It is snowing.

From this morning, it has been snowing, but it seems to change raining. So probably the snow doesn't pile up.

 

It was about two weeks ago, Akari and m daughter came again. Yuki and I took care of her for a day without her mother. What did we do? We don't need to take her to an amusement park, shopping mall. So we went to see "ROUBAI" (Calycanthaceae?) which has yellow flowers.

The fragrance is very good and strong. "KINMOKUSEI" (fragrant olives) are famous for their strong fragrance.  I prefer the fragrance of ROUBAI, and it's my mother's favorite flower ( or tree). All of three us enjoyed ROUBAI (or you say Akari enjoyed being outside in the buggy.)
Then we had lunch at a SOBA shop. Of course she couldn't eat it yet.

We bought her special chair and attached it to our table in the kitchen.

She wears ANPANMAN-dress. Do you know ANPANMAN?

 

 

 

 

It is interesting. Such dress is called character dress. When I was a young mother I didn't like to put such character dress on my daughters. However-- don't mind, or I like to do it.

 

Japanese wedding

I heard an interesting thing, which is that in Philippines, the common wedding style is a civil wedding. I know the word of a civil wedding. But I didn't know that even if it is a civil wedding a witness is necessary, if the couple visit a city hall without a witness, the mayor becomes their witness.

Here in Japan, there are some wedding styles, a church style, a shrine style, a temple style, or a civil style. Probably all of them have witnesses, such as a minster price, a flamen, a monk or participants (in Japan the witness of a civil wedding is usually the participants.)
However all of them are simply a formality (if they have their own religion and the wedding is done according to the religion, it's not a formality. It's meaningful.)

The couple just submit  a piece of paper saying they're married to the city hall, and the couple are registered as a married couple. So if the couple don't want to hold their wedding ceremony they don't need to do it. These days some couple don't do that. However when they fill up the paper to marry, there are two places where two witnesses write their signature on the paper. In my daughter's case my husband and her mother-in-law did it. (Unfortunately her mother-in-law has divorced.)  though  we didn't write our signature at the same time. They visited us and her mother-in-law in turn to get our signature.

I wrote this report as my note.

DONTO-yaki

Probably all Japanese people have started usual days. However January is the `first month` of the year. So some interesting things were held.
Last weekend my friend I went to HATSUICHI, which means the first fair. There some luck are sold, like DARUMA. Here in Utsunomiya, `Kibuna` is popular as luck. Kibuna means ` a yellow carp`.

It is said that once upon a time a big yellow carp saved people in Utsunomiya who caught the plague.
We put such lucks in our room which would bring us happiness, health, and richness??.

On the other hand we have to `give` the old lucks to shrine, not to discard.

So this morning I went to a shrine nearby with the old things and put them. It was too early to see the torch. Today the old lucks are burned and --- (I don't know whether my sentence is correct or not.) and their wish are sublimed or go to heaven.

It was a good day.

Usual days have started. Yesterday it was my birthday. It is the last year to be 50 rounded off. (Additionally I'll say that I'm still 50 rounded down to the 10)  - Do these sentences make sense?
I got this flower basket from my company. Since I started this branch school under this company, more than 10 years passed. When I got this flower basket, I was not so interested, but these days when I get new one each year I'm very satisfied with my job.

It was a usual day, but I had no class and had no appointment with my friends. So I spend all day alone.








In the morning I did house chores, and tried cooking a new thing. It was "whole Japanese orange with syrup".  It was easy. Peel the skin by hands (Japanese oranges are really soft so it's easy to peel the skin), and boil three minutes with a teaspoon of Baking Powder. After that I soaked them in the syrup. Perfect. Yuki and I had it this morning for our breakfast.

And after that I had lunch by myself, and --- I called a spa nearby and had a facial treatment. It was the first time, and it was a birthday present from me to me. It's a little bit expensive.  I got this present from the salon.

And I was going to have dinner by my self, however unexpectedly Yuki came home earlier than usual. So --- of course I didn't cook, we went out a restaurant nearby, and celebrate my birthday with SAKE under our family budget.
It was a good day.

 

 

 

 

Happy New Year -2-

On 3, there were only two members , Yuki and me, as usual. It was a really calm day.
I was really surprised to myself. Usually after I separated from my daughters, I felt really sad. I have sometimes cried on my way home from Tokyo in the car. But this time, I was really satisfied, and calm. Finally I seem to accept their independence (though my elder daughter is not completely independent financially)


We, Japanese have a custom to go to shrine during the New Year's holiday. So we visited a shrine where is on a top of a small mountain, it takes 30 minutes by car. And there we can toll the big bell. Of rouse Yuk and I tolled the bell in turn.

 

 

 

Next day, we went downtown. DEZOMESHI was hold, it was the parade and show by Utsunomia fire fighting members.  Can you see the ladder? It was great and seeing the ladders from the ground it had a tremendous impact.
A traditional show was also hold using a traditional ladder.  It was the first time to see these shows. --
The reason is that Yuki didn't go playing golf, though he went to practice playing golf. It is --- unusual. (However, next weekend, and next next weekend he is going to go playing golf.)

Happy New Year -1-

Happy New Year!
Yuki and my new year's holiday was finished. It started noisily and finished calmly.
On the New Year's Eve, all members of my family gathered. Probably it was the first time for 4 members to gather. When my daughters were here with us, my mother came to stay with us. So at that time there were five adults in this house. Since my daughters left home, they liked to spend the New Year's Eve with their friends or their boy friend in TOKYO, so there had been three adults in this house. This time it was different. My mother didn't come, because my elder brother are living with her. He divorced himself and came back to her. So she is really busy "taking care of her important son", though she is about 80.  My elder daughter T also broke up with her boyfriend. So she chose to spend the Eve with us. And my younger daughter M --- in her case she has to spend her husbands and her mother-in-law ( it's the opinion of our generation), however, her baby is very young, and her mother-in-law is not in good condition, so she and her husband chose to spend the Eve separately.  Can you see the beef? It is present from M's mother-in-law. We had a great dinner thanks to her.

 

 On the  New Year's day, we could see a beautiful sunrise from our house. And we eat OSECHI made by me and went shopping to buy surprised bags.

It means --- Yuki and I were taking care of AKARI at  a baby play space while M and T were shopping.( Additionally next day, Yuki went to buy his surprised bag of golf goods.)

And on 3, we left for TOKYO to visit my mother, Yuki's mother with my daughters.