In what situations it is always necessary to consult a professional?

In what situations do you think it is always necessary to consult a professional?
Do you get your hair dyed? Now I'm thinking whether to get my hair dyed or not. I can't get helping old. I'm getting more gray hair. Well, we call gray hair "SHIRAGA" (SHIRA means white, and GA means hair.)

I asked my friend, who is a beautician. She said "It depends on you, if you prefer being natural, don't mind your gray hair. You look not so bad."
It's difficult to get gray hair dyed  black. So usually elderly people get their hair dyed brown. Young people get their hair dyed light brown to look them cheerful.
Anyway she is an important consultant for me.

And in what situations do you usually "do it yourself"?
Probably most of women get a hair cut. And some of them dye their hair by themselves. Do you dye your hair by yourself?

Today I tasted "pumpkin seed oil" with bread. It was the first time to have it. Not so bad. To my surprise, the color of the oil is "black".  Have you ever tasted pumpkin seed oil?

We see spring.

I have a small garden. I don't take it care well. But now we see spring in the garden.
 "Amnur adonis", we call them FUKUJYUSO.

We see pink  buds, I don't know the name.

.

This year we could see a sprout of rhubarb.It survived winter.

Can you see a hyacinth?

They are yellow daffodils. I love daffodils.

And here and there we see buds of strawberries.

 

a doting parent --- who? us!

Yesterday Yuki and I went to TOKYO to see an exhibition. What is the exhibition? It is Paper Work Exhibition in 2012. It's a small exhibition my daughter organized as one of staff.
As the title says, every work is made by paper, which is made by themselves.(It means that they don't buy paper.) -- Did I tell you? My daughter's speciality is "paper sculpture".

This year , many small works are exhibited. And this is T's work. The title is "light".

Two events has finihsed.

Last Saturday I attended two events as a supporter. One is done at the library in my city. My friend read some English picture books to kids. Thanks of raining more than 10 families joined us. (The room where we read was really small, so it got full of people.)
The most popular book was here. Have you ever read it? The author is Japanese. Though my friend read this book in English, It seemed to be easiest for audience to catch the feeling among the books she read, because we are Japanese.

In the afternoon I attended an event that was held by Utsunomiya International association. Many foreigners such as American, Chinese, Thai, Costa Rica, Korean, French, Pohland,etc. read their own countries' picture books to kids in their own language, of course with translators. Fortunately there were many audience. It's wonderful to listen to people who speak different language at the same time.

I talked with Pohland and Chinese who is my friend. Can you guess what language did we use? Both of them are practicing Japanese because they live in Japan, so of course we sometimes use Japanese, sometimes use English. But two of them talk each other in Chinese.

The Pohland lady speaks Chinese very well. To my surprise, her fiance is Japanese but they talk in Chinese because they met in Taiwan. (She came to Japan to marry him.)

My Costa Rican friend was there, her native language is Spanish. When we were talking in English or Japanese, an American man joined us, and he started to speak Spanish with her. I was really surprised.

The person who speaks only two language (though I'm not good at speaking English), was only me. ay

Anyway I'm really satisfied with attending two events.

Optimism is Good for Our Health

The title of "Optimism is good for our health" is a title of a report.I definitely agree with it. How about you? The other day I talked about this topic with an acquaintance.
The report says that;
Scientists have discovered that people who are too optimistic about the future may have “faulty” brains. Their study, in the journal Nature Neuroscience, concluded that the reason many people always see light at the end of the tunnel may be because of an inability to sensibly deal with risk. They even say this over-optimism could have been a cause of the 2008 global financial crisis, with bankers failing to accept or see the riskiness of their investments. Dr Tali Sharot of London’s University College found that negative predictions were ignored in the minds of optimists.
In the study, Dr Sharot gave volunteers 80 different negative situations ranging from unpleasant to disastrous. These included getting divorced, having your car stolen and developing cancer.  Dr Sharot said: "The more optimistic we are, the less likely we are to be influenced by negative information about the future." He added: “Smoking kills messages don't work as people think their chances of cancer are low. The divorce rate is 50%, but people don't think it's the same for them." He also said: “Seeing the glass as half full rather than half empty can be a positive thing. It can lower stress and anxiety and be good for our health and well-being.”

Are you optimistic? I'm half and half. Half of me is optimistic and the rest of me is pessimistic or realistic. I think most people try to keep balance between optimistic and pessimistic.
Being over-optimistic sometimes leads us to slip into self-complacency, on the other hand being over-pessimistic sometimes leads us to slip into self-abhorrence.
To keep balance between them, my favorite phrase is "it can't be helped".

Well, I showed you photos of feast at NANGOKUSYUKA in HARAJYUKU. At that time I took another photo of HARAJYUKU. At that time I didn't care flags over the road. But Tim, he mentioned about them. Did you notice the Irish flags?

In Japan in some main cities St.Patrick's Day parades are going to be held.  In Harajyuku it is going to be held on 18, March from 14:00. It sounds really interesting. I wish if we had such a parade in Utsunomiya.

"That" day and my mother's birthday

On March 11, at that time I was alone and preparing for my lessons. Suddenly a small quake started. I thought it was a usual thing, but it got bigger and bigger while many things in the house started to drop off out of the shelves. Two windows of the sun room also dropped off into the ground.
After the earthquake, this area lost power. The blackout lasted about 24 hours. I spent the night without heater. It was a very cold night. But anyway I was alive, I had a blanket, and I had some food.
In the after noon on the next day, I could watch TV, and knew what happened in TOHOKU.

One year has passed. Even now people in TOHOKU are under a difficult situation. Many people might be under stress. I hope everybody in Japan (not only Japan but also in the world) regain their good spirits.

And on march 11, it is a special day in another meaning for my family. It is my mother's birthday. This year she became 77 years old. We call the birthday of  becoming 77 years KIJYU. Though we wondered whether we might celebrate her birthday on the same date when the earthquake occurred last year, we decided to celebrate her special birthday with my family and my brother's family.
It's a good opportunity to rethink about the bondage of our family.

So last Sunday Yuki and I went to Harajuku in Tokyo. Of course my daughters, my brother's family joined us. We had a big feast at a popular Chinese restaurant.

 We had a good time. --- And now I'm on diet.

Another easter eggs

I know Easter eggs are "eggs" .
But --- yesterday we made popcorn Easter eggs.

Today it's rainy again, and cold. It's difficult to adjust to  this changeable climate. Tomorrow I'll attend an event as a supporter, the event is  that  my Costa Rican friend introduces her country. Unfortunately she'll go back to Costa Rica at the end of March. The last trip in Japan she chose was a trip to Hiroshima. She visited Hirosima this week.  I want to know what she felt seeing those monuments of the A-bomb. (Hiroshima is one of an atomic-bombed city.)

And on this Sunday Yuki and I are going to go to TOKYO to meet my mother.
Have a nice weekend.

Finaly it's sunny today.

I  hanged out the laundry, and aired the FUTON, though I was concerning about pollen. Anyway it's sunny and warm. When we had breakfast, Yuki said "It's a little bit hot, this room." He is right. When I got up, I tuned on the heater as usual, and I put on a thick sweater. It was "hot" even for me. So now I don't turn on the heater. I can't believe it because it was really cold yesterday.

Unfortunately from this month I don't have an adult lesson in the morning. She started to work part-time. For her it's wonderful to get a job and to have a chance to go outside. So I "am going to " spend my free time in the morning on Wednesday to study English ---probably. (Now I'm writing this diary in English.)

Today in TOCHIGI, it is a day of entrance exam for public high school. Every junior high school student who is in the third grade is "now" taking the test. Three of my students are doing, too. I hope they will pass the exam. Last week they made their Easter-eggs using "balls" instead of real eggs. I let them to do art and crafts for only 3 minutes. So they just put some stickers, but they seemed to enjoy it.





Do you have any special plans for Easter?

Monday came

Today it is raining. For a few days we have had a little bit bad weather, though I don't need to worry about pollen.
On March 3, it was HINA festival. We(Yuki and I) didn't do any thing special. I bought KUSA-mochi yesterday. And we ate the leftover for our breakfast. I already put away HINA-dolls. Because  it is said that if we don't put away HINA-dolls immediately after the festival, girls have trouble getting married. Instead of Hina dolls I decorate Easter-eggs on the shelf in the entrance hall.

In our classes, students alreday enjoyed making Easter eggs with marzipan.

Have a nice week.