Chayote

Now I'm getting better. This morning I got up without headache pill though I needed to take dizziness pill.
 Yesterday Yuki and I drove for a change. We went to a local farm market.

There, I found a curious vegetable. The sign was CHAYOTE. And now I know they are Chayote in English. Do you know Chayote? Have you ever eaten Chayote?

They seemed to be cooked in various ways such as, deep fried, fried, salad. And it seems to be good as as a desert of simmering Chayote with wine and sugar.



So I cooked them this morning. I fried with HARUSAEM and other vegetables.

Saturday

About one week passed since I updated my blog. Though someone may have guessed, I was not in good shape. Now I'm getting better.
I've had a bad headache. Without medicine I couldn't do nothing. But anyway I did all things; managing a meeting, doing volunteer jobs, and of course lessons that are the most important things. So I skipped cooking breakfast and doing house chores. The supermarket nearby is open until 12PM. So Yuki can buy something fresh such as vegetables, fruits, on the way home. And thanks to frozen foods we can have meat or fish.
Today it was the worst day. It was difficult for me even to come down stairs. So Yuki took me to a clinic before he went to work. I got a shot. And I was sleeping almost all the day. Now it's past 6 PM. Though I have a slight headache, I'm getting better.

This month I'm enjoiyging Halloween, ---- but it made me busies than usual.
This month the difference of temperture  between mornings and nights is so big.---- it makes me weeker.
And I feel irritable at myself, because it's a little bit difficult to keep it step with some members in my volunteer group that was founded by myself.
It was difficult for me to continue volunteering work, or improving my self alone, so I started to make a group. Though everybody seems to enjoy the activities, it's a little bit hard to encourage to improve each other more.
I know I'm upset, I should be slow down.

Sorry I'd like to morn.

The other day I called a friend to morn, but she was more tired from nursing her mother-in-law.
She said "I envy you to keep such a group activity". Actually I'm lucky. I couldn't morn anything to her. She didn't complain about anything, she just told her current statement calmly.She's an accomplished woman. Or for her I'm not easy to speak to. We are in a completely different world. It's sad.

Anyway, next Thursday it is the day of trick or treating. I have to recover my power.

Sunday

It was a sunny and a hot day, though when Yuki went out for golfing early morning it was raining.
I cleaned the rooms and reorganized the carport (we did the craft of carving pumpkins at the carport.)

And --- I thought I would read English books or study English, but I decided to go out alone.
First I went shopping some bagels to my favorite bakery where it took 30 minutes by car. The baker and I already become acquainted. So I talked him for a while.

And  I dropped by a cafe. Last week I went there coincidentally. At that time I didn't have enough time to look at the dishes. The place is a cafe and gallery of dishes.
I look at the dishes, had Chinese tea, and talked with the young master who was 31 years old.
I had a leisurely afternoon.

To tell the truth I've had some troubles among the members of my volunteer&studying group. You might ask what the problem are. It's difficult to tell them in short. We start to notice differences in our interests in our activity. It can't be helped.I neither refuse who comes nor go after who leaves.
 

Halloween 2011

Kindergarten students made bone-hands with popcorn.
Of course we made popcorn from dry-corn.

Elementary school students made "strange" TAKO-YAKI.

Usually inside of Tako-Yaki is boiled octopus (it is TAKO in Japanese.) This time, they chose Wasabi, Karashi, small tomatoes, pumpkin paste (I recommended), Kimuchi (Korean pickles), chocolate. Unexpectedly chocolate-TAKOYOKI was bad. On the other hand Kimuchi-TAKOYOKI was yummy.

Of course everybody carved pumpkins. 

Happy Halloween.

Yesterday's report

A lady enjoyed milk coffee with the pumpkin spice in the morning.
Two ladies enjoyed carving pumpkins in the afternoon.

Three kids came to take piano lessons in turn in the evening, unfortunately they don't have enough time to do crafts, they enjoyed Corn Candy.
Two junior high school student came at night, -- they took usual lessons having Corn Candy. Junior high school students and high school students are going to do "trick or treat" in the end of October wearing a costume. So they don't do any crafts.

Today, I'll crave pumpkins, and cook "strange" TAKOYAKI. I'll show you them tomorrow.

Halloween month

For your country it might be Thanksgiving week, but, in my class, it's Halloween month.
Though as I wrote about pumpkins,  a farmer I always get pumpkins from  for almost free, couldn't grow pumpkins because of this disaster. I thought I wouldn't let make my students Jack-o-lanterns. But I want to give new students in this year a taste of doing it.
and I ordered pumpkins through the Internet.
On the other hand fortunately another farmer gave me some Japanese pumpkins which are green outside, so I simmered them to make pumpkins paste.

Now Halloween month begins. Of course the sweet came. Though Halloween has become popular in Japan, I've never seen candy corn. To show how candy corn is traditional sweet, a picture books is necessary.
I prepared pumpkin napkins. And it is the turn of the pumpkin spice.
Today's adult lesson is going to be done outside with pumpkin spiced coffee.

I appreciate Jan's kindness.

rice bread

Do you know "rice bread" that we call "gohan pan)? It's not common, because a senior lady "invented" it. There is a small restaurant nearby. It is run by a senior lady and she serves her home-made vegetables there.

She loves inventing cooking. And she invented this rice bread. First she served it to only old customrs, and next she served it as appetizer. Finally the health department approved to sell it. I hope her rice bread will be popular in this area.

Monday

Though it's Monday, on our Japanese calender it's holiday. And for children in this area, they are in their fall vacation.
Though I did all jobs that I had to do last week, to tell the truth, I was not in good condition. I was suffering headaches.
Today I don't take medicine, so it seems to get better.

On Thursday and Friday, I did the first Halloween English time wearing the pumpkin costume. Everybody seemed to enjoy "me".
On Sunday, Yuki recommended to play something outside, so I went to practice golf or watched Yuki's playing golf to a golf range nearby.
There ---- I got small Japanese pears for free. (The owner of the golf range is in the landscape business, so he might have some pear trees.) So I made pare jam.

Though I would say "it's delicious", --- I seemed to put much citric acid. ( Unfortunately I didn't stock any lemons, so I put some citric acid.)  It's too sour. (Later I'll put some honey in it.)
The other day, Jan kindly sent her home-made peach jam. It is really delicious, we enjoy it. So I try to make my jam ---- it didn't work well in my world.

Do you know chimichurm?

Do you know a condiment of chimichurri? I didn't know that. Just yesterday I knew the name.
According to the dictionary it is mainly made from finely chopped parsley, minced garlic,.
Though some people know I update our breakfast on the FOTLOG. These days a person in Uruguay put a comment. There she introduce the name of chimichurri. Unfortunately I can't put my comments on the fotlog these days, I don't know why? I'm asking FOTLOG-help center about it.

Well, well, today's breakfast is just sweet that my neighbor brought last night. I can't eat all of them. so another roll is today's fresher at the adult class.

October came

We changed a carpet in the living room from a bamboo carpet to wool carpet.Though it is warm in the day, it's cold early morning and at night. SYUKAIDOU is blooming in the garden.

How was your weekend?
I had a good and active weekend.



Since Thursday Yuki and I went to KUSATSU on one night two day trip.
At Saturday night, we went to a concert at ICHIGEIKAN where once we held a concert. This time a small Jazz band came.And on Sunday I went to NIKKO to attend an English workshop.

Well, today it is Monday. My usual days have started. This week is a volunteering week. I'm going to do an English activity at two nursery schools wearing a pumpkin costume.

I'm waiting for Yuki

Today, it's Sunday. For most of people it's a holiday, but Yuki is working. Now I'm waiting for his coming. He said "Today, maybe I will come home early. so I'll have dinner at home".  --- but he seems to come home late as usual.
Today I made smoked-tuna with my smoke pot. Something smoked is good whether it's hot or not not. So it doesn't matter how he comes late.
The reason why I cooked it, is --- this present. It's SAKE. Our daughters sent it to him. Because  -- the other day, it was his "birthday".

To be precise, his birthday was three days ago.On the day we didn't have enough time to have dinner, so I just bought him this chocolate cake.

It was an usual day,  it means ---- our daughters didn't call him, didn't send an e-mail to him. They forgot the day. Next early morning I sent an e-mail to them -- just one sentence that "What day was it yesterday?"

It worked. They called  him as soon as they got up.(I dare not to write what time they got up. It was a holiday.) And today this SAKE reached him.

I think smoked-tuna suits to SAKE. So I made it and I'm waiting for Yuki. (Usually I don't wait for his coming, I go to bed when I get sleepy.)



I've prepared for the Halloween month.

October is just around the corner. It means -- the Halloween month is just around the corner.

 Can you see a real orange pumpkin? I don't know the real name, it is called "KORINKEE" in Japanese. I hear that we can eat them raw as a kind of fruit. (Usually when we eat pumpkins, we cook them.) I bought it at a local farmer's shop nearby.
I decorated the rooms with Halloween goods.


 And I prepared books and music to read at nursery schools, and costumes for my students who aregoing to do trick or treat in the end of October. New Halloween books also arrived. (Thanks Jan)

The books were in a big box that arrived the other day. The box was from Jan. She sent some books (mainly for Halloween) to me. I was really surprised when I opend it, because I found a familiar author's name  in the books.  It was Taro Gomi. He is  a famous Japanese author. I  sometimes see  Reimported cars (from America to Japan). But it was the first time to get a reimported book.
Does everyone know Taro Gomi?

Wednesday's topic

Typhoon has gone. I didn't need to evacuate, but some places around my house were flooded, and according to Yuki, he showed signs  of "no trespassing"(by flood) on his way home. And he saw some , and some water-damaged cars. Fortunately he came back without troubles.
Today it's sunny, and---"hot" again.

The worst time of yesterday was only evening. So I had usual adults lessons.
Yesterday's topic was "your friends".

We talked about the "distance" between friend ship. The closer we become, the deeper our intimacy is.
It means the distance of our friendship is closer, and  the distance is too much close, sometimes the friendship breaks.
(Does it make sense?)
So we said  that appropriate distance of our friend ship is important.
(I'm not sure whether the word distance is suitable word or not.)

For you what is the most important quality in a friend?

Yesterday's fresher or special is this cake called Baumkuchen (it is German in origin.)
"Baum" means tree and "kuchen" means cake in German. It looks like rings of trees, doesn't it?
This is "the" cake of "club Harie".--- it's a little bit famous cake shop in TOKYO.

Dinner with a neighbor

Though today is the last day of three-day weekends, Yuki went to work as usual. (He doesn't come back yet.) For me, half of the day is a usual day, and half of the day is a holiday. I prepared for this week's classes, and went glossary grocery shopping as usual Mondays. But today, I didn't need to have dinner alone. My next-door neighbor invited me to have dinner together.The couple of my next-door neighbor is  are in the  their 60's. Mr. M is retired but he still works sometimes to help in his nephew's office. Ms.M is a housewife. Sometimes she and I go out. For example, last month we went to a concert. I think we keep our distance well. Our relationship is not too close not too far. We have a comfortable relation ship. (Does it make sense?) It was the first time to have dinner at their house. Unfortunately Yuki couldn't join us. But next time he'll join us. These days Yuki and I reconsider our life in UTSUNOMIYA.Without children activities and without the name of the company he now works at, we have to build  a communication  develope friendships with local people to spend our further life. It is a good thing to have dinner with our neighbors like today. Mr.& Ms. M are really nice, outgoing and comfortable with people. Unfortunately he "can't" play golf because of having a bad back.

I didn't know that.

It has been half year since the disaster. Fortunately I don't affect anything directly though some blocks of fence fell down. So to tell the truth the atomic issue isl thought of as someone else's problem.
But...

Now fall is just around the corner. So I called on a farmer who grows Halloween pumpkins as his hobby.
Mieko "Hello, this is Mieko. How about your pumpkins this year?"
Mr.Y "Oh, long time no see you. Sorry, this year my fields had lots of damage, so I couldn't plant pumpkin seeds. Were your house all right?"
--- I was really surprised. He lives in the same prefecture, the place is about 15km to north from here.
We talked for a while, and hanged up the phone.

Yesterday I went to KARAKU to play the piano. Master is really disappointed.
Mieko "Why do you look so disappointed? in two weeks you'll go to America to see your grand child."
(Master and his wife is going to go to America to help their daughter. They are having their second grand child.)
Master "It's difficult to pack for our trip, Every agricultural food from Tochigi is prohibited to bring into America. Two week staying without Japanese food made in Tochigi is difficult for us."
I didn't know that until now not only from Tochigi,  but also from Fukushima, Miyagi, and Sendai, their agriculture food is prohibited to bring into America. And all Japanese agricultural food is prohibited to bring into Europe."
I'm really surprised at knowing Tochig's product is included.

Come to think about it, for foreigners, there is no difference where Tochigi is and where Fukushima is.
It can't be helped.

Now I re-understand that I live in Japan that suffered from the big earthquake and now facing the big problem of atomic power. Though I read news paper fulled of this problem every day, I have to think about it more seriously. On the other hand I think what I can do is just waiting.

 Well today I served this cherry pie. my neighbor baked it.

Do you like to work in a team?

"Do you like to work in a team?" , this question was yesterday's topic for high school students class. It might be difficult to answer with yes or no, it depends on the situation.
Three of four students said "yes". The other said "no".

The student who said no, said" to tell the truth I prefer work in a team to a solitary work, but I don't desert a project when I'm absent, or I leave. "
The students who said yes, said "we can share opinions, and responsible".

This conversation reminded me of an opinion. At a Toaster master meeting, we had such a topic "why Japanese product can keep high quality".
A person said, "we are good at working in a team  beyond generations.Though it has a bad point, because of lifetime employment, our spirit, responsibility, skills cross from one generation to another."

On the other hand, thinking about me, teaching English at home is a kind of solitary work. I don't need to hesitate anythings to others. I do what I want to do. But once I quite, everything will be finished.
And being a house wife is also a kind of solitary work, I think.

Now here in Utsunomiya Cambell (Cambell Early?)  grapes are in season. This morning I made fresh grape juice. It was the first time, because I didn't know that it was not unnecessary to take out the seeds.
The necessary thing is that we should strain juice through "rough" strainer.

Can you guess how much it is?

I know the title is not polite, but I'm not in upper class, so it's not my business. I served this coffee to today's adult students. This is a bottle of iced-coffee.
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 Mieko; "I'd like to share this coffee celebrating the end of summer."
Student A;"Looks like a bottle of wine."
Mieko;"I found this bottle in June in OHTANI supermarket, not in TOBU department store. (OHTANI is a high-class supermarket, but department stores are much higher.) I was really surprised at this saying "Why such  expensive coffee is here? Who buys? " But Yuki and I were really interested to it. We were afraid to get used to the taste, so we decided to buy it at the end of summer. (If we have got used to the taste, we would have got into red (further) ). This is a bottle of Blue Mountain iced-coffee. Can you guess how much it is?Let's enjoy the Blue Mountain taste. (The students and we seldom drink Blue Mountain coffee.) And you have to understand if you feel the difference from usual iced-coffee sold in usual supermarkets, it comes from the high cost. It's not a matter whether you like the taste or not.  I know it's not true that the higher it costs, the more delicious it is.
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And we enjoyed this coffee with laughing.


Well, well I usual drink this iced-coffee. It costs about 150 yen, it is almost as much as milk.
And when we drink iced-coffee at coffee shop, it usually around  400yen except MacDonald.
Can you guess how much is this bottle?
Of course Yuki and I enjoyed the taste.
To tell the truth, we understood the difference from our usual iced-coffee, not bad. but we don't know whether the taste is worth in the cost. We are not crazy about coffee though we love coffee.
 But we really enjoyed it with atmosphere. Tasting expensive things sometimes make us elegant and happy.

Thanks for your comments

I'm really happy to get analytic comments on my previous report.
Watching the news in Japan, this typhoon left lots of damage especially KI peninsula. One of my friends who live in Wakayama, is suffering water outage now,though her house itself has no damage. The roads in her town was flooded.
Every day newspaper reports the level of radiation, and how evacuated people from FUKUSHIMA are struggling to manage their life.
Listening to CNN student news or watching ABC news, they reported that one of four children in America got food from food stamps system and feel hungry, and they had zero job growth in August.
What I can do is just expressing my regret at them.
About me, these days I tend to decrease my intention.
But getting such comments from people in various countries always encourage me.

These days I had an opportunity to think about whether atomic power is an necessary evil or not. "Necessary evil", this word is really difficult to deal with. What example can you show about necessary evils? Probably one of them is experiments on living animals like mice.

It's true that we don't know what will happen in one minute. Or there is such a saying "In life, the future lies in the dark.". Both of meanings are same. But I don't like to use the word "dark".
Anyway today I paid the "last" college expense of my daughter through the bank. Now our financial support is almost finished. I hope my daughters and the youth will be able to keep having a desire to improve their life. And I hope our senior life will full of joy.

Sunday

Fortunately the typhoon didn't seem to hit a big damage in Utsuomiya. This morning I could hang out all the laundry. And I weeded the garden " a little". Even it's in the end of summer, MYOUGA is growing. On the other hand KINKAN fruits don't grow bigger even though it had lots of flowers.







From yesterday I had decided what I should have done today. (Does it make sense, it's difficult for me to use a correct tense.) It's not a job, but-- "I'll read up all these three books". And now I'm finished.
One is an English picture book,it is not so difficult.
Another is an English kids novel, it is a little bit difficult to understand English.
The other is an English grammar reference book written in Japanese. I can understand the contents, but--- it's not so interesting.


These days I'll try to memorize a short skit as long as I have time. I think it will work for me to speak English fluently. Today's skit is interesting. (And Jan always help me, thanks.)
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In British culture, talking about money is viewed as impolite. If you ask a British person about their wage or salary, the person is unlikely to give you any specific details, and your question might even annoy them. The upper classes take this idea even further, and often buy expensive things without asking the price. Because of this, there is an English saying ; if you have to ask the price how much it costs, you can't afford it.
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Do British people buy a car without asking the price? ( I'd like to hear Tim's opinion, or I hope to get some comments from the U.K)

September comes

Summer is going away. This summer I got lots of souvenirs. I don't like if someone felt the burden of buying souvenirs. But sharing souvenirs while talking with each other is fun.

I bought one for my students in Taiwan.
One student shared one from her trip to America.
Another student shared one from his trip to Miyazaki.
Another student shared one from her trip to NASU.

Another student shared one from his trip to Hawai.
Another student shared one from her trip to Disney Sea.

Another student shared one from her trip to Shizuoka.

And my neighbor bought this cake after waiting in a long line in Tokyo.

Not only my students but also Yuki enjoyed these souvenirs. So the last souvenir in this summer is this one --- from Yuki's business trip to Osaka. One of them are cookies of OKONOMIYAKI.