Saturday was over

This week --- to tell the truth, I was not in good shape. Anyway I did all my lessons. And today I went to see a gynecologist. He's a kind of my home doctor because of my uterus problem. He prescribed some Japanese herb medicine to control my body temperature.
It's not the first time, so probably it will work for me.

On the other hand I had some interesting and wonderful things this week.One of my adult students came by with "blueberries".

In the last lesson, I muttered "this summer I cut branches of my blueberry too much to have fruits". But the blueberry trees in her garden seemed to have lots of fruits. So she picked them and took them as soon as she heard my complain.

In two weeks I'm going to hold a small concert with my friend at KARAKU. So we had a meeting , not for practicing. The theme was "what clothes we have to wear?" It's not a public concert, just a private concert, so anything is OK. But for women it is a good opportunity especially for housewives to talk about cloths. It's not a women's hobby, "we have a reason to think about clothes".  Of course it's an excuse. And we will wear just a little bit dressy blouse and pants.
And I sent out invitations to some friends. On each invitation I wrote short comments, they are like new year cards. It was fun. The day of our concert is an usual week day. So most of them must be difficult to come. It can't be helped. But it is fun to keep contact with them through my activity.

And today Yuki went to TOKYO on business trip, and came back very early with cakes.

For a while I didn't have cake. So I was very happy to have them. I can't think about the life without sweets.

Explorer 9 ----

For a while I struggled with this new "explorer 9". I couldn't update this blog. Now I can. I'm happy.
"Once" I was good at computer. I could use some computer language like FORTRAN, COBOL, C-language, and AL. I don't want to proud of my past glory ----. Anyway it's difficult to adjust to the current PC world. Something is often updated automatically when I open this PC. And usually something happens when something new is downloaded.
I can't imagine the life without PC, but sometimes I think I would give up PC's life.

When I dropped by my friend's blog (in Japanese) the other day, I laughed at it.
One high school boy came to stay with her, he seemed to be an usual nowadays boy. He said to her "I've never experienced exciting things in my (16 year) life. I live because I won't die."
And she accepted him, because we (including me) know it's difficult to draw dreams in the future.
And we also think how our adults can bring up kids with dreams?
I think the answer is -- adults themselves must have dreams.
And I laughed at myself. Because I don't have any "positive" dream now, though I try to be positive.
These days, in the news paper here and there I see negative news. Sounds sad.
We have it good, so we have complaints.
I know a proverb , that is  "He has enough who is contented with little."

Sunday

Typhoon has gone. Fortunately we didn't have a serious damage.---- I forgot to put a lid of big can of fertilizer, so the rain attacked it, the fertilizer melt into the water, and it began to smell badly. So I put half of them into a refuse compost with ash I bought , and I buried the rest of them around the plants. And of course I went to my next-door neighbor to apologize.

Last night --- Yuki and I went to see "Harry Potter" instead of Pirates of Caribbean. Why? Please don't ask me. Actually I wrote about Pirates of Caribbean, not Harry Potter.
We saw the first Harry Potter with my kids. Unfortunately my family were not into Harry Potter series. But as Jan mentioned this movie is the last Harry Potter. So we went. And for us it was the first time to see a movie with 3D grasses.

I didn't know that we had do pay extra fee to wear 3D grasses.--- plus 400 yen each.
It was not bad, but I'm not sure it would have been 400 yen well-payed.

Today, some mothers of my students will come to talk to me individually. Have a nice Sunday.

Pirates of Caribbean

Have you already seen the latest and last series of Pirates of Caribbean?
Unfortunately I haven't seen it yet. I don't often watch TV, see movies (including rented DVDs), so I seldom go to the movies. But I saw all series of Pirates of Caribbean, because my friend is into Johnny Depp. She is a really busy woman, so we don't have enough time to see the movie together.

But now, I'm thinking to go to see the latest movie alone ---- because---

yesterday, I attend a book club meeting and discussed about the book "Pirates of Caribbean, Penguin readers". The discussion recalled me of the first series of the movie. And I thought to see the last movie. Because the MC of the meeting seemed to be very impressed to see it.

Well, well, do I go to the movie alone? Probably the friend won't have time to see the movie together for a while. How about Yuki? I know he shows a little interest to the movie. and if I go to the movies together, we can get a "senior couple" discount. Usually the adult fee is 1500yen, but if one person in a couple is over 50, they can watch a movie for 2000 yen. ( I think it's strange , why only a couple? I wish the rule would be applied to the pair, either of which is over 50.) One ploblem is that Yuki doesn't see any of this serise. When he will finish to see all series of this, probaly the latest movie will have alreday finished at a theater.

Baby swallows come down.

Some baby swallows come down and start to practice flying. In a few days they will leave here. And it's the time to finish that we worried about their ---dropping, especially Yuki's car.

Today is Monday, and holiday in Japan. Yuki went to work as usual. And though for me it is the day to go to a clinic and to work out, both of them are closed. So I faced upto practice English.

a flower of kumquat

I thought that this year my tree of kumquat wouldn't put flowers because last year it had lots of flowers and this spring I trimmed it too much.


But, this morning I noticed it has a flower and some buds.
I hope it'll have more flowers.


Anyway it's hot. Yesterday we talked about cicadas. Though it's really hot, we don't hear cicadas yet. The time cicadas pushed out from the ground is not decided by the temperature in summer, by the temperature in winter. The winter was usual so, probably cicadas will come out end of July.

Yesterday a big event was finished with successful, though unfortunately we didn't have much audience --- about 40 people including stuff.
About 16 abroad students came and talked about their own countries in Japanese or in English.
Some junior high school students came. I talked them about a role of English as an international language.
No native English speaker was there. Their communication was done in English --- there are Japanese English, Mongolian English, Chinese English, Spanish English, French English, Russian English.

Baby swallows hatched

The baby swallows hatched.Ever day the parents are busy in carrying foods.

Monday

Anyway, hot, hot, hot---- and hot, even though it is still in early July. If it was in August I could bear this hotness because September will come in one month. BUT two months are too long. And if we had blackout --- I don't want to imagine the situation. So as much as I can, I try not to use an air condition. Until now we can afford to use electricity enough because car companies shifted their weekends.

On Mondays I usually prepare for all lessons of this week. In the class of kindergarten girls, we always do some crafts, and the craft of this week is ---- can you guess what these are?

After the preparation, I went a dentist and gym to work out in the afternoon.

Tomorrow, I'll go to a children center to teach English in the evening. It is a monthly job. To tell the truth, the students of this year are a little bit difficult to deal with. I should instill discipline into some kids. It's a little bit burdensome chore, though I believe I can mange to do it.

Anyway I did all things I had to do today.

Though it's Sunday ---

It was also hot today, wasn't it --- if you live in the eastern Japan, you agree with me.
Now it' almost 8 o'clock PM. But Yuki doesn't come home yet, he is still working. At first we thought Yuki would be able to come back without overwork and have dinner together. --- But he has to work as usual Thursday and Friday. In this case we say "GOKUROUSAMA" in Japanese. Unfortunately we don't translate this feeling in English. Sometimes we are asked from his foreign coworkers "how do we say this phrase in English?", but we don't have exact answer yet. And the foreign coworkers is getting used to use "GOKUROUSAMA" directly.

I got up at usual time, and prepared breakfast. I cleaned the room, wash clothes, watered the garden. I finished all weekend's chores earlier than usual weekends. So I had plenty of leisure time. This hotness prevented me from going out. (Usually we go shopping getting for vegetables and grocery for a week.) I would try to prepare something more for next week--- but I decided to purse my work. I try to use this leisure time for myself regally.

So I "face up" to English. I always complain my English ability and I know I have to study more --- but like my students studying hard is not easy.
First I listened some audible books, next I practiced English words using a web training site.
And--- I took a nap for a while.
And--- I had a snack, because it was 3o'clock (snack time, isn't it?)
I opened an English grammar book and solved some questions.
I took dictations of some skits and did oral practice.

It was a more tough "job" than teaching English.

And I cooked fried rice, and now, I'm browsing some websites while writing this diary.
I don't know what time Yuki come back. A night without lessons is long.

Rhubarb

When some people looked today's title of this blog, they might grinned. Yes I love rhubarb. This year getting hot was too early. So the stalks of my rhubarb are thin, though they are growing.

I love the sour taste of rhubarb, but unfortunately this year my rhubarb seems too sour.




Though it's not the reason why I bought rhubarb jam, anyway I bought rhubarb jam. These days here and there we saw rhubarb jam, but usually they are mixed with something like rhubarb & blueberry, or rhubarb & strawberry. So this green type is unusual.

Wedensday's topic

Today's theme was "sightseeing in Japan".
Recently Hiraizumi and Ogasawara were designated officially as precious assets of world heritage. Now there 14 world heritage sites including 4 world heritage natural sites in Japan.And fortunately there is Nikko in this area, it is one of world heritage sites.

Have you been some world heritage sites in the world?

My mother in law is proud of visiting all world heritage sites in Japan. And thanks of her my family could visit Okinawa with her. In Okinawa there is "Gusuku sites and Related properties of the Kingdom of Ryukyu" which was declared a world heritage in 2000.
I have wanted to visit "Historic Villages of Shirakawa-go and Gokayama", but it has not done yet. The site is really quaint.
I like imaging our trip, but to tell the truth I prefer to relax at home than visit important sights when I take a vacation.
When you take a vacation, do you prefer to visit important sights or to relax?

Well, today's refreshment was jelly with melon.

It was really hot today. So I prefer not to use oven. So I made this jelly.

the word of housewife

When I meet someone for the first time, I introduce myself "I'm a housewife."
In Japan it is the easiest way for me to introduce myself, because I'm not a full time office worker.

And it means that my husband earns enough money to live and it means of course, that I'm not independent.
But probably most of Japanese don't think about education background of housewives.

Why I wrote such a thing is that----
The other day a lady who came from Costa Rica came to have dinner together. She was a nice lady. She comes here to study getting scholarship, and wants to improve her career. (She is a high school teacher in Costa Rica.)

We talked about the women's situation and she said.
"housewives are uneducated women".
I'm really surprised.

In Japan, most of women were independent after graduation, but when they have kids, they prefer caring kids or have give up to continue working. So they become housewives. I preferred caring kids, so I dare to introduce "I'm a housewife" proudly.
On the other hand housewives tend to live in a small word, so they might not be socialized.

Anyway did she think I was uneducated?
Next time we met, I'll ask her.

What do you think when you hear the word of "housewife"?

July came

It's already July.
The big change is that --- Yuki's weekend has changed. His weekend is now, Thursday and Friday instead of Saturday and Sunday. As some people know, in Japan we are afraid of black out in summer because of lack of power supply. Some companies changed weekend to even up electric usage. And some companies started summer time system to decrease electric usage in the daytime.

I hope we won't have such a blackout in March again.

July 7 is Star Festival. Can you see some strips of paper. It is said that it might become a true if we write down our wish on strips of paper and hang them on the SASA tree on the day.

So I let my students to hang their "word test" on a plastic SASA-tree, adding this phrase " I wish I could 100 score constantly", or " I wish I could take better score next time."
And students in kindergarten or lower grade student wrote down their wish simply, like that "I want to be a zoo worker."

What is your wish?
To tell the truth , these days I'm not in good shape, so "I wish I would have power more".