Do you know LEO LEONNI?

LEO LEONNI is a famous picture book writer in Japan. Some of his works are appear in school textbooks in Japanese or in English.

Now at Utsunomiya of my town, LEO LEONNI exhibition is being held. I'm very happy that such an exhibition is held in such a local city.

 Then, I attended a workshop with my high school student.
A high school in Utsunomiya won debating Japan contest last year, and the team attended "world school debating championship."  The team reported the championship. I'm also happy to hear that a local public high school team won a championship in Japan, and attended the world championship.
This March, the members graduated, but new members entered the team, and this year they won a right again to attend world school debating championship in Thailand. And one of the members used to be my student when he was an elementary school student.

 

These days some people say the difference of financial, education and etc, between big cities (especially TOKYO) and local cities is getting bigger. So I'm very glad to know that an interesting exhibition is held, and we have such a strong debating team.

What's this?

Can you guess what this is?
It's an ASHITSUBO-BOU.





Though I'm embarrased, I'll show you how to use it. The sharp point is used to

press acupressure points on the sole. I'm pressing the point of adreno.

 

 

The roud part is used to massage the sole drawing a line.

I'm drawing a line to less my tiredness.

 

Here in Japan ASHITSUBO-massage (reflexology) is very common. I love it.

So I often do it by myself.

How about you?

The other day, two junior high school students were very tired and seemed sleepy. So I did it on them. They said "hurt, hurt" and of course they woke up!

 

Can you guess how old is a person who calls you on the phone?

Yesterday, a funny thing happened. After that I grinned by myself.
I got a cold call in the afternoon. It was she, and she solicited adding a solar generator on my house.

So I declined immediately, because our house was too old to add it.

But she asked me to respond surveys. I had enough confident to deny all soliciting, so I said "OK".
Well, well, first she asked me "how old is your house". So I said "It's almost 30 years old". I heard her disappointment.

And next she asked me "may I ask your generation? " So I said "I'm in my 50's".

She was """VERY""""" surprised.
She said " I'm sorry I thought you were in your 30's." (I don't know why she said sorry to me.)
And she stopped soliciting. (I don't know why? Probably she understood, if she continued, it couldn't be help.)

And the  conversation was done.
I was grinned.

Well, well, these days I often have cold-caller about "graves".
So I thought that if I said "I was in my 30's", a cold-caller would hang up immediately".

New gadgets

Our second daughter M has stayed since last Tuesday. Our grandchild will come in July.
Well, well, new gadgets come in turn.

 

Yes our grandchild is a girl.

I get used to being alone at home, so to tell the truth, I feel sometimes troublesome, on the other hand she helps me (I'm very surprised to her, she never helped me when she was a child.) so our daily life is smooth.

 

She said an interesting thing to me.

"I noticed that the feelings were different when I came home from high school every day,when I came home from Tokyo on college vacation (at that time she lives with her sister in TOKYO), when I came home on vacation , and when I came home this time as a housewife."

 

I'm very happy to hear that, and I really noticed she has already independent from us. On the other hand she quited from work, so now she is dependent on her husband, but she seems to be able to stand on her legs.

I'm very proud of her.

 

 

 Well, well, now we are in Japanese apricot season. Japanese apricots are very sour and hard.

 So I simmered them with beer and sugar.

And do you know loquats called BIWA in Japanese.

I also got some loquats. They are not mature, so I made jam.

For a while there are three members, so we don't have enough leftover. It means I'm busy in cooking.

 

an interesting idea

These days I'm into Chikirin blog.
Chikirin is a nickname, the author is a woman who seems to be in her 40's.
She exists an secret blogger, but she is really famous.
When I read her blog, I was very surprised and thought "In Japan we have such a woman, so our future might be not so bad". And I knew her blog has been very famous and she polished some books that caught a big hit. So I thought we have lots of readers who are fan of Chikirin like me, so we Japanese are still positive to our lives."

(These days watching and listening to our prime minister's opinion, I tend to be negative. Because the rich are getting richer, and the poor or the middle are getting poorer.)

Let me introduce a part of Chikirin's opinion
If you read Japanese, please check this site.

There are three types of people. Some people are good at thinking, some people are not good at thinking, and most of people are in the middle.

Some people who are good at thinking and achieve results are kind of genius.
Some people who are not good at acting with their intuition and achieve results are another genius.

So what usual people should do?
We try to combine thinking and acting. So we need lots of experience. If you think that you are not so good at thinking, you should go out and try something that other people surrounding you don't do.So you need to observe other pepole surrounding you.

If I were better at English, I would tell you her appealing opinion. ---I'm afraid I can't.

Now we are in a rainy season.

This week cooking

 marinated squid and small onions

saited bean sprouts and SAYAbeans with Korean paste

marinated oil-sarden with NEGI.

This week cooking

June has come, and these days it has been very hot like summer.

 coleslaw

steamed  cabbage and salmon

Korean pickles of KOMATSUNA leaves

 honeyed  cherry tomatoes with mint leaves

cauliflower & cream cheese salad with black olive

 

This week from Monday to Wednesday, some guests come in turn, So I'll be able to these appetite for a little early lunch.

Let's enjoy this week.

 



 

Tochigi's scenery

Since I started to live here, more than 27 years has passed. And yesterday I knew that the scenery is one of typical scenery in Tochigi.

I know the scenery of green rice garden in May is one of typical scenery in Japan.
Can you see the contrast of the yellow part and the green part?

The green part is a rice garden with fresh rice seedlings. We have have just finished planting rice seedlings. And the other part is wheat that is waiting for their harvest.
Here in Tochigi, we crop wheat twice in spring and in fall. So this season wee see the contrast of the yellow of wheat and the green of rice seedlings.

For me it had been a usual season. Now I got smarter.

Community organization

Do you have your community organization? We call it JICHIKAI.
I live in a town, and though I don't know the exact figure of group number, they are divided into some groups. And there are about 240 households in our group. And the group is also divided into some small groups. Our house is belong to 14 group and there are 17 households. This year our house is sub-leader of this group.
becoming a leader and a sub-leader is operated by a rota system. This year our neighbour on our right is is a leader. So next year, we are leader, and our neighbor on our left is a sub-leader.

My friend asked.
Where does the organization come from?  The city government?
It's not a rule. It's a kind of habitual system. So it's free whether to become a member or not. Anyway all our neighbors are belong to JICHIKAI.
 Who runs the meetings? 
Every year the leaders and sub-leaders have a meeting and select board members. Of course they are voluntary.
And this is an important question.
What would happen if your 17 homes decided they didn't want to be a group?

Yes, it is a big problem, but not a big problem.
because nothing will happen.
So though our group is still managed by many residents without any problems, but these days the number of people who are not belong to JICHIKAI is increasing.
Because there are not so big benefit. On the contrary we should pay some money.
(Though the cost is depends on the group, in our case we have to pay 400 yen a month, and now we are planing to build our community house, so we also pay more 400 yen a month.)

What JICHIKAI can do?
Though JICHIKAI we order some things to make our area better.
To put security lights.
To plant some flowers along the street.

And we do some voluntary work by ourselves to live easily.
To clean the garbage station.
To watch children at crossroads when they go to school and come back home.

And  it is getting the most important thing these days.
To visit senior people who live alone, or live with two.
This visiting avoid to let senior people alone.

Every thing is a voluntary work. And who can do these things? Young or middle aged people too busy to do that. So mainly semi-senior people, or housewives do that.

Do you have a community organization?

cooking in this week

Let me show you my preserved dishes I cooked this week.

Grilled turnips, GOBOU and lemons with apple vinegar.

 oil-marinated green leaves.

 

 Flash-cooked pork , sliced onion and avocado with soy sauce and rice vinegar

Hijigi-seaweed and beans with sesame sauce and rice vinegar.

 

Thanks of these dishes, my meals became fulfilled without much ado.

What is your treasure?

The other day I attend a meeting. There are 8 participants, and they are in various generation. Probably I'm the second oldest person.
Well, whey we introduced ourselves, we had to talk about our treasure in one sentence.
It was really interesting.

The youngest man (from me he was a  boy), who is a college student and now he is a about to start his NGO group, said "All people, I want to make a world which is kind to all people."

The second youngest man said "My treasure is my parents."
A lady who is a mother said "I want to hear my child saying."

Another man said "my friends".
Another man , who is a writer said "my treasure is this pen".

The oldest lady said "my ground children"
The youngest lady who is a mother said " my son"

I was very interested in their opinion. I was surprised how different they are depends on the generation.

I don't know what my elder daughter would say. Is her treasure the environment she can keep her art? her works? her zeal for art? or her parents (it means us)?
And probably my younger daughter would say "my husband", and in two months it will be "my baby".

Anyway I realized, when kids start to say "my  treasure is my husband or my wife, or my child", it means they have left parents

Cooking in this week

This week I tried to cook one dish each day which can be kept well for a few days.
Roasted Toufu

boiled GOBOU with sesame

Pickled vegetables with lemons

marinated verious kinds of mushrooms

It's very useful to be always  prepared some sidedishes. Instead of makin lunch boxes called Obentou, it's becoming a new chore for me.

noble obligation

The title sounds exaggerated. Anyway, let me tell you today's story.
This morning Yuki and I went to a city garbage center to dispose of our FUTON. which is a kind of mattress. There were two sets of FUTON. They were too big to dispose of them as a home garbage.
The  cheapest way to dispose of them is to take them to the center by ourselves. It's free.
The next cheapest way is to ask to take them to the city garbage office. In this case each costs 840 yen, so total it costs about 3500yen. And it takes three or for days for them to come after we call.
The next cheapest way is to ask to take them to garbage & recycle company. In this case each costs about 1000 yen, so total it costs about 4000 yen. As soon as we call, they come to take them.

Nowadays, disposing of something costs money.
On the other hand recycling is meaningful, if someone can use it.
Our FUTON is not so bad, so I look for recycling sites. FUTON seems to be used in poor foreign countries. Some NPO groups collect FUTON. --- They don't earn money, but if we send FUTON, we donate the export fee. It costs more than 7900 yen, because FUTON-sets are very big and heavy.

If we were very rich, we might have donated them to a NPO group.

Jobs which might disappear in 2020 in Japan

I read a really astonishing report.
The jobs which might disappear in 2020 in Japan are written.
What do you think of it?

 1 train motormen, and conductors, because most of trains will be run automatically without men.
 2 cashiers at supermarkets, because most of tags will be read automatically
3 interpreters, and shorthand writers, interpreter  because automatic speech translation system will be introduced.
4 computer programmers because programing itself will be done automatically
5 mailmen now mails are delivered by post men, but other things are delivered by other home-delivery companies so probably mailmen are absorbed by such other delivery companies.
6 newspaper carriers, paperless period will come.
7 rental video shops, download system will be introduced.
8 gas station, we won't use much gas, so gas station itself won't be run, they will be absorbed by car dealers.
9 toll men, because ETC system will be completely introduced.
10 middle traders because dealing style will change into direct dealing.
11 farmers with a side job because only big farmers will be able to survive.
12 major electronic power companies because the period of electricity deregulation will come
13 companies associated with natural energy , they won't be able to survive without subsidy.
14 Upper house members, --- I don't know, but it can't be helped.
15full-time housewives --- really? Mothers will "have to" work to earn "more " money because of financial crisis
16 Japanese board members, because Japanese companies have to be globalized.
17 middle-level executives Only skilled executives will be able to survive as an office worker.
18 clerks at company offices -- to cut labor costs
19 secretaries -- to cut labor costs
20 call center operators -- don't need to operate in Japan
21 traveling salespeople -- Internet shopping will be main measure,
22 mold craft men-- automatically
23compaines associated with printers --paperless time will be come, so such companies will be difficult to survive
24 brokers -- don't need to be in Japan
25 hedge fund managers -- don't need to be in Japan
26 financial planers-- only skilled financial planers will be survived
27life insurance sales ladies --Life insurance companies won't be able to afford these people.
28 teachers-- the number of children is decreasing, so the number of teachers is also decreasing.
29 police officers who work at a police box  Convenience stores will be in charge of this job.

I think some jobs will disappear, but --- if it's true, it must be difficult to live for elderly people, it means "my" senior period.

BONNOU

Have you ever heard the word "BONNOU"? It is one of Buddhism words. I'm not a Buddhist, but I'm Japanese, so I'm surrounded by lots of Buddhism things naturally. So for me BONNOU is a popular word, and "we" (it means most of Japanese" sometimes say that we are harassed by earthly desires. ( According a dictionary, BONNOU is earthly desires in English.)

I read an interesting book about BONNOU.
The writer, who is a monk, said to release your BONNOU

1. not to seek a deep contact with people surround you, including your family.
2 not to be irritated about yourself. If you are irritated, try to think about what makes you irritated.
3.not excuse yourself
4, no pressure, be patient.
5.not compare with something.

I know everything is difficult. But what is the most difficult thing for you?
For me, I tend to seek a deep contact with people, because I don't like feeling lonely.

My brother who is now 50, came back to my mother's house, and he has started to live with her. (Because he divorced.) I don't care about my brother's divorce. But my mother , who is now 78, sounds very happy though she says "I'm busy in cooking."
Probably she had been living with her loneliness. even though her second son's family lives next to door. Her husband died 35 years old at that time he was 53.  I think she has started the second life with her son. (Actually both of them have lots of things in common, for example, they are nervous, and they are stubborn, and --- Oh, sorry I'm not good at saying good things for my father and my brother.)

I gave up gardening.

 

 

 

Finaly gardeners finished their work. My "green" garden has bone. And we got a "shimple" garden.

 

I like seeing a green garden. But I hate weeding. So I gave up to organize my garden.

I'll grow harbs with  big pots.

 

We are going forward to a simple life.

 

Iwauchiwa

How was your weekend? Yuki and I had a good weekend. We went to a small mountain to see Iwauchiwa, which is a kind of alpine plants. They are blooming in the shade  of the mountain. Iwa means rock, and Uchiwa means Japanese flat fan.The leaves of Iwachiwa look like Uchiwa, and they thrive in a mountain which has lots rock. So they are called Iwauchiwa.
We knew we would go to a mountain, but we thought it would be a small mountain, so it would be easy to "walk".
However we had to "climb" up the steep up-down.

 
 

aBelow the mountain a ocarina solo concert was being held. And we saw another alpine plant, which is SYOJYOUBAKAMA. They are bigger than Iwauchiwa. There we bought some edible alpine plants, and, of course I made TENPURA for our dinner that night.

Karaku

Now it's already in the middle of April,isn't it?

This week I went to play the piano at KARAKU, which is a tea room.  There were beautiful cherry blossoms along the street in front of KARAKU, so many people came to seethe cherry blossoms, and dropped by KARAKU. It means that KARAKU was full of people. For me it was unusual. And the larger audience made my spirits uplift. Here I got some requests, which are Japanese old songs. Fortunately I remembered, so I could play them. Most of people there were elderly people, the oldest woman was 80. They seemed to really enjoy listening to Japanese old songs. I'm sure I gave an uplift in spirits to the people. And looking their wonderful smile made me also happy.

(Jan, are these sentences correct? I tried to use the words I learnt from you.)

 

And this week I had many guests in turn. On Monday, I went to visit a friends' house with this lunch. In Japan, many people cook beans, and foreigners are surprised to tasting "sweet" beans. But these days salty beans salad is getting popular. I love beans salad.

On Wednesday, and Thursday my friends came to have lunch together.
I cooked oranges again, and baked milk biscuits.
And I also made tortellini's salad.

 

One friend talked to me about her daughters and her grand child. She has enjoyed her life as a mother and a grand mother.

Another friend who get married but no child, talked to me about her job and a travel plan. She has enjoyed her life.

Though we don't need compare their lives, they are completely different.

 

In my case, probably I'm doing a halfway job, while I'm doing a halfway mother's job. (I don't know what the suitable way to discribe my stutiation. This sentence doesn't include negative attidute.)

It's me. So two different types of people came to my house in turn. It's fun.

 

Well today I'll go to a jym for a workout. There I'll meet another friend who is hooked on training.

 

 

Picture books in April

April has come. This year Easter is in April. It's interesting that Easter is not fixed. Easter is the first Sunday after the full moon in March, isn't it? So this year I'm going to do Easter events next week.

This is one of books to read in April.
There are one or two sentences in each page, so it's easy to read for anyone, and the contents are clear.
You might know the author "Ruth Krauss".
Probably the most well-know book is "the carrot seed".

 

I have other two her books, so I read them again.

I remember now, when I read this book to kids, I presented some seeds to them. Did they plant them?

And I also remember now that I have had a plan.

I have wanted some small kids to draw pictures on a wall with abandon like Harold, of course not in my house.

 

Do you have any plans to celebrate Easter?

 

 



Praising game

This is a card game which recently I found and bought. This is produced by disabled people. 

I'm in the generation of "SHOWYA". SHOWYA is  a period from 1926 to 1989. Additionally, I have to accept the truth my mother and I are in the same generation.  But the youth is in the generation of "HEISEI". Now it is in HEISEI 26th, or you can say it's in 2014 now.

What I want to say is that to discipline meant to scold in SHOWA period. Now everybody say to bring up kids while praising them. However in our case Yuki and I are not used to praising someone. So we need to learn how and when we praise someone  a little.  Yuki needs to encourage and praise his subordinates. I need to encourage and praise my students, young mothers and " my mother". 

We started to praise each other every morning to get used to praise someone using these cards in turn.

Until this week, we used these cards.

1. What are the advantages of scolding? Make a one minute speech.

2. The person on your right says one negative or bad word, and you try to change the word into two positive or good words.

3. Praise the person on your left for one minute.

4. Praise the person on your right about his or her character for two things.

5. Praise the person on your left about his or her appearance for one minute.

6. Praise yourself for one minute.

 

How do you do these things?