NIKKO

Have you ever been to NIKKO in Japan? In NIKKO there is TOUSHOUGU that is registered as the world heritage. This weekend we(my husband, my youger daugher and I) went to NIKKO, but not visited TOUSHOUGU.

As I told you, this fall she was accepted by a college. And now she is given to assignments. One is solving one math book. And another one is report about 5 buildings with the skeching. So we went NIKKO to take some pictures.

The right photo is our favorite and really famous Japanese sweets 'YOUKAN' shop. They deal with only one kind of YOUKAN. Usually in the morning all YOUKANs are sold out.

We drove up IROHA-hill, and went to OKUNIKKO. There is a lake. On the day though it was cold, it was really clear day.

Near the lake that is called CYUZENJIKO, there is a villa that used to belong Itariaembassy. Now it isn't used, it remains as a memorial house. The house is built by marquetry way. It is the left photo.

Thanks of her assigments we had a good drive!

It's cold.

This morning it was really cold. When I got up at 5:30, and went to the kicthen. The sensor of temperature of heater showed "0". It meant the temperture got below freezing.
(Though I oftne told you, most of Japanese houses, we don't have central heating system.)
I turned on the heater, and started usual morning chores.

I usually wake up my husband at 8. At the time, the temperature of his room was 10 degrees.
In thisis April my daughter is going to leave home.
Though this winter I have got up earler, next winter I'm not sure if I get up at the time I should wake up my husband.

Now it's about ten o'clock. And the temperture without turing on the heater is 13 dgrees.

Anyway we are in the hard winter.
I'm going to the library, today.

homemade things

There are lots of farms in this prefecture. some of my friends are farmers wives. I think they are really powerful.

As I told you, a friend started to sell their homemade YUZUKOSYOU.

This year I also got some.

She said "This year we could make only green type. When we plant the first seedlings of green peppers, we had hail, so most of them couldn't grow. So, we got enough ripe red green peppers".

I konw how hard the making process is hard. Though once I tried to help, I gave up instantly.-- though I'm a city girl.

And the other day I got strawberry dumplings. For strawberry farmers, it is the best season now. Actaully the pack of strawberries of this prefectuer is the most in Japan. the sign says "a fresh strawberry picked up early morning". These dumplihgs are made our local straberries and rice powder.

And I also got rhubarb jam. Rhubarb itself is not still so famous in Japan, but I know among her lovers rhubarb is really famous. So a farmer in this prefecture started to grow rhubarb and sell the homemade jam.

Country wives are really powerful!!!

And I'm happy to have such powerfull freinds.

Do you know the word of presbyopia glasses?

A few days ago I wrote about my new glasses. And I got a question. What are prebyopia glasses?

I'm nearsighted, so I need wearing glasses, MEGANE in Japanese.
And usualy most Japanese people need wearing "ROGANKYO", when they are gettin old and it is difficult to read small letters. Though they are kind of glasses, we call then "ROGANKYO", and my dictinoary says "prbyopia glasses".

These days bifocal glasses mainly used. So on the day I went to buy bifocal glasses. But the clerk suggested "there are five kinds of lenses, you should think when you use the new one most?
if you often drive you should chose bifocal glasses, but you often read books and use PC you should chose the glasses that are for PC and reading books.
So I decided using to glasses according to the situation.

Do you know the word of prebyopia glasses?

Finally the last month of this year has come.

December has come. This weekend, it was very warm as the weather report expected. So I cleaned most of windows and lamps ( not all) in my house. I finished my winter house cleaning.

Though it is not perfect, but I'm satisfied with having done. Here and there we see dirt left on the window. Though it is funny, everybody said "Oh, you cleaned the windows!". The dirt proves that I have done the house cleaning.

Anyway Decemer, it has 31 days like other months, but I feel I'm busy.

This week, I have to attend two meetings, and weekend my family will go to NIKKO to take some pictuers for my daughters. Next weekend I have to attned a concert. And the next weekend es Christmas. I'm going to held a party for my students.

And as soon as Christams is finished, my mother will come to stay with us to spend new year's eve. We are going to go to SENDAI.

YUZU

The season of YUZU (kind of citrus) has come. At first I got lots of YUZU.(Probably a few weeks later I'll get YUZU-KOSYOU). How do I use them? I made picjked them into MISO paste. We put them in the bath tab when we take a bath. --- and --- of course I use then when I cook.

Today for my daughter's lunch, I sauted pork and MITSUBA(kind of spinich) with sesami and sliced YUZU and tasted them oyster sauce. Not so bad.

The other things are sauted beanspruts and carrots with sesami oil, and grilled sweet potates with sweet sauce.

I've been making OBENTOU for more than 8 years every morning.

BUT a few monts later I will be free from this chore.

I'm happpy and sad.

Now for my lunch I eat the left over at home.

What shall I do for my lunch??

It's too early to think about it.

For a few months I'll enjoy making Obentou, but it's troublesome.

Strange or usual?

If you are foreigners, you may think "it's strange", and if you are usual Japanese middle aged women, you must think "it's usual".

A few days ago, my daughter got her hair cut.
But I said "did you really get your hair cut? where does it change?"
She got angry a little, and said "Though you don't notice its change, but all my (young) friends must notice it". Actually when she went to school next day, all classmates according to her) said "You had hair cut, cute".

Yesterday , my husband said to me "Today I'll get hair cut." (So, our daughter didn't know that.)
Yesterday we(my husband , our daugter, and me) had dinner together. And my husband said "How about?"
My daughter said "what?"
My husband said " I got hair cut, didn't you notice its change?"
My dauhgter said "Really ? I'm sorry I didn't notice it, but not so bad, on the other hand did you notice that I got hair cut a few days ago?"
My husband said "Really ? I didn't notice it either. I think the length seems to be the same".

And I add to their convesation.
"everyboday notices own change among family. Actually today I also got hair cut"

Both of them looked at me instantly and said nothing.

Welcome to the world of wearing presbyopia glasses

I went to a gasses shop and bought two new pairs of glasses. The top one and the bottom one.

This time I learnd about lenses.

There are five kinds of lenses, the first one is for looking at far places and driving, the second one is for looking at far, a little bit far and near places. You can drive wearing the first one or the second one.

The third one is for looking at a little bit far places and near places. It is useful to watch TV, to read books or to use desktop PC.

The fourth one is for looking at near places as far as your hand. It is useful to read books or to use raptop PC.

And the last one is only for looking at things very close. It is useful for sawing.

I bought the third one. They are big glasses on the bottom of the picture.

And I am nearsighted and the symptome became worse. So I bought new glasses for driving. They are smallest blasses on the top of the picture. And the glasses in the middle are my usual glasses.

Now I use the big one inside, and the middle one outside.

British Hills

In FUKUSHIMA, there is an interesting place called British Hills.

It is a small village having some houses.

And it is reproduced an old British village.

When we go, we can experiance "english day" there.

Most of stuff are foreigners, mainly British, Australia, and NewZealander.

Every room is elaborated. Every funiture is imported from England directely.

I realy knew England is the culture of chairs.

I saw lots of intereseting chars. Each legs of chars is expressed an animal.

Main dining room is re produced the Harry Potter 's dormitory's dining room.

http://www.british-hills.co.jp/english/

Red, yellow, orange leaves

On these weekends lots of people including lots of foreiners come to Utsunomiya station to go to NIKKOU. IROHAZAKA is really famous place to see coloful leafes in fall.Yes Fall turnes the leaves. NIKKOU is really crowded, so I went to NASU, and my friend took me Mt. NASU, of course by car.

Many people enjoyed hiking. The friend likes out door sports, so she also loves hiking. As you know I hate being in outside. BUT she recomended or ordered to me to walk for a little, so we walked and crossed a suspenesion bridge, and enjoyed the view. Wonderful!

(But it was cold, so I was putting on hot compresses on the back all day.)

How many times have I said to my daughter "study more"?

Now my younger daughter has lots of free time, though she goes to cram school once a week, takes art lessons once a week, and takes calligraphy lessons once a week. most of her friends are studying hard to takethe entrance exam for universities in winter.
So she decided to work part time job. It' OK. But I say to her as usual "study English".

In her case, she passed the college without taking exam of English.
But at college, English is really important.
So I say to her "study English".

She said "Even I passed the college , you order me to study more?"
So I said "not more , to study constantly".
And I add, "I have been saying to you "study, study" since you were little, but now there are only 4 months you can hear such a phrase from me"

She said nothing. And she seems to study English as usual when she were a canditate for a college.

I thought actually "how many times did I say to her "study more"! ?"
I can't count it.

Rhubarb

A friend of mine sent rhubarb stalks and roots. (the leaves with rhubarb stalks are called KUSHINSAI). The friend enjoys growing unfamiliar vegetables at her big garden. Her homemade rhubarb jam is really wonderful, so I've wanted to try to make it by myself.

I'm satisfied with my homemade jam, but my daughter said "it is grassy".

Anyway on the day she sent them , I planted the roots, and one week later-- yes some fresh leaves came out. I'm really surprised. How fast!

The leaves look like sunny lettuce. Can we eat it???

Anyway I got another enjoyment of new spring after hard winter.

Finally ---

Anyway I wrote the result at first. This Friday my yougher daughter passed into a college. Fron next spring she is going to be a college student and to leave this home, though she is going to live with her daughter together.
I'm happy, I feel lost, and I'm sad beacause she is going to leave home.

In my elder daghter's case, I often wrote her situation how, what she was studying and drawing. But I didn't dare to wirte about my younger daughter's situation.

If you know my daughters, they have completely different character.
My elder daugter is a type to grind away for her purpose. So in her case she decided her concreat aim as soon as she became a high school student. So my husand and I was just watchng her, though unfortunally she failed in entering the college she wished for the best. But now she enjoy her another college live. Next week art festival is going to be held at her college.

My younger daugher-- it is difficult to discribe her character. optimistic, free, easygoing. Anyway she was living the world without "making efforts", it means she didn't study very much. Probably one of the reason was she didn't find a purpose after her graduation.
When she was in the second at high school, she was always in a bad temper. Her fasion was getting wild (from my eyes), she startedpart time job, and her grade got the lowest. My husband and I were really worried about her. But from last winter, she started changing, she started thinking about her feature, and she started show interests in interia.
And she suddenly started to study hard, and from the winter she has got good score.

So she got letter of recommnedation from school, and she got a test of "drawing".
It was not a usual examination. She had to draw her favorite buldings until the examination day.
On the examination day, she had to make a speech about her drawin, and wrote a short peper about a theme that was given on the day. And the theme was "design".

And yesterday we got a notice of "passing".

I tried to show you one of her picturers. But I couldn't attached it on this blog. I don't know why.
Anyway if you are intereseted in it, please drop by my photo site.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/choro/

What do you eat for breakfast?

I asked to draw a picture of breakfast to my students.

It was fun.Though we are all Japanese, some students eat toast, some students eat rice.

What makes me surprised, many students drink barley tea.

If you have visited Japana and stayed RYOKAN, probably they served grilled fish, MISO soup, a fried egg, rice , and Nori& Natto. I think it is a typical old-fashioned breakfast.

Most students eat rice or bread, some salad, some fruit. and barley tea. And sometimes eat ham, a fried egg.

And a student said "I want spaghetti with meat sauce".

Well, our breakfast; my daughter eat rice and left-over of OBENTOU.

My husband and I usualy eat toast and coffee, and drink homemade yoghurt with green vegetable powder.

candy sweet potatoes

What is the most typical vegetable for you in fall? "Sweet potaotes". In these area lots of kindergardents and elementary schools an event of digging sweet potaotes is held.
I got lots of sweet potaotes. There are various way to cook them; Tenpura, grilled potatoe, potato pie.
And one of my favorite cooking is this "candy sweet potaotes". It might be called "DAIGAKUIMO". But I don't know how to cook "DAIGAKUIMO". This season I often cook these candy sweet potatoes.

cut sweet potatoes , deep fried.

On the other hand prepare another pan.
put some oil and sugar(I use unrefineded sugar ) and heat them up.
And put some vinegar to make liquid candy.

put hot fried sweet potatoes into them.

The end.

Well, if you know about DAIGAKUINO,
http://japanesefood.about.com/od/sweetpotato/r/daigakuimo.htm

What book made an impression?

This weekend I attended Toast Master meeting. I was asked a short speech, the title is What book made animpression ?

It is fall, in Japan it is said that it is the best season to eat, to play sports and to read books.

I love reading, and usualy every other week I go to the library and borrow some books. But about sudde question I couldn't ghink of suitable books.

So I told about my kids. When my kids were little, my family used to go to the library every other week together. It was a kind of family event.

When my daughter was in the second or third grade, she suddenly showed interest of this book, because she performed it at school. I thought it was for her too thick to read. She was done. I really surprised and proud of her. From that her reading hobby has started.

I don't know the English name. This authour is Garmany. I want to read this book in English.

If someone tell me the English title, I'm really glad.

On the other hand my younger daughter was into Little King series. Even now this series is really populer among kids. I don't know whether are translated in English. On the other hand I found a little bit similar books. It is "Prince Bertram The Bad". The aurthor is "that " Arnold Nobel. my junior high school students and high school students loves him. So I bought the book.

GOYA

This spring I planted GOYA, and I got some GOYA. GOYA is usually grown in OKINAWA, and it is famous for the really bitter taste. Actaully I don't like it very much, but I heard it was good for our health and easy to grow, so I planted.

This summer my husband and I have had GOYA & yoghurt juice almost every morning. Though the taste was really bitter, but the vivid green juice looked really healthy.

A friend said ripe GOYA is not so bitter.So I waited some GOYA to be ripe.

The usual green GOYA is hard, but the ripe GOYA is really soft.

I made GOYA tempura with gree peppers.

Unexpectedly or as my friend said, it was not so bitter , proper bitter taste. Even my daughter was willing to eat it.

This summer we really enjoyed "GOYA". Thanks "GOYA".

I don't like gardening very much, and I'm not good at gardening.BUT this time we could get ripe goya because I did gardening. Growing vegetables in the garden might be add to the list of my hobbies.

Japanese pears

We call PEARS in English LA.France, and we call Japnese pears just "pears", though it is usual. We have lots of kinds of Japanese pears. When I was a child, my family lived in SHIMANE, so "NIJYUSSEIKI" pears used to be usual pears, and we moved to KANAGAWA. Here, "CYOUJYURO" pears used to be usual pears. And now I'm in TOCHIGI. From the late of August to the begining of November we enjoy various pears. The first pears are called "Kousui". And now we enoy these pears; from the left "Nansui", "Housui", "Akizuki".

Everything is delicious and of couse all of them have little bit different tastes.

Though it is just my thought, "Nansui" is really sweet, "Housui" has lots of mosture, and "Akizuki" reminds me the taste of "MIJYUSSEIKI" which I used to eat when I was a child. It has plain taste.

Going out --with my yougner daugher

My elder daughter and I tend to show the same interest though we often have quarrels. On the other hand my yougner daughter and I tend to have different interest. But I want her to take there. So I showed this brochure. according to expectation she showed an interest.

She loves Asain taste. And this artist is influenced a lot from Mexico. Asain taste and Mexican taste seeims to be differnet but I thing something is common.

The art itself is wonderful. But AKIRA, the artist is really strange carrer, if I dare to say he used to be a hippie. My daughter tend to yearn such a unprecedented or fantastic or strange world. So I don't want her to be influenced by him. On the other hand I want know her there is one life.

Anyway she enjoyed this exhibition. And I also enjoyed. After that we have a good lunch. Compared with my elder daughter, she is a still obedient child even though she is a adolescence.

Additionaly, I also went out with my husband --- to golf shop. For me it was a little bit boring. it can't be helped.

Going out --with my elder daughter

This weekend I went to MITO with my elder daughter. Though I didn't know that, in Mito there is a famous art museum, "Art tower Mito". http://www.arttowermito.or.jp/atm-e.html

It seems to be produced by the famous conducter "Seij Ozawa". Do you know of him?

Anyway we went there to see a exhibition of HIBINO KOZUE.

She seems to be famous as a fashion designer. And these days she started to produce funitures and kitchen tools through her housewife situation. And in the same time a dance performance was done. The dancer was KAIJI MORIYAMA, he also seems to be famous among the youth like my daughter.

Unfortunately I didn't know both of them, but I could really enjoy the exhibition and the performance.

BUT, did you remeber who I went with there? yes with my daughter.

Each time I said a comment, she said "You are middle aged woman (OBASAN)". She doesn't like my comments. Everything I said seems to hear negative for her.

For example, there was a cute bag. But the bottom was made by felt. The color is really vivid and cute. But I thought "felt is easy to be unkempt". ( I don't know how to say in English, felt is easy to rugged by static electricity??.)
My daughter said "if you want to say some negative comments, at least after negative comments you should say positive comments".

Why I was been lectured by her??

She also said "it can't be helped because you are gettin older."

It is difficult to go with my adult child. Though I could went a good place, I was often irritated ( and my daughter was also irritated.)

But now I'll miss her!

Going out ---with my friend

I went to listen to a lecture with a friend. The lecture was done by a pictuer book writer. Her major is not art, not literature. Her major is Spanish. But she has liked drawing. One day she asked to draw a picture on the menu when she worked a part time job at a restaurant. And her life as a picture writer has started.

She is not still so famous, but a little by little she is getting famous in this area. To be surprised she has lived nearby.

Her original chracter is this bare boy?. She said her baby gave her a lots of hint to draw pictures. So she decided this bare boy as her original character. I bought this new calendar with the character and simple phrases.

My favorite words in this calender is "enjoy change".

Going out with friends is really enjoynable. we could spend a really calm and elegant time in fine clothes.

my garden --not so good

The change of current temperature is sever, though it' s in fall. Today it is a calm day. Yesterday it was really cold like early winter, and before three days it was like summer. Though I planted some seeds and seedlings in the garden, they are not growing well.

The only fine vegetables are GOYA. (Well, green peppers are also fine, these days we don't need to buy green peppers.) This summer we (it means my husband and I, my daughter "hates" it) had enough GOYA.

I planted some broccolies, but they are not growing well.

And I planted seeds of spinach, finally they begin to sprout.

Can I get some homemade vegetables this fall???

What big eels are they!

Today's dinner is "eels". I'd wanted to have Japanese eels. And this morning a friend sent them.

Japanese eels are expensive. Though we can buy Chinese eels for reasonalbe price, I'm little bit afriad to buy them because of these days bad reputation of food additives.

The friend lives in KYUSYU region. Though Hamamtsu in Kantou is famous for eels, the region of KYUSYU has the most eels rop in Japan. So in her area eating Japanese domestic eels seems to be usual.

On the other hand this area where I live is famous for GYOZA, so many people eat GYOSA usually than other areas, I think.

I love eels. I'm really glad to get Japanese big eels. Thank you!!!

Well these eels are already cooked, so what I have to do is just "chin" ; I put them in the microwave.

Northern Europe exhibition

At a art museum in this area Northen Europe exhibition was being held. My daughter and I went to see it.

What kinds of things do you imagine when you hear "Northern Europe"?

Probably the most typical thing is "Moomin".

Actaully my daughter was looking forward to seeing Moomin things.

But unfortunately there was not so many.
Instead of them, there were lots of chair we can sit directly.
Our cuntry "Japan", it is a culture of TATAMI, on the other hand Europe it is a culture of chairs, isn't it?

It was really fun.

And I could see many pottery, I like pottery.

I thought their white is clear white, and Japanese white is a little vague, isn't it?

They like clear straight lines, and aboutJapanese pottery probabbly we tend to use curves, don't we?

It was also fun.

Young Leaves sticker

They are called "WAKABA" stickers. "WAKABA" means young leaves.

This weekend my elder daughter came back to stay with us and to drive.

This summer vacation she took driver's license lessons, and finaly she got a driver's license.

Beginner drivers have to put these stickers on the frond and back of the car when they drive.

They are her stickers.

This week end she gave us a ride (or we can say my husband and I supervised her drive sitting next to her.)

The drive was thriling and slow but not so dangerous.

Anyway we could spend family weekend after a long interval.

Which makes me got fat, Japanese fried pork( Tonkatsu) or Japanese stew of pork and potatoes (NIKUJYAGA)?

The explanation of Tonakatu and Nikujaga is here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonkatsu
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikujaga
I had thought; Tonkatsu did. Because we need lots of oil to cook Tonkatsu. But for elder people carbohydrate like potatoes, rice and so on is easy to become fat that oily foods. Carbohydrate is easier to be digested than oily foods. This fact made me surprised. Because not to get fat, I tend to avoid fatty food like Tonkatsu which is my favorite food and to keep energy I try to take carbohydrate like potatoes and rice. Especially during this hot and humid summer, to ride out this tough weather, I try to eat carbohydrate more, and to drink liquid (sugar free) more. --- AND I got fat!!! Oh, no!!

We can eat plants

Now I'm using a book in the grade 1 class.
The title is "we can eat plants".
We've been talking about many edible plants, though mainly about vegetables.
And yesterday I tried them to draw pictures.

They know carrots as root plants, but they didn't know the shape of them. -- They are like needls, aren't they.

As stem plants, they mentioned brocoll, cauliflower, and parsley because they saw my garden.
As leave plants, they mentioned lots of vegetables like cabage, lettuce, spinach, and NIRA (leek) which is also glowing in my garden.
And they know lots of fruits. So they drew their favorite fruits.
But a girls didn't know how grapes grew.
And surprisingly a boy didn't know (or forget) the outside of watermelons. In Japan most family are not big. They can't usually eat a whole watermelon by only their family. So in the market they sell quaters or halves of cutting watermelons. His image of watermelons was red with lots of black dots(seeds).

And I had another surprising thing.
As seed plants, they mentioned green soybeans, corn, kidny beans and "rice".
We are really "Japanese".

Thai fried rice

Last night I cooked Thai fried rice. I got a bottle of Thai basil sauce from my friend. So I cooked this Thai fried rice according to the recipe.

It's too hot and spicy for me to eat it without a sunny side-up egg.

Well, in the recipe, it doesn't say to put a sunny side-up egg if it is too spicy.

But I've seen this pattern at a Thai restaurant, so I tried.

It was yummy!!!

Last weekend I cooked spicy curry and rice, and last night I cooked this spicy fried rice.

My husband and daughter say "spicy dishes give us energy to ride out this hot and humid summer".

Probably it's right.

But I don't like spicy foods very much.

Anyway from today my daughter's school started.

My usual day has started.

This morning I managed to get up early at five thirty to make OBENTOU.

I need a nap at noon.

curry and rice

Today it was the last day for our (my husband and me) summer vacation. From tomorrow we'll have dinner separately.

So today I made two kinds of curry and rice.

Summer vegetable curry and coconut milk curry.

In Japan many people use commercial curry roux. Today I made them from garam masala and other spice.

It was the first time to make coconut milk curry. The other day I found the recipe I'd wanted to make it and my daughter had asked me to make it. So finaly I made it. It' not so hot, because just use onions, coconut milk, tomato , garam masala, and salt. I put an boild egg instead of rice.

Another curry was my usual curry-- vegetable curry. I put egg plants, green peppers, asparagus and GOYA.

They were yummy!!

Well, the GOYA grew in my garden.

Women are talkative ????

Today, it is the last day of OBON vacation (kind of a summer vacation), though we have a weekend.

During the OBON vacaiton, my mother-in-law and my mother stayed with us in turn. As soon as they met us at the station, they started to talk. Both of them live alone, so they might lack the time of talking with someone, though they go out somewhere almost every day.

The former part of the vacation, my mother-in-law came to stay with us. we went to play golf. She seemed to really enjoy playing golf with us. In the evening we were relaxing at home. About golf he was listening to her, but as soon as she started to talk tiny things of her usual day, he was boared and ran along to his room. I thought my husband should have listen to her because she is her mother. BUT he couldn't bear her talking. It can't be helped. So I listend to her.

The latter part of the vaction, my mother came to stay with us. One of her hobby is "GO". I can't play GO, but my husband can pla it. So they played GO. About GO he listened to my mother, but it was the same. When she started to talk about tiny things, he ran along to his room.

After they left home, he said "probably they talked everything as much as for one year."

It might be true, I was a little bit tired from listening (not tired of listening.)

And

on the day I dropped in on my friend to share their souvenirs. yes "dropped in on her", not "visited her". But as soon as I met her, I started talking and she also started talking.

She also welcomed her mother and tired from listening. We were talking for about 30 minutes standing in front of the entrance hall.

My husband was waiting in the car. (This time, he didn't have any space to run along)

He said "you are the same as our mothers, women love talking".

Well, do you remember that I was into KINKAN(kumquat) this eary spring and I bought a young tree. Finaly it started to put flowers. I hope all flowers fruit.

Katorisenkou

This something green is called "katorisenkou". According to the dictionary, it seemes to be "mosquito coles" in English. It's kind of insecticide and kind of incense.

When I was a child, it was a usual think in Summer. When it smelled, I thought summer came. Now we have electric mosqutio coils, i like this old-fasion type.

I put it on the floor of the entrance hall.

When I light it, my sagter says "smells like grandmama's house".

Some students say "it smells "Osenkou" (incense), it means probably incense at their Buddhie altars.

But somestudents say "stick", "feel sick".

These days fragrance-free is getting popular, peopel tend to be sensitive to smell too much.

Though I don't like strong fragrance, I like ole-fashioned smell, because I get used to them.

What francence will remind nowadays kids to their old days when they grow up?

Play golf? really?

Last night my husband, daughter and I wento to practice golf nearby. Why? Next week it is "OBON" vaction. My husband can take 8 day summer vacation. On the first half week my mother-in-law comes to stay with us. What she's looking forward to is playing golf.

I suggested her to play golf with her son (it means my husband). But she said "my grand kids has grown up, and she can do it, so let's enjoy together!"

My husband reserved time (how do I say in English?) at a golf course. We(my daugher and I) can rebtal golf clubs for free. And the junior high school student price is only 1000yen.

We are going to enjoy playing golf, hot spring and Karaoke with her this OBON vacation.

Humid & Hot!!!!!

Rainy season has gone. Though I know, humid and hot summer has come. Anyway "hot" and "humid". My daughter and I are exhausted with this hot weater, humid air and hot wind. BUT my husband is pretty "fine. He went out to play tennis, of couse outside.

In the morning my daughter and I cleand the rooms, washed blanckets (correctly dry blanckets washed by washing macine), and bothe of them took a shower. So now the washing machie is working now, it means another chore of drying clothes caused.

Well, lunch time. What will we have lunch for? Too hot to cook. so just do "chin". We'll eat pizza-toast.

Myoga

Finaly I found Myoga in my garden this year. It's a edible flower buds. The smell and taste is similer to ginger --; a little bit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myouga

They are good for cold soup. So I made cold NIMOMO with TOGAN(winder melon) and kudney beans and add sliced Myoga as garnish.

Flowerpots

Yesterday, it was really really humid and hot. In the eveningwe had the shower and there was a sharp drop in the temperature.

Today, it is really really "cool". So I'm wearing long sleeve shirt.

In my garden, there are some flowerpots.

Now small tomatoes (we call them PUCHI tomatoes) grow, and blueberries also grow.

Blueberries are said to be good for weak eyes. Now I enjoy eating them, though they are little bit sour. Now I seem to suffer presbyopia. It can't helped.

Yesterday I tried Tempura of parsley. It was realy nice. If you get bunches of parsley, try it.

Shiso herb juice

One of my friend, who is good at gardening, brought a big plastic bag full of Shiso herb this year as usual. So I made Shiso herb juice. It is said to be good for "summer lethargy". (Now I'm suffering from "rainy season humidness".

And I gave a small plastic bottle of Shiso herb jucie to my neighbor. And she gave me lots of beans, potatoes, and carrots. So I gave half of them to the friend who gave me Shiso. Everything goes round well.

Yesterday I made potato salad, just using the potatoes, and bunches of parley. Now in my garden parsley grows thick. Today I'm goint go make"parsley TEMPURA".

Garbage -4-

We can't deal with garbage by our selves; it means we have to understand that we need extra attention to deal with garbage. What do you think about it? It's not easy to burn garbage and to bury garbage in this narrow Japan. We need to change our mind from easy thinking that garbage should be thrown away to serious thinking that we have garbage disposed by someone. Though it might be out of focus about this issue, in my house, probably my husband and my daughter think that they have their garbage disposed by me. So anyway our garbage manages to be separated.

Moreover I hope we think about garbage positively. Though I also tell old times, at that time "Don't waste everything" was common. Some people would hesitate to throw things away. But now we are surrounded with full of things and it is easy to think "buying something new is easier than keeping old things". So we tend to be indifferent to throwing things away. It's not good. We should have interests to throw things away. Actually these days, the word of "MOTTAINAI" that means "what a waste!" is being reconsidered. And using a picture book, the word of MOTTAINAI is reconsidered at moral class in every elementary school. It's a good and really effective thing to change our minds, isn't it? And though it's a tiny thing, I also read an English version of this book at nursery schools. Reading the book, not only audience but also myself can rethink about garbage.

It's a usual thing to obey the rule, so we should dispose garbage according to the rule. But having "Mottainai" sense we try to deal with garbage positively not from command. This attitude is more important, don't you think so? And this attitude might lead to save the earth. Anyway not try to think "throw away garbage" instantly, wait a minute to put garbage into a trashcan.

Garbage -3-

The people who dumped such garbage must have no other purpose, they must thought just "it's troublesome", or "it' s a tiny plastic bag of garbage". I understand their feeling. In my house there are three trash cans in the kitchen, one is for burnable garbage, one is for cans and bottles and the other is for plastic bottles and traies. My daughter and my husband have a trash can in their each room. Usually they put any kinds of garbage in their trash cans, and on Sundays, they separate and throw them away to the suitable trash cans in the kitchen. But sometimes they don't do that saying "troublesome","busy" and I do that while murmuring. How do we deal with garbage smoothly?

Until a few decades ago we would burn burnable garbage in the yard, and bury others in the hall on the corner of the back yard. When I came here about 20 years ago, I had a small incinerator. So I burned used paper. But now many people don't have enough space for putting incinerators and enough time for burning. If they had, we have lots of plastic things. And we noticed when we burn them they exhaust harmful gas of dioxin. So now, burning garbage at home is prohibited.

to be continued

Garbage -2-

This time I'll explain how to separate garbage in my town concretely.
We should separate 5 categories and 10 types.
1 Recyclable Resources
There are 6 types in this category.So we should put them into 5 types in the corner of garbage station.
a. newspapers, b. cardboard, c. magazines and other types of paper, d. cloth, e. bottles and cans f. plastic pet bottles (we should remove caps and labels, rinse the inside and crush flat before disposal.)

And there are other 4 categories. But they also mean other 4 types.
2&g Hazardous Garbage ; dry cell batteries, light bulbs, spray cans, etc.
3&h Combustible Garbage ; kitchen scraps, plastic items, special paper such as fax paper, photos, and so son. video tapes, etc.
4&i Non-Combustible garbage ; potteries, pans, broken glass, wire hangers, cosmetic bottles, etc.
5&j Oversized garbage ; furniture, household electric appliances and so on. In this case we call the Oversized Garbage Reception Center to apply for a pick up. The cost is 810yen (less than 10$) per item.

And there are other things not to dispose; TVs, laundry machines refrigerators, car batteries, tires and so on. We should ask dealer or Collection Company to handle them.

Garbage -1-

In two weeks, I'm going to make a short speech about garbage. So I'm putting together my mind on this diary. If you don't know the system of dealing with garbage in Japan, it might be difficult to understand the contents. But anyway I'll try to wirte down. If I get some comments, I'm really happy.

Garbage -1-
Are you interested in the garbage problem? Any municipal authorities attempt to reduce garbage and recycle garbage to cut down the cost of garbage running costs and to decrease carbon dioxide.

In Yokohama, they should separate garbage into 10 groups and 15 kinds of things. And this year they succeeded in reducing 30% garbage, and 750 thousand tons of carbon dioxide. The cost of separating garbage was not so cheap, but they could cut down the cost of running incinerator more. And the amount of carbon dioxide seems to be tantamount of the amount of the forest 1.2 times as large as Yokohama city.

It is a wonderful thing. On present showing separating garbage seems to be the easiest way for everyone to try to reduce garbage equally. If small tries get together, it must be of big effect. But this separating is kind of command, we should reconsider this problem of garbage as our own problem; we should do something by our will, not by command. At that time we’ll really be able to overcome this problem.

In my city, the way to deal with garbage is not so strict. We separate garbage into 5 groups and 10 kinds of things. I think it's not so difficult. But on the day of garbage truck coming, I often see some bags of garbage which are against the rule. Most of them are small plastic bags full of mixed garbage of plastic bottles, paper, can, and so on. Probably some lazy single men (or women) do that. When a garbage truck comes and sees them, they just put the sign written "rule violation", leave them and run along. After that house wives or elder people who keep the house, separate the garbage in the bags according to the rule. Does it sound something strange? On the surface separating garbage is well done, but not everyone does it.

to be contined

Pickled cucumbers

The other day I was taught "pickled cucumbers with Syouchu".

Now My daughter loves them, so I often make them, and I often give som of them to my friends, and most of friends are surprised and glad. So I tell the recipe.

It's really easy, if you can get Syouchu.

Prepare 5 or 6 cucumbers.

Cut both side of them a little to let the liquid penetrate easily.

Put them into a big plastic bag with zip.

Add 120g suger.

Add 23g salt.

Add 30cc Syouchu.

And just wait for a day.

I usualy use millet suger, so something brown in this photo is "sugar".

What are the three most important qualities in a teacher?

There are many opinions in different situations. At first I’m thinking as one of parents.
I suppose the things what parents seek are different according to where teachers work. Especially cram school teachers and public school teachers are quite different. I want elementary and junior high school teachers. Students can’t choose school teachers, but can choose cram school teachers. So I want public school teachers to be fair, understanding (empathetic) and have eagerness to communicate with students. On the other hand I want cram school teachers and high school teachers to be skilful, to have own policy about their lesson, and encouraging.
I’m thinking about myself. I have some students. It means I’m a kind of teacher, but not a public school teacher, not a cram school teacher. I’m not sure what parents expect me. And I know, If I reached exactly what current parents except and if I had those things, my school would be bigger. In this point I’m not good at business.
What I think is that I want to be encouraging, advanced and ( a little bit) skilful.

Dokudami lotion

Dokudami is kind of Japanese herb. But they are usually used as medicine.http://www.flowersociety.org/Dokudami.htm Dokudami seems to be found in Japan, so the name in English is also Dokudami. Some Dokudami is growing in the back yard. When my daughters were worried about atopic dermatitis, my mother-in-law used to make this lotion. It really worked well. Though there seems to be several ways to make it. the way I know is really easy.

You fill up a jar with raw Dokueami leaves and pour SYOUCYU. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ShōchÅ« Keep it in the dark and cool place for a month. It will get clear brown liquid. And add some drops of grycerin. That’s all. It is said to work well to decrease our stains.

I hope the liquid in the jar will get good clear brown liquid.

Flowers for the day of each birthday -2-

At the meeting,I made an instant speech about my birthday flower of “YUZURIHA”.
Now I’m getting older, but I want to stop aging, and I want to rejuvenate myself like to lose or decrease winkles spots, weight, and recover my strengths. I know it’s really hard, though these days anti-aging seems to be talk about elder people.
Apart from appearance, I’m thinking about my life from next year. Now my younger daughter wants to go to college in TOKYO. So if she succeeds in it, there will be only two members in this house in Tochigi, my husband and me. I want consider the new situation as start of newborn life, not start of old life. We met at college, and until my daughters were born, we had spent together. At that time we were young, so we couldn’t do the same life, I’m afraid that we might be caught by empty syndrome. I want to spend cheerful, bright and positive life with my husband.