The last weekday

In the morning after doing chores, I went to gym. And when I came home I had lunch -- one plate dinner. Do I seem to be lazy? -- though I put rice in another bowl. From some Japanese I seem to be lazy. Usually we serve one dish in one plate. (Does it make sense?)

 

 

 

Anyway  Friday is the most tough day for me. From 4 o'clock, students come in turn and the last lesson is finished at 10.

How ever the next day is Saturday.

This weekend Yuki and I are going to put chips on the grand to prevent from growing weeds. I know in America it's popular. These days here in Japan it is getting popular, but good chips are really expensive.

The gardener made them for free --- but he asked "is it OK with leaves?"

I thought I wouldn't mind ----

but ---

There are "many" ,eaves than we expected. --- what should we do??????

the 4th curry restarant

Today I had curry at an Nepalese restaurant for lunch with my friends who go to gym.

This week it was the first time for me to go to gym.

And it is the last week in May, it means it is  a day for  our once-a month lunch with my friends.

(Or you can say I have to go to gym to eat lunch with them.)

 

I go to gym usually by car or sometimes by bike, a woman goes to gym usually by bike, and another woman goes to gym usually by car. So we usually have lunch nearby at the gym.

This area is called by local people " curry street".

First a Nepalese restaurant opened, next a Pakistan restaurant opened, next an Indian restaurant opened, and this time another Nepalese restaurant opened. All of them serve mainly curry.

I don't know why so many curry restaurant opened 3km around .

 

Anyway I had good lunch.

 

Go into the retirement life

I bought this small magazine, the title is (probably in English) "go to the retirement life". The target generation of this book is in their 40's and 50's. So this magazine is really suitable for us.

 

Have you ever read such of this book?  Or, do you have such kinds of books in your country? Or have you seen such kinds of books your parents read?

 

The contents are mainly financial plans. Try to check current budget, consider about future life budget. Try to calculate how much you will get from pensions and other things....etc.

 

Only flipping pages gives us (Yuki and me) headaches. Oh, it's wrong. Only I feel a headache. Yuki says " Que Sera Sera"

 

More than 36 years passed since we knew each other.

When he was a college student, for a year he rent a small apartment. The day to pay the rent was coming, he managed to find a one-night job such a guardsman and paid the rent.

I don't say he is careless with money, however he is not a good planner about money.

On the other hand I'm stingy.

Well, it's is one reason why our marriage has been kept. We are probably in a good balance.

 

To tell the truth it is the second time to buy this kind of book.

I bought this book 3 years ago.  At that time I reconsidered our budget. However in these three years, my daughter married, moved and had a baby, our kitchen broke, and our garden needed to be organized. --- I gave up thinking about saving money.

 

Now it's the second opportunity to think about our budget.

 

Can you guess what I went straight to do.

 

I decided to prevent the decrease in the number of students in my class, (not need the decrease).

So for three days I put a flier of my English school in each post of houses nearby. I did 400 sheets.

I don't know  whether someone comes  and join us, but I want to show that "I still continue to run my English school."

 

 

 

 

 

One week has passed!

One week has passed since I updated this blog last time.

These days we sometimes have sometimes "hot" days, on the other hand we sometimes "cool" (or "cold for me) days. So I had the first "cool noodle" the last week. cool (or cold ) noodle is one of summer delicacy here in Japan. Additionally, there are two types, soy sauce taste and sesame taste. I love soy sauce taste.

 

Now here in Utsunomiya  a rose season has come. (Probably the most beautiful season is until next week), One of my friends, who is crazy into gardening is opening to her garden to people who love gardening. I'm not such a person, but I'm her friend, so I visit her garden to "appreciate" her flowers (though I sometimes go to her house to talk with her.)

Last Sunday and yesterday, they were volunteering days for me. I did some activities at the local library.

And -- Yuki came back from one week business trip to Korea. The souvenir is Korean seaweed. It's different from Japanese seaweed. So I was kind enough to grill fish which is suitable to rice for our breakfast. (having seaweed is suitable to rice, and having rice is suitable to grilled fish.)

What was your dream when you were a child?

Yesterday a senior lady came to take my lesson or you can say, talk with me.
She wants to speak English more fluently, but it's really difficult. Why????? the reason is because of lack of her English vocabulary? It might be a reason.

However --- We (it means she, I and most senior ladies) are not good at finding some topics to talk with somebody or introduce to someone.

So I decided to make a time for her to do one-minute speech in "Japanese".
I made about 100 topic cards. And I let her draw a card.

Yesterday's card was "What was your dream when you were a child?"

She tried speaking something --- however--- for most one minutes --"well, well, well,---".
She tried  a few times, and finally she managed to do one minute speech. Alright!

 well, well, here in this blog I try to do the same thing.

I don't remember my dream  I would think when I was a child. Probably-- when I was an elementary school student I wanted to be a pianist, because at that time I was into playing the piano, and I was the best piano player at school. ( too proudly?)
And when I was a junior high school student, probably I wrote in the graduation writings " I'll be a scientist", because I had a good score in math and science, ( it means I "hated" Japanese and social studies.)

Looking back I have been a very realistic person since I was little.
I always chose something among things I can do well.

I heard that an astronaut had had dream to go the space since he was a little when no one went to the space. He had a big dream, and pursued it.
There is a famous proverb "Boys, be ambitious".

The bigger you ambition is, the bigger world you live in.

However it's really difficult to have big ambitious.
How do adults let kids to have big ambition? These days I always think.

Do you know what day is it today?

February 14 is Valentine day. Its origin is in ???? anyway not in Japan. It is the day to show love to every one, or in Japan to show women's love to men.

And we ( not me) made some interesting days.
 For example March 14 is White day. It is the day to show love to men to women. Though on Valentine day usual women give chocolate to men, on White day women tend to ask more expensive things from men.  ( I forgot what I got from Yuki, probably " a little bit " expensive cake" I think.)


The preceding paragraph was too long, sorry.

And today May 13 is May storm day. Of course it is made in Japan.
It is the day to say good by to your lover. It is the 88th day from Valentine day.

Here in Japan  we have such phrase,  "the last frost before the end of spring (it means the eighty-eighth day from the beginning of spring) ". We can say goodbye to cold winter on the day. We love to use 88 describe season or weather.

May storm day seems to come from this phrase.
If you want to discard something, or say good bye to someone, today may be a suitable day.
Now it's past 7 PM.
Unfortunately I seem not to have used this day effectively.

Tuesday

The noisy GW seems to be far away. This week Yuki is in Korea, so I'm staying at home alone.This house is very quiet.

Last weekend Yuki (before he went to Korea) and I went to a rural area to see this small event which is called "healthy market". Because "he" hold his "small small" store ( I thought he would have a tent but it was a parasol). "He " was Mr.Kobayashi who grows vegetables without pesticide) in the rural town ICHIKAI. I buy a box of vegetables ( I can't chose the kinds) every week from him.

He was grown up in TOKYO, and studied environmental ???? in America for five years ( it means he couldn't graduate the college), and came to TOCHIGI to learn agriculture, and decided to make money selling his vegetables.

He bought land and rent land for his vegetables, and little by little the number of customers is increasing. Mainly he send his vegetables to TOKYO.

However he doesn't earn enough money yet, ----

On the other hand he is very busy in weeding so he doesn't have time to spend money. So he seems to be happy.

We love him.

GW has finished

Before writing about the latter half of GW, GW has finished. Now I spent usual days, though I'm not used to doing usual house chores.

The main character of our latter half of GW was , of course, AKARI. She came to here Utsunomiya  from TOKYO, and spend four days with us. However during her stayin she visited our mothers in TOKYO by car, it means she went to TOKYO (or returned to TOKYO), but she came back here by car, and the last day of GW she and her mother went back their home in TOKYO by "bullet train".

Now she eats foods like "senior" adults, it means she can eat soft foods, so "I" had to cook something for her, it means during her staying we didn't go out to restaurants. --- probably when she comes next time, she will be able to eat everything as well as adults, so we might go out to eat something.

the first half of Golden week

Here it looks summer, however---

 

 

The first day of Golden week (Yuki got 7 days-off), we went to Toyama prefecture and visited  Tateyama-Kurobe alpen route ---- by lots of cable cars and bus instead of climbing.

It was about 3 degrees C, so we put on a down jacket.

And we visited Kurobe dam.

 

 

Then, we climb down to the next prefecture Nagono.

We visited the famous temple ZENKOUJI.

Now it is the season of GOKAICYOU , which is hold once every 7 years. So we were lucky to be able to visit there, and touch the main pole, and see the main stature.

Now Akari and M comes, so I have to cook dinner for them. The last half of Golden week, we'll go to Tokyo to visit our mothers and see our elder daughter T.