a bus tour of watching flowers

Last Sunday I went on a bus tour of watching flowers in KAMAKURA with my friend. We really enjoyed watching flowers in early spring. The photos are in turn, KAWAZU cherry, Hiragi nanten, Mansaku, Ume. ( I don know their English names.)

Going on a bus tour was the first experience for us. I thought such tours were for "OBASAN" (middle-aged women) and elderly people. And now we become OBASAN so we went in.

Well, actaully before being OBASAN, it was difficlut to go out leaving kids at home. Now my daughter is willing to let me go out on holidays.

Of course if we had enough pocket money and time we could travel personally. The bus tour is really inexpensive and easy to move. While we are chatting, the bus transports us.

The attendees were 3 OBASAN groups (including us) , a OJISAN( middle-aged men) group, some couples (our generation, and elder generation) and some single attendees.

Probably I think I told you, I'm not good at enjoying by myself. I was really surprised at them, and though they were cool.

I said to myself "I'll try to do it by myself like them!". My friend heard them, and said "don't say such a sad thing, enjoy together!".

I was really happy.

Of course it was a good one-day trip.

sweets sweets and sweets

Yesterday I had an adult English class after an interval of two weeks, because everone had a cold in turn.
I prepared sweets for them, and as you guess every student brougnt sweets for us, doughnuts, dumplings, and sweet rice cakes with fresn cream.
The photo is dumplings. When you hear Japnaese dumplings, you usualy imagine (if you are familier to Japanese sweets) bean paste dumplings. These dumpings has various tastes; bean paste( black one in the photo), tea, strawberries, grapes(purple one in the photo), kidny beans( white one in the photo ) , green tea, coffee(brwon one in the photo), apricots, and YUZU( a kind of citrons). Of course they are really delicious. The leftover four ones are going to be my today's snack at 3 o'clock.

The doughnuts: we ate them for breakfast and the leftover dougnhuts were taken by my daughter as her snack at school.
The sweet rice cakes: my daughter and I ate them for dessert of supper, and the leftover ones were served to my junior high school students at night to make them active.

Speaking ( or writing) about sweets makes me happy.

Anyway I had much sweets, so I'll go out dong 30-minute-exercise.

tiny complaints

There is my favorite bread shop nearby. They deal with various original breads. I like one of them. BUT I have a tiny complaint. It is a kind of "ANPAN"; that has AN(bean paste) and GYUHI(kind of Japanese sweets), and wrapped with sesami. I love it.
BUT the type of AN is not smooth type, rough type. If it were smooth type, it would be perfect for me.

The other day I had fresh ripen "KINKAN" ( a kind of tiny orange? lime?). It was the first time for me to eat them. Though I eaten KINKAN, they are boiled ones with sugar. It was really delicious. I want to eat again. But it's expensive, and probably the way to get them is telephone shopping or net shopping. Moreover my daughter and my husband don't like them.
My daughther is allergic to some acid in fruits, so she doesn' t have fruit so much. My husband proably eats KINKAN when I serve. BUT not so impressed.
Is it OK to buy the expensive thing for only my plesure?
If I want to buy clothes, I'm not puzzled, but about food-- I 'm puzzled which to choose something I only want to eat, or somehting my family want to eat.

We had a cold

We? yes my daughter and I. I had a cold for a week. Today, I'm not so bad.
And my daughter she also had a cold since last Saturday. Fortunately today she was able to go to school, and she had to go to school. Because from today her term exam has started.

Oh poor thing. She had caught a cold two days before her important exam. She had a high fever. So what she could do was just sleeping. It means she couldn't not do overnignt cramming for her exam.

Anyway this week started. I hope her good luck.

white beer

Yesterday my husband and I went on shooping to a depertment store nearby to get good quality pork. After an interval of 2 weeks we (my husband, my yougher daughter and I) was going to have dinner together.

Incidentally we dropped in at liquor shop to get a little qood quality drink. There my husband found a bottle of white beer. When he went to Belgium on his busniess drip, I heard, he always have this kind of beer. (According to him, when he ordered beer saying just "beer please", usually this kind of beer was served.) It reminded him of that trip , so he bought some bottles.

Actaully I'm not strong at alcohol, having a sip is tasty. BUT having more gives me a headache quickly. So wine, beer and cocktail are too tasty for me to drink much.

When I took a sip of white beer. It tasted strange. I've haven this taste somewhere before. It reminded me of licorice. I checked the ingredients. It included orange peel and coriander. There was a label of spicy beer.

This beer is OK for me to sip it. (In Japan, usually beel is gulped.)

Well, I found an interesting notice.

According alcohol law in Japan, this drink includes some spice, so it doesn't belong to a group of beer. Well, does it belong to what?

strange? or reasonable?

Next Wednesday , it is Valentine's Day. In Japan, though I don't know the reason, we have a custome to pleasent chocolate from women to men. My lessons of this week is called "Valentine's week." I read some picture books related with Valentine's Day, and give choclates to all students.

A junior high school student said a strange? or reasonable thing.

On the day all students were really sleepy. So I shouted, "wake up, wake up, let's study!". When I gave these chocolates, a student said "having a chocolate will make me awake. May I have it before studying?". I said "sure".

But another student said, " I think so, but today I want to go to bed as soon as this lesson is finished. If I have it and make me awake clearly, I can't to do that. So I dare not to have it, I magange to bear this sleep".

Well, is her excuse strange? or reasonable?

She beats me.

Who's "she"? My youhger daughter.
I like reading the consulataion page on the newspaper. This morning such a story appeared.

I'm in the 40's. I have a calm life with my husband and kids. BUT these days I really envy my close friends who are shingle, work hard and enjoy their rich life, and my sisteres whose son go to a first-class university. Probably I can't stand the situation that my close people have higher-class life. What should I do?

The adviser said "Do you know the story of "blue bird"? Don't look for a blue bird which is far, hold hard on your close blue bird. Your current live was built by your self step by step.

I understand what the adviser said. AND I also understant her feeling.

I said to my daugher "I'M REALLY AGREE WITH HER".
She said "To whom do you want to boast of having a kid who go to a first-calss shcool?"
I said "no one specail, because if I boat such a thing I must be hated"
She said " If you don't have no one, you don't need to envy such thing."

Yes, she is right.
I know that I've sticked at first-class universities becayse I failed to do that, it was a long long ago.
I like her broad-minded chracter.

Time flies

February came, and March is just around the corner. "Time flies".
This mean in Japanese Time flies like an arrow. Yesterday my daughter said "Time flies like wind(probably a gust)". She didn't know know the probarb (probably) so said this phrase without intension.

From tomorrow my elder daughter is going to Europe to visit some art museums. From the end of the next week, the term examination is going to starts at my younger daughter's school. And the end of month all members of my family are going to meet at "Home".
I'm looking forward to the end of month . What story will I be able to hear from my younger daughter? I'm excited. On the other hand I'm worried about my younger daughter's score.

Anyway "time flies like a gust". I like this phrase.

"Mottainai"!

"Mottainai", do you know the meaning of this word? It is difficult to be tranlated in English. Probably it is the peculiar to Japanese. This Grandma has habit saying "mottainai".

When a boy is brushing his teeth at bathroom while the water is running. She comes and says.

Splash Splash! Leaving water running. "Mottainai". And she turn off the tap.

I think the closet word to "mottainai" is wasteful.
When I went to a picture book exhibision I bought this book. It was written by a Japanese writer, but it is translated in ENGLIH using "mottainai".
Yesterday in my lesson, I showed this book. All kids knew this book. Actually now the word of "mottainai" is reconsidered even in Japan. So I read this book in English. Every kids seemed to enjoy my reading shouting "mottainai" together.

Japaese picturebooks exhibiton

I went an exhibition of Japanese picture books. It is an unusual thing that such exhibition is held in this rural city. It was full of family and some old women (including me). I think the women are volunteers to read picture books to kids somewhere or nursery school teachers.Every kid seemed to enjoy reading books. Seeing the sight I thought bullying world that is now a big issue at school would never exist. From when kids and parents will be busy into their life and loose such fantastic leisure. Everybody including me (probably) was smiling.
There are some awarded pictures drawn by kids in the room. Every picture was lovable. What talented kids they are! Looking at the pictures the future of the kids seems to be full of possibility. Additionaly my younger daughter has got award sometimes when she was a lower grade. I reminded of the her. Where has the talent of her gone? --though she keeps her unique personality even now.
Of course many foreign picture books which are translated in Japanese were introduced. I found some books that I have. It was the first time to read the books in Japanese. I'm really impressed "what perfect sentences they are!” I realized again that translators were really talented in Japanese though I already knew. We are Japanese, so when we read Japanese picture books, we can guess the writers feeling that are not written from pictures drwaing Japanese culture and history as the background. But on the contrary sometimes it is difficult to understand such feeling of foreign pictures books. On some books translators translate the sentences with some suitable supplementing words.
I got lots of post cards for free. What post cards are your favorites?

What are your favorite pastimes

On a Japanese blog a woman makes a list of her favorite pastimes. There are ten things. What and how many do I have my favorite pastimes? I'll list them.
1. Going to new tearooms or restaurants.
Actaully now I have a tearoom I'd like to go. I'm looking for someone who goes with me.
2. Going on one day trip
Since my daughters are grown up, I have some chances to take "one day" trip. The end of the month I'm going to go on a bus tour of KAMAKURA with my friend. It is the first time to make a "bus tour". I'm really exciting.
AND thoug it is one of my dreams, after my daughters will stand by themselves I would go abroad for several months.
3. Going to concerts
Last year I went to concerts five or six times. This year if "TARAZUKA"(women's revue) comes to this city I'll go again. (I don't check this year's shows at concert halls yet.)
4. Going somewhere with my daughters
My elder daughter seldom comes home, my younger daughter is busy doing something (sometimes studying), but we all like to go art museums or interior shops. This month a new national art museum opened in TOKYO. And an interesting photo exhibition is going to be held at a studio in TOKYO. I want to manage to go there with my daughters.
5. Going to see movies
I sometimes go to the movies with friends. (My husband don't like very much, instead of it he is into seeing DVDs.) This year I'll try to go to the movies by myself.

These things are all going somewhere with someone. So I think what is be able to be done by myself.

6. Reading
I like reading. Every other week I go to a library. These days my younger daughter also likes reading books though she still loves reading comics. So sometimes we go together. And sometimes we change books we borrowed. When our interesting is the same, we are really excited about the story. (Though my husband likes reading books as well, but he usually reads historical or political things, seldom reads essay, and never reads love stories.)
7. Going to used shops
when I find unusual but cool clothes, I'm really happy. I wear them when I play the piano at a tea room. When I find really cute clothes, I grin. Though I'm embarrassed, I wear them when I read picture books to infants at a nursery school.
8. Sharing new tasty sweets and foods with someone
I'm really interested in new sweets and foods. I like to look for them. AND when I share with someone (usually my adult students), if they are impressed like me and share the emotion, I'm really glad.
9. Keeping blog
Probably I'm addicted to writing blog. And it is the most favorite pastime as far as I think of now.

I'm afraid I can't list 10 items.

Do you enjoy your job?

Yesterday a woman visited me; she is also a teacher belonging to the same franchise English class. When we met at a meeting she showed a big interesting to my teaching materials. So she came to my house. She asked many questions one after another. So we didn't have time to have tea calmly.
I was really happy and excited to show my handmade materials and collection of my picture books. She seemed to be also happy.She said "You really seem to enjoy teaching.
"I haven't thought about that. When I get up, usually I suffer from headache. So I manage to inspire my self to spend the day without troubles. Doing morning house chores, sitting at PC, preparing today's lesson and going to 30 minute exercise, they are what I usually do in the morning. And after practicing the piano my job starts. And at 9:30 it is finished.
I’m usually relieved to finish the job without cancellation.Yesterday from her words without intention I realized that I enjoyed my job though I'm really bad at enjoying something.
This year it is few inquiry of new students but I have still some students. So I thank of remaining students --though it doesn’t pay off very much.

What do you ask for to governor of your prefecture?

Yesterday I attended a meeting managed a man. I'm a house wife and private teacher, so it is a few chance to talk with men except my husband. (It's interesting, when I was in my 20's and 30's I seldom had a chance with women except my mother and two friends.) The members attending the meeting make a speech within a limit time. There are various speeches; a long speech, a short speech. The themes are decided by the chairman on the day or we can decide by ourselves. Probably if the all attendance were women, something political couldn't be chosen as a theme.
Yesterday the theme I was given was that "what do you ask for to governor of your prefecture?”I was really puzzled, because I've never thought of such thing.
My speech was that; it’s really difficult to talk about such thing immediately; I always manage to accept this situation hard, so I've never thought of asking for something.But If I asked for something to our governor to live more comfortable, I'd ask for three things.
The first one is building more public high schools. There are probably about 20 public high schools and most of them are concentrated in the main city. For these decades many companies came to this area so living area gets wider. Elementary schools and junior high schools are reconsidered where they are needed, but high schools are not reconsidered. Now it is the time to reconsider where they are needed and they have to build equally around the prefecture.
The second is making more parking area in the urban area. Probably every body thinks the same thing. Apparently doughnut-phenomenon occurs. The main transport way is "car" in this area. So to make the urban area more active, more parking area is necessary. If it is easy to go there, people go there even if there are a few interesting shops. BUT more people come, more interesting shops appear.
The third one is selling more local veg. We have lots of field. BUT we buy other prefecture's veg or agricultural product at shop. What a good thing if we bough veg or auricular product directly by farmer. Probably it is difficult, but I think it is possible to get such things by short-cut way than TOKYO. It is funny to buy veg the same way of big city.
That's all.I hope these sentences make sense

To belong to a group

There's a space for consultation from readers in the newspaper. It is interesting to me to read it. Something is fun, something is like my worry and something is rid******.(I can'tsay it directly).

The other day I saw an interesting contribution. It was from a senior high school girl.
According to her story; She is really friendly with two girls, she belongs to the friendly group. But these days she seems to be disliked by one of them. Being with them she feels like being left behind. She can't bear the situation. But she can't move to other groups now because other groups are already fixed. She is getting to dislike to go to school. She said "what should I do?"

I can really understand her worry. My daughter and my junior high school students have been worried about the same thing.

The counselor says; Why do you cling to "group"? Try to put away the way to think that "to belong to a group means to have a good friend". I understand this advice too. But probably it must not solve her worry.

To belong to a group is , I think, easy to live school life calmly. Being alone is really scary for the adolescent. But it is hard to keep being a good group. I think this is a typical issue not only for the adolescent but also Japanese women.
Even for me, I sometimes think about a group, though in my case I belong to a group or not. Because having a group seems to be easy to live a usual life.

How to YUZUKOSYOU

Now all members of my family are into "YUZUKOSYOU". Finaly I put it on my daughter's lunchbox. Can you see where the "YUSUKOSYOU" is.

If you are Japanese, you might think "ss it OBENTOU for a teenager, really? It's like for a hungry boy". BUT she loves such bold, simple OBENTOU, and I love it because it is easy to cook.

I put rice into her lunchbox, and put grilled beaf (tasted Korean sauce) , sauted cabbage with salt & pepper, and a little green "YUSUKOSYOU".

She alreday knew the contents of today's OBENTOU. Because she has alread eaten the same thing for breakfast. Now my hourse is full with the smell of this grilled beaf, not "YUZUKOSYOU". I'm also going to eat the same thing for my lunch with lots of "YUZUKOSYOU"

Yesterday's troubles.

Some small troubles happend yesterday, though they were all solved.
At first the morning when I opend an important file attaced on an e-mail, it wasn't open. Nevertheless a waring messge was shown from the anti-virus program "Norton". I was really shocked. Though I thought my computar must have been safe, I checked my computer using a security program. It took 4 hours. I couldn't do any computer work. My computer was safe, the problem seemed to happen "yahoo" server. The problem seemed not to be solved yet.

Next at noon, my mother, who lives in TOKYO by herself lost (dropped) her small bag with her ATM card. She seldome uses the card, so she had the bag and wallet apart. As she noticed that, she went back to the bank immediately (30 minutes later after she drew some money at a bank she noticed that) and she made her card invalidate not to be used by other people. Actaully the rest of money was at bank safely. Though she is old, she could deal with this accident smoothly and immediately. She braged of her self saying "I'm not in my dotage".

And at midnight my husband came home by taxi from "a station". Yesterday he went to TOKYO on bisiness trip. It takes 10 minutes by taxi (at midnigt) from the station nearby.
As soon as he opend the door he shouted "give me some money". Why? Didn't he have some pennies? No, it costed really really high! Because he slept over and rode past 1 stop by bullet train. He came back from the next station driving "high way road". Though he could sleep in his bed as usual, it was a really really expensive business trip.

6 day school week system resumes??

Now it is becoming a big issue to studying deficiency. A five day school week system was phased in about 12 years ago. At that time it was said everybody (teachers and kids) were too busy to have relax time. But for this decade many thing haverapidly changed (or progressed) for example, computer games, cellphones appeared.

Now it is said having more free time makes kids lazy. So some students are busy to attend cram schools, and other students are busy playing computer games. Apparently the difference of studying is getting bigger.So some education authorities voiced to resume 6 day-school week.

I'm not sure whether it resums or not. But it might be one way to eliminate the problem. Now rich people is able to let their kids attend cram schools, but poor people can't do it. I thought every kid had to have same opportunity to get education.

BUT ---Teachers , who are "workers" will become busy, and "parents" and "kids" have to get up earlier on Saturdays. It must be hard to return to such a busy life. For many family "Saturdays" are really important family days.

Anyway unified preliminary examination for state-run and other public universities is done.this system is not changed for long time. When kids become high school students they have to face to study hard for the examination.

The second meeting of reading English picture books

I was really glad that more than 30 people came to listen to our stories. The audience was from babies to adults, showed wide generation.
Each readers made an elaborate show, though it was not job. Paper dolls appeared, "panel theater" appeared, big books appeared, and books with some devices?? (I'mnot sure what they are called) appeared.
What is "panel theater"? I think it was invented in Japan. Please look at the photo. I made them. The each characters are drawn on the thin clothes and I tell a story using the big white cloth board ,because of static electricity (probably) each character put on or take off freely.
Well, the highlight was a Chinese story by a Chinese lady. China is near our country, and lots of Chinese live here, but we seldom have a chance to hear Chinese. For everybody it was a new experience. It sounded really calm (or her voice seemed to be suitable to the story)
We are going to this meeting 4 times in the rest of year. I wish if some forefingers joined and talked the country's stories by the native language like her.

the later part of this week has started

Today in the morning I'm going to go to a nursery school nearby to read English books to kids. And today's lesson (my job) is going to start from 1 P.M, and end at 9:30 P.M. (though I have a rest for snack time and supper.) Probaly today it would be the buiest day of this week.

I don't like the word of "busy". Correctly I don't like hearing the word of "busy". Because I envy pepople saying "busy". And though it hears strange, I don't like the word of "free", beacuse I'm not good at spending free time well. So probably today it would be a suitable busy day for me.

Well it is difficult to describe my feeling in English. Do these sentences make a sense? Do you understand my feeling?

The book I'm going to read is "five little monkies".

My mother-in-law has caught a cold

My mother-in-law lives alone in TOKYO. Usually she is really fine though she is about 80. She belongs to verious circles ; dance, singing, sawing, golf, and a volenteer group to help "elder people" ( usually she helps younger people than her.)
She is really active.
BUT once she becomes sick, she gets really depressed.

At night of the day before yesterday I got a call from her in weak voice.
And yesterday I called her: one, two, three, four, five times.
She said when she heard other's voice, she felt fine and tried to eat something.

I understand her feeling.
Yesterday night my elder daughter went to see her with some fruits.
She said her granmo looked very happy and gave her some pocket money.

In this situation we can't live near her yet. BUT it is the time to think about my mother-in-law life.