visiting my mother in Octorber

The day before yesterday I went to Tokyo to visit my mother.  This time I took her to Shinjyuku. This time I wanted her to go out, but it was uncertain , because typhoon had came. Fortunately typhoon had gone, so I took her to Shinjuuku.
For a half of this year, even though she is still before 85, she is getting weak. Her legs are fine but she is really afraid of congestion and gaps. It means she doesn't like the congestion at station, and she is afraid of the gap between a train and a platform.

On the other hand going to town is a good opportunity for "us" to put on neat outfits.  (if I added some more words, they would be beautiful expensive.)

In her opinion, pants-style is very casual, so it is not suitable to go to NAKAMURA restaurant ( it was the restaurant we went to on the day), so she wore a little bit longer skirt. Usually when she takes a walk, she wears pants. Wearing pants gives her a good footwork --- she says. So wearing skirts seem to have her a bad foot work and it made her more afraid of getting on a train.

Anyway we finally got to the restaurant. To my surprise instead of being a week day, there were many elderly people (not only women but also men) to have lunch. And they were wearing neat outfits. (I've never seen such elderly people here in Utsunomiya). She seemed very satisfied with her outfits and had lunch there.

Nakamuraya restaurant is a very old and very famous restaurant.
When I was a child, my "grandmother" would often take me there (for me it was a just restaurant without no kids lunch), and my father in-law sometimes took me there (not Yuki), when we met at Tokyo. (When I worked as a business woman, sometimes I went to Tokyo on business, and had an opportunity to meet him.)

They have a own building. The restaurant is on the 8th floor. The gallery is on the 3rd floor, and the shopping area is on the first floor. She enjoyed all floors.


Well, well, to go there I ironed my dress, and put on an old coat.
Though I want a new coat in this season, but when I go to Tokyo next time by train, it will be more cold so I wouldn't wear the new coat if I bought.  However I want a new coat just for this short period.

pottery art exhibition

Sometimes I become a quick doer.
On one day I found this article on the newspaper.

As soon as I saw it, I really wanted to see it. On the day I was going to go out to buy some bread nearby, however I extemporaneously decided to go to see this exhibit..
These things are --- I thought dishes. However they were chopstick rests or you can say spoon rests.

It is important to see actual things.

The attractive thing is Japanese old poems called HYAKUNIN ISYYU are written on each pottery.

HYAKUHIN ISYYU is a kind of mother goose.

Some pictures are drawn by hand, and the others are used printed sheet (porcelain art, and we call "porcelart" in Japanese), but all letters are written in handwriting.

Fortunately I could see the organizer, who is an artist and is almost 80. Her back is straight and very "cool".

Still now she teaches art at a college, on the other hand she has art classes at her house. Her students are from the young to the elderly.  The pottery are made and written by her and her students. So the letters are from classical types to round types which is used by the young.

This exhibitions is hold by supported by the college she works, and the city hall.

And she is going  to held her own exhibition .

I want to see her exhibition in next month.

Sometimes it is good to go out without thinkin any thing.



season word 1026 greater white-fronted goose

Have you ever seen white-fronted goose?

I've never seen them, or if I saw them I couldn't discern them from usual geese.

Geese coming, brown rice fields, getting much calmly
When I saw them, looking back at memory closing eyes, incoming geese

Falling in Autumn

Well, I'm very surprised, because --

"Falling in Autumn" this is an article of a popular national newspaper (though the English version), and in this article "nikko" where is in our prefecture is introduced.
Usually Kyoto is introduced at the most beautiful place to enjoy autumn leaves.

On the other hand we don't go there this year.
Usually once a year we go there to see autumn leaves very early morning.
However --- not yet.
Whey we go such an early morning, because it is very crowded everywhere.

Anyway I'll introduce a YOUTUBE video, though it is a little bit long.

laughter YOGA in October

yesterday I hold laughter yoga, which is hold once a month.
This time, three ladies came to my house.
In laughter yoga, we try to laugh in three ways.
One is laughing with yoga exercise,  another one is laughing simply consciously without any funny things, and the other is laughing at some things.
I use a pun picture book, of course in Japanese.
It is a kind of rhyming book.

However some puns are very difficult for us (including me) to understand.
Of course we understand the sentence, but we don't find where is funny.

Anyway this time two puns caught us.
I hope you understand the pun.

Chou-Chou (butterfly) ha Chau(different)
Chau-Chau (different)  to Chau.

The sound of Chou-Chou is similar to the sound of (Chau-Chau), but they are a little bit different.
And Chau means different.
Do you understand it?
Butterfly, which is Chou-Chou in Japanese is different, which is Chau in Japanese.
Chou-chou is not Chau-Chau.

And another one was very cute.
I try to make similar type in English using rhyming.
Angel throw a beef-bowl from the heaven.

We had a good time, and of course, after laughter yoga I served some sweets I bought at Manza.

What made me very happy was they knew how expensive they were.
There I bought HANAMAE which were big beans and here in Tochigi we seldom find them even at a department store.
When I served some to Yuki, Yuki said "oh, you bought them at Manza. What big beans they are!".
However the three ladies know their value.
I was very happy.

Trip to Manza

Last weekend, no, last Friday and Saturday, I went to Manza with my friend. Yes I went out for a night. It was unusual. Though some of my friends and my family know, I don't like traveling so much. So probably more than 20 years have passed since I took a overnight trip. At that time, one of my friends moved to Osaka, so to have the same memory, she, another friend and I wet out for a night to NIKKO in Tochigi. Luckily our friendship has been kept via "facebook".


The friend who took the trip with me lives in the next prefecture, so I went to her town by train, from there she drove me to MANZA.

On the way we passed KUSAZU, which is very famous hot spring spot and one of  the most famous 5 Japanese hot spring towns.  We enjoyed taking a leisurely walking there. You might know "karuiizawa". It is also a famous town for tourist. Kusatsu is near Karuizawa. However, Kusatsu town is very kind to our wallet. Because without shopping, or window shopping, we enjoyed the town watching hot spring smoke, talking with shop women and men (most of them are elderly).

At  Manza, we had wonderful hot springs. They have 6 hot springs at the same place. Actaully the inn is selected one of the most popular and wonderful  20 inns in Japan.

Anyway we talked, talked and talked.

Both of us are almost the same age, so we didn't go to bed late. On the other hand both of us woke at 5:30. As soon as we woke our talking started. It was too early to go to the cafeteria in the inn. So we were talking until it was open. However we almost missed the breakfast. Because when we check the time coincidently, it was already 8 o'clock. The time which breakfast is served is until 9.

AYU fish come!!!

These are AYU fish which are seasonal fish. And in some prefecture which has clean rivers they are caught. One of them is here Tochigi.

Ayu fishing are limited. We can fish from June to October, so it is the last time to get fish for fishermen or people who loves fishing.

And actually it is expensive, and the freshness is so important that we seldom see them at store.

However suddenly a lot of ayu fish came about 8 PM.

Luckily I had no class on the day, so I had time to cook them.(well, or I can say unluckily I had no class, because I had to deal with them.)

Neighbor brought them for asking help to me.

So I struggled with them.

Fresh ayu aren't necessary to take out their guts, but -- I did.

I cooked some  with a pressure pot. and I cooked the others with the oven.

It took almost three hours. I was going to go to bed earlier but  I went to bed later than usual.

Preparing for cook them was troublesome, and cleaning up after them was also troublesome.

Because the pot was burnt.

I put some baking soda in the pot and boiled it, and the next day I cleaned it.

The work was troublesome, on the other hand I was very satisfied with doing it.

I don't like ironing, but I seem not to dislike onerous cooking.

I cooked lots of ayu fish, so of course I shared them with the neighbor.

season word 1019

 

Yes, "soba" is an autumn season word.

Soba lover prefer to eat cold soba noodle. But for me it is too cold to eat in autumn. I prefer hot soba noodle.

 

Soba festival, with a down coat, (enjoying)one plate of cold soba

Diligently and silently, beating soba dough , like a God

 

 

How to wipe the floor with wiping cloth

I mentioned about ironing yesterday. Today I'll write about wiping.
I don't mind wiping the floor  and stirs every day.  How do I wipe them? by mop? no, I use traditional wiping cloth (or used towels).
Like this.

Oh, my knees are not so strong, so I usually get down on my knees.
If I didn't, probably the same thing happened, and probably a worse thing would happen to me.

This is a normal style.
However in her case

I' don't know why such thing happened.

These photos were taken by her grandfather.

ironing

How many times do you iron ? Every day? or when you need it?

One of my house chores I dislike (or hate) is ironing, or I'm very bad at ironing.

Nowadays, most of shirts got easier to be ironed, but for me ironing is troublesome.

On the other hand I like wearing ironed shirts, and I like seeing a man (especially elder man) wearing ironed shirts.

My neighbor always wear ironed shirts. I've wanted to ask that who irons them.

Well, well, the more older we are, the more "slovenly" (these days I learnt this word, in this case it is too exaggerated.) "disarray" or "careless in attitude".  we are. Wearing easy outfits is easy, I know, on the other hand, wearing tidy outfits is important . Young men are able to cover their careless in attitude saying" other things are more important to me than appearance".  However for elderly people tidy appearance is necessary I hear "make-up therapy" is very effective for women. make-up is one of things of tidy attitude.

Well, well, anyway while I was simmering pre-cooked dishes for this week, I made myself understood the reason while I was ironing.

Probably when Yuki retires, it might be one of his job.

Additionally, I know some men "loves" ironing especially on his pants, and shirts.

And I also hear the wife who has such a man often is irritated by  his "touchy " attitude. Such men are tend to be neurotically  clean.

Yuki is so lazy that I 'm very happy in this point.

 I was sturing while I'm making my self understood the reason why I'm ironing, I cooked pr-cooked dishes.

 

lunch with my friends at Tokyo

I wrote about going to an art museum. On the day the main purpose was to have lunch with my friends, One of them finally complete chemo therapy  and has spent her usual life, though she has still very short hair, so she appeared tying a bandana around her head

The meeting place was at Tokyo station, because I went there from Tochigi, another friend came from Fukushima, other two friends came from Chiba. Just one friend came from Tokyo.

Tokyo station is a easy place to meet together.

We had lunch at a restaurant in front of Tokyo station.

What a good view

The lunch tasted (to tell the truth) so-so, but it was a very reasonable price -- about 1080 yen.

Considering the price the view, and the location (near the station), it was a very nice restaurant.

I took some small present, pick lemon grasses up in the yard, and made ordinal herb tea.

And I also share my ordinal handmade lavender oil.

Of course after the lunch we had sweet. It is "must" thing for women's meeting, isn't it?

What is it? It is red beans sweet.

And, this weekend I am going to take a one day trip with one of them.

Halloween month has started -2-

I was not going to get these pumpkins this year, but it might be the last time to do it because of the number of students, so I bought them.
However people passing my house seem to look at them. It is a good advertisement of my "English school."
I'm going to hold a carving event at the end of this month, so for a while "we" enjoy sticking stickers on them.



These  stickers were sent from my friend. Thanks!!
"My" Halloween activity has already started.
This Tuesday I played the piano at Karaku, and share some candy with this basket at the end of performance. Can you see the costume on the floor?

Of course I enjoyed this sweet set.

And Last Saturday, my friends and I attend an event to play the recorder --- with Halloween costumes.

I've enjoyed Halloween season!!

season word 012 gentian

 

Gentian, your tight bud, express your preparedness

iritataion  might recede by RYUTAN (Japanese the root of gentian)

 

I didn't know that gentians are used for herbal medicine.

Did you know that? Have you ever used it for anything?

 

 

 

Well, well, I found a youtube which shows gentians in Iwate Japan.

 

 

Halloween month has come! -1-

Halloween month has come. This year my friend sent us the "tooth candy", again. Thanks.
Most of American sweets are  imported to Japan, however, "tooth candy" has not come on shore yet.
Some of my students  were really  eager to get it.
And of course I will take some to my English activity in the library next week.

And, thanks to this kits, I'll be able to hold an sweet-event at the end of this month easily. 

Anyway my Halloween month has started.

With high school students 0928

At a high school students class, we took an interesting topic.
Do you have a philosophy that has helped you lead a happier life?

For two students, it seems difficult to discuss about, because they study and do usual activities very hard except doing house chores.

So I mentioned some example talks from my textbook.

-------------
"If we make up our mind what we are going to make of our lives, then work hard toward that goal, we never lose --somehow we win out." This is a quote by Ronald Reagan, the former US president. I believer our efforts will bear fruit if we continue to work hard.
-------------
They said "Now we focus on  passing an entrance exam to college, but we are not sure what is the goal, just we try to catch our goal which we see near, and we believe such small steps lead us to a happier life".


------------
Woody Allen says (well, well, he is a very famous actor because even me I know of him, but he seems too old for them to know of ) "It's important to have some laughs, but you've got to suffer a little too, because otherwise you miss the whole point to life." Although I don't know what's in store for me, I will live through my hardships, however difficult they may be.
----------
They said, "we understood what he said, anyway it means probably pleasure is the source of pain, and pain is the source of pleasure".


---------
"Where there is will, there is a way", I love this proverb and keep this in mind when I try to do something new and challenging.
---------
They said, "we know this proverb, and another familiar proverb is "Rome was not built in a day".


-------
"My philosophy in life is based on the Latin words carpe diem meaning "seize the day." We only live once, so I think we should live our lives to the fullest and not lament, "I wish I had done this or that".
-----------
They said, "Anyway we should apply ourselves to the job at hand.


All examples seemed to say "study hard".
So we watched this video.

season word 1005 deer antler cutting

This "ceremony" is not so familiar in "Kantou" area. Nara is in Kansai which is the west area in Japan
(On the other hand Kantou is east area in Japan)

In Nara Park deer are protected,  on the other hand, nowadays here in Tochigi prefecture crop by deer which lives in mountains are reported a lot.


Well, well, anyway let me try to make Haiku using deer or something related deer

fond de gibier from deer meat, one of fun, in the mountain village
visiting to Nara, deer antler cutting, another fun
in the sunset, a deer standing alone, what is it watching?

Don't hurry be Happy

First I borrowed the Japanese book at the library, and decided to buy it.

Next I bought the ordinal, which is written in English.

These days I managed to reach the feeling "I can make it through our retirement life".

The funny thing, "I", not "we". Because Yuki is very very optimistic, though he is more generous than mine.

About five years ago (probably) both of us attended a meeting about how we manage our retirement life, which is organized  for the 53 year old employees of Yuki's company every year. It means the meeting was hold by Yuki's company. There the attendee ran simulation of retirement money plan individually.

Probably we can manage it, but anyway the word "no income" gives me trepidation.

Of course you might say "you should continue your job". It is one way.

I don't use the word "housewife" as an excuse,  ---- but ---.

The book consists of 5 chapters. Happiness 101, Money and Happiness, the Workplace and Daily life.

In Japanese title is happiness of slow life, slow life of money, slow life of work, and slow life of daily life.

What is "slow life"?  Here in Japan, "slow life", "natural life" such words are getting popular.

I'll introduce a phrase.

Remember that many of the best things in life are free or cost very little. A university of Chicago study confirmed that people get the most pleasure and satisfaction from inexpensive leisure activities.

On the other hand there is a famous proverb in Japan.

There is nothing more costly than something got for nothing.

What do you think of it?

art museum in UENO park

These days I often go to Tokyo, but I don't have enough time to drop somewhere on the way home.
To be more correct, I have no physical power to drop by somewhere on the way home.

However, last time I visited Tokyo, I had a time to visit Ueno art museum before going to the meeting place.
Just I had one hour, so I ran through the museum.

Why I went there?
This picture is drawn by SASAYA AKIRA. He is a friend of KARAKU's master (Karaku is the café I play the piano once a month). He is a pro artist, and his new picture is placed in this exhibition. So I dropped by there.
And I also wanted to see this modern exhibition which was held in the same place.
Here in Utsunomiya, we have two art museums, but they seldom hold modern exhibition like this.
This exhibition was introduced on the news paper and it seemed to gain a big popularity.
It was fun.

On the last blog, I wrote about my pedometer. Usually it shows less than 300 steps, but on the day it showed more than 10000 steps. It was the reason why it showed more than 10000 steps.  To swing by, I changed trains and "climbed up and down" lots of stairs instead of  using escalators.



laughter yoga in September

Laughter yoga club was able to be held in September. At first three members were going to come to my house. However  on the morning of the day, two women canceled. I thought it was OK that only one lady would come. However, coincidently, another  lady called me and asked whether she could join us or not. Of course I said "please join us". And, another lady who wasn't going to come, but she was able to come. So the number of the people who joined my laughter club was the same as I expected. Lucky me.

I prepared some cookies which are to-go, and sweet potato & apple compote.

 

We started with something which had been funny, interesting or exciting in September  while listing them up.

 

 

 

Well, well, all of things entailed some negative excuses, but it's OK.

 

 

"Though I was very tired, and after that I came down, I was very satisfied to attend to Sports Day of my grandson. "

like this....

 

Every thing we introduced made us  laugh.

 

Well, well, I prepared sweet potato & apple compote, a lady "couldn't" eat it. Because she avoids some things which contain Kalium because she has a heart disease.

 

I know, many of them are really careful not to take too much sugar and fat. However I don't know that, potatoes and fruits and fresh vegetables contain lots of Kalium.

 

 

a gadget when walking

This is my gadget when I do walking.

I've started doing another excise  "walking" in addition to going workout.

Though both of them are not everyday activity, I try toing them as much as I can.

I really know what is the most important for me to spend an active senior life.

It is physical power.

While I'm listening to an English program, I walk with my Iphone.

Iphone is also a good gadget, it is a CD player and it is also a pedometer.

However it is just a 20- minute walk.

So, the pedometer always show less than 3000 steps.

If I lived in Tokyo, I would have to walk more.

When I go to Tokyo, the pedometer shows more than 7000 steps, though I don't willing to walk.

And to be surprised, the last time I went to TOKYO to meet my friends. it showed 10000steps.

This is the reason why people living in Tokyo is more energetic, and "not fat" than people live in  *****.