A new week has already started.

Now nobody is here except me. This weekend my younger daughter stayed with us. After we had lunch together she went back to TOKYO.
I'm really happy to stay with daughters, so I always break down after they go back to TOKYO. Though on the surface I'm OK, to tell the truth I'm discouraged. Especially until tomorrow I have no lessons, so I have to spend two nights alone.
Sometimes having classes is tough to me, but having class makes me feel alive.

Well, well, do you have Rollstrand dishes? The other day I met the cups. Once I saw the cups, I really loved them, so I checked the maker. At that time I didn't know the maker. These days I've gotten away from  buying new dishes, but-----.

After the earthquake many dishes broke, and my cupboard were really organized. I try to keep the condition, but ----.

Now it's past 6 PM. Today I had lunch too much, so I'll skip my dinner.

 I'll tidy-up bookshelves that became very full of the books and my materials of lessons.

Monday has started

Did you enjoy your weekend? I did.

On Saturday, in the morning I went to workout while Yuki went to golf practice. In the afternoon, as you know, I cleaned the house and decorate Hina dolls. Then we went to a French restaurant. It's our favorite restaurant.

We ordered a single serving for each dish. For me it's difficult to eat out one plate stake, these days, even it's small. And "we" have to care about our LDL. So sharing a single serving is a good thing.

On Sunday, in the morning "we" went to golf practice, though I just hit 30 balls.
And we went to help my friend her piano concert.

It was a really cozy piano recital of her students. Though now I have a few students taking my piano lessons, these days I don't hold such an event. I'm thinking when I close my piano class, I'll do that with my graduates and friends.

Then we went home, and I cooked dinner. we had dinner, watched TV. Our weekend was finished.

Now it's Monday. This week I don't have lessons at night except on Tuesday. So Instead of English lessons, I'll study English  for my self. (Can you hear Jan?)
Have a nice week.

Preparing for March

I put away Valentine's decoration and put Hina dolls.

I found an interesting site, and "learned" what is HINA-matsuri.


I have a set of Hina-dolls, but it's troublesome to decorate all of dolls, so I just put an emperor and and empress. I hope my daughters will have a great partner each other.

Well, let me introduce a Japanese condiment called SHIO KOUJI (rice malt with salt).

I put lotus roots in a pot and cover them with water, and add a table spoon of SHIO KOUJI. Then I boiled them a few minutes. DONE.

Though I prepared red mayonnaise, we didn't need it. Thanks to SHIO KOUJI, we enjoyed original lotus roots. Have you ever used this kind of malt as a condiment?

After Valentien's day

Today it was day for adult lessons, and I got them. WOOOOOO!!!!

And one of adult lessons was the last lesson of this year. She'll start to work (now she is a perfect housewife), so that she will not be able to come to take my lesson. I'll miss her.

Today she and I talked about New Year's resolutions. Though New Year's is a good time to make resolutions, March is also a good time to make resolutions because in Japan a new term begins in April at school and work.

Have you made any New Year's resolutions? I want to exercise twice a week, and until now I do it.
What accomplishment are you most of proud of last year? I'm proud of organising all classes without problems.
What was the best restaurant you went to last year?
It was "Coulis Rouge", that is a French restaurant.

A year ago today, we had lot of snow. Fortunately this year we don't have snow, though in northern Japan they are really troubled with lots of snow. And in March we had "the" earthquake. I don't know what will happen. But I'll do my best to do what I'm able to do now.

Happy Valentine!

Today, it's Valentine's day, isnt' it? For Yuki and I it's a usual day, it means we have supper separately. So we celebrate the day in the morning.  Though my elder daughter and I have already baked chocolate cake for important "people" including Yuki, "I" would like to eat this special cake that I ordered on the Internet.

Today I'll go to KARAKU to play the piano, then I'll go to a children center to do Valentine's lesson.
Have a wonderful Valentine's day.

Before Valentine's day

Though in Japan on Valentine's day women present chocolate for men to show their love or to express their continuing gratitude, these days girls seem to enjoy making sweets and exchanging them among friends.

Anyway to show my gratitude to my adult friends and students I baked brownie. I shared it last Tuesday and Wednesday.





A student who is in kindergarten came on Thursday. I asked her whether she knew Valentine's day. She said "It's the day to give our love". So I decided to bake chocolate cookies with her.

 Some dough left, so we put it into a pig-shaped silicon pan. Since I knew these silicon pans, I often use them in cooking lessons with small kids. I think silicon pans are an excellent invention.









On Sunday my elder daughter who came back on Saturday and stayed just one night, she baked lots of muffins to share them with her friends, colleagues, teachers and so on.

Two of them were left, and they were Yukl's breakfast.

Do you have any plans for tomorrow's Valentine's day?

Who is the harderst person for you to buy a gift for?

Yesterday a adult student and I talked about presents.
What types of gifts do you like to give or receive?
---  Both of us answered immediately like that "foods".  And I also like to get  flowers. But she said " the moment I got is happy, but it's not easy to take care of them.". Maybe partly it's true. If you often travel and be away from home for a few days a lot, it's difficult to take care of them.

The other day Yuki won the third prise at a golf game, and he came back with a trophy. He looked happy, and of course I'm glad to hear that. But I don't need more trophies, (he puts the trophy on the shlef in the living room, not in his room.)

On the other hand two weeks ago he came with beef that he got as a prize for participation. That night we had a good meal.

Additionally, since it became February I got three kinds of sweets. It's difficult to eat all of them with Yuki and me, so I'm sharing with neighbors and students. Sharing something makes me happy.

I'm happy to have students, because if I didn't have students, it would be difficult to share foods. So the hardest person for me to buy a gift for is my mother and my mother in-law. I know, both of them are really interested in foods, but each of them live alone, so it's difficult to eat out.  Some people keep them as frozen foods, but both of them don't like frozen food, because they are people in the period when they didn't use the microwave oven. But I often present some foods saying "it's OK not to eat all of them, please dispose it after you taste it." Of course I'll try to present small portion as much as I can.



Monday

In the morning it was not so cold. According to the weather cast it seemed to have been like in March. But in the afternoon, it suddenly got cold, and it started raining. Now it's really cold outside as usual February.

Yesterday (Sunday), Yuki went to play golf. I cleaned the house in the morning, and studied English in the afternoon. This time Yuki got the third prise, so he came back with a small trophy.
Then we went out to the movies. We saw a Japanese movie. The story was a serious family drama. The main characters were two men. We like both of them. Watching a family drama with two of us is really interesting. He sees it from a father's view, I see it from a mother's view. Both of them have different feedback , though sometimes it can trigger a quarrel. (This time our discussion ended in peace.)

On Mondays I'm usual busy because I have to prepare something for lessons in the week. When once I prepared for lessons in the week, I can do lessons smoothly and spend calmly in the week. I did some crafts for a kindergarten student class. I choose some articles written English for high school students. And on Wednesday an adult will come to see my adult class, so I prepared some materials for her. Then I did my household account of last week, and went to work out.

At night I studied English again, and now I'm updating this blog. Writing my diary is one way to study English for me.

Tomorrow, a Taiwanese lady is going to come in the morning, if her son, who is 6 years old, goes to school without trouble. These days the flu is going around. Every week some one is absent from my class. Recently she moved to Utsunomiya. Coincidentally we became friends. I'll welcome her with Taiwanese tea.

Looking back on New Year's holiday

This Wednesday in my adult class we talked about  this New Year's Activities. Here, I'll look back on my New Year's holiday again.
How long is my New Year's vacation? Almost a week.
What are my usual plans for the holiday? I usually "take "my mother to a hot spring, and visit my mother in-law in Tokyo.
What do you usually do to get ready for  New Year's? I make travel reservation, put up decorations, and make cards.
What do you usually do on New Year's Eve? I stay here or at an inn, with my family and my mother.
Do you send New Year's cards? Of course, sometimes it's troublesome to make cards, but I really like to receive them, so I send New Year's cards every year.
Where do you get your New Year's cards? Usually I make them on my computer.

Next big holiday is in May, we call it "golden week". We are planing a big thing.

Until the next holiday I want to gain more strength, --- so I continue to workout. As you know, I "hate" exercise.
Well, well , the other day the test results of the checkup I took last month came. Fortunately I don't have any big problems, but the score of LDL is really high. The level is "c", which means "caution needed". And to lower the score I "have to" do exercise. ---- I groan "I don't like it".

Additionally, the sweet on this Wednesday was a sweet cake roll.

My friend baked it. It was really wonderful.
And this Friday it was a day of "SETSUGUN", we usually eat EHOUMAKI-sushi. but my students, Yuki and I ate EHOUMAKI-sweet instead of sushi. (I don't know which has more calorie?)

EHOUMAKI is sushi roll, and we believe that we'll get good luck if we can eat a whole sushi roll without making any noise facing toward the south-southeast, which is believed to be the lucky direction for the year.