Sunday

Now, it's already in the middle of this week.

This Sunday, Yuki and I went downtown again.

 

This time our citizen orchestra held their regular concert which is hold twice a year.

There are probably three citizen orchestra in our town.

For us it was the first time to listen to their performing.

 

 

 

By the time the concert started, the hall had been filled. The fee was 1000yen per person.

It was not so high,  in fact  the concert was wonderful than we expected.

 

On the day there were many events downtown.

We dropped by "cocktail festival".

 

 

Each glass, dish was 500 yen. Not so bad.

And a band Yuki's friend joins in played their performance.

 

Unfortunately  I get drunk easily, so while Yuki was listing to the live concert, I took a rest at a café drinking coffee and cake.

 

Then we went back by bus. ( Of course we went there by bus.)

 

Concert tickets cost 2000 yen,

cocktail festival cost 2500 yen.

my coffee& cake cost 390 yen.

And bus fair was 1000 yen.

 

Not so bad.

 

Current Japanese snack for high school students

The other day a French boy who is 18 years old came to my house, so suddenly I called on my high school students and hold a welcome party .
And I told them to bring your favorite Japanese snack.
These are like this,

Rice crackers, chocolate with green tea taste, cookies, KINOKONO-YAMA chocolate for adults (it's difficult to explain it. KINOKONO-YAMA chocolate is very very very popular chocolate snack for kids, the shape looks like mushrooms which is KINOKO in Japanese. And the chocolate is usual milk chocolate, but these days a new one was released for "adults". the chocolate is a little bit better, and the mushroom stem is  a crisp pretzel (traditional one is a biscuit), Japanese gummi candy and --

 

 

dry squid with vinegar taste. This has a long long --long histry. Yuki used to eat it as his snack.

This time I know it has a CM song.

 

 

 

If you are interested in it, I'll send one to you!!!!!

Making HAIKU and post cards

The day before yesterday  I hold an event at my house. It was "making Haiku in English and  a post card".
Three ladies came.

I served sweet black lentils which I made the day before yesterday to visit the garden of my friend, and, spiced mango jam my friend sent. Perfect! 

Every one made HAIKU

---- Haiku is the shortest poem in the world. It has only three lines and in Japanese it has 5, 7, and 7 syllables. In these lines people feel the poet's ideas and imagination. There is one important point about Haiku, it usually has KIKO, a season word.

KIKO is typical of Haiku. KIKO often expanded the reader's imagination.

There are my HAIKU.

Up up up   A Ferris wheel goes up   over the frying carps.

 

(People raise carp streamers to celebrate Japanese children day in May)

 

Thanks  Here is a strawberry with "very"

(Happy Mother's day)

 

At the garden   Enjoy soft breeze  With homemade rose pie

 

 

I sent these cards to some of my friends in foreign countries.

If you want such cards from me, please give me a comment.

 

visitng the garden of my friend

One of my friend, she is into gardening. 7 years ago she retired earlier, though she is as old as I. Then she has started "reorganizing " her garden which used to be organized by her mother-in-law. U fortunately her mother-in-law passed away a few years ago. (It means my friend's nursing task finished at the same time). And from next year she holds "open garden" for spring and summer.

She called me so I visited there with the woman who lives next to my house.
The neighbor is 10 years older than I, but she is a good person and (I think) we have kept a good relation ship since I came here about 30 years ago.
When I was in the 20's , 30's and 40's, she always helped me. Now I tried to give some information to enjoy her senior life.

So I decided the day as "enjoying the day".
In the morning she came to my house and cooked for our friend whom we were going to visit.

I simmered black lentils with palm sugar and coconut powder and added some cardamom.
For us, it was the first challenge,--- and "perfect".

Next we baked this which is called "rose pie" using sliced apples and pie dough.

And we had lunch by ourselves at each house. (To tell the truth I needed to take a nap for a while.)

And in the afternoon, we visited the garden.

 

And three of us had a good tea time.

What a relaxing and calm day it was!

One week has passed since the busy and enjoyable 7 day holiday.

Today, it's Saturday, isn't it? One week has already passed since the days with my younger daughter M and my ground daughter Akari.

This week, though I didn't think it would be busy, I was in and out so that I couldn't have time to sit at PC. 

 

we spent about 50 thousand yen for the holiday. I don't know it was expensive, reasonable, or cheep.

HOWEVER, what I can say is that "we owe our feast to "YUKI's PRIZE".

Do you remember that  on the first day of the holiday it was only day for Yuki to play golf, and he won a prize of "meat". The meat had a really good quality.

Tochigi prefecture is a little bit known with the brand meat. Of course it's expensive. And this time the brand meat was prepared as one of prize. And he won it.

 

When M and Akari came here, we did SHABU-SHABU, which is the way to eat  beef dipping a few second "saying shabu shabu" in hot water. A special shabu-shabu pot is used at restaurants, but we don't have one, so we used a just a big pot. Well, well, my mother-in-law must store one somewhere.

We did SHABU-SHABU using Yuki's prize, ground meat ball I made for Akari (but it wasn't needed, she ate the same meat as we ate), spinach, and SHITAKE mushrooms.

 

The next day, I fried another his prize "pork" with ginger. They were really soft and delicious.

 

Then the next day I made hamburger using his prize "ground beef"

Probably we saved about 15000yen at least. Luck us! Thanks Yuki.

This time I didn't mention the cost of his attending fee of the golf game.

And next day I cooked chicken.

 

and big pan cake.

My oven worked very hard.

 

Happy Mother's Day

Yesterday it was Mother's day. How did you spend the day?

 

Well, well, since I updated this blog, one week has passed. Yuki and I had a wonderful, busy, happy, tired, and satisfied about 10-day holiday (--though on Friday both of us worked) doing tasks of "perfect" grandparents.

Next I'll update about our holiday.

 

On Friday I had a lesson, so my student made cards for their mothers.

I "made" them to commend their mothers. It seemed to be very difficult for them, while in some parts using "English words" made it easy.

 

For example, they don't like to write "KIREI" in Japanese, but they don't mind the word in English "beautiful".

So they wrote "beautiful", "kind (sometimes)", "funny", "smart".

 

And I "made" them to write more in Japanese.

To do it easier, I prepared about 100 cards with compliment words. They chose some cards with a big laugh.

 

For example "genki ga iine" , which means you have a lot of energy, "Shikkari shiterunne", which means you are super down-to-earth.

 

At night two junior high school students came, I "asked" them to make cards. They said "OK". so they made their postcards to their mother. I "asked" them to present it to their mom. However I don't know whether they actually did it or not. Anyway the touchy students express some compliment to their mother, it is enough.

 

 

 

On that day, Yuki and I "didn't" call to our mothers, because we met them during the holiday.

And though my elder daughter called me, my younger daughter didn't call me because probably it was the same reason.

 

Yuki and I went out to buy good quality and reasonable "TOCHIGI brand beef"  to a special butcher which it takes about 40 minutes by car. Yuki wanted to do BBQ at the garden with the meat.

I was not so interested in the meat, but I wanted to drop by at a café which recently opened.

 

 

The café is in the forest, and serve "Japanese tea with Japanese sweet"

 

And of course when we got home, we did BBQ.

Well, well, these days I started to check how much we "use" for our leisure, tasty things, and so on.
I'm not going to save money for them too much, just I want to make sure.
One of reasons, my income ( my pocket money from my English school)  decreased, and Another reason is we are thinking about our pension life in 5 or 10 years. ( I hope Yuki will work until he gets 65)

Anyway yesterday we spent  10000  yen on having lunch at a restaurants, buying special beef, dropping by at café, buying beer and fruits for BBQ at a supermarket.

Consecutive holidays have started.

From early morning the stoves were busy.

So our breakfast was very simple. 

However, we enjoyed some kinds of jam, such us unsweeten peanut butter, spicy jam, apple butter, and carrots jam.

I did pre-cooed dishes for three adults including me and Akari.

Usually the pre-cooked dishes are for me. I have lunch and dinner for myself on weekdays. It's troublesome to cook something for me, so I prepare pre-cook dishes on weekends. This time, probably I won't have enough time to cook dinner because we must go out somewhere in the daytime. 

So I prepared them for Yuki, our younger daughter M, Akari, and me.

I hope my condition will keep  good. To tell the truth, because of the daily change of temparcher I feel sluggish. Though I had slight fever this morning, now I don't seem to have it.

I applied my ordinal aroma oil to encourage me.

Well it's almost time to pick them up at the station.

How to use 'the things'

Do you remember my old stamps and handmade photo-post cards?
I try recycleing and reusing them.

I applied for a prize. If I win it, i can get a free pair- ticket to a concert which fee is 1000yen per person.

Well, our consecutive holidays has started. Today it is only day for Yuki to go golfing by himself. He has already gone out. (Now it's around 8 AM). And it is only day for me to be lazy and relax after doing house chores and organizing a room for Akari.

Homemade sangria

I made my original sangria recycling the bottle which was bought as sangria at a spice shop in TOKYO.

It was delicious. On the back there is a level which shows the ingredients, though it doesn't show the percentage of each ingredients.

Anyway I bought same ingredients on the net. (The shop doesn't sell it on the net, yet.)

 



 

 

cinnamon, all spice, cloves, apple piece, pomegranate, and lemon peer.

 

And I bought reasonable red wine for about 500 yen.

 

The cost is 2320yen.

==== I bought the sangria at 100 0 yen without wine. So if I made one two and three times more, it is worth, and I do it.

 

 

My leisure time and cost

If you are British man (probably not only British, but also most not-stingy people), you might frown seeing the title. Cost???

 

Anyway let me proceed today's blog.

As I told you, this year the number of my students decreased. It means I have more leisure time, and I have less pocket money. When I re-started working, all money used to be used to educate my daughters, mainly clam school fee. Since they left home, the money I earn is used for visiting Tokyo (to meet my mother and my daughters) and for myself. These days something for my grand daughter is added on the list.

 

I know a homely adage, "no work, no pay". I've worked hard as a housewife, so it's not suitable for me --- however do you know such a saying "no work, no play".

So I need to readjust my leisure time. To readjust it, I decided to recognize how much I use for my leisure.

 

This week, I went to the movies by myself. Once a month I go to the movies to see a curious movie in a small theater.  This time I watched a Hungarian movie with subtitled. It was really interesting, because this movie was made on the base of a Japanese old story in "Nasu" area. Nasu is northern of Tochigi. So some of scenes are taken in Tochigi. And I heard some Japanese in the movie. 

 

 

The sad thing was --- it was not so famous, and in the morning for this week we can see in this small minor theater.

So --- there were only two audience including me. It cost 1000 yen. Additionally I need to pay 500 yen for a parking lot nearby. (They don't have a parking lot.)

 

On the way home, I dropped by a department store and bought some bottle of aroma oil.

And make ----

This is my ordinal deodorant which consists of sodium and some kinds of aroma.
It's getting hot, so I need shoe & sock deodorant for Yuki and other boys' students.
It cost 1750 yen.


Oh, I almost forgot. This Tuesday I went to do hot-yoga. It cost 300 yen.
So this week I spent 6250 yen for my leisure time.

A lady came and went back to Nepal

This weekend, a lady came and stay with us.

Our house is not a hotel, just a usual house. So I did what I could do.

I cleaned the room and organized such goods for her.

I knew she is a vegetarian, though she didn't seem to be so strict. (If she were a strict vegetarian, she wouldn't have stayed with a stranger's house) 

She was  --- (when we met her and she was introduced to us, I knew this truth,)  Amila  Dari, who is a famous person in Nepal to support poor kids and Nepal ladies. However for us she is just a lady like me, though she is little bit older than us.

If you are interested in her activity, check this website.

 

http://lovegreennepal.org.np/

 

She took 9 elementary school students who live in Nepal mountain areas. It means they are unfortunately all poor. I don't know whether they feel themselves poor. However these days most of kids around in the area finally could start going to school. The schools are supported by her group financial supported by FIDR organization supported mainly YAMZAKI-bread company in Japan.

And this time she took 9 elementary school students to Japan to show them developed country Japan.

All students got new clothes, bags, shoes, etc --- because this plan was supported by FIDR and MOFA.  It means this total budget of this plan cost more than 5milion yen.

They toured from OOSAK, KYOTO, TOKYO, and last come to Utsunomiya to experience home-staying.

She seemed to be very tired because ten-day touring with kids must be very hard.

She said "this night finally I would go to bed without worrying kids."

So she went to bed early. (We went out to eat nearby.)

Next morning I served branch, mainly vegetables.

And joined one family with Nepal kids.

We had a good and exciting weekend.

 

Do you know pavlova?

This is an Australian picture book. In this book "three" traditional Australian sweets appear.

One is  --- not sweets,  vegemite, and the others are

pavlova and lamington. About pavolova it is also said the origin is in New Zealand.

 

I'd like to use this book for an event "Australian afternoon tea".

==== do you like Natto? vegemite is as well as natto, so usual native people like their traditional foods, but usually other people dislike them. It means I know vegemite and marmite.

Wandering the subject, when an New Zealand boy stayed with us for two weeks, he had tried having various Japanese foods, however he gave up to take rice as lunch to school. (He went to school for one week with lunch box) And he asked me to make simple "marmite sandwiches". At that time I knew marmite and vegemite. -- Unfortunately I couldn't accept the taste.

 

Anyway I can vegemite here.

And --- I can lamington in Tokyo, of course buying one is very expensive because it is sold at a bakery in Tokyo it's fresh sweet, so I can't buy one on the net. I need to go to Tokyo. so it costs high. However I know the taste, so it's OK to cook it by myself. And lamington is usually homemade sweet.

The problem was the last one, pavlova. I've never tasted it, though it doesn't seem to be difficult to make it by myself.

 

 

Finally here in Utsuomiya  at a new café they serve pavlova, and we can take it.

They are separated, so I have to combine them.

Usually pavlova has lots of fresh fruits -- according to the book.
So I put some frozen pineapple.

Now I see the light to open the event.
In addition, I wish some Australian would join the event.

Ayu-meshi

As you know, our main food is rice.
And, as you know (probably) it's a popular word "obentou".

When kids go on a excursion, their mothers make Obentou for them.
Though there is a cafeteria I. Some high school, many high school students take Obentou to school for their lunch.

When my daughters were in the junior high school, and high school , I always used to make two Obentou.

Some wives make Obentou for their husbands to keep the husbands'helathnin good shape, or to save money,
Some ladies make Obentou.


And when we travel on train, buying local Obentou at a station , which is called Ekiben , is one of  pleasures of travel.


Well well , here Utsunimiya station is one of stations where bulletin tratin runs. So there are some minds of Ekiben. Tochigi is famous form tochigi-meat, rice, and -----


Yesterday, I went to Oyama (not Tokyo) to attend a meeting. I need to take Obentou   So I decided to buy Ekiben at Utsunomiya station. I hardly have an opportunity to but Ekiben at Utsunomiya staion.

So I did it.
I could buy Ayu meshi which is sold just three box a day.

Ayu is a fish living in "clear" water, and it is famous in Tochigi where the have lots of clean rivers.

Recycling

This weekend, I did a weekly chore of "throwing 15 things away".
This time the follow thing is included.
The local newspaper branch collect some items and sent them into Myanmar.
They collect T-shirts, shoes, succor balls, notebooks, pencils, and erasers.

I have hold ( a little bit expensive) B-pencils. My students and I often use pencils, but we use HB pencils, ( it means No.2 pencils.) So I decided to donate them.
I have hold fancy erasers, they are too fancy to be used. --- So I decided to donate them.

In the morning I'm going to the branch to take them.
 

I also did a weekly pre-cooking.

My house chores are finished.
Today I'm going to the newspaper branch and the library --- I'll spend a calm day to keep my power. Because next Monday and Tuesday I'll be almost out all day.