octopus

These are boild octopuses. The other day my husband went to Koube on usiness. Koube is famous for Akashi Tako; you see the sign on the wrapping paper in this photo, even it is written in Japanese. Akashi is a town in Koube, tako is octopus. Yummy!
We sometimes accept some foreigners staying with us because we are resistered as a host family. Probably octopuses one of the most unusual foods for them. For Japanese or us (my husband and me) we don't have a big difference between squids and octopuses, but for foreigners it seemsto have a big difference.
Takoyaki is also famous in Japana as a healthy? snack. It is my daughter's favorite, so when young foreigners come to my house I make sausage-yaki instead of tako-yaki. It is a kind of small unsweetened pancake.

in the middle of spring

Now in my small garden even though it is in the half shade, flowers are in full bloom. And NIRA(leek) that I sowed , has come up. AND of course weeds has appeared.

I decided to try to weed constantly. So this morning before watering I did 15-minute-weeding. My garden is small, and we don't have lots of weeds yet, so 15-mitnie-weeding worked well.

I also platned seedling of strawberries. They put buds. If they have a fruit, I can put them in my daughter's luch box, the red strawgerry will make the OBENTOU look vivid. How many strawberries can I get???

horsetail quiche

Yesterday I played the piano at KARAKU. And the master gave this "horsetail quiche" to my family. Do you know "horsetail"? It is a plant in spring. When I was a kid I used to find them here and there but these days we couldn't. His wife went to pick them to the outskirts, and make this quiche. They bring spirng taste don't they?

Well, the picture of horsetail(TSUKUSHI) was gotten from the pagehttp://www.yunphoto.net/jp/photobase/yp2651.html

eel pie

These are sweets, and the sign on them is "eel pie" in English.

What is eel pie? Do they look like eels? No, they have eel in powder, so they are called "eel pie". And they have the adjective of "for night". Why? having eels is said to give us stamina and eels are used for tomic medicines.

These sweetsa are peculiarity of SHIZOKA. Lots of eels are cultivated in SHIZUOKA.

In my region we have the same shaped pie. It is called "KANPYOU pie". they have KANPYOU in powder. KANPYOU is a kind of vegetables. So the sweets don't have an adjective. If they had something modified, they would be called "healthy KANPYOU pie".

My usual belongings

What do you usual take when you go out nearby? A wallet, a brush, a handkerchief, a lipcream stick, and a paper book (I sometimes drop at a coffe shop to take a rest out of mere freak or to kill the time during my husband or daughter's shopping) , they are my usual belongings.

And I wanted to a new bag for them, so I asked my friend to sew a bag, and it comes. To be correctly she maked two bags.

I like her works. She like and is good at sewing. When she gets order something, she makes them. On the other hand she opend her oridinal shop on the net. Since it opend, almost one year has passed.

These days net-shopping seems to have lots of problems, but for her, this net-shopping is an effective and inspriering way to enjoy our 40's life.

going out to see the cherry blossoms

In this morning we (my husband, my daughter and I) went out to see the cherry blossomes to the park nearby. When my daughters were little, my family used to go there on Sundays. Probably more than 8 years passed since we went there together last.

I heard the park had remodeled, and it was the first time for my husband and me to visit since it was remodeled. It was completely changed. Everything was renewed and seemed to get more attractive for kids.

My husband and I have a lot of memories of playing kids in this park. But unfortunatley my daughter didn't have any those memories. Her memories about this park was playing there with her friends.

The most attractive ride in this park was a big slide, though they don't have it now. We went to the place where the slide was. At that time for us it was so far to reach there from the entrance of the park. But this time it was just a 10-minute-walk.

It means my daughter grew up enough, and missing such memories shows that my husband and I aged.

On the way home we dropped by at a restaurant and had spaghetti for holiday brunch.

We had a good time in this morning, if my elder daughter were together, we could have enjoyed more. So tonight I called her, she is fine. This term she is going to deal with metal. What is she going to make?

My daughter's school has started.

I was able to wake up before 6 o'clock this morning. And I made OBENTOU.

From today my daughter's school has started, it means the chore of making OBENTOU has also started.

When was the first time to make OBENTOU by myself? Probably I was a college student. At that time my mother used to make four OBENTOUs every morning, for my father, for my two younger brothers, and me. Except mine, they are all for men. So the OBENTOUs were highly volumed (or it could be said to be much oily.) I couldn't bear, so I started to make OBENTOU for myself.

I continued to make OBENTOU when I started working. I took my OBENTOU to my office. And after my daughters were born, I had to let them thier OBENTOUs to their nursery school.

When they were elementary school kids, this chore stopped.

But when they became junior hirh school students, this chore had started again.

And probably this year it is the last year to do this chore (if my younger daughter succeed in entering a college.) So this last year I'll try to enjoy this chore instead of feeling troublesom.

I show every day's OBENTOU in another blog page, if you are intereseted in them, please see them. Mieko's luncbox http://www.fotolog.com/mieko_/

What's this? It's an excellent spoon.

The left picture is the situation of being out of use, and the right picture is the situation of being in use.

Yes it is a spoon to scoop a does of medicines.

These days I changed medicine for a pollen allergy into herbal medicine. I have to take 12 pills at once. I said to a pharmacist "It's terrible troublesom". She said "it has somthing excellent."
And showed this spoon.

in one scoop I take 12 pills at once. So in two scoops I can take necessary doses.

All members of my family were surprised and laughed.

What do you think of this idea?

What medicine do you bring with you when you travel?

My spring vacataion finished. During the vacation I went out here and there , though they were not long travels. BUT I always bring headache specific and pills for a pollen allergy. Now I'm suffering from a bad pollen allergy, so with this medicine I bring eye lotion. And I suffer from headaches, so with caution I always bring the medice with me.
The headache specific is precribed, I don't buy this kind of medicine at drugstores.

"Allergy" reminds me of a woman who stayed with us.
Has anyone you know ever gotten sick while traveling? The woman who stayed with us got sick at my house.
When a guest comes to stay with us, I usually send the person our family sheet to introduce our family. At that time we had a cat (unfortunately she passed away.) So I wrote on the paper "we had a cat".
And the guest used to have a cat allergy, but she thought she had already overcome.

BUT unfortunatley at midnight suddenly the allergy attacked her. She started sneezeing and runnig nose, and her eyes got completely red. She didn't have medicine, and it was midnight. So I gave her my pills for allergy, because the symptoms were same.

Fortunatly it worked well.

Oops, I almost forget to write one thing.
If I went on a long travel, I'll bring more two kinds of medicne, they are laxative and binding medicine.

Well, I don't know what do you call these medicine in English? Please tell me.

who drew?

Neither of my daughters, I did. The other day I added a craft work-shop in TOKYO. There I drew this picture. Of cours they are strawberries.

Can you buess how I drew it.

I used color chalks and used cotton instead of paint burshes.

rub the chalks with the cotton, and put the color on the paper with the cotton.

To draw detail or clear the outline I used a cotton swab.

To draw somethng white (like petals) I used an eraswer.

It was really intereseting.

This drawing way seems to be common on Steiner's education.

Did you know that?

Using this way everybody becomes a great artist.

I recommend you to try it.

Very small garden opens

One of things I decided to do durng this spring vacaiton was making a small garden in the back yard. I did it. It doesn't cathc the sun much but -- probably somthings will be able to glow.

I planted parsley,MITSUBA(honewort?), and MIZUNA(kind of spinach), because they can glow in the half shade and half sunshine according to the directions. AND these grasses (leaves?) are really convenient to cook, if I can harvest.

Well, gardening was not my favorite and skillful hobby, but I tried to do it more this year. Now I water the garden every morning, untill now I enjoy it, I hope it would not be a dull chore that I have to do eary morning. ( I know weeding is one of dull and tough chores, but it can't be helped)

Do you enjoyg gardening?

To KAMAKURA

The other day my younger daughter and I went to KAMAKURA, where it takes about one hour from TOKYO by train. (and it takes more than three hours from here by train.) KAMAKURA is a historical town, I love there. Well I already went there a few weeks ago with my friend.

Why I went there again after a short interval is the following reason. When I told about my visit to KAMAKURA to my daughter, she said "I've never been there."

I was really surprised. We live in KANTOU, so usually school kids go there for their school trip, actually my elder daughter went there twice when she was an elementary school student and a junior high school student. So I thought my younger daughter would have been there too.

BUT, the visit to histrocial citys tends to make young students bored, so when my younger daughter was an elementary school student, they went to Disney land instead of the historical city "KAMAKURA". And when she was a junior high school, they went to KYUSYU instead of another more famous historiacl city "KYOTO". So unfortunately she has never been to historical cities in JAPAN except NIKKOU, where it is in our prefecture. So I took her to KAMAKURA during this spring vacation.

Of course I took her some famous temples and shrines. She said "it might be a vaulable experience".

But more fun is -- eating and dropping in at cafe. (Probably shopping might have been fun, but we didn't have enough budget.) For me it was also "great" fun. She took some photos by her cell phone, I put them on this blog.

spring vacation has already started

From last Saturday my spring vacation started. As soon as I got full 7 days off, I started to tidy and clean rooms up.

At first I put togather my English books that lay around. I wanted to put them in a book cabinet on the first floor to take them easy in my lesson. But a book cabinet on the first floor was too small to have all books. We also have other book shelves on the second floor, but it was really troublesome to take them. So the books lay around (saying correctly upstairs and downstairs) .
And I went to buy a book cabinet, I found a reasonable cabinet at a home center. It looked useful and inexpencive. BUT it was needed to assmeble. Can I do it? I didn't have confidence. Anyway I bought thinking "I must manage to do it", and I also thought "I can do it, because I also bought an inexpencive electoric screwdriver. "

AND

Fortunately my husband showed intereseting the electoric screwdriver, so he helped me (saying correctly I helped him.) BUT the screwdriver was so cheap that it didn't have enough power. I could put each screwe in the board until 2/3 depth of it using the electroic screwdriver, to put the last 1/3 depth of screwes handpower was needed. SO my husband did it. Anyway we made it. I could set the books in order. It was a heavy job.

BUT the job was not finised.

After assembling it, my husand went out. Since then I started another heavier job. What I should do next was tidying up the things which had lain at the place where the new book cabinet laid. Some things I threw away, some things I had to leave somewhere. So I started to tidy up the closet.

Can you guess how many trash bags I made??? I can't tell you, too many!!!

Anyway today it was a burnable trash day. Most of trash was gone!

Tomorrow it was recyeld trash day! All trasn is going to be done.

AND I'm going to tidy up the next room tomorrow.

I was surprised twice!

Yesterday I got it from my fried. Because of my poor photo, you cannot understand what it is. It is "TAIYAKI". Usually "TAIYAKI" has azuki bean paste, or other sweet cream (custard cream breen beens paste, etc) inside. But it has "OKONOMIYAKI" inside, so it's not a sweet TAIYAKI. It was the first time for us.
And what made me more surprsed, before I write this diary I check "TAIYAKI" on the wikipediea page. Here, "OKONOMIYAKI TAIYAKI" was alreday introduced. Is it popular in JAPAN??? or KANSAI area?? (I live in KANTOU area). And on the same page "SAUSAGE TAIYAKI" was also introduced. I've not seen it since I was born.

Anyway if you are intereseted in "TAIYAKI", please check this website. It has "perfect" and "clear" photo of "taiyaki".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiyaki

last three days

In Japan April is a month to start new term. So for me these three days are last days of my term of this year.
The evnets I planed is finished in turn.

Last Sunday the meeting of reading English picture books was finished. Probably 15 coulples (mother or father and kids) came. The next day I got some e-mails from attendees, saying "it was fun, I'm looking forward to next meeting." I'm really glad.
Yesterday my monthly playing the pinano at KARAKU was finished. It was really crowded, Oops, don't misundestand please. Some meetin was held there. I was afraid that the sound of piano might be noisy, but after playing the piano some people said "We feel calm, thank you", or "GOCHISOUSAMA ( it is a greeting after eating in Japan) for your music". I'm really happy.

And the last event is left. On Friday I'm reading English picture books for infamts at a nursery school.

And my two-week spring vacation is going to start. What will I do? The first half week, I'll neaten up my classroom, and change the materails for the new term, and go to TOKYO to meet my elder daughter and my mother.
The latter half week, I'll meet some friends who lives a little bit far and enjoy cherry blossoms.

AND coming Saturday (3/31), the first event of the new term will come.
I should take in my self "hang in there" and "enjoy your vacation!"

Spaghetti

In the morning I went to a clinic to get a medicine for my pollen allergy, and dropped by a library nearyby. In the afternoon, three new kids came to take my trial lesson. (And from next new term they are going to be my new students.) So I didn't have enough time to make my handmade hamburger steaks. But I already bought ground meat.

So today's dinner was "SPAGHETTI" with two kinds of sauce.

One is meat sauce spaghetti. I added ground meat and garlic to the instant sauce. Of course according to the recipe I also added water and tomato paste.

Another one is basil sauce spaghetti. I added grillled mackerels and leeks to the instant basil sauce. Of course according to the recipe I also added water and olive oil.

The meat sauce is not so bad. My husband said if it had more sour taste, it would be better. So I should have used tomato juice instead of water. When I make my meat sauce, I usually use tomato juice, so my family gets used to the sour taste.

And the basil sauce is good. We put some grated Japense radish on it. I think if I had used squid instead of mackerels, it would have been more simple taste. For me it was a little thick, but for my husband it was good.

We are really enjoyging American tastes, Thanks Jan.

everyday's lunchbox

About 7 years ago the chore of making lunchboxes for my daughters has been started. If she manages to succeed in entering a college, the chore is going to be finisned in a year.
The chore is sometimes troublesome, and sometimes intereseting.

The other day when I was watching TV, a boy student who graduated from a junior high school this year shouted to a TV camera "Thank you mother for making delicious OBENTOU(lucn box) every day!".

If I hear such saying from my younger daughter next spring, I must be very happy.

BUT in my case sometimes or often I cut corners, it means the tast of OBENTOU on the day must be so-so.

Anyway last night accidentally my younger daughter and I talked about OBENTOU. These days she goes cram school after school, so she buys OBENTOU at convenience store for supper. She said "Mum's Obentou is more delicious even though it is cold than the OBETOU at conveneince store".

Additionaly she isn't satisfied with the convenience store's OBENTOU, so after she comes home she eats something that I cooked at SLOW-COOKER, even though it's around 10PM.

And this morning I satued cabbage, squid and egg for lunch box. AND I "boiled" retort hamburger steak. I also served the hamburger steak for breakfast.

As soon as she saw it "Wow! Hambuger steak! Long time no see it" she said happily.

BUT as soon as she grab it, "Hum it's not your hand-made one, but it's OK".

Yes, today I cut corners in making OBENTOU.

Additionaly I served a sand which with this hambuger steak to my husband for his breakfast.

(Usually, my daughter has rice for breakfast, and my husband has bread.)

He said"Wow, Hambuger steak sandwhich!" He ate smoothly.

Well, this weekend I'll make handmade hambuger steak after a long separation.

Suddenly

Last night as soon as my yougher daugher came home she started talking about her course after graduating. She declared that " I'll go to -----college. I'll be a serious candidate." suddenly.
The event she went last weekend inspred her.

Of course it is a good thing. It is the first time for her to mention her future course clearly.

BUT it seems to be very very hard.

ANYWAY what I can do is wathing her.
And I hope this movement is not a short period phenomenon.

Bargain train ticket for the young

My elder daughter went to NAGASAKI (south in Japan) using bargain train ticket. The ticket is called "SEISYUN(the youth) 18( age?) ticket". Only the young ( I don't know from how old to how old) can use it. They can take JR-train withnho holds barred for five days, but only local trains.

She arrived NAGASAKI two days after she left TOKYO. She stopped off at some stations to change another train, and while she was waiting for the next train she walked around the station.

I knew she had a plan to this travel.

But this morning , at 7:10 the door bell rang. "pin pon".

"who?"

"me!"

It was she.

Today it was the last day the bargain ticket runs. So she passed TOKYO and came here with souveniurs. It was our favorite "FUKUSAYA-Kasutera".

We could enjoy it for breakfast.

After for a while she left here for TOKYO, because it is the last day the bagain ticket runs.

I'm surprised, I'm happy, and I'm sad.

Well, this "Seisyun 18 ticket" is for the young.

for the older? middle aged? people ( over 50) there is another bargain train ticket.

BUT for my generation, we don't have. It means "you should work hard???"

kinkan

This winter I knew that "KINKAN" could be eaten by itself. Until I knew that, I had simmered them with sugar or honey. My friend sent fresh ones to me. I got into KINKAN. Now it is the season of KINKAN, it is not long, so I often buy them. Though I thought my family didn't like them, they didn't mind, so they have one or two.
And the other day I found this sapling. Of course though these KINKAN can be eaten, they are really astringent?? (not sweet). But looking at them is also fun. And my friend who is into gardening says "it's not difficult to grow KINKAN". So I'll try to grow KINKAN this year. If nxt year I'll be able to get "my" KINKAN, it will be fun!

American taste arrived!

Thanks Jan. We are really surprised!!!! For a while we can enjoy American taste. Today we tried oatmeal with bananas, of course adding a littlie suger---- sorry, the taste is so-so, but my husband , daughter and I really enjoyed saying "strange"and laughed. We prefer rice porridge with a little bit salt. Now we are thinking what taste we'll try next. It is fun!! My husband says, "try basilico spaghetti", my daughter says "try hamburger". What do you recommend the best?

And everyone, have you tried anything of them? or what do you want to try first?

the term exam finished

My daughter's term exam finished. Not so bad. She and I are relieved.
Last spring, she got a really bad score. At that time before starting a new term she had to choose a course, science course or literary course. Untill then she decided to go to a science course like us without any special thinking, or she had thought going to science course was natural. BUT the bad score made her think again. And she chose a literary course because of her bad score.

And she began to rethink about her life. Sometimes she gave up studying, sometimes she was depressed, sometimes she was quick to take offense.
Now I understand that was the process for her to start to live her own life, and the process for me to accpet she was she.

These days she seems to be getting steady down. She talks to me about her self very much.
Now she is thinking to go to a interior course. And next Sunday she is going to go to an exhibision in TOKYO by herself. She said "I'll try to see many things, I may encounter somthing that stimulate me."
I'm really glad to hear such positive thinking from her.

New term will start soon, she will be a candidate.

a bus tour of watching flowers

Last Sunday I went on a bus tour of watching flowers in KAMAKURA with my friend. We really enjoyed watching flowers in early spring. The photos are in turn, KAWAZU cherry, Hiragi nanten, Mansaku, Ume. ( I don know their English names.)

Going on a bus tour was the first experience for us. I thought such tours were for "OBASAN" (middle-aged women) and elderly people. And now we become OBASAN so we went in.

Well, actaully before being OBASAN, it was difficlut to go out leaving kids at home. Now my daughter is willing to let me go out on holidays.

Of course if we had enough pocket money and time we could travel personally. The bus tour is really inexpensive and easy to move. While we are chatting, the bus transports us.

The attendees were 3 OBASAN groups (including us) , a OJISAN( middle-aged men) group, some couples (our generation, and elder generation) and some single attendees.

Probably I think I told you, I'm not good at enjoying by myself. I was really surprised at them, and though they were cool.

I said to myself "I'll try to do it by myself like them!". My friend heard them, and said "don't say such a sad thing, enjoy together!".

I was really happy.

Of course it was a good one-day trip.

sweets sweets and sweets

Yesterday I had an adult English class after an interval of two weeks, because everone had a cold in turn.
I prepared sweets for them, and as you guess every student brougnt sweets for us, doughnuts, dumplings, and sweet rice cakes with fresn cream.
The photo is dumplings. When you hear Japnaese dumplings, you usualy imagine (if you are familier to Japanese sweets) bean paste dumplings. These dumpings has various tastes; bean paste( black one in the photo), tea, strawberries, grapes(purple one in the photo), kidny beans( white one in the photo ) , green tea, coffee(brwon one in the photo), apricots, and YUZU( a kind of citrons). Of course they are really delicious. The leftover four ones are going to be my today's snack at 3 o'clock.

The doughnuts: we ate them for breakfast and the leftover dougnhuts were taken by my daughter as her snack at school.
The sweet rice cakes: my daughter and I ate them for dessert of supper, and the leftover ones were served to my junior high school students at night to make them active.

Speaking ( or writing) about sweets makes me happy.

Anyway I had much sweets, so I'll go out dong 30-minute-exercise.

tiny complaints

There is my favorite bread shop nearby. They deal with various original breads. I like one of them. BUT I have a tiny complaint. It is a kind of "ANPAN"; that has AN(bean paste) and GYUHI(kind of Japanese sweets), and wrapped with sesami. I love it.
BUT the type of AN is not smooth type, rough type. If it were smooth type, it would be perfect for me.

The other day I had fresh ripen "KINKAN" ( a kind of tiny orange? lime?). It was the first time for me to eat them. Though I eaten KINKAN, they are boiled ones with sugar. It was really delicious. I want to eat again. But it's expensive, and probably the way to get them is telephone shopping or net shopping. Moreover my daughter and my husband don't like them.
My daughther is allergic to some acid in fruits, so she doesn' t have fruit so much. My husband proably eats KINKAN when I serve. BUT not so impressed.
Is it OK to buy the expensive thing for only my plesure?
If I want to buy clothes, I'm not puzzled, but about food-- I 'm puzzled which to choose something I only want to eat, or somehting my family want to eat.

We had a cold

We? yes my daughter and I. I had a cold for a week. Today, I'm not so bad.
And my daughter she also had a cold since last Saturday. Fortunately today she was able to go to school, and she had to go to school. Because from today her term exam has started.

Oh poor thing. She had caught a cold two days before her important exam. She had a high fever. So what she could do was just sleeping. It means she couldn't not do overnignt cramming for her exam.

Anyway this week started. I hope her good luck.

white beer

Yesterday my husband and I went on shooping to a depertment store nearby to get good quality pork. After an interval of 2 weeks we (my husband, my yougher daughter and I) was going to have dinner together.

Incidentally we dropped in at liquor shop to get a little qood quality drink. There my husband found a bottle of white beer. When he went to Belgium on his busniess drip, I heard, he always have this kind of beer. (According to him, when he ordered beer saying just "beer please", usually this kind of beer was served.) It reminded him of that trip , so he bought some bottles.

Actaully I'm not strong at alcohol, having a sip is tasty. BUT having more gives me a headache quickly. So wine, beer and cocktail are too tasty for me to drink much.

When I took a sip of white beer. It tasted strange. I've haven this taste somewhere before. It reminded me of licorice. I checked the ingredients. It included orange peel and coriander. There was a label of spicy beer.

This beer is OK for me to sip it. (In Japan, usually beel is gulped.)

Well, I found an interesting notice.

According alcohol law in Japan, this drink includes some spice, so it doesn't belong to a group of beer. Well, does it belong to what?

strange? or reasonable?

Next Wednesday , it is Valentine's Day. In Japan, though I don't know the reason, we have a custome to pleasent chocolate from women to men. My lessons of this week is called "Valentine's week." I read some picture books related with Valentine's Day, and give choclates to all students.

A junior high school student said a strange? or reasonable thing.

On the day all students were really sleepy. So I shouted, "wake up, wake up, let's study!". When I gave these chocolates, a student said "having a chocolate will make me awake. May I have it before studying?". I said "sure".

But another student said, " I think so, but today I want to go to bed as soon as this lesson is finished. If I have it and make me awake clearly, I can't to do that. So I dare not to have it, I magange to bear this sleep".

Well, is her excuse strange? or reasonable?

She beats me.

Who's "she"? My youhger daughter.
I like reading the consulataion page on the newspaper. This morning such a story appeared.

I'm in the 40's. I have a calm life with my husband and kids. BUT these days I really envy my close friends who are shingle, work hard and enjoy their rich life, and my sisteres whose son go to a first-class university. Probably I can't stand the situation that my close people have higher-class life. What should I do?

The adviser said "Do you know the story of "blue bird"? Don't look for a blue bird which is far, hold hard on your close blue bird. Your current live was built by your self step by step.

I understand what the adviser said. AND I also understant her feeling.

I said to my daugher "I'M REALLY AGREE WITH HER".
She said "To whom do you want to boast of having a kid who go to a first-calss shcool?"
I said "no one specail, because if I boat such a thing I must be hated"
She said " If you don't have no one, you don't need to envy such thing."

Yes, she is right.
I know that I've sticked at first-class universities becayse I failed to do that, it was a long long ago.
I like her broad-minded chracter.

Time flies

February came, and March is just around the corner. "Time flies".
This mean in Japanese Time flies like an arrow. Yesterday my daughter said "Time flies like wind(probably a gust)". She didn't know know the probarb (probably) so said this phrase without intension.

From tomorrow my elder daughter is going to Europe to visit some art museums. From the end of the next week, the term examination is going to starts at my younger daughter's school. And the end of month all members of my family are going to meet at "Home".
I'm looking forward to the end of month . What story will I be able to hear from my younger daughter? I'm excited. On the other hand I'm worried about my younger daughter's score.

Anyway "time flies like a gust". I like this phrase.

"Mottainai"!

"Mottainai", do you know the meaning of this word? It is difficult to be tranlated in English. Probably it is the peculiar to Japanese. This Grandma has habit saying "mottainai".

When a boy is brushing his teeth at bathroom while the water is running. She comes and says.

Splash Splash! Leaving water running. "Mottainai". And she turn off the tap.

I think the closet word to "mottainai" is wasteful.
When I went to a picture book exhibision I bought this book. It was written by a Japanese writer, but it is translated in ENGLIH using "mottainai".
Yesterday in my lesson, I showed this book. All kids knew this book. Actually now the word of "mottainai" is reconsidered even in Japan. So I read this book in English. Every kids seemed to enjoy my reading shouting "mottainai" together.

Japaese picturebooks exhibiton

I went an exhibition of Japanese picture books. It is an unusual thing that such exhibition is held in this rural city. It was full of family and some old women (including me). I think the women are volunteers to read picture books to kids somewhere or nursery school teachers.Every kid seemed to enjoy reading books. Seeing the sight I thought bullying world that is now a big issue at school would never exist. From when kids and parents will be busy into their life and loose such fantastic leisure. Everybody including me (probably) was smiling.
There are some awarded pictures drawn by kids in the room. Every picture was lovable. What talented kids they are! Looking at the pictures the future of the kids seems to be full of possibility. Additionaly my younger daughter has got award sometimes when she was a lower grade. I reminded of the her. Where has the talent of her gone? --though she keeps her unique personality even now.
Of course many foreign picture books which are translated in Japanese were introduced. I found some books that I have. It was the first time to read the books in Japanese. I'm really impressed "what perfect sentences they are!” I realized again that translators were really talented in Japanese though I already knew. We are Japanese, so when we read Japanese picture books, we can guess the writers feeling that are not written from pictures drwaing Japanese culture and history as the background. But on the contrary sometimes it is difficult to understand such feeling of foreign pictures books. On some books translators translate the sentences with some suitable supplementing words.
I got lots of post cards for free. What post cards are your favorites?

What are your favorite pastimes

On a Japanese blog a woman makes a list of her favorite pastimes. There are ten things. What and how many do I have my favorite pastimes? I'll list them.
1. Going to new tearooms or restaurants.
Actaully now I have a tearoom I'd like to go. I'm looking for someone who goes with me.
2. Going on one day trip
Since my daughters are grown up, I have some chances to take "one day" trip. The end of the month I'm going to go on a bus tour of KAMAKURA with my friend. It is the first time to make a "bus tour". I'm really exciting.
AND thoug it is one of my dreams, after my daughters will stand by themselves I would go abroad for several months.
3. Going to concerts
Last year I went to concerts five or six times. This year if "TARAZUKA"(women's revue) comes to this city I'll go again. (I don't check this year's shows at concert halls yet.)
4. Going somewhere with my daughters
My elder daughter seldom comes home, my younger daughter is busy doing something (sometimes studying), but we all like to go art museums or interior shops. This month a new national art museum opened in TOKYO. And an interesting photo exhibition is going to be held at a studio in TOKYO. I want to manage to go there with my daughters.
5. Going to see movies
I sometimes go to the movies with friends. (My husband don't like very much, instead of it he is into seeing DVDs.) This year I'll try to go to the movies by myself.

These things are all going somewhere with someone. So I think what is be able to be done by myself.

6. Reading
I like reading. Every other week I go to a library. These days my younger daughter also likes reading books though she still loves reading comics. So sometimes we go together. And sometimes we change books we borrowed. When our interesting is the same, we are really excited about the story. (Though my husband likes reading books as well, but he usually reads historical or political things, seldom reads essay, and never reads love stories.)
7. Going to used shops
when I find unusual but cool clothes, I'm really happy. I wear them when I play the piano at a tea room. When I find really cute clothes, I grin. Though I'm embarrassed, I wear them when I read picture books to infants at a nursery school.
8. Sharing new tasty sweets and foods with someone
I'm really interested in new sweets and foods. I like to look for them. AND when I share with someone (usually my adult students), if they are impressed like me and share the emotion, I'm really glad.
9. Keeping blog
Probably I'm addicted to writing blog. And it is the most favorite pastime as far as I think of now.

I'm afraid I can't list 10 items.

Do you enjoy your job?

Yesterday a woman visited me; she is also a teacher belonging to the same franchise English class. When we met at a meeting she showed a big interesting to my teaching materials. So she came to my house. She asked many questions one after another. So we didn't have time to have tea calmly.
I was really happy and excited to show my handmade materials and collection of my picture books. She seemed to be also happy.She said "You really seem to enjoy teaching.
"I haven't thought about that. When I get up, usually I suffer from headache. So I manage to inspire my self to spend the day without troubles. Doing morning house chores, sitting at PC, preparing today's lesson and going to 30 minute exercise, they are what I usually do in the morning. And after practicing the piano my job starts. And at 9:30 it is finished.
I’m usually relieved to finish the job without cancellation.Yesterday from her words without intention I realized that I enjoyed my job though I'm really bad at enjoying something.
This year it is few inquiry of new students but I have still some students. So I thank of remaining students --though it doesn’t pay off very much.

What do you ask for to governor of your prefecture?

Yesterday I attended a meeting managed a man. I'm a house wife and private teacher, so it is a few chance to talk with men except my husband. (It's interesting, when I was in my 20's and 30's I seldom had a chance with women except my mother and two friends.) The members attending the meeting make a speech within a limit time. There are various speeches; a long speech, a short speech. The themes are decided by the chairman on the day or we can decide by ourselves. Probably if the all attendance were women, something political couldn't be chosen as a theme.
Yesterday the theme I was given was that "what do you ask for to governor of your prefecture?”I was really puzzled, because I've never thought of such thing.
My speech was that; it’s really difficult to talk about such thing immediately; I always manage to accept this situation hard, so I've never thought of asking for something.But If I asked for something to our governor to live more comfortable, I'd ask for three things.
The first one is building more public high schools. There are probably about 20 public high schools and most of them are concentrated in the main city. For these decades many companies came to this area so living area gets wider. Elementary schools and junior high schools are reconsidered where they are needed, but high schools are not reconsidered. Now it is the time to reconsider where they are needed and they have to build equally around the prefecture.
The second is making more parking area in the urban area. Probably every body thinks the same thing. Apparently doughnut-phenomenon occurs. The main transport way is "car" in this area. So to make the urban area more active, more parking area is necessary. If it is easy to go there, people go there even if there are a few interesting shops. BUT more people come, more interesting shops appear.
The third one is selling more local veg. We have lots of field. BUT we buy other prefecture's veg or agricultural product at shop. What a good thing if we bough veg or auricular product directly by farmer. Probably it is difficult, but I think it is possible to get such things by short-cut way than TOKYO. It is funny to buy veg the same way of big city.
That's all.I hope these sentences make sense

To belong to a group

There's a space for consultation from readers in the newspaper. It is interesting to me to read it. Something is fun, something is like my worry and something is rid******.(I can'tsay it directly).

The other day I saw an interesting contribution. It was from a senior high school girl.
According to her story; She is really friendly with two girls, she belongs to the friendly group. But these days she seems to be disliked by one of them. Being with them she feels like being left behind. She can't bear the situation. But she can't move to other groups now because other groups are already fixed. She is getting to dislike to go to school. She said "what should I do?"

I can really understand her worry. My daughter and my junior high school students have been worried about the same thing.

The counselor says; Why do you cling to "group"? Try to put away the way to think that "to belong to a group means to have a good friend". I understand this advice too. But probably it must not solve her worry.

To belong to a group is , I think, easy to live school life calmly. Being alone is really scary for the adolescent. But it is hard to keep being a good group. I think this is a typical issue not only for the adolescent but also Japanese women.
Even for me, I sometimes think about a group, though in my case I belong to a group or not. Because having a group seems to be easy to live a usual life.

How to YUZUKOSYOU

Now all members of my family are into "YUZUKOSYOU". Finaly I put it on my daughter's lunchbox. Can you see where the "YUSUKOSYOU" is.

If you are Japanese, you might think "ss it OBENTOU for a teenager, really? It's like for a hungry boy". BUT she loves such bold, simple OBENTOU, and I love it because it is easy to cook.

I put rice into her lunchbox, and put grilled beaf (tasted Korean sauce) , sauted cabbage with salt & pepper, and a little green "YUSUKOSYOU".

She alreday knew the contents of today's OBENTOU. Because she has alread eaten the same thing for breakfast. Now my hourse is full with the smell of this grilled beaf, not "YUZUKOSYOU". I'm also going to eat the same thing for my lunch with lots of "YUZUKOSYOU"

Yesterday's troubles.

Some small troubles happend yesterday, though they were all solved.
At first the morning when I opend an important file attaced on an e-mail, it wasn't open. Nevertheless a waring messge was shown from the anti-virus program "Norton". I was really shocked. Though I thought my computar must have been safe, I checked my computer using a security program. It took 4 hours. I couldn't do any computer work. My computer was safe, the problem seemed to happen "yahoo" server. The problem seemed not to be solved yet.

Next at noon, my mother, who lives in TOKYO by herself lost (dropped) her small bag with her ATM card. She seldome uses the card, so she had the bag and wallet apart. As she noticed that, she went back to the bank immediately (30 minutes later after she drew some money at a bank she noticed that) and she made her card invalidate not to be used by other people. Actaully the rest of money was at bank safely. Though she is old, she could deal with this accident smoothly and immediately. She braged of her self saying "I'm not in my dotage".

And at midnight my husband came home by taxi from "a station". Yesterday he went to TOKYO on bisiness trip. It takes 10 minutes by taxi (at midnigt) from the station nearby.
As soon as he opend the door he shouted "give me some money". Why? Didn't he have some pennies? No, it costed really really high! Because he slept over and rode past 1 stop by bullet train. He came back from the next station driving "high way road". Though he could sleep in his bed as usual, it was a really really expensive business trip.

6 day school week system resumes??

Now it is becoming a big issue to studying deficiency. A five day school week system was phased in about 12 years ago. At that time it was said everybody (teachers and kids) were too busy to have relax time. But for this decade many thing haverapidly changed (or progressed) for example, computer games, cellphones appeared.

Now it is said having more free time makes kids lazy. So some students are busy to attend cram schools, and other students are busy playing computer games. Apparently the difference of studying is getting bigger.So some education authorities voiced to resume 6 day-school week.

I'm not sure whether it resums or not. But it might be one way to eliminate the problem. Now rich people is able to let their kids attend cram schools, but poor people can't do it. I thought every kid had to have same opportunity to get education.

BUT ---Teachers , who are "workers" will become busy, and "parents" and "kids" have to get up earlier on Saturdays. It must be hard to return to such a busy life. For many family "Saturdays" are really important family days.

Anyway unified preliminary examination for state-run and other public universities is done.this system is not changed for long time. When kids become high school students they have to face to study hard for the examination.

The second meeting of reading English picture books

I was really glad that more than 30 people came to listen to our stories. The audience was from babies to adults, showed wide generation.
Each readers made an elaborate show, though it was not job. Paper dolls appeared, "panel theater" appeared, big books appeared, and books with some devices?? (I'mnot sure what they are called) appeared.
What is "panel theater"? I think it was invented in Japan. Please look at the photo. I made them. The each characters are drawn on the thin clothes and I tell a story using the big white cloth board ,because of static electricity (probably) each character put on or take off freely.
Well, the highlight was a Chinese story by a Chinese lady. China is near our country, and lots of Chinese live here, but we seldom have a chance to hear Chinese. For everybody it was a new experience. It sounded really calm (or her voice seemed to be suitable to the story)
We are going to this meeting 4 times in the rest of year. I wish if some forefingers joined and talked the country's stories by the native language like her.

the later part of this week has started

Today in the morning I'm going to go to a nursery school nearby to read English books to kids. And today's lesson (my job) is going to start from 1 P.M, and end at 9:30 P.M. (though I have a rest for snack time and supper.) Probaly today it would be the buiest day of this week.

I don't like the word of "busy". Correctly I don't like hearing the word of "busy". Because I envy pepople saying "busy". And though it hears strange, I don't like the word of "free", beacuse I'm not good at spending free time well. So probably today it would be a suitable busy day for me.

Well it is difficult to describe my feeling in English. Do these sentences make a sense? Do you understand my feeling?

The book I'm going to read is "five little monkies".

My mother-in-law has caught a cold

My mother-in-law lives alone in TOKYO. Usually she is really fine though she is about 80. She belongs to verious circles ; dance, singing, sawing, golf, and a volenteer group to help "elder people" ( usually she helps younger people than her.)
She is really active.
BUT once she becomes sick, she gets really depressed.

At night of the day before yesterday I got a call from her in weak voice.
And yesterday I called her: one, two, three, four, five times.
She said when she heard other's voice, she felt fine and tried to eat something.

I understand her feeling.
Yesterday night my elder daughter went to see her with some fruits.
She said her granmo looked very happy and gave her some pocket money.

In this situation we can't live near her yet. BUT it is the time to think about my mother-in-law life.

Chocolatier Erica

Do you like chocolates?
I got it from my English teacher who is from New Zealand.
He really recomemded this Japanese chocolate, and the first lesson of this year he presented it to my family.

At first I didn't know how to eat it. According to him only cut it.
It was the first time to "cut" chocolate by knief to eat. (it's not a chocolate cake, it's a chocolate.)
It was the first surprsied thing.

The next surprised thing was that;
Can you see what the inside is?
It has small marshmallows and walnuts.
I know marshmallows with chocolate, but it was the first time to have the opposite patter; chocolate with marshmallows.

Not too sweet, not too thick, not too heavy, not too plain.
YUMMY!

http://www.erica.co.jp/company/index.html

It reaned to a usual life.

Yesterday a shrien near by made a small fire that is called "OTAKIBI". On the day old "OFUDA" (in Shintou, every year they get a lable that is said to protect themselves from evil, from the shrine) is burned. I don't know the reason , probably bad things of the last year were sucked by the label and they were burned to strike them out.
Anyway when I see a small fire I think usual days started.

So I tidied up the New Year ornamnets, and put some ornamnets and books for he Valentine's Day. I have to prepare some chocolates for boy's sutdents and my husband in Fevurary.

1000yen cleaning of ventilator at kitchen

As I always tell you, I don't like cleaning. BUT I don't like something dirty. The end of the last year I cleaned rouhfly in the area where I could see and I could reach without a ladder. So I didn't clean the ventilator. BUT it was till on my mind to have the ventilator cleaned.

The other day I got a call of 1000 yen cleaning.
I accepted the offer.
I thought it might be fraud, or high-pressure sale. So I asked a friend to come to watch the cleaning together.

Yesterday one "boy" came. Actaully he was a 20-year old boy.
As soon as he came home, I thought "our OBASAN(middle aged women) power would overcome him, if he pushed somthig ou us".

He cleaned the ventilator carefully.
And he seemed to be really confuesed with our OBASAN talk.

Finally I had the boy cleaned the ventilator in oil professionally and now it is off my mind.
I'm really happy to see the clean ventilator in my kitchen.

JINENJYO

What are these? They are kind of "potatoes" called "JINENJYO". They grow in the mountain naturally. We don't suceed to cultivate them. So they are expencive. Good JINENMYO is fatter. Yesterday my friend said to me "though my husband found thin JINENJYO, would you like to want them?". Of course my answer is "PLEASE".
Usually we eat grinding JINENJYO raw. But I'm too clumsy, and they are too thin to grind them. So I made TEMPURA of JINENJYO.

When I was cooking, my daughter brought her friend. I asked her if she would try to eat them.
Her answer is "sure". She had never eaten such TENPURA.
We ate them dipping sault.

"YUMMY"!!!!!

I think you can't image grinding JINENJYO.
Look at this site.
http://www.tetto.com/jinenjo/

My class has started.

From the day vore yesterday my husband's job started, from yesterday my daughter's school started, and, from today my class has started.
Yesterday I was tidying up the class room. It took all day long. The end of the last year I actaully cleard up the room, this time I tried to tidy up the materials for lesson. So it took long time.
Now the season when I have to look for (recruit?) new students. I'll insert circulars in newspaper once or twice until March. (My class is a franchise school, so I have to do it.)

If I get an inquire, I invite the kid and parent (usually mother) to my class to addend my free lesson. This time I'll use these picutre books.

What books do you remember when you were babies?
Or if you are English learners, what books do you recomend to read for kids who start to study English?

travel to HIROSHIMA -3-

I'll introduce other the local foods.
HIROSHIMA is also famous with oyster. So at the hotel the dinner was full of "oyster"; oyster-pot, grilled oyster, baked oyster with cheese, deep fried oyster and oyster-rice.

Oyster season is from Novembenr to March. Durin the summer the typcial local food is congers (similer to eels, but not eels)
We saw congers-CHIKUWA at a fish shop.
Chikuwa is fish paste cooked in a bamboo-like shape. so the kanji of "chiku" is "bamboo".

And typcial sweet is "MOMIJI"-manjyu. Momiji manjyu is maple shaped sweet manjyu, usualy the inside is bean paste, but my youhger daughter doesn't like bean paste very much. And we are tied of usual "momiji" manjyu.
So we eat deep fried momij manjyu, and she chose momiki majyu with custard cream.
Do you like it?

travel to HIROSHIMA -2-

We stayed at MIYAJIMA, which is an small isalnd taking 10 minutes by ship from HIROSHIMA . ITSUKUSHIMA shrine in MIYAJIMA is resistered as a world heritage site.

http://www.hiroshima-cdas.or.jp/miyajima/english/top2.htm

The shrine has two intereseting faces, At high tide it looks as if it would float. And at low tide we can see the foundations, so we walk to the main gate. ( Can you see the people walking to the gate?)

You know how deep from the left photo.

We arrived there at dusk, so all lanterns were lighted. It was really beautiful, mysterious and solemn. At that time it was at low tide, so wewalked to the main gate and touched it.

In the morning, it was at high tide. It was really beautiful,clear and brilliant.

If you go to MIYAJIMA you should stay there and watch the two faces.

Well, these photos were taken by my younger daughter. During this travel she really enjoyed taking photos.

travel to HIROSHIMA -1-

We went to HIROSHIMA, which is in the western Japan. In Hiroshima they have a world heritage sight "Atomic Bomb Memorial Dome".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroshima_Peace_Memorial

Of course we visited there, but our "aim" of this travle was eating "OKONOMIYAKI of HIROSHIMA". Many people know that "OKONOMIYAKI is a kind of unsweetened vegetable pancake". Actaully OKONOMIYAKI I make is like a pancake.
http://japanesefood.about.com/od/holidaytraditionalfood/a/aboutokonomiyak.htm

BUT OKONOMIYAKI of HIROSHIMA is completely different. It is like a Sansandwich with fried noodle and vegetable (mainly cabbage and beansprouts) between thin crepe and thin fried egg. We ate at three OKONIYAKI restaurants, basically they were same but the sauce (kind of worcester sauce) was different. "DELICIOUS!"

Though my husband is almost into "HIROSHIMA OKONOMIYAKI", but unfortunately we don't have such "HIROSMIHA-FU (like) OKONOMIYAKI" restaurants. That's too bad.

Happy New Year

Last night we came home with all members of my family. Since this summer all the members gathered.
How is your new Year Holidays?
On New Year's Day at my mother-in-law's house her three son's families gathered. (My husband is her second son.) We had "traditional Japanese feast", which is called "OSECHI". Actaully they are not so welcomed by kids except some dishes. But putting dises into "OJYU" is fun, this year this job was kids'.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osechi
After that my family went out to buy "FUKUBUKURO".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukubukuro
Though there are various "FUKUBUKURO", of course what we wanted are "women's clothes FUKUBUKURO". Usually my husband doesn't like to go such shopping, but this year he came with us. I think he seemed to enjoy being together.

As soon as we came home we went to KARAOKE. But he didn't go together. Probably he was tired with driving and shopping, and "tired of" being with three ladies (it means , of course, his two daughters and his wife"me")

Now it's 3rd. I'm happy to have dinner together, so I'm doing mother's job hard.
(Well, in the daylight my husband went to tennis, my daughters went to meet friends, and I took a nap lisning to music)

From the day after tomorrow we're going to go to HIROSHIMA, and our "family" winter vacaiton will fihisn.

Now I'm enjoying our "family "winter vacaion.