How many steps did we walk?

Last Sunday we went out seeing colorful leaves  to a mountain which takes 90 minute drive.
We left our house very early morning with some rice balls and hot tea and coffee.

We could see colorful leaves as soon as we got to the foot of the mountain.
The roadway to the top of mountain was covered lots of colorful trees, so it was very beautiful and we really enjoyed this year autumn.
One our aim was seeing colorful leaves.
And the other aim was taking a walk along the walking trail.
We got the information about the walking trail from the net. So we didn't know much about it.
Well, (probably you can guess), it was "not" a walking trail, it was a "hiking trail".
So our outfit were not suitable to the situation.
We just enjoyed the scenery on the deck, and went back to the city.
To achieve the aim, we dropped by an art museum.
This exhibition was held. It was very good.

 

Back of this art museum there are walking trails.

We enjoyed walking or achieved 5000 steps.

 

Then it was noon. We had lunch outside and went back home..

How many times do you have your house refurbished largely?

Depends on your country, or your situation, it must be different how to maintain your house.

Looking back, when my mother (now she is 84) was around 70, she had her house refurbished.
The kitchen floor was changed, the bathroom was changed, and the toilet was changed.
I don't know how much was it.
Anyway what I remember is that "How wasteful! All things are still enough to use".
And I didn't say that " If you can afford to do that, I hope you divert the money to us".

The house is 45 years old, so probably at that time it was 30 years old. It was as old as our current house.
Of course it is right not to have said  the last phrase.

Now, we are going to have our house refurbished. And fortunately my daughters don't say anything.
Yes, it is our turn.

And I remember another thing.
When refurbishing my mother's house was finished, I said
"Where was it changed? I don't notice much difference."
Let me give an excuse.
probably the wall, the floor, and other things were changed, but there were (even now) many things and they covered the new things.
However she must have felt very satisfied.
Now I know her feeling.

And probably my daughters may mention the same thing "where is it changed?" after our rebuilding is finished.

And now my mother said "it was a right decision to have my house rebuilt at that time."

When we bought this house, we have never thought that we would live here in Utsumomiya when we retire.
And in 10 years, we don't know how and when to live.
However for 10 years we will have lived here calmly, and with satisfaction. (probably).

Now while we see this house, we said to ourselves, "we did well".

Season word 1025 Japan series

Today's season word was "Japan Series". I was really surprised to see that. I thought it would a special word for just baseball fans like my mother.

My mother is 84 years old, and probably since the days of my earliest recollection she has been a big fan of Yomiri Giant club. My father he has already passed away, would disgusted. At that time not so many women were fans of baseball.
Now, I'm happy about it, because it is only one hobby for her to listen to baseball games at night.
(She doesn't watch TV these days because of her eye problems)

Let me try to make short poems with this word.

Japan series, having a good excitement  every night, leads a good sleep
Japan series, no one disturbs, live and let-live

we are not grandfather & grandmother, but a senior couple.

Until last month we were always grandfather and grandmother, because we were always with our granddaughter.
Now we are a senior couple.

And in one year, our retirement life will have started, though I will continue my (small) English tutoring school.

Before the retirement day, we are planning some things.
So we talk each  other more than one years ago. It sounds good.
On the other hand, sometimes it is not a discussion, changes into quarreling.

The reason is
He often says "I didn't get the memo." (Not I don't remember. Is it right phrase?)
I often says "I have already told it to you".
We sometimes think that we need to record our talking.

Fortunately our goal is the same, it is to live peacefully.

To avoid such meaningless quarreling, we learnt the importance of Japanese.
So I bought this book.

The title is "practicing Japanese".
It is really interesting.

 

at home

Coincidently, I had time to have a tea with my neighbor at home.

Though each of us had some sweets at each home, we went out to buy special Japanese fresh sweets by car.

And I had no Japanese tea leaves , so she brought Japanese tea leaves to my house.

 

This teatime was not scheduled, we happened to have a tea teim.

It was good. And I felt so happy to have such a neighbor.

It is not easy to recycle.

Since my grand daughter and daughter left here, about two weeks have passed.
Time flies quickly.
As soon as they left, I started organizing Ah-chan's things.

Luckily her clothes were given to a (young) mother's circle.
Probably they will be used.

Her buggy was given to my friend who recently had a grand daughter.
She lives in next prefecture. She managed to take it and it was a good reason to see each other.
We haven't seen each other probably for 5 years.

I took many English kids books to a book café which deals with kids books.
I took some Japanese books for young mothers to a cook café which deals with adults books.

To tell the truth, I needed some efforts to find such people and place what try to use Ah-chan's things.
It would be easy  to discard those things quickly on a garbage collecting day, however they had some sentimental value to me. I wanted to use them for someone.

The last thing is this try cycle.
I asked another friend, however she wanted to buy a new one for her grandson.
I understood her feeling.
I also asked some city facilities, but they didn't accept my donation.
Of course I tried to take it to a used shop, however it was too old to be accepted.

 

Now I'm thinking to donate it for a NPO to pay some money including sending fee.

Money and the thing are donation. It doesn't sound bad. -- though it costs higher than one I bought .

 

 

Season word 1018 mackerel sky

 

"Mackerel sky", I learnt this word this time. Japanese word is "UROKO-GUMO", Uroko means fish scales, and GUMO (or KUMO) means clouds. And in an academic cloud field, it is called "Cirrocumulus".

 

I also found an interesting site.

 

UROKO-GUMO, it inspires my appetite, go to a fisher market.

UROKO-GUMO, a little bit scary, storm foreboding

 

 

Volunteer reading at the library in October

Yesterday I did volunteer reading at the library as usual.

This time some couples of mother and kids, of course came, and some adults (ladies) came.

So after 30 minute English book reading, we had a chat time using this article, and talked about Japanese season words.

 

 

Autumnal Equinox Day :  Most of the women were not from this city Utsunomiya including me. However they try to visit their family graves. The day is for us to remind us of our ancestors, and eat traditional sweets "ohagi".

 

Community Chest : it was interesting, because no one knew how to use the money donated. And everyone accepted that though it is donation, but it is paid automatically from our residents community fee.

 

Cosmos ; yes, it is the season of cosmos now. There are some famous parks with full of cosmos. Probably this weekend, in some parks, cosmos festival must he held, and at the end everyone will be able to take cosmos free.

 

Railway Day; We know the word, but we don't do anything on the day. In a big city there are may railways, but here just two railways.

 

If some adults join me next time, I will be able to organize such a chatting time.

It is fun.

well-drained sandals

I don't know how we say this type of sandals even in Japanese. Anyway Yuki bout them at a DIY center, They are well-drained. We always leave two pair of sandals outside at the garden entrance door. So after raining, of course they are soaked.

Even though it may be cold to wear them in winter, they are very suitable gadgets.

 

This Sunday I attended our Toast Master's Meeting, while Yuki trimmed the garden.

One of Yuki's role when he retires, is to maintain our garden tidy. So he already started to try it little by little. However unexpected things has happened. Now I'm suffering from stiffed shoulders, and he also feels a pain on his arm. So it is a little bit difficult to use big scissors. He bought an light electrical trimmer. It works. However it seems to be difficult for him to use it on a stepladder. For these years , we always ask a professional gardener to lower the trees in my garden which are able to be maintained by ourselves.

Until a few years ago, we had no problem to do things on a stepladder. Now we have a little bit problem.

If we lower the trees more, they won't work as a role of fence, though we can trim them.

What should we do?

Good grief!

This time last year, I participated in a  walk-rally with my family Yuki, M, Ah-chan and me.
Though I walked about 3 km, I didn't feel any pain.

However, -- in the last few days I took a  20 minute walk wearing walking shoes.
Then the day before yesterday (just three days passed), I felt strange pain in my feet.
I asked the doctor, who cares for my stiff shoulder about the pain.
He said "I don't see  any special problem, probably the pain caused by fatigue of your  feet. Did you do anything hard suddenly?"

Until last May, I regularly   walked for 20 minutes as much as I could.
Even while M and Ah-chan  were here with us in this summer, I couldn't do my regular walking.  But I went to Tokyo  a couple times, and every time I walked more than 7000 steps. Additionally on the day we saw them off at Narita airport, my pedometer on my cell phone showed 7000 steps. However I never felt such a pain during those days.

My doctor said "there is a difference between normal walking and brisk walking.
Probably I walked too briskly, and my feet muscles which are usually not used must have been surprised and exhausted .

On the other hand, I thought, probably my shoes are the culprit. It must have gotten "old".
So I bought a new pair of walking shoes on the way home after  my shoulder and feet treatment.

I did a good shopping.

 

How many years do you keep such a "Eau de Toilette"?

I'm not used to using such a  "Eau de Toilette", and perfume etc.
So I'm not familiar with  perfume companies. However I know the name of Yves saint Laurent, and probably Yuki know it, too.
I got these bottles, probably 7 years ago from a French madam.
I knew it was expensive, so I have kept it  without using it .
However----

Do you know how many years such things are kept the quality?
I searched on internet. According some websites, it seems to be three years.

Ok, I clearly give up using it for me.
However --- what should I do?
I thought the bottle would be useful.

However the splay is very tight, so to throw the liquid away, I have to brake the rid. It means it will not be used as a splay bottle.

 

 

Anyway I took the bottle from the shelf, and put it in the bathroom.

About the other one.

I throw the liquid away, and put some my favorite aroma oil with my home made dry lavender petals..

This small bottle changed into a new one with my favorite perfume.

 

At Karaku

 

Yesterday it was the day of Karaku, I staged a small concert.

After it, we (I did it with a reciter) had a relaxing time with coffee and cake.

Though we did 30 minute concert, we were there about three hours.

 

For these three months, I came back home as soon as I finished the performance.

Now I have a lot of my own free time, it means I have no one to talk to when I come back home quickly.

It is a quiet house.

 

I have a question.

I'm  happy if some one explain or correct the sentences.

Example sentence
The application should have been mailed before yesterday.

Q1, Does the day mean the day some one posted a letter? or the day when the letter arrive dat the office?
Q2, Though according to the explanation about Q1, what difference are there using by, or until instead of before ?

Our usual life

Last Sunday it was our usual life, though Yuki didn't go golfing.
I organized the room where Ah-chan and my daughter used for these three months.
My daughter doesn't drive so she "sometimes" or a few times use a bike which has a child sheet.
So autumn clothes, and the helmet are left. They are still clean.

Fortunately I found a young mother who wanted to use them quickly.

 

I made usual pre-cooked dishes for this week.

This time they are just for the two of us. So it didn't take  much time.

 

 

I also put away 10 things.

 

 

While I was doing usual Sunday chores, he repaired the fence.

He went to a home center nearby, and changed the board fence.

Our family life of four is over.

Ah-chan (our granddaughter), M (our younger daughter), Yuki and me lived together in summer and it is over.

The day before yesterday, they left Japan for Thailand. And now they have started their new life with our son in-law (which means M's husband or Ah-chan's father.)

 

Last week the four of us went out for a special dinner.

For Ah-chan  it was the first time to have French dinner with a formal knife and fork.

Her main food was hamburger stake, so it was not difficult to use them.

She tried to eat ketchupped rice which was  wrapped in omelet, it was really difficult. So she ate it with spoon as usual.

 

As you see, the table cloth was perfect white.

We tried  hard to keep the white while we were eating, and of course they accepted our somewhat messy manner.

 

 

They have a special room for a family like us in the restaurant, so we really enjoyed it while we let her experience such a special dinner.

 

Well, the two of us are backed to our usual life.