I'm waiting for Yuki

Today, it's Sunday. For most of people it's a holiday, but Yuki is working. Now I'm waiting for his coming. He said "Today, maybe I will come home early. so I'll have dinner at home".  --- but he seems to come home late as usual.
Today I made smoked-tuna with my smoke pot. Something smoked is good whether it's hot or not not. So it doesn't matter how he comes late.
The reason why I cooked it, is --- this present. It's SAKE. Our daughters sent it to him. Because  -- the other day, it was his "birthday".

To be precise, his birthday was three days ago.On the day we didn't have enough time to have dinner, so I just bought him this chocolate cake.

It was an usual day,  it means ---- our daughters didn't call him, didn't send an e-mail to him. They forgot the day. Next early morning I sent an e-mail to them -- just one sentence that "What day was it yesterday?"

It worked. They called  him as soon as they got up.(I dare not to write what time they got up. It was a holiday.) And today this SAKE reached him.

I think smoked-tuna suits to SAKE. So I made it and I'm waiting for Yuki. (Usually I don't wait for his coming, I go to bed when I get sleepy.)



I've prepared for the Halloween month.

October is just around the corner. It means -- the Halloween month is just around the corner.

 Can you see a real orange pumpkin? I don't know the real name, it is called "KORINKEE" in Japanese. I hear that we can eat them raw as a kind of fruit. (Usually when we eat pumpkins, we cook them.) I bought it at a local farmer's shop nearby.
I decorated the rooms with Halloween goods.


 And I prepared books and music to read at nursery schools, and costumes for my students who aregoing to do trick or treat in the end of October. New Halloween books also arrived. (Thanks Jan)

The books were in a big box that arrived the other day. The box was from Jan. She sent some books (mainly for Halloween) to me. I was really surprised when I opend it, because I found a familiar author's name  in the books.  It was Taro Gomi. He is  a famous Japanese author. I  sometimes see  Reimported cars (from America to Japan). But it was the first time to get a reimported book.
Does everyone know Taro Gomi?

Wednesday's topic

Typhoon has gone. I didn't need to evacuate, but some places around my house were flooded, and according to Yuki, he showed signs  of "no trespassing"(by flood) on his way home. And he saw some , and some water-damaged cars. Fortunately he came back without troubles.
Today it's sunny, and---"hot" again.

The worst time of yesterday was only evening. So I had usual adults lessons.
Yesterday's topic was "your friends".

We talked about the "distance" between friend ship. The closer we become, the deeper our intimacy is.
It means the distance of our friendship is closer, and  the distance is too much close, sometimes the friendship breaks.
(Does it make sense?)
So we said  that appropriate distance of our friend ship is important.
(I'm not sure whether the word distance is suitable word or not.)

For you what is the most important quality in a friend?

Yesterday's fresher or special is this cake called Baumkuchen (it is German in origin.)
"Baum" means tree and "kuchen" means cake in German. It looks like rings of trees, doesn't it?
This is "the" cake of "club Harie".--- it's a little bit famous cake shop in TOKYO.

Dinner with a neighbor

Though today is the last day of three-day weekends, Yuki went to work as usual. (He doesn't come back yet.) For me, half of the day is a usual day, and half of the day is a holiday. I prepared for this week's classes, and went glossary grocery shopping as usual Mondays. But today, I didn't need to have dinner alone. My next-door neighbor invited me to have dinner together.The couple of my next-door neighbor is  are in the  their 60's. Mr. M is retired but he still works sometimes to help in his nephew's office. Ms.M is a housewife. Sometimes she and I go out. For example, last month we went to a concert. I think we keep our distance well. Our relationship is not too close not too far. We have a comfortable relation ship. (Does it make sense?) It was the first time to have dinner at their house. Unfortunately Yuki couldn't join us. But next time he'll join us. These days Yuki and I reconsider our life in UTSUNOMIYA.Without children activities and without the name of the company he now works at, we have to build  a communication  develope friendships with local people to spend our further life. It is a good thing to have dinner with our neighbors like today. Mr.& Ms. M are really nice, outgoing and comfortable with people. Unfortunately he "can't" play golf because of having a bad back.

I didn't know that.

It has been half year since the disaster. Fortunately I don't affect anything directly though some blocks of fence fell down. So to tell the truth the atomic issue isl thought of as someone else's problem.
But...

Now fall is just around the corner. So I called on a farmer who grows Halloween pumpkins as his hobby.
Mieko "Hello, this is Mieko. How about your pumpkins this year?"
Mr.Y "Oh, long time no see you. Sorry, this year my fields had lots of damage, so I couldn't plant pumpkin seeds. Were your house all right?"
--- I was really surprised. He lives in the same prefecture, the place is about 15km to north from here.
We talked for a while, and hanged up the phone.

Yesterday I went to KARAKU to play the piano. Master is really disappointed.
Mieko "Why do you look so disappointed? in two weeks you'll go to America to see your grand child."
(Master and his wife is going to go to America to help their daughter. They are having their second grand child.)
Master "It's difficult to pack for our trip, Every agricultural food from Tochigi is prohibited to bring into America. Two week staying without Japanese food made in Tochigi is difficult for us."
I didn't know that until now not only from Tochigi,  but also from Fukushima, Miyagi, and Sendai, their agriculture food is prohibited to bring into America. And all Japanese agricultural food is prohibited to bring into Europe."
I'm really surprised at knowing Tochig's product is included.

Come to think about it, for foreigners, there is no difference where Tochigi is and where Fukushima is.
It can't be helped.

Now I re-understand that I live in Japan that suffered from the big earthquake and now facing the big problem of atomic power. Though I read news paper fulled of this problem every day, I have to think about it more seriously. On the other hand I think what I can do is just waiting.

 Well today I served this cherry pie. my neighbor baked it.

Do you like to work in a team?

"Do you like to work in a team?" , this question was yesterday's topic for high school students class. It might be difficult to answer with yes or no, it depends on the situation.
Three of four students said "yes". The other said "no".

The student who said no, said" to tell the truth I prefer work in a team to a solitary work, but I don't desert a project when I'm absent, or I leave. "
The students who said yes, said "we can share opinions, and responsible".

This conversation reminded me of an opinion. At a Toaster master meeting, we had such a topic "why Japanese product can keep high quality".
A person said, "we are good at working in a team  beyond generations.Though it has a bad point, because of lifetime employment, our spirit, responsibility, skills cross from one generation to another."

On the other hand, thinking about me, teaching English at home is a kind of solitary work. I don't need to hesitate anythings to others. I do what I want to do. But once I quite, everything will be finished.
And being a house wife is also a kind of solitary work, I think.

Now here in Utsunomiya Cambell (Cambell Early?)  grapes are in season. This morning I made fresh grape juice. It was the first time, because I didn't know that it was not unnecessary to take out the seeds.
The necessary thing is that we should strain juice through "rough" strainer.

Can you guess how much it is?

I know the title is not polite, but I'm not in upper class, so it's not my business. I served this coffee to today's adult students. This is a bottle of iced-coffee.
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 Mieko; "I'd like to share this coffee celebrating the end of summer."
Student A;"Looks like a bottle of wine."
Mieko;"I found this bottle in June in OHTANI supermarket, not in TOBU department store. (OHTANI is a high-class supermarket, but department stores are much higher.) I was really surprised at this saying "Why such  expensive coffee is here? Who buys? " But Yuki and I were really interested to it. We were afraid to get used to the taste, so we decided to buy it at the end of summer. (If we have got used to the taste, we would have got into red (further) ). This is a bottle of Blue Mountain iced-coffee. Can you guess how much it is?Let's enjoy the Blue Mountain taste. (The students and we seldom drink Blue Mountain coffee.) And you have to understand if you feel the difference from usual iced-coffee sold in usual supermarkets, it comes from the high cost. It's not a matter whether you like the taste or not.  I know it's not true that the higher it costs, the more delicious it is.
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And we enjoyed this coffee with laughing.


Well, well I usual drink this iced-coffee. It costs about 150 yen, it is almost as much as milk.
And when we drink iced-coffee at coffee shop, it usually around  400yen except MacDonald.
Can you guess how much is this bottle?
Of course Yuki and I enjoyed the taste.
To tell the truth, we understood the difference from our usual iced-coffee, not bad. but we don't know whether the taste is worth in the cost. We are not crazy about coffee though we love coffee.
 But we really enjoyed it with atmosphere. Tasting expensive things sometimes make us elegant and happy.

Thanks for your comments

I'm really happy to get analytic comments on my previous report.
Watching the news in Japan, this typhoon left lots of damage especially KI peninsula. One of my friends who live in Wakayama, is suffering water outage now,though her house itself has no damage. The roads in her town was flooded.
Every day newspaper reports the level of radiation, and how evacuated people from FUKUSHIMA are struggling to manage their life.
Listening to CNN student news or watching ABC news, they reported that one of four children in America got food from food stamps system and feel hungry, and they had zero job growth in August.
What I can do is just expressing my regret at them.
About me, these days I tend to decrease my intention.
But getting such comments from people in various countries always encourage me.

These days I had an opportunity to think about whether atomic power is an necessary evil or not. "Necessary evil", this word is really difficult to deal with. What example can you show about necessary evils? Probably one of them is experiments on living animals like mice.

It's true that we don't know what will happen in one minute. Or there is such a saying "In life, the future lies in the dark.". Both of meanings are same. But I don't like to use the word "dark".
Anyway today I paid the "last" college expense of my daughter through the bank. Now our financial support is almost finished. I hope my daughters and the youth will be able to keep having a desire to improve their life. And I hope our senior life will full of joy.

Sunday

Fortunately the typhoon didn't seem to hit a big damage in Utsuomiya. This morning I could hang out all the laundry. And I weeded the garden " a little". Even it's in the end of summer, MYOUGA is growing. On the other hand KINKAN fruits don't grow bigger even though it had lots of flowers.







From yesterday I had decided what I should have done today. (Does it make sense, it's difficult for me to use a correct tense.) It's not a job, but-- "I'll read up all these three books". And now I'm finished.
One is an English picture book,it is not so difficult.
Another is an English kids novel, it is a little bit difficult to understand English.
The other is an English grammar reference book written in Japanese. I can understand the contents, but--- it's not so interesting.


These days I'll try to memorize a short skit as long as I have time. I think it will work for me to speak English fluently. Today's skit is interesting. (And Jan always help me, thanks.)
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In British culture, talking about money is viewed as impolite. If you ask a British person about their wage or salary, the person is unlikely to give you any specific details, and your question might even annoy them. The upper classes take this idea even further, and often buy expensive things without asking the price. Because of this, there is an English saying ; if you have to ask the price how much it costs, you can't afford it.
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Do British people buy a car without asking the price? ( I'd like to hear Tim's opinion, or I hope to get some comments from the U.K)

September comes

Summer is going away. This summer I got lots of souvenirs. I don't like if someone felt the burden of buying souvenirs. But sharing souvenirs while talking with each other is fun.

I bought one for my students in Taiwan.
One student shared one from her trip to America.
Another student shared one from his trip to Miyazaki.
Another student shared one from her trip to NASU.

Another student shared one from his trip to Hawai.
Another student shared one from her trip to Disney Sea.

Another student shared one from her trip to Shizuoka.

And my neighbor bought this cake after waiting in a long line in Tokyo.

Not only my students but also Yuki enjoyed these souvenirs. So the last souvenir in this summer is this one --- from Yuki's business trip to Osaka. One of them are cookies of OKONOMIYAKI.