competitive person, it means I might still keep energy to do something more"
--- I hope these sentences make sense.

The adviser said
You want to be acknowledged your ability more, or you want to be more confident in yourself.
And you might regret that you have nothing proud.
In this case, you should outside more and expand your world. You might need something new, and the encounter will give you some changes.

And anyway today I did 30-minute walking. Yuki said it had nothing with the advice, but anyway it was good for you to do some physical exercise.
Against the exaggerated words, my acting patterns is too simple, isn't it?

August came

Yes, August came.
What is special to eat the first food in August??? In this area, probably grapes, and Japanese pears. Since I came here I've never bought them at the supermarkets.

And in my garden, finally "MYUGA" has shot up.





Well, these days, people seem more interested in making sure they can get whatever vegetables or fruit they want any time of the year. But at least I enjoy to eat spacial in the season.



In summer we (means, Japanese people) drink barley tea. And this summer's beverage that Yuki and i are caught is "Citrus depressa" juice, kind of lemon juice without sugar. This fruit grows in Okinawa.
Do you know it?

This week has started. Everyone not be overwhelmed by this heat, Enjoy!

These are "the" eels.

Last night we could get eels, it was easy, because the day of 'USHI NO HI" has already gone.

Do you remember that last weekend we missed having eels?

They were delicious.

Especially "I" was really satisfied.

Some people in Japan love eels, and some people in Japan don't like eels.

I have one friend who likes ( or loves) eels like me, she lives in another prefecture.

And her husband doesn't like eels, so when we meet (probably once or twice a year) we eat eels without thinking of people who don't like eels.

Why did I eat eels often even though I love eels?

The main reason was cost performance.

When I asked to my family "which do you prefer eels or meat?"

Their answers were "meat".

Now just there are two members, Yuki has a favorite steak house, it tastes good, but for me, it's too much. It means the cost performance related with ECO, probably eels is better, though it depends on Yuki's apatite. And actually I want to eat stead, because I used to be a meat&sweets-eater.(When I was a child, I didn't like fish, vegetables, and my main was cake or cookies instead of rice.)