It's really difficult.

 

This is the text book I use for high school students.

We have to explain about these pictures which are popular in Japan, but probably are not familiar in other countries.

Can you explain these pictures?

 

The answers are ---probably---

1, It's a kind of buzzer, you push this button in order to call the waitstaff anytime you want service.

2, It's a kind of spatula, it is designed for cutting and eating okonomiyaki or monjayaki not just for cooking it.

3. It might be interesting. You press the button to make a flash sound so that people don't hear any bathroom noise.

 

 

Well, about No,3 -- I did a search and found this explanation. I really thought "Oh, I get it".

Too hot

Since the day before yesterday, it has been hot-- too hot. Four days ago it was so cold that I wore a sweater -- you might be surprised. But on the day I went out and saw a man wearing a sweater, so I knew that I didn't need to pretend to be OK without wearing sweater. It's right, isn't it. It was cold, so I wore a sweater --it is self-evident.

Anyway it's too hot. So I picked some herbs from my garden and made herb tea and let it cool.

While I was picking some herbs, I also picked DOKUDAMI (someone says it's a kind of Japanese herb, and other people say it's pesky weed. For me, this time it's an important herb without pesticide.

I picked some, and washed them, and pickled them into vodka. in three weeks, it will come a natural bug spray for AKARI. Yes, the pretty & noisy, smiling&crying AKARI comes. She will be one year in this month. How fast time flies!

 

Last Sunday Yuki and I went to downtown. It was the day that Utsunomiwa city was bombed out in the air rise. I heard about 800 people were killed. Paper lanterns were floated on the river to hold a memorial service and not to forget the war.

These days in Japan we discuss about Article 9 of the constitution. It is too difficult for me to say something. But we had the war, we did the war, it's true, And we shouldn't wage war again.

  

 

 

It's Friday

No I've had lunch which are the leftover of our breakfast and Gyouza I filed.

If you are Japanese, it looks strange. 

Well finally Friday has come.

To tell the truth it was difficult for me to adjust the change of temperature. Yesterday I was almost in bed, though I did my lessons.

Today I'm getting better and the weather is getting warmer, so I could go out to do my workout at a  gym.

On these early weekdays I went out alone.

I went to see a movie alone. Though you might be surprised it was the first time for me to see the movie. The movie depicted Hansen's disease, and the patient is acted by my favorite senior, so I really wanted to see the movie. Of course it was impressing.

It was Monday morning so 

There were only six senior ladies including me. Utsunomiya is a provincial Ccity, in the media is so we don't have many theaters. There are two big theaters, which are first-run theaters, in the big shopping malls. So I think if I went there alone, I would feel lonely. On the other hand the theater  I went this time is a small theater. It seemed to be a private space.

Seeing movie for myself is added as one of my hobbies and one of my relaxing ways. 

Do you think fast-food restaurants are reponsible for obesty?

 

Now I've eaten up plenty of "meat" for my lunch. Probably it gave me enough energy to work from now to the night.

It became "minor (not great) news a few weeks ago in Japan that using trans-fatty acid into foods is going to be prohibited in three years in Japan. I don't know why in Japan it wouldn't have become great new. I think business community ( especially food business community) would have applied pressure to spread the news.

On the other hand these days we see more coconut oil, and flax oil in the supermarkets. It's interesting.

 

Anyway what do you think fast-food restaurants will be like in 3 years?

Can they pursue more healthy food?

 

 

This breakfast is served at MOS -burger. We call this rice-burger. Probably it's a kind of fast-food or junk-food. However I like it.

Sometimes I like such a fast-food, it's convenient and tasty.

I know that having breakfast at such a fast-food restaurant, I don't feel hungry until noon, on the other hand , when I have my "healthy" breakfast at home and go out, I feel hungry past 10:30.

 

 

 

 

This is today's breakfast. Today I'm at home, so I ate lunch at noon.

 

 

What do you think public transportation will be like in 30 years?

In 30 years, I will be over 80 or you can say I will be near 90. So it's difficult to think about it.
For these 30 years public transportation has changed a lot. Many people have cars, especially in provincial area it's difficult to live easily without cars. However it's only a matter of time before many  senior people can't drive by themselves.
So I think auto driving electric car for one or two people (does it make sense?) will be popular in 30 years. If it comes true, I will be able to go out by myself without drivers.
What do you think of it?

Moxibustion

Today I learnt a new word "moxibustion" from a dictionary.

We usually call "OKYU", so sorry  in this blog let me use the word OKYU instead of moxibustion.

Additionally I also learnt we use MOGUSA leaves on OKYU, and the English word named after MOKUSA (MOGUSA).

 

Monday this set was delivered, of course I bought it on the Internet.

I had been in interested in OKYU, while I thought it would be "troublesome".

However I decided to try it. And I also want to do OKYU to Yuki.

Okyu is smilier to acupuncture. We use hot MOGUSA instead of needles.

Can you see smoke? Though there is a non-smoke type, I used a traditional type.

Than I expected it was easy to do it.

I used OKYU for senen-kyu which has been very popular for a long time in Japan.
This morning before Yuki went to work I did 5 minute OKYU for Yuki.

And this afternoon I did 20 minute OKYU for myself to make myself relax.
Are you interested in it?

Quail eggs

Yesterday I got lots of quail's eggs from my friend.
She said that they were "the " quail's eggs.
I asked why she added "the".
The eggs were produced in a famous quail farm in MOUKA where it's about 20km far from Utsunomiya. And they are called "Mr.Ebihara's quail egg" in honor of the owner's wonderful work.

They were too lot though it was easy to boil them.

I almost gave up, but Yuki helped me.

And --- I pickled them.

While I was boiling, I cooked other appetizer for this week.

 

I usually cook appetizer for a week on Mondays, but today I had something to do in the morning.
It's the end of the month, --- so I put fliers of my class into mailboxes by myself.
I printed 400 sheets. And today I did 150 sheets.
I'll do it tomorrow and the day after tomorrow.
Why? I want some senior members and make a senior group to learn English together. Now I have only one senior lady. I hope someone will join us.

Though at Sunday night Yuki and I were cooking, in the afternoon we went to see hydrangeas in a shrine. And we also saw and attended an event, which is called Oharae.
It is done twice a year, at the end of June and at the end of December to remove calamity. We make our self purify, go through the ring three times. First after going through the ring we should turn to left, after the second we should turn to right, and at last we should turn to left??? (I forgot). Anyway after going through the ring third, our calamity must have to be removed.

it's fun

When a hand soup a pump  or an one-push  hand soup appeared instead of traditional hand soup, I was very surprised.
Then, I was also surprised the soup changed a fulid type into a foam type.
(I don't know the correct English words, what do you discribe these days hand soup.)
And I see a hand dispenser in public restrooms. However -- I coulndn't image, such a dispenser type would come out for my home. (Of course it didn't come out naturally, I bouhgt it.)
It was fun. For a while Yuki and I just put our hands in front of it though we didn't need to wash our hands.

Herb

Today it got sunny after so long, on the other hand I watered the garden after so long.

And I saw lots of herbs (not weeds) glowing.

So I did  a thing.

This is an old wearth which has some fake flowers.
I picked some herbs and --

I made herb wreath, probably it will wilt soon, but after that it will get dry and -- it will turn into a dry herb wreath -- I hope.
On the other hand from now an adult comes to take my lesson.
So I prepared cold herb tea and mit jelly with wine and small tomatoes.

Perfect. Now it's time to work.

At home

Whew!

Today I canceled the meeting with my friend. (Sorry, Eiko-san.)

I seem to be very tired, and I can't catch up things I have to do.

 

Anyway after Yuki went to work, I took a nap.

And I swabbed the floor, toilet and stairs with wet dust cloth (It's a probably traditional Japanese way. I like it instead of using a mop.)  Though I had felt not good, after doing this job I felt much better. Probably it is a kind of exercise, and it will lead to clean myself mentally ( I believe it).

 

And I cooked preserved food? or you can say appetizer.

Japanese style pickles of cucumber and DAIKON

Pickled zucchini

Carrots rapees

Grilled egg plants dipped soy sauce and DASHI

pumpkin grasset

and simmered cabbage and ground pork

And from now I'm going to start reading books while I keep this sheet on my forehead.

Can you guess what this is for ?
I know it's impossible to lose my winkles, but I want for my frown line not to get deeper ---.
I don't mind whether it works or not, anyway it's one of my ways to release my stress.
Of course I applied my homemade special aroma to ease my stiff shoulders.

Wow! Ten days has alreday passed.

ーI don't believe it, the last update was ten days ago.
What was I doing?
Probably I has been busy, however I don't like to use the word "busy".
The reason is --- I'll write later.

Did I tell you that these days I'm into aromatic oil therapy, and I try  not to take medicine, especially a cure for headache and for stability. It works, and it become one of my hobbies and it also engaged all members of my family. In his case I made a bottle of preventing odor for old men. He seems to enjoy the bottle. I made a bottle of concentrating for my younger daughter, and I made a bottle of relaxing for my elder daughter.

However, babies are prohibited from using aroma.
So I made something natural for Akari,  --- once I did it for my two daughters.

In the back yard, I have two loquat trees, and two fig trees,though they are not so big.
And the leaves are said to be very effective for our skin.
So these days Akari is suffering from heat rash, so I made loquat-leave water.
It's easy, just simmer loquat leaves with water for a while, and stop before boiling.
It worked for my daughters who used to be suffering from atopy.

How ever this spring I had the trees trimmed a lot, so it doesn't have enough leaves. (It is said that young leaves are not so effective)

So I pickled the old leaves and pickled them into vodka (Jan, are you reading it? It's not your vodka).
After the summer it become mild loquat extractive.

On the other hand, it recalls me bath water with natural leaves.
This year loquat leaves are all for Akari, so we use --- yes, fig leaves.
It is also said fig leaves bath is good for our skin ,and it makes more warm.

I enjoy my life with my garden.

This week

You can guess, why I couldn't update this blog this week. Yes Akari had stayed with us.

Of course her mother M was with her, but she often went out to do her errands.

So I was nursering? playing with her while her mother was out. Though they come about once a month, Akari always forget us, and it takes a while to get used to our house.  but she gets used to our house with her mother, once her mother goes out, she started crying.

And she freezed on me. So I put many? some toys around her and tried to catch her attetion.  She stopped cring for a while, but she started crying again. She did it repeatedly and  -- took a nap for about 30 minutes.

This is the way for me to spend with her in the day.

Let me tell you about Yuki.

Yesterday, he decided to stop his performace which is regurally done once a month at a live house.

Did I tell you? We were in Jazz club at college. Since we moved to Utsunomiya, we managed to keep our music activity though its individual.

When I was in the late 20's, I also played the piano at this live house.

He had continued playing the piano, bass, or guitar for --- oh, 30 years (though it had a time he stopped doing performance, he had been a member of musicans of this live house.)

Anyway he decided to stop his performance, next time he goes to this live house he is a guest.

Well, did you remeber I introduce my easy rose water.

While Akari was here, I often used this steam machine. So I tried making pure distilled herb water, using apple mints which are growin in my garden.

The blue rectangles are blue ie.

I got this one. It's natural and helpful bug repelient for babies.

Additionaly let me tell you about my activity this week.

I went to KARAKU tea room to play the piano --- and I took Aakri and her mother.

I was afraid if Akari started crying. But nothing happend. Once starting the piano music she fell into sleep on her mother's keens.

After my performance I got this fruit jerry and had a nice coffe.

The last weekday

Now I've finished  cooking kind of appetizer for this weekend. 

This weekend some men come to exterminate terminates . It costs high, though it can't be helped. Last year, we refurnished our kitchen, this year we have to do this thing to keep this house in a good condition . It's getting old like us.

And, Akari and M will come to stay with us for several days. 

Probably it will be difficult to cook something at kitchen, so I cooked these things.

Now I'll organize their room, and go working out as usual.

Staying with them is fun, noisy, troublesome, and fun again.

I'm afraid Yuki has been very busy these days, so it's not sure whether he will stay home , go to his office, or go golfing to let him release from the stress.( On this Sunday it us the day for a big tournament at the club he belongs)

Konmari method

Do you know of KONMARI, who is a Japanese lady, and these days --- who has been named to TIME100/

I have her first book which I got before it became a million seller book.

And last week I happened to buy this book which is her third book.

 

Do you remember that I try to throw away 10 things a day?

Now I don't do that, however I try to continue to throw away 10 things a week.

(On the other hand these days every month Akari comes ten new things come)

 

My way is called "dan-sya-ri". It is another way to organize our selves through considering about our belongings.

 

And now it is the time to start Konmari method.

 

Dan-sya-ri focuses the place whether you find room or not.

Konmari method focuses the belongings whether you feel love or not.

 

Today I checked our entrance and bathrooms.

I don't begin on my clothes yet, though according to the book the first try is to begin on the clothes.

 

Today it's rainy, rainy season seems to come just around the corner.

 

 

 

Rose petals water

Do you have roses in your garden? The rose season is almost finished here in Utsunomiya, though we still have lots of roses.

I'm not good at caring for gardens, but I like seeing beautiful gardens. Coincidentally one of my friends took a rose and planted. So I have one rose in my garden. It is very strong, so I don't need to care for. I hear that it's really difficult to let roses open their flowers without pesticide. However the rose in my garden opened the flowers without pesticide this year.

So I suddenly (unfortunately it bloomed the last flowers) had a good idea, "I can make organic rose petals water".

According to the recipe, 100g rose petals and 100 ml pure water are ingredient.

It's easy just put them into a pot, and put it on the stove. Then you should stop before their starting boiling. Then you  cool it, and filter it. You keep it one month in the fridge.

 

I weighed the last flowers petals--- only 25g

 

 

 

So I add 50 ml pure water (it was too difficult for them to boil.)

And --- most of water was sacked by petals, so I squeeze the petals including lots of water.

 

 

 

The color is clear red. It is said to a rejuvenation herb. (I know this English word for this time.)

 

The last weekday

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

 

 

 

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

How ever the next day is Saturday.

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

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

I thought I wouldn't mind ----

but ---

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

the 4th curry restarant

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

 

Anyway I had good lunch.

 

Go into the retirement life

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

More than 36 years passed since we knew each other.

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

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

On the other hand I'm stingy.

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

 

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

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

 

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

 

Can you guess what I went straight to do.

 

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

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

One week has passed!

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

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

 

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

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

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

What was your dream when you were a child?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Do you know what day is it today?

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

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


The preceding paragraph was too long, sorry.

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

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

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

Tuesday

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

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

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

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

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

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

We love him.

GW has finished

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

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

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

the first half of Golden week

Here it looks summer, however---

 

 

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

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

And we visited Kurobe dam.

 

 

Then, we climb down to the next prefecture Nagono.

We visited the famous temple ZENKOUJI.

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

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