two cafes

I love to go to a cafe. Having a lunch by myself at a restaurant is a little bit hesitating, but I love sitting by myself at a cafe, and it's more if the cafe is run by a woman owner.

The other day after doing an English volunteer activity, I dropped by a cafe which is run by a woman who is in her 30's. She opened the cafe two years ago. All of thing is managed only by her self. She serves lunch and sweets as a weekly special.
This week's special was pork saute. And the sweet was flan cake.

She uses Fireking's cups. I love the green cup.

Another day I dropped another cafe which owner is also a woman. The owner is in her 50's like me. She opened the cafe last year. I don't know how her life was before, but her dream was to have her cafe. She always serves warm quiche as an appetizer.

 

On the day I ordered a scone set. Of course the scones and jam are made by her.



 These two owners are really kind and soft character, and the meals are also mild and looks kind.

I can't afford to eat out lunch so often, but having lunch at their cafes makes me relunx, and gives me a glaceful time.

Takeout SUSHI

Everybody knows the word SUSHI. It's a typical Japanese food. And the word KAITEN-ZUSHI might be familiar nowadays. Near my house there is a popular usual Sushi shop. They are always crowded, so it's difficult to have dinner there at the right time for dinner (from 6 to 8PM) without booking.
So when I want to eat SUSHI suddenly, I often takeout SUSHI at the restaurant.
I took this photo in a supermarket in the U.S.

And this is the takeout SUSHI of KUROSHIO which is a SUSHI restaurant near my house.

A big event was finished

Last Saturday a big event was finished. Now there is a bunch of flowers on the table.
I'm really relieved now. My younger daughter's wedding ceremony was done. Our relatives and the bride's relatives came and celebrate their wedding. The wedding ceremony was organized by My younger daughter M and her husband Y. There were no room for me to help them. So I just joined the ceremony, but I had been really nervous and it caused dizziness.

As her parents , Yuki escorted her down the aisle, and I put down her veil. They were the last job as her parents.

It was a wonderful ceremony. They are not Christian, but M wanted to have a wedding in a Christian style. She wore a white wedding dress instead of white Japanese KIMONO, and I also wore a long dress instead of Japanese black KINOMO.

My mother, and Yuki's mother were really happy to attend their grand child's wedding. Though the main is a bride and groom. But I think this ceremony is hold to show appreciation to people especially relatives. So everybody seems to be satisfied. It was a good ceremony.




Now I sigh in relief, and I sigh in resignation. I have a complicated feeling. Anyway this week I have lots of things to do, so I have no time to suffer  a empty nest syndrome.

Anyway congratulations Megumi, and Youichi!

Healthy diet

Do you keep a healthy diet?
Eating a healthy diet is important. Many nutritionists suggest that you need to eat a variety of fruits, vegetables, dairy, protein, and whole grains such as wheat, rice and oats for a balanced diet. Whole grains, as well as fruits, and vegetables, contain high levels of dietary fiber. Some people say rice is better than flour for a healthy diet. Fiber helps your body to digest food more easily. A balanced diet is something you need to maintain constantly, but I think it's difficult.

So to maintain a healthy diet easily, Yuki and I take some supplements.
I make yogurt everyday, and we drink yogurt juice every morning, When I make yogurt juice, I usually put a banana, and kale powder. It is said that kale powder includes lots of fiber.
And we also drink a small glass of black vinegar. Vinegar is said to bring more blood flow.
What kinds of supplements do you take?

A healthy diet doesn't mean dieting. But many people eager to want to lose weight. Me too.  Because  need to lower my bad cholesterol. If you want to lose weight, you should try to cut down your food intake. I know it. But it is said that the last thing you want to do is skip breakfast. Skipping meals seldom results in weight loss. If you don't eat, your body slows down and burns less energy. At your next meal, you are likely to be hungry and eat too much. If you eat too much and burn less energy you will gain weight.
So I always keep some energy bars as supplements, though I don't know which is better energy bars or sweets.

Monday

A new week has started. What are you going to do this week?
How was your weekend?

Yuki and I went to listen to a Jazz flute concert at a cafe. The owner of the cafe is my friend, and she organized a private concert. The performer is YUKARI.




Her performance was very good. Though she played the flute alone, she kept the tempo with accuracy.

Since Yukari was 10 years old, she has played the flute. So she build her music foundation when she was little. But she didn't graduate from music college, she graduated from foreign language college. Her major was Germany.
Through learning foreign languages, she interested in the world. And she backpacked around the world when she was at college. Coincidentally she joined an orchestra in Puerto Rico, and she decided to become a pro musician.

Here in Utsunomiya, we  don't need to use English. And if you live and work in Japan, you don't need to use English (for now)
So it's difficult for me to let children keep motivation to learn English.

But I knew, once you are interested in foreign languages, you might want to see foreign countries. Once you go abroad, your world might expand.

Talking with YUKARAI, the way to think about why I teach English, and why we learn English has been changed.

sweets

The other day Yuki came back with this bag of sweets. It was given away at cafeteria. Why?
Fortunately Utsunomiya didn't have a big damage from the big earthquake in 2011. However some spots were broken. For example Yuki's workplace had a bad damage. Unfortunately they caused a casualty, and some facilities were broken. There are three cafeterias, and all of them got a big damage. It took two years to rebuilt three cafeterias. And the other day all of them were rebuild To celebrate the rebuilding this sweet was given away to all employees.

Some people think they are attentive. On the other hand some people might think that it's a waste of money, instead of using money for it, we wish we would get more bonus. The date of getting our bonus is just around the corner.
Anyway there were two sweets in this bag. So for use they became good dessert of our breakfast.

Monday

A new week has started. According to the weather report, we are in the rainy season. Fortunately today it's sunny. So I can hang out the laundry. Well the other day I talked with a Filipino woman. In the Philippines, they also have the rainy season. But mainly it squalls. In Japan it drizzles all day long.

How was your weekend?
On Saturday I attended a one-day lecture. They are nursery school teachers. The theme was child care to nurture the mind. I'm not a nursery school teacher, so I might have been an unusual participant. I volunteer at nursery school so I got this information.
However, the lecture was wonderful, I wish this lecture had been open for parents and adults.

In the lecture, of course, it was focused on children. Mainly the subject was  the word of children, but it must be applied to adults as well.

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Children always try to get something with a positive attitude. So they find out something new every day. It's sometimes fun for them, sometimes difficult to accept it for them. However through enjoying fun and getting over the difficultites, they bring themselves up.

Well, we think about ourselves.
Adults tend to choose the fixed way (does it make sense?) or not to like change. So it's difficult to find out something new. However if we try to find out something new, even though it is not fun, the attitude makes us positive.  -- and I think it is the best way to keep from being senile.

On the day Yuki and I ate out dinner --- YAKINIKU.