Garbage -4-

We can't deal with garbage by our selves; it means we have to understand that we need extra attention to deal with garbage. What do you think about it? It's not easy to burn garbage and to bury garbage in this narrow Japan. We need to change our mind from easy thinking that garbage should be thrown away to serious thinking that we have garbage disposed by someone. Though it might be out of focus about this issue, in my house, probably my husband and my daughter think that they have their garbage disposed by me. So anyway our garbage manages to be separated.

Moreover I hope we think about garbage positively. Though I also tell old times, at that time "Don't waste everything" was common. Some people would hesitate to throw things away. But now we are surrounded with full of things and it is easy to think "buying something new is easier than keeping old things". So we tend to be indifferent to throwing things away. It's not good. We should have interests to throw things away. Actually these days, the word of "MOTTAINAI" that means "what a waste!" is being reconsidered. And using a picture book, the word of MOTTAINAI is reconsidered at moral class in every elementary school. It's a good and really effective thing to change our minds, isn't it? And though it's a tiny thing, I also read an English version of this book at nursery schools. Reading the book, not only audience but also myself can rethink about garbage.

It's a usual thing to obey the rule, so we should dispose garbage according to the rule. But having "Mottainai" sense we try to deal with garbage positively not from command. This attitude is more important, don't you think so? And this attitude might lead to save the earth. Anyway not try to think "throw away garbage" instantly, wait a minute to put garbage into a trashcan.

Garbage -3-

The people who dumped such garbage must have no other purpose, they must thought just "it's troublesome", or "it' s a tiny plastic bag of garbage". I understand their feeling. In my house there are three trash cans in the kitchen, one is for burnable garbage, one is for cans and bottles and the other is for plastic bottles and traies. My daughter and my husband have a trash can in their each room. Usually they put any kinds of garbage in their trash cans, and on Sundays, they separate and throw them away to the suitable trash cans in the kitchen. But sometimes they don't do that saying "troublesome","busy" and I do that while murmuring. How do we deal with garbage smoothly?

Until a few decades ago we would burn burnable garbage in the yard, and bury others in the hall on the corner of the back yard. When I came here about 20 years ago, I had a small incinerator. So I burned used paper. But now many people don't have enough space for putting incinerators and enough time for burning. If they had, we have lots of plastic things. And we noticed when we burn them they exhaust harmful gas of dioxin. So now, burning garbage at home is prohibited.

to be continued

Garbage -2-

This time I'll explain how to separate garbage in my town concretely.
We should separate 5 categories and 10 types.
1 Recyclable Resources
There are 6 types in this category.So we should put them into 5 types in the corner of garbage station.
a. newspapers, b. cardboard, c. magazines and other types of paper, d. cloth, e. bottles and cans f. plastic pet bottles (we should remove caps and labels, rinse the inside and crush flat before disposal.)

And there are other 4 categories. But they also mean other 4 types.
2&g Hazardous Garbage ; dry cell batteries, light bulbs, spray cans, etc.
3&h Combustible Garbage ; kitchen scraps, plastic items, special paper such as fax paper, photos, and so son. video tapes, etc.
4&i Non-Combustible garbage ; potteries, pans, broken glass, wire hangers, cosmetic bottles, etc.
5&j Oversized garbage ; furniture, household electric appliances and so on. In this case we call the Oversized Garbage Reception Center to apply for a pick up. The cost is 810yen (less than 10$) per item.

And there are other things not to dispose; TVs, laundry machines refrigerators, car batteries, tires and so on. We should ask dealer or Collection Company to handle them.

Garbage -1-

In two weeks, I'm going to make a short speech about garbage. So I'm putting together my mind on this diary. If you don't know the system of dealing with garbage in Japan, it might be difficult to understand the contents. But anyway I'll try to wirte down. If I get some comments, I'm really happy.

Garbage -1-
Are you interested in the garbage problem? Any municipal authorities attempt to reduce garbage and recycle garbage to cut down the cost of garbage running costs and to decrease carbon dioxide.

In Yokohama, they should separate garbage into 10 groups and 15 kinds of things. And this year they succeeded in reducing 30% garbage, and 750 thousand tons of carbon dioxide. The cost of separating garbage was not so cheap, but they could cut down the cost of running incinerator more. And the amount of carbon dioxide seems to be tantamount of the amount of the forest 1.2 times as large as Yokohama city.

It is a wonderful thing. On present showing separating garbage seems to be the easiest way for everyone to try to reduce garbage equally. If small tries get together, it must be of big effect. But this separating is kind of command, we should reconsider this problem of garbage as our own problem; we should do something by our will, not by command. At that time we’ll really be able to overcome this problem.

In my city, the way to deal with garbage is not so strict. We separate garbage into 5 groups and 10 kinds of things. I think it's not so difficult. But on the day of garbage truck coming, I often see some bags of garbage which are against the rule. Most of them are small plastic bags full of mixed garbage of plastic bottles, paper, can, and so on. Probably some lazy single men (or women) do that. When a garbage truck comes and sees them, they just put the sign written "rule violation", leave them and run along. After that house wives or elder people who keep the house, separate the garbage in the bags according to the rule. Does it sound something strange? On the surface separating garbage is well done, but not everyone does it.

to be contined

Pickled cucumbers

The other day I was taught "pickled cucumbers with Syouchu".

Now My daughter loves them, so I often make them, and I often give som of them to my friends, and most of friends are surprised and glad. So I tell the recipe.

It's really easy, if you can get Syouchu.

Prepare 5 or 6 cucumbers.

Cut both side of them a little to let the liquid penetrate easily.

Put them into a big plastic bag with zip.

Add 120g suger.

Add 23g salt.

Add 30cc Syouchu.

And just wait for a day.

I usualy use millet suger, so something brown in this photo is "sugar".

What are the three most important qualities in a teacher?

There are many opinions in different situations. At first I’m thinking as one of parents.
I suppose the things what parents seek are different according to where teachers work. Especially cram school teachers and public school teachers are quite different. I want elementary and junior high school teachers. Students can’t choose school teachers, but can choose cram school teachers. So I want public school teachers to be fair, understanding (empathetic) and have eagerness to communicate with students. On the other hand I want cram school teachers and high school teachers to be skilful, to have own policy about their lesson, and encouraging.
I’m thinking about myself. I have some students. It means I’m a kind of teacher, but not a public school teacher, not a cram school teacher. I’m not sure what parents expect me. And I know, If I reached exactly what current parents except and if I had those things, my school would be bigger. In this point I’m not good at business.
What I think is that I want to be encouraging, advanced and ( a little bit) skilful.

Dokudami lotion

Dokudami is kind of Japanese herb. But they are usually used as medicine.http://www.flowersociety.org/Dokudami.htm Dokudami seems to be found in Japan, so the name in English is also Dokudami. Some Dokudami is growing in the back yard. When my daughters were worried about atopic dermatitis, my mother-in-law used to make this lotion. It really worked well. Though there seems to be several ways to make it. the way I know is really easy.

You fill up a jar with raw Dokueami leaves and pour SYOUCYU. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ShōchÅ« Keep it in the dark and cool place for a month. It will get clear brown liquid. And add some drops of grycerin. That’s all. It is said to work well to decrease our stains.

I hope the liquid in the jar will get good clear brown liquid.

Flowers for the day of each birthday -2-

At the meeting,I made an instant speech about my birthday flower of “YUZURIHA”.
Now I’m getting older, but I want to stop aging, and I want to rejuvenate myself like to lose or decrease winkles spots, weight, and recover my strengths. I know it’s really hard, though these days anti-aging seems to be talk about elder people.
Apart from appearance, I’m thinking about my life from next year. Now my younger daughter wants to go to college in TOKYO. So if she succeeds in it, there will be only two members in this house in Tochigi, my husband and me. I want consider the new situation as start of newborn life, not start of old life. We met at college, and until my daughters were born, we had spent together. At that time we were young, so we couldn’t do the same life, I’m afraid that we might be caught by empty syndrome. I want to spend cheerful, bright and positive life with my husband.

Flowers for the day of each birthday -1-

The other day I attended a Toast Master meeting. There an interesting topic was introduced. It was flowers for the day of each birthday. Though I knew each month has a flower; for example January flower is carnations. Its meaning seems to be “fascination”, and “devoted Love”.
According to the 365 day flower table, my birthday flower was “YUZURIHA”. I didn’t know the flower. I looked into it. It is a kind of tree and it’s the native flower of our country Japan. Its meaning is “new born” and “rejuvenation”. I’ll show the table with photos, though it is a Japanese site. Do you know any English site about this? If you know some, please tell me.

http://www.birthdayflower366.com/

This photo comes from the 365 flwoers site.

I have questions.

These days I’ve learned some adjectives to describe someone’s character. Now I’m wonder what image do you have about the word of “wild”.
A: Who was your best friend in high school?
B: My best friend was Mieko.
A: What was she like?
B: She was funny and kind of wild.
Q1.In this conversation, did B want to say “she was a little bit violent”? or “rude” or “selfish?”.
Please tell me.

And I’ll tell other words I learned.
Positive adjectives; demanding (strict), down-to-earth (practical), encouraging, understanding (generous),
Easy-to-talk to (friendly), easy-going (optimistic), dependable, grown-up (precocious)
Negative adjectives: cranky (sour), unfair, rude, condescending (arrogant) competitive, nerdy (not fashionable)
Q2.Is there anything to be careful when I use these words?

My current garden

Not so bad. Because of little rain, we don't have much weed. Tomatoes are growing smoothly. We can see some green totmatoes. Greepappers have some flowers. I heard we should pick the first flower to get many gree papeers in summer. Is it right? And anyway SHISO leaves (kind of herb) grow thick. We eat most every night. At first my daughter didn't like them, but as I served them insistently she said "I got used to SHISO", and now she said "I'm tired of SHISO".

When I say the word "whimsical" what do you think of?

I like reading Desire's diary. http://talkwithdesiree.typepad.com/desitalk/ She interviews to herself. Today's title is one of her interview question.
I didn't know the word of "whimsical", until I read her diary. According to my English-English dictionary, it means "unusual or strange and often amusing". So I suppose this word is suitable to my younger daughter, or sometimes I can say she is odd, or sometimes I can say she is easygoing.
When I woke her up this morning, she was sleeping in her school uniform. According to her she woke up really early, and studied a little (according to her), and felt sleepy again. She thought if she wore the school uniform, she could sleep a little bit late. So she changed into her school uniform. I thought wearing it earlier or later takes a same time. Her behavior only gets her school uniform wrinkled and dirty

It's too hot

Though rainy season has started, it has been sunny and hot. This morning I pranted pot flowers , which are in the sun room, in the garden. Instead of them I put them. Do they seem cool? This stone of the frog is called "OOYA" stone. This stone is really famous in this area. Many people put the stone flog at the gate or in the entrance hall. They are said to bring a good luck.

Rainy season starts

According to the weather report we are into rainy season. BUT it is a really fine day, I "have to" water the garden. As you know in Japan it is really humid, and my house is old, so this season sometimes slugs come out in the bath room. If you stayed with us and found a slug, please not be surprised at it. Of course I hate them. When I find them, I pick them up with wood chop sticks and put them away outside. They are too slimy for me to kill(crsuh?) them.

On the other hand when I found cockroaches I squash them with slipper in one.

I can imagine that you are reading this diary with a frown.

I clean my house alomst evey day, so it is not so dirty, probably just it is old.

This season sometimes I found snails in my garden. They are not so bad.

When I was a little, I had thought slugs were homeless snails.

Anyway I put these snails on the shelf in the entrance hall.

What kind of ethnic food do you know and do you like?

The other day in our English learning group we talked about some ethnic foods; tacos calzones, eggrolls moussaka, quiche, shishkebab, nan,macaroni and cheese, croquettes, shepherd's pie, lasagna, swedish meatballs. Do you know of them? I didn't know some of them. And I've eaten some of them.
My husband like tacos and I like soft thin bread tacos.
My family loves curry and rice. We sometimes go out to an Indian restaurant. I usually order some nan. But my husband and my daughter prefer rice.
I have one memory about lasagna. I used to think badly of lasagna beause of being too oily. But an American friend, who was living in Japan for two years, told me an intereseting recipe. She recomended to use natrual cheese, cottage cheese and "TOFU". It is tasty. If you are interesed in it, please try it.

fresh leeks

I got lots of leeks from my garden. These leeks are so thin, but they are such kind of leeks. (What do I say? It's mean they are not malnutrition, they are good thin leeks)

I minced some of them and freezed.

I grilled chicen and these leeks with Miso paste and put into today's OBENTOU.

AND

I also made salad with potatoes, white asparagus and fresh leeks instead of parsley.

Looks good and tastes good.

It tastes bitter than using parsley.

I enjoyged leeks, thanks for my garden.

Well, I wonder if the leek in the garden will recover. Because just I only cut , and leeks come from bubls. What do you think of it?

Father's Day

Father's day is just around the corner. Today I went shopping with my husband after two week interval. The migraine stole my strength, I'm easy to be tired. Now I'm getting back my strength. And Shopping is the best way of it, isn't it?

We went to "GAP". And I bought him a casual black jacket. He already went out to play the bass wearing the new jacket.

Next week I'm going to make this card and coaster with my students for their dads in my lesson.

herb tea

The other day I told you I bought "rose hip tea". Since then I began to be intereseted in herb tea. I used to be coffer-addict. But since I had a week stomach, I try to prefer green tea or tea.
I was not so intreseted in herb tea, because for me it felt grasshy.

Anyway I bount some kinds of blended herb tea. So I don't know clear what kinds of herb are included. Just I chose these from the lavel.

These naming is really fun. I introduce in my poor English.
To be more well-balnaced of your mind
For people who are worried about cold
Detoxification
On the day when you feel depressed

And I also bought "Echinacea spp". It seems to work well for caughing and weak throat.

I hope my translation makes sense.

bad migraine

Now I'm suffering migraine. Last week it was too bad. One morning I couldn't stand up when I wake up. so my husband took me to see a doctor, and I got two shoots. One is IV shoot, so it was really painful. Now I've taken dizziness medicine and headache medicine, but not so good.
Of course these medicines work well so I've worked as usual.
BUT this symptom makes me feel down.

Yesterday there was a big event, I was looking forward to attend it, but I wasn't able to do it. I stopped long (it meanes more than 30 minites) drive. In this area without driving it is limitted to go out.

It can't be helped. New week has started. I hope I'll feel better.
This weekend I have to go out to attend another meeting.

Are you OK?

Though sometimes it get cool (or cold) , mostly it is warm or hot. So another morning job is added. It is to water the garden. This morning I started watering the garden without any care. Suddnely under the SANSYO tree (Japanese pepper tree) something black came out. It was a black butter fly. It seemed to be too soaked to fly. It flaped its wings hardly to dry them. After a while it started to walk and held on the grass. It opend the wings widely and staned still. Are you OK?