Refurbishing has finished.

The luggage comes back.

From the living room.

From the hallway.

Yuki's new cave. Though you might not believe it, the amount of his gadget got 40% less than before.

And new tatami mats. The smell is wonderful .

refurbishing is going on

 

The closet in the living room is

 

And now it is opening to the hallway.

 

 

The upstairs cave of Yuki's is installing new wallpaper and new wooden floor.



 

 

I'm hiding in this temporal cave.



 

Home made sweets?

Probably for you  Brie cheese might be familiar, however for me it is expensive, and it was hard to find one at nearby supermarkets. The other day I found one at a nearby supermarket. These days wine is booming and various kinds of cheese are getting familiar. So Brie cheese is one of them, though this cost 1000 yen.
Anyway I bought it.

And I grilled slice of it with spicy mango jam. It was a good appetizer for wine.

And for our breakfast I grilled brie cheese, potatoes and the last basil leaves growing in our garden.

And I made another sweet,  a grilled apple. It was really simple. I just removed the core and put butter, unrefined sugar and cinnamon  in it, and baked it in the oven for 40 minutes. Perfect!! 

And -- though it's not my homemade, I had this sweet potato cake which was made by the owner's wife at Karaku tea room.

Yesterday it was the day for me to become a pianist. Unfortunately we didn't have the consecutive third full, we had enough audience. So I could play the piano in a relaxed and tense way.

P.S My friend told me this site.
body

http://allrecipes.com/recipes/17024/appetizers-and-snacks/cheese/baked-brie/
Thanks.

 

Before refurbishing

This weekend, we did that -- moving furniture into another room, and discarding "some" ( not lots) things.
--- And I plowed my energy into it too much. Sunday night and yesterday I was in bed.
Today, it's not so bad. I'm going to the KARAKU to play the piano, and after that I'm going to take an  acupuncture and moxibustion treatment (not so inexpensive).

Anyway from the day after tomorrow, refurbishing will be started, and the final day M and Akari will come again --- because M is going to attend her friend's wedding ceremony  and her husband seemed to nurse Akari.  --- So, Yuki, I and "Akari" are going to remove furniture together --- though I can't image. It might be fun or it might be commotion.

Good bye my stamp book,

This "was" my stamp collection book. Finally I let go of it.
I used to collect stamps -- probably when I was an elementary school student.
My uncle used to work for MPT, and he is my mother's youngest brother. ( He is 10 ? 15 years younger than my mother, additionally she has three brothers and two sisters and fortunately they are still fine.) When he was single, he used to visit us to us, and we shared it, So in this  book , you can see, there are single stamps.
I had forgot its existence a year ago. When I visited my mother, suddenly she handed it to me.

What should I do?
I used them as much as I could, I applied for some prizes sending a postcard with one of these stamp.
---but there were too much,
And additionally I collected used stamps.

 

Though it's difficult to explain, let me try to explain more.

In Japan the posting fee by a post card is 52 yen, and the posting fee by an light envelope is 82 yen, it means, we need 1 yen or 2 yen stamps. In my collection book, there were few such stamps. So I put 60 yen stamps on a post card, or bought a 2 yen stamp and put it with my stamps which totaled 50 yen  to send a post card. --- it was troublesome.

 

So I decided to discard and sell the stamps.

At a post office, they can change old stamps into new stamps but they charge 5 yen per a stamp.--- Most of my stamps were 10 yen stamps.

I took them to a kind of discount shop which deals with jewelry, brand bags and so on.  -- for me it was the first time to go such a place, so I chose a shop which is in front of the big department store.

And--- I'm surprised, they bought a bag of used stamps for 100 yen ( I was going to donate them) , and they also bought my stamps at about 80% of total price.

-- so I got "just" 1700 yen.

 

I was going to drop by at the department. However I was flooded with nostalgia? or strange feeling. I didn't use money quickly. I dropped by a nearby supermarket and bought eggs, fresh cream and bananas.

 

I wanted to make something as a old type house mother, serious, or down-to-earth housewife.

It's really difficult to explain my feeling. Anyway Though I didn't care for my stamp book, it didn't seem to be true.

I made a banana roll cake as my snack. Of course the rest of it was our breakfast.

 

Marry Poppins' cooking meetings

Last Tuesday I held the final event of Marry Poppins' cooking meeting.

The content is that reading the book in English version and in Japanese version, understanding more and cooking something in the book. I held the meetings five times.

Let's take a look back.

First we made Yorkshire Pudding.

It was pudding but not sweet.

There were four attendee.

 



 

Next, it was Shepherd's pie.

There were three attendee.

We used beef -- it means in Japan it was a little bit expensive.

 

Then we made Irish  Stew.

I order lamb shoulder chops on the Inter net, because lamb is not so familiar in Japan and we can't buy them at a supermarket nearby.

It was also expensive.

There were three attendee.

 

And we made upside down cake.

There were also three attendee.

 

 

And at the final meeting, we made lemon soufflé.

There were two attendee. For all of three it was the first time to eat it which was hot and  fresh out of the oven.

Everyone enjoyed the luxurious leisure time.  

Cooking of them seemed to have a kind of "slow life".
Well consider the budget --- unfortunately it was a red figure, though I don't want to earn money.

I'm thinking about the next step.

 

Sweets

Let me introduce sweets I took during the last week and "yesterday".
I heard that enjoying tea at café "was" a kind of European culture. Appearing Starbucks and other coffee shops seemed to change the culture, especially in the U.S.A.
On the other hand, probably in Japan when I was born there were coffee shops ( we call them Kissa ten). When I was a high school student, I enjoyed having a cup of coffee at a coffee shop near my high school to pretend to be an adult. ( Of course it's "not" illegal. I preferred staying at a coffee shop to a hamburger shop.)
This habit seems to be continued. So as you know I play the piano once a month at a café.
And sometimes I dropped by at a café nearby.

One day of the last week I dropped by there. The owner is a lady who is in her forties.
Now it's the season for a baked apple. I had it. It is a whole apple baked.

And on Saturday Yuki and I also dropped at a café and used book shop.

There on the first floor a man runs a café, and on the second floor his wife runs an used book shop and private library.

There some of my English picture books are also put on the shelf. I brought some books for November.

and we had coffee and this small cup cake for free -- because on the day a Halloween event was hold. They serve this cupcake for free to people who wear something different ( not to put on perfect costume). We went there in strange hats.

 

And on Sunday we had breakfast outside. -- This is Sweet bean paste toast.

I know someone doesn't like it.

And yesterday, two women came to my house and we made lemon soufflé.

 

Today it is in the middle of the week, isn't it?

An owl shrine

How was your weekend? My friend "J" seemed to enjoy Halloween. ( Oh, not weekend, it was yesterday.)
For Yuki and me this weekend was a usual weekend "finally". We didn't care for our daughter or grandchild, our mothers and didn't need to discard and organize our room harder than usual (Refurbishing will start in 10 days)

This season many people enjoy to see autumn leaves. Here in Tochigi Niko is a very famous spot it means it is very crowded. So we gave up going to Nikko, we drove to enjoy just autumn.

The other day this owl shrine was introduced on the newspaper. So we went there.
Can you see a big statue of an owl?
It takes about one hour from here by car. It's in a rural area, and unfortunately there are not so many colorful leaves, though it's in a forest. Most of the trees are conifer trees which don't change the colors.

 

 

However we saw some colorful trees.

An owl is called FUKUROU in Japanese.
FUKUROU has another meaning, it's a kind of pivot word (for me it is a new English word).
Fu means in- or, did-, Kurou means difficulty or hardship. So Fu-Kurou means without difficulty.
Or
Fuku means happiness, and Rou means senile or elder, so Fuku-Rou means wonderful elder life (probably).

In this shrine, there are lots of Fukrou statues here and there, probably there are more than 70 statues. Each Fukurou has an original character.
This is a music Fukurou. Of course we love music, so I rubbed it hoping that my piano skill will be more improved. Or we hope we will hold music concerts at home in our retirement life.

 

This is a pumpkin Fukurou. We wish our wellness robbing them.

 

Though it's an old shrine, it's a kind of theme park for free.

Oh, not free, though it 's a Japanese custom, to put some coin for praying.

We put 1 yen coins or 10 yen coins in front of each Fukurou. And after we used up the coins, we-- put 100 yen coins. When we go there next time, I must take lots of 1 yen coin.

===== is it stingy?

 

On the way home, we dropped by at a famous river-fish shop (Finally)

And -- we bought Shirayaki-eels, which means grilled eels without sauce.

 

It's a little bit expensive, but it's inexpensive compared to buying grilled KABAYAKI eels.

Moreover we don't get these Shirayaki eels easily.

 

Anyway to eat them delectably we need to cook.

We boiled them and after that we stew for a while with sauce. 

Perfect dinner!!

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween" Today it is Halloween, isn't it?
Here in Japan, the weekend here and there Halloween events were held.

In my house, last Friday I hold our Halloween event.
My friend who is an actress came and read aloud  " a little bit" scary story.

 

Kids made these Jack-O'-Lantern crafts.

And some adults and I were going to eat dinner out, -- however-- it was rainy (so it seemed to be bothering to go out)  and we had enough budget (all of them are sound wives ( a little bit elder), so I made gratin and BBQ chicken -- Oh I forgot to take the photos.

 

My Halloween was finished. So I changed the decoration into another one for Thanks giving day.

November is just around corner.
In November, I'm going to attend to two events for Thanks giving  day (to introduce American culture ) with my friend.

 

Happy Halloween!!

free exhibitions are always fulled senior people

These days, I attended to "free" (to be precise, I got a complimentary ticket) concert and seminar.

Both of them were wonderful.

 

One is a small concert organized by a company. Though the photo is not good, can you see the percussions? The percussion player was very attractive. She  usually plays the classical percussions, and as a hobby? or as her second job, she plays the Latin percussions. We are lucky to see her and listen to her performance in this town. (She usually performs in Tokyo)
---- most of the listeners were seniors and this time couples like us were many.
I know because the company presented the complimentary tickets to their clients, who are not young adults.

 

And on a weekday, I attended at a lecture meeting. It was hold in the day time of a weekday, so ---

the attendee were "not housewives", retired men.

Because the presenter is a famous editor of a newspaper publisher, and the title is "where Japanese politics are going to ?"

Yuki said "will you be able to understand what he lectures?" -- Than we expected it was easy and fun.

Anyway what made me surprised how many senior men there were in the day time!

And I wonder what they do usually????

 

 

Well, I attend at it with my friend. And the event was hold at a hotel.

So -- of course we had a good tea time.

 

Additionally, in the tea room, few senior men were there, though we saw some senior couples.

15 things discard and --

 

Since I updated this blog the last time,10 days have passed.

Though I don't think I'm busy, every day chore  has been hectic. (Does it make sense?)

 

This weekend I do  a usual weekend chore  -- 15 things discards.

 

 

 

I organized a drawer of the Oshiire-closet in the living room.

And ---

Yuki and I organized the Oshiire.

 

Why we did such a thing? As I mentioned in the previous blog, we decided to refurbish the rooms on the second floor. And we thought how to organize our house more?

This time it's a good chance to ask something to a carpenter.  So we asked him to open the Oshiire-closet from the other side ( though it's difficult to explain, the oshire-closet is between the hallway and the living room.)

 

In our house the hallway is at the same temperature, so I put water, root vegetables, a bag of rice and so on.  We can stock them a small storage house outside, but it's very inconvenient.

So this time we ask him to access the Oshiire- closet from the hallway side.

 

It means --- we have to discard lots of things in the Oshiire-closet.

This job was not finished on the weekend, so Yuki took a day-off.

we discarded lots of things and took them to the garbage center and recycle center directly by our car.

 

We were really exhausted.

Refurbishing will be started in two weeks.

 

Anyway this Friday I'll hold a Halloween event at home.

 

 



 



small exhibitions

I tried to update everyday-- it's difficult to take enough time to write it in English, though thankfully I have something to let you know everyday.

This weekend, Yuki and I visited small exhibitions, it means the two exhibitions were held by "petit bourgeois" or usual people.

One is a calligraphy exhibition.
All of them are armatures, however each letter showed each character.
I used to visit our daughters' calligraphy exhibitions because they used to learn.
At that time some adults' works were displayed, and saying "what a cool" we admired  them.

This time no kids' works were there. So we didn't see adorable works, however all of  them are strong, kind, beautiful, elaborated, and "difficult".
It was very interesting.

Next day we went to see a performance of "shigin", a kind of Japanese dance with Japanese fan or sword. For us it was the first time to see them.

I've seen Japanese dance a few times, because one of my friends has learned still now. The friend is "a woman". This time the person who invited us is a man who is older than us. So it was the first time to see dancing by a Japanese senior men in a traditional Kimono.

It was really fun.

 

 Seeing a professional show or exhibition is , of course fun. but seeing such a heartful small amtarue show is also fun.