Homemade delicatessen of this week

Today, in the morning, I did house errands and went to a gym to workout. And I had lunch at home
And I cooked delicatessen.
Salty cabbage with sesame oil, kidney beans tasted with soy sauce,  stewed DAIKON and chicken and sliced Daikon with vinegar and YUZU citrus.

Yesterday it was very cold, today it's warm. It's difficult for me to adjust the difference of these temperatures.

But children are tough.
One of my students was wearing T-shirt, and she can stand up on two golf balls directly. Can you do it?

TAKAKURA KEN

Have you ever heard the name of  TAKAKURA KEN? He was the greatest movie star.
This report is on digital students' newspaper.

 



I was very surprised finding out this report on the newspaper.
The reason is --- though he is the greatest movie star but not so popular among young students.
Why? They might had introduced him to young people saying that he used to be a traditional true Japanese macho persona.
Anyway I learnt how to use the word awkward  and rugged in a good meaning.
Yes Kensan used to be an awkward an rugged persona.

My volunteer group "English Picture Book workshop club"

Yesterday I had a meeting of my voluntter group "English Picture Book workshop club". 8 ladies participated. We did "bibliobattle" in English. Each person introduced a book which is their favorite Japanese book making 5 minute speech in English. After that we chose one book which the listeners wants to read, the book is called "today's champ".

It was not a competition of who made the best speech in English, though Toastmaster meeting is a kind of competition who makes the best speech in good English.
Of course the members' English skill is higher.

--- to tell the truth, I have a hang-out about English especailly speaking English. (Well, I know that before saying such thing, I should practice speaking English.) So before I attended this meeting, I had made sprict, and practiced --- (Thanks Jan)

However, this time I realized, the contents and fasination of the speaker are more important than speaking skill, English grammer and so on.
The members had only one thing in common -- they are ladies.
However their genration, their family member, the jobs are all different. It means their interesting things are different. So the field of the books which were introduced had a wide-renging.
The members were in their 30's, 40's and 50's. If someone who is in her 20's , 60's or 70's had joind us, it would have been more fun.

This is my script but it was too long, so I shortend it when I made a speech.

Hello, today I’ll introduce a digital book. I used to dislike reading digital books but now I sometimes read digital books on my IPAD. There are mainly three reasons. The first, letters are large enough to read with aged eyes. The second, we can read books as soon as we want to read them. The third we don’t need space to stock paper books. If you are in senior generation, the first reason is very important. And if you want simple and OSYARE life, the third reason is very important.

OSYARE life--- what is a suitable word in English for OYSARE? OSYARE has wide-ranging implications; fancy, fashionable, smart, trendy stylish, and so on. I think being simple is a kind of OYSARE.

Well, the title of this book is “OSYARE na kurashi”. The way to live with OSYARE. It is written by NISHIKURA REIKO. . Have you ever heard her name?  She was born in 1942 so now she is in her 70’s. She has pursued OSYARE na KURASHI for more than 50 years since she found the way to enjoy OSHARE.. What is OSYARE na Kurhashi?

She says to keep a positive attitude and a cheerful face. Try and challenge many things you want with positive attitude, on the other hand don’t bring yourself into the corner saying “I have to do”. Activities　done with impatience make your face angry.

Reiko shows an example in this book;

Some women; probably they are in their 50’s or 60’s, have angry faces, and the reason might be very simple for example, they think “Though I just passed the post office, I forgot to buy a stamp. It’s troublesome to return to the post office.” Such a tiny reason makes their faces with angry. You find a positive attitude and a cheerful face in your daily life.

Reiko also says “When women get old, their faces get complicated naturally, so don’t forget to keep calm feeling.” When I read this paragraph, I grinned to myself, and looked at my face. I’m sick of hearing such things.

She says, to keep a positive attitude, you should find a nice and attractive person and imagine their daily life. If you don’t imagine it, try to get along with them. When you are getting along with them you’ll be more attractive naturally though some efforts might be needed. And enjoying the efforts will bring you OSYARE na Kurashi.

Don’t you think the word OSYARE na KUASHI has a nice ring?

This book was published in 2010, so at that time Reiko was in her 60’s. The OSHARE Reiko thought about at that time, and the OSHARE Reiko thinks about now, and the OSHARE Reiko used to think about when she was young might be different, but since she appeared in this art and book world, she has pursued the word “OSHARE”. So if you are not interested in this book, you should read other books which were written at the same generation as you.

Monday

A new week has started.

How was your weekend?

Last week Akari and her mother ( my daughter) was staying with us,  now she can almost hold up her neck, so it' s easy to hold her and hold her on my back.
Have you ever held a baby on your back?
These days young mothers don't do that, though if she has more than two babies she must do it.
I wonder if I could hold her on my back or not. But my body remembered. So I could hold her back on my back naturally.

Here in Utsunomiya, it's getting cold, especially early morning, and evening. Of course it's very cold at night. Can you see the pink cape? It was knitted by "me" for my "daughters". I seldom do such things. So I kept it for my memory. And this time it works again. I'm very happy, and I'm pround of myself.

These days some interesting things happend. Since my younger daughter M got independent, she had been against me, and had seldom contacted with me and Yuki, but since she had a baby, she did a one-eighty. She started to respect me. It's wonderful, though I don't know how long such attidute will last.

Have a nice week.

Somone always comes.

When I read today's news paper, I grinned naturally. These days the number of people who reads newspaper is decreasing. And main people who subscribe newspaper are more than 40 years old. So the reports about senior people are naturally increasing. I like such reports.
Today a man who is 70 years old put his comment about one of his usual days.

He and her wife were going to go out somewhere because it was a calm day.
When they were going to go out, a (senior) lady came with a small pot of food, so they invited her to their house and had a chat for a while.
Then they were going to go out again, but another (senior) lady came , so they also invited her to their house, and his wife was listening to the lady's "complains". and he also was watching their conversation.

He wrote "All of them including my wife had a good smile after their talking. And I was also satisfied with their smile. So we gave up going out the day. It was a nice day. Fortunately someone always come to my wife, I think why women likes talking so much, but I like this style."

I also like the style. When I get much older, I hope someone always come to visit us.

Today I cooked DAIKON, and share with my two adults students.

November has started.

November has started. It means only two months are left in this year. As soon as Halloween finished, we see Christmas decoration here and there.
This year I organized a Halloween event at home.
I invited an actress and she hold two stage, one was for kids and their parents, and the other was for adults including junior high school students.

My house is not so big, so about 10 people were enough. There is not a parking, so they came by bike, on foot or their family drove them here. But most of them live near my house.
If such a small show can be held here, our "senior" neighbors including us would be much more happy and cheerful.