Chayote

Now I'm getting better. This morning I got up without headache pill though I needed to take dizziness pill.
 Yesterday Yuki and I drove for a change. We went to a local farm market.

There, I found a curious vegetable. The sign was CHAYOTE. And now I know they are Chayote in English. Do you know Chayote? Have you ever eaten Chayote?

They seemed to be cooked in various ways such as, deep fried, fried, salad. And it seems to be good as as a desert of simmering Chayote with wine and sugar.



So I cooked them this morning. I fried with HARUSAEM and other vegetables.

Saturday

About one week passed since I updated my blog. Though someone may have guessed, I was not in good shape. Now I'm getting better.
I've had a bad headache. Without medicine I couldn't do nothing. But anyway I did all things; managing a meeting, doing volunteer jobs, and of course lessons that are the most important things. So I skipped cooking breakfast and doing house chores. The supermarket nearby is open until 12PM. So Yuki can buy something fresh such as vegetables, fruits, on the way home. And thanks to frozen foods we can have meat or fish.
Today it was the worst day. It was difficult for me even to come down stairs. So Yuki took me to a clinic before he went to work. I got a shot. And I was sleeping almost all the day. Now it's past 6 PM. Though I have a slight headache, I'm getting better.

This month I'm enjoiyging Halloween, ---- but it made me busies than usual.
This month the difference of temperture  between mornings and nights is so big.---- it makes me weeker.
And I feel irritable at myself, because it's a little bit difficult to keep it step with some members in my volunteer group that was founded by myself.
It was difficult for me to continue volunteering work, or improving my self alone, so I started to make a group. Though everybody seems to enjoy the activities, it's a little bit hard to encourage to improve each other more.
I know I'm upset, I should be slow down.

Sorry I'd like to morn.

The other day I called a friend to morn, but she was more tired from nursing her mother-in-law.
She said "I envy you to keep such a group activity". Actually I'm lucky. I couldn't morn anything to her. She didn't complain about anything, she just told her current statement calmly.She's an accomplished woman. Or for her I'm not easy to speak to. We are in a completely different world. It's sad.

Anyway, next Thursday it is the day of trick or treating. I have to recover my power.

Sunday

It was a sunny and a hot day, though when Yuki went out for golfing early morning it was raining.
I cleaned the rooms and reorganized the carport (we did the craft of carving pumpkins at the carport.)

And --- I thought I would read English books or study English, but I decided to go out alone.
First I went shopping some bagels to my favorite bakery where it took 30 minutes by car. The baker and I already become acquainted. So I talked him for a while.

And  I dropped by a cafe. Last week I went there coincidentally. At that time I didn't have enough time to look at the dishes. The place is a cafe and gallery of dishes.
I look at the dishes, had Chinese tea, and talked with the young master who was 31 years old.
I had a leisurely afternoon.

To tell the truth I've had some troubles among the members of my volunteer&studying group. You might ask what the problem are. It's difficult to tell them in short. We start to notice differences in our interests in our activity. It can't be helped.I neither refuse who comes nor go after who leaves.
 

Halloween 2011

Kindergarten students made bone-hands with popcorn.
Of course we made popcorn from dry-corn.

Elementary school students made "strange" TAKO-YAKI.

Usually inside of Tako-Yaki is boiled octopus (it is TAKO in Japanese.) This time, they chose Wasabi, Karashi, small tomatoes, pumpkin paste (I recommended), Kimuchi (Korean pickles), chocolate. Unexpectedly chocolate-TAKOYOKI was bad. On the other hand Kimuchi-TAKOYOKI was yummy.

Of course everybody carved pumpkins. 

Happy Halloween.

Yesterday's report

A lady enjoyed milk coffee with the pumpkin spice in the morning.
Two ladies enjoyed carving pumpkins in the afternoon.

Three kids came to take piano lessons in turn in the evening, unfortunately they don't have enough time to do crafts, they enjoyed Corn Candy.
Two junior high school student came at night, -- they took usual lessons having Corn Candy. Junior high school students and high school students are going to do "trick or treat" in the end of October wearing a costume. So they don't do any crafts.

Today, I'll crave pumpkins, and cook "strange" TAKOYAKI. I'll show you them tomorrow.

Halloween month

For your country it might be Thanksgiving week, but, in my class, it's Halloween month.
Though as I wrote about pumpkins,  a farmer I always get pumpkins from  for almost free, couldn't grow pumpkins because of this disaster. I thought I wouldn't let make my students Jack-o-lanterns. But I want to give new students in this year a taste of doing it.
and I ordered pumpkins through the Internet.
On the other hand fortunately another farmer gave me some Japanese pumpkins which are green outside, so I simmered them to make pumpkins paste.

Now Halloween month begins. Of course the sweet came. Though Halloween has become popular in Japan, I've never seen candy corn. To show how candy corn is traditional sweet, a picture books is necessary.
I prepared pumpkin napkins. And it is the turn of the pumpkin spice.
Today's adult lesson is going to be done outside with pumpkin spiced coffee.

I appreciate Jan's kindness.

rice bread

Do you know "rice bread" that we call "gohan pan)? It's not common, because a senior lady "invented" it. There is a small restaurant nearby. It is run by a senior lady and she serves her home-made vegetables there.

She loves inventing cooking. And she invented this rice bread. First she served it to only old customrs, and next she served it as appetizer. Finally the health department approved to sell it. I hope her rice bread will be popular in this area.

Monday

Though it's Monday, on our Japanese calender it's holiday. And for children in this area, they are in their fall vacation.
Though I did all jobs that I had to do last week, to tell the truth, I was not in good condition. I was suffering headaches.
Today I don't take medicine, so it seems to get better.

On Thursday and Friday, I did the first Halloween English time wearing the pumpkin costume. Everybody seemed to enjoy "me".
On Sunday, Yuki recommended to play something outside, so I went to practice golf or watched Yuki's playing golf to a golf range nearby.
There ---- I got small Japanese pears for free. (The owner of the golf range is in the landscape business, so he might have some pear trees.) So I made pare jam.

Though I would say "it's delicious", --- I seemed to put much citric acid. ( Unfortunately I didn't stock any lemons, so I put some citric acid.)  It's too sour. (Later I'll put some honey in it.)
The other day, Jan kindly sent her home-made peach jam. It is really delicious, we enjoy it. So I try to make my jam ---- it didn't work well in my world.

Do you know chimichurm?

Do you know a condiment of chimichurri? I didn't know that. Just yesterday I knew the name.
According to the dictionary it is mainly made from finely chopped parsley, minced garlic,.
Though some people know I update our breakfast on the FOTLOG. These days a person in Uruguay put a comment. There she introduce the name of chimichurri. Unfortunately I can't put my comments on the fotlog these days, I don't know why? I'm asking FOTLOG-help center about it.

Well, well, today's breakfast is just sweet that my neighbor brought last night. I can't eat all of them. so another roll is today's fresher at the adult class.

October came

We changed a carpet in the living room from a bamboo carpet to wool carpet.Though it is warm in the day, it's cold early morning and at night. SYUKAIDOU is blooming in the garden.

How was your weekend?
I had a good and active weekend.



Since Thursday Yuki and I went to KUSATSU on one night two day trip.
At Saturday night, we went to a concert at ICHIGEIKAN where once we held a concert. This time a small Jazz band came.And on Sunday I went to NIKKO to attend an English workshop.

Well, today it is Monday. My usual days have started. This week is a volunteering week. I'm going to do an English activity at two nursery schools wearing a pumpkin costume.