Wedgwood outlet

Coincidentally I had a chance to go to a Wedgwood outlet in TOKYO.

I went to a mall in TOKYO with my friend. Though both of us were not so interested in clothes, we went there because it was a famous mall in TOKYO, and in my family only I had not been to it yet. Even Yuki he dropped by it because it was the next to a bill of a big car company's showroom & office.

According to our expectation, all clothes were not so interesting to us, though the mall itself was really beautiful. BUT we found "Wedgwood outlet".
Can you guess what it is?



It's a candle holder.
Can you guess what it is?

I turned over it. Surprise!!!

The first price (suggested retail price) was 10500yen (now 1$=84yen) And the outlet price was 4200yen.and the discount price was 2100yen.
Of course I bought it, so I could show the photo here.

Well, I wonder how much the prime cost is.

Some people might laugh saying "which is more useful, clothes, or this stuff?"
Actually I don't have a custom to put on candles.
And when I showed Yuki without candle, he said "Oh, you bought an ash tray (for me)". (He smokes, but it is permitted to smoke only in his room)
Yesterday one friend came to my house, but she didn't notice it.

So until now noone has not noticed this stuff yet, ---- but anyway I'm satisfied with it.

Paper work exhibition

Yesterday Yuki and I went to Tokyo to see an exhibition where our elder daughter joined. The day before yesterday our younger daughter came back here. So three of us went to TOKYO by train, and we met my mother at SHIBUYA station, and went to JIYUUGAOKA where the exhibition has been held.

My mother doesn't get to use to coming to SHIBUYA station that is always crowded, so we were worried whether she would come alone or not. But fortunately we could meet each other without troubles. (My mother isn't an adventurous woman about going out alone.)


Before going to the exhibition we had lunch at a small French restaurant. My mother could eat everything, it means she seemed to like the restaurant. It is difficult to make her satisfy with foods because she has a spacial taste for foods. So I was really happy for her to eat all of them. The purposes of this trip to TOKYO were to see the exhibition, and to be filial to her.




And we went to see the exhibition. At the entrance two paper goats welcomed us. --- Because the theme of this exhibition was "paper works" -- and goats love paper (probably.)

This time , my daughter's work was not so big. The them was "curtain". She didn't seem to have enough time to make her work. It can't be helped. Now her main job is to assist her professor and students. Not an artist. Anyway she made this paper by herself, and added some processing (According to her the process is said to be difficult.)

She wrote a poem with this work. (This poem got a good reputation)

I'll translate it, though I don't use suitable and sophisticated English words (she used sophisticated Japanese words,I thought).

curtain

Something is getting through my eyelids little by little, so I can't help but open my eyes slightly.

The day behind the curtain is soft, brightly, enjoyable and cool.

It wiped up the dirt of yesterday. Yesterday it was dirty, but warm and lovely.

I feel to be still in the dirt and be swimming in the dirt.

The curtain is swirling.

My hands started to move slowly.

I turned my back on the curtain with sunbeam.

I ignored the room which welcomed the sunbeam and started to be filled with soft and white color.

I hugged the sheet which has still lots of smell of the dirty of last night.

After that, we dropped by a pottery shop.

And of course we dropped by a cake shop.

And Yuki and I came back with a box of cake.

Can you see the cake of Mont Blancs?

The cake shop we went was the first cake shop to introduce Mont Blancs into Japan.
And this cake shop had full of memories for my mother and me.

When I was a kid, I used to come here once or twice a week to take hard piano lessons. Sometimes I could buy some cake here and it was one of my pleasure.

Potato pancake

This is today's our breakfast. Can you see the box of "Bavarian potato pancake mix"?
I used it sent by my friend.
Bavarian means an area of German, so probably the sign wants to say German potato pancake. But unfortunately we don't know what is German potato pancake, so when we ate it we felt American taste.
We like it. Every time we try to American food we think, most of foods set up their own taste. In other words, they are spicy, strong or complicated taste. (Additionally some are too sweet for us, and some are too hot to me.)
On the other hand Japanese food, I think, try to hide their own taste each other, or assimilate each other, in other words, they are bland, mild, and shy.
What do you think of it?

This time I cook it according to the recipe written on the back of the box. Now I have a half of bag of it. So next time I'll add shredded potatoes into it.

Here is chocolate for Valentien's Day

Last night I presented this chocolate to YUKI. It is so beautiful, isn't it. I let him open it, and we appreciate it, and --- close it again. It is too beautiful to eat it at one night.

Who will eat it??? This weekend my younger daughter will come, so I'll show her, and we'll eat it with the three members.

Today, it is the day of a meeting of my group. Have a nice day.

Happy Valentine's Day

Today, it is Valentine's day, but I forgot it this morning. So I forgot to present chocolate according to a Japanese rule to YUKI. Not intentionally.

Why I forgot it, we were talking about yesterday's dinner (mainly squid ink rice), and coffee while we were having the left over.

I didn't write about coffee, last night after dinner we enjoyed Luwak Coffee made in Indonesia and Ban Dau Xanh that is famous sweets in Vietnam.

The coffee has strong sourness, not so bad. But comparing the cost it's too expensive, or we might be taste-deaf unfortunately. Anyway to enjoy this coffee, something sweet was necessary, and we happened to have this Vietnamese sweet my friend bought me on her trip there. This combination was very good. Probably Japanese sweet would be defeated by this strong coffee.

Today I have no lessons even at night. So I write this blog, browse other websites, and practice English words. It's a very quiet Valentine's day and it is very cold. According to the weather report we'll have snow again.

P.S When I'm alone, I tend to think about my daily life, what I want to do, what I can do, what I have to do. My kids almost stand by themselves, I can manage my life though I depend on my husband. What makes me more energetic? Or do I advance more? ---being alone makes me negative.

Sunday

Today, it was sunny and not so cold. I couldn't believe it, because for these two days it was snowing.
I didn't have spacial events today, so I wake up later, and read the newspaper, and started to clean all the rooms (though there are only 6 small rooms) with a cleaner as a Sunday chore.
And I changed the decoration on the shelf in the entrance from for Valentine's to for HINA-festival.

At noon Yuki and I went shopping to a big supermarket where it took about 20 minutes by car. There we found a new thing ---

It's for rice. Probably you know "squid ink spaghetti". It's "squid ink rice".
I prepared this in the rice cooker, and prepared cucumber pickles, and went out again to listen to stories by story-telling session for adults at a book store nearby, while Yuki went to practice golfing.

And I dropped by a beauty salon that my friend owns, and I got a hair cut.

And as soon as I got home, I started to cook dinner.

Can you see the black rice? Everything was tasty. Today I was a good wife.

Valentine's sweet --part 2

It is snowy again. Though it is 2 PM, it is snowing. This snow has lots of moisture, so, it doesn't seem to pile up high

Well I prepared cakes again, (Yesterday I did it the first)

To decorate them is students' role.

I use this cream.

First I thought it would be better to use pink cream adding and I would blend a few drops of red food coloring. But I didn't. Probably boys would be disgusted.

And of course they enjoyed, but my aim to make a heart was far away.

Making (not cooking) something is fun. How about today?

a result of my annaul check-up

I got a result of my annual check-up. As I expected and fortunately I don't have anything wrong though it has some "C"s (alert).
It seems to be right that people who always worry and grumble about their health, are healthy people.

I got three C marks, they are the items of cholesterol, anemia, and liver function. So as every body around me suggests , I need workout.
Today I'm going to go out to do workout --probably.





Yesterday I got a pack of strawberries. So I dressed them up with rice-cake.
Outside is sticky and sweet, inside is a little bit sour and juicy, this combination is "wonderful". My students including an adult tasted and I got a good reputation. So today I'll also make it with other students. It's one of spacial fun for Valentine's day. First I thought to dress strawberries with white chocolate sauce ---- but rice-cake is a better idea, and easier .
Do you have JYOUSHIN-powder (rice powder), or SHIRATAMA-powder (rice-cake powder).
If you have it, try them.
prepare 60 glam powder, add 100 cc water. mix them to get smoothly. wrap with plastic wrap lightly, and microwave for 2 minutes. As soon as you take it out, you mix it to get more smoothly. And one more time you wrap with plastic wrap, and microwave for 2 minutes.
After that you mix again. it is done. You even it out and cut them into proper size, and wrap a strawberry with it. ( I hope these sentences make sense.)

Monday!

Usual weekdays have started. Today it's not so colder than previous days, though I don't say it's warm. Probably spring is coming.

I hope I'll get by this week without health problem. Because this Saturday I'm going to attend a meeting in TOKYO. These days before such events I tend to feel bad. And getting warm is good thing, on the other hand it means pollen starts to attack me.

If I had a good strength more, I would have more positive thinking ways.

Oh, don't suggest me saying "why you don't do workout more?" Today I'm going to go workout after writing this diary.

This week, it is a week before Valentine's Day. Though I often write about our Valentine's Day in Japan, it is the day that ladies present chocolate to men to show their love, appreciation, friendship. So some chlorate has lots of love, or friendship, some chlorate has duty.

Anyway for girls or some boys Valentine's day is fun. So this week I'll cook something sweet with my students in each lesson.

And I'll be able to present the leftover to Yuki.

Tomorrow I'll go to the tea room to play the piano. And I'll take this Luwak Coffee. Do you know it? It is said to be the most expensive coffee in the world, but I knew that it has another name, which is poo-poo coffee.

It is Satruday night.

As you know I'm sitting at PC now.
February Third, in each class my students did MAMEMAKI-- they threw beans outside saying "demons out, luck come". And at midnight (it means, after Yuki came back) we ate beans. Though as our custom we have to eat beans as many as our age, it's too much, so we ate beans as many as the number of the tenths place. Does it make sense? -- To say simply, we ate five beans.


When I bought a bag of beans at a shop, the clerk said you would get one mask with a bag. And there were two kinds of masks. So I bought two bags of beans. One mask was a demon, and one mask was --- I was really surprised, it was not a usual mask for SETSUBUN --- it was OFUKU-san. OFUKU-san is said to keep her smile, and to be with luck. So they have mask of OFUKU-san to demonstrate luck against a demon.
It was not the first time only for me but also for my students to see the OFUKU-san mask on the day.


It was OK to get two masks. But we had too much beans to throw and eat.



I thought I would throw all the rest of the beans, but --- I wanted other students who would come the other days to eat "my" beans.
So I re-cooked; dressed them with sugar. They were tasty. Some kids were very pleased, but two kids preferred usual (salty) beans.Anyway we enjoyed MAMEMAKI, and beans.

Today, for all my students it was the day of interview test. I took all of them to a place where interview test was done. Fortunately everyone came. If some one would be absent, I have to take him or her on another day. My special event was done in a day. Lucky me!

In the evening Yuki and I went shopping to buy a can of coconut milk and nan. And --- can you guess?, yes I made Indonesian chicken curry with red rice.
Against our expectation, it was not so hot, and it was tasty.








Well, to tell more, yesterday midnight I set a timer of my bread-maker. So this morning we could eat fresh bread. Jan, can you see this photo? The bread-maker is made by ZOJIRUSHI.












This week I did extra-cooking very much. What a good wife I am! (Tomorrow we'll eat left over, so I'll do notany cooking.)

Groundhog day

Today it was Groundhog day. How was the weather in your city? It was "sunny", so this cold winter seems to stay hear for a while.

Tomorrow it is SETSUBUN. Some people do MAMEMKI (throwing beans), though I'm not going to do it. Only I'll whisper "Demons out, luck in."

To tell the truth, this morning the network in this house didn't run. Fortunately Yuki still stayed at home. So he examined all cables, and checked the devices. All devices looked OK. So he called NTT customer center. They said they had no problem then. And they suggested to us to unplug all devices including network devices. Though we shut down our computer, and unplugged wireless device, didn't unplug basic our optical network device. We unplugged all devices, and plugged them in again. Our network system recovered.

If Yuki had gone to work, what would I have done?
As soon as I knew the network system didn't work, I was really depressed and struck dumb with surprise. If Yuki had not been here, I would have given up to do network, cancelled all work, and stayed in bed sulking.
I knew I really depend on the Internet.
Using the Internet like browsing blogs, writing blogs, and getting information via Internet is the best way for me to release my stress, to relax, and to think about myself.

I know it's not good to depend on the Internet too much ---but at present I don't find the better way. What should I do?
Anyway