looking back on this big holiday -3-

While we were staying home, we dealt with discarding in earnest.
We were wondering which was better to do it now or in our coming retirement life.
However discarding some things probably is endless. So when we want to do is the time to do it.
1. a closet in the living room
. We reorganize the boxes, and one big cardboard box was discarded.
2. our daughter's desks
Before this big holiday Yuki brought back his belongings which were kept in his office a little. Most of them are going to be discarded at office, but some comes back and probably he wants to keep them. So to make room for them, we organized their desks. Some were moved to upper closet and the others were discarded getting their permission.




3. upper closet
I wrote "some of them moved to upper closet." It means we had to reorganize the things in upper closet. Most of them were documents. So we discarded most of them.
Well, we discard things by the method of "konmari". When we feel joy or some positive feeling by touching a thing, we keep it. So some documents were left.

4. looking back on car gadget.
We don't have a big garage. We have just space for parking cars. So  the trunk of his car
is full of "his" gadgets, including some things for golf, tennis, etc.
He discard some things and moved some things into the upper closet.

Now, we are reconsidering our albums.
We take each page (not each photo) by camera, change the data into digital data. However I want to keep some photos. So I pick some from albums, and keep into a thin file.
Of course some albums are kept as a thick album itself.

looking back on this big holiday -2-

The biggest change will be the number of meals at home when our retirement life comes.
Now, on weekdays, I usually eat lunch and dinner alone at home, which means I just cook some things easily.
So this big holiday might have been a good practice for us. We had three meals a day together except one day. And " I cooked" most of them, and Yuki washed the dishes mostly.



Saturday, I cooked fried rice easily.  To tell the truth, it was the same menu of my last night dinner.


Sunday, I was not going to cook. But coincidently a neighbor brought us fresh bamboo shoots, so I cooked them. Yuki wanted soup, so he made instant (ready-to-cook?) miso soup by himself.



Monday, he went playing golf. So I made this lunch for myself.



We went to Tokyo.
The first day we were with Yuki's mother. It was a steak day.
The second day we were with my mother. It was Tempura and soba-day.
The third day I cooked lunch for three of us including my daughter. I grilled chicken. However it was not enough for her. So in the evening we had a little bit early dinner at Yakiniku restaurant.

We were going to stay in Tokyo one more night, but the road situation during this big holiday was worse than we expected. So we came back here at night.
When we came back here, our usual day was waiting.



Friday I cooked fried rice. Yes it is almost the same as the first day.
、


Saturday we went out and had breakfast at a café. It was a big volume. So we didn't need lunch. It was branch.

looking back on this big holiday -1-

On our calendar, it is the last day of Ten-day holiday today, but for Yuki it is a usual Monday. He went to work. For me, though I did usual morning chores, it is still a holiday. Because gym and banks are closed. And a friend is going to come here to have lunch together.

Well, let me look back on this big holiday.
Our holiday started with a morning set at a café, and finished with a morning set at another café.

On the first day of this holiday, I had to send a set of document by mail, but most of post offices were closed. So I went to a main post office with Yuki, and we had breakfast at a café.

 

 

Though it was just a toast set, but the atmosphere was very nice.

For us it is the first visit there. But the owner who was a young lady "knew" Yuki's face, though he didn't remember her face.

She worked at a café at Utsunomiya station as a morning staff before she opened this her own café.

When he goes to Tokyo on business, he usually buys a cup of coffee there, so she remembered his face.

And coincidently her house is near our house.

So we had an animated conversation  about the café at Utsunomiya station, and our neighborhood

 

We also bought her handmade cookies to support her future.

It takes 20 minutes from our house to this café. So we probably don't visit so often.

However we want to support her.

What is "getting age free from anxiety"

In this article, a group is introduced. They pursue their ideal house for the elderly.
I know the definition of happiness is different each other.

Some people say that  it is sad for a elderly person to watch TV alone in the room every day.
The elderly person might be bored, but we don't know if she or he is sad or not.

On the other hand, probably it is right that such person tend to become dementia easily.
However who gets bothered by it? The people around the person.
So the people around such a single elderly people make him or her do somethings or go somewhere.

I try to take my mother to somewhere. However nowadays she doesn't seem to like it. She said "Going somewhere with you makes me busy".
I thought that making her busy is the way to avoid becoming dementia.

Anyway today I'll visit her.
 

ぽつんとしてるのが寂しいのかどうかはわからないのでは、と思い、さらに、

介護認定(要介護)を、もらえずまたはもらわず、かといって、出歩く元気もなく、家で1人、テレビを見て、ぽつんとしている、シニアの方は、結構いるのではないかな、とも思います。

寂しいけど、めんどくさい。そんな方も多いでしょう。結構、ぽつんとしているのを「ありのまま」と受け入れてる方も多いでしょう。と書くと、「だから痴呆症が増えるのだ」という話しになるのでしょうが。

今更ながら、痴呆症にならないよう、全員シニアスクールでもいきますか？というわけにもいかないし。

どうすればいいのでしょうね？

Ten-day holiday has started

Our Ten-day holiday has started, though we have special plans.
It is Monday, and is the third-day of the holiday.
Saturday and Sunday was a usual weekend for us.
Saturday, Yuki went playing tennis and I cooked pre-cooked dishes for this week as usual.

 

In the afternoon "we" practiced golfing a little, and went to a familiar butcher to buy some meet for this holiday. We "celebrated" our ten-day holiday without any reasons.

So far Yuki can cook steak. So the chef of the day was Yuki. We did the dishes together.

Sunday, we organized the rooms while discarding some things in the morning. And in the afternoon we went to enjoy a concert.

It was a brass band concert. The brass band is consisted of about 40 members who are ordinary people from the 16's to the 60's. The band is 20 years old.
The generation of the band member is wide, so the generation of the audience was also wide.
It was a really good concert with full of warm atmosphere. Of course the cost was reasonable.

Well, now it is Monday. Yuki went playing golf.  I'll organize my lesson room as a sequence of yesterday's work. Yesterday we discarded many things. We made room for ---. Nowadays. he brings back his belongings from this office to our house. I know he try to discard them, but not all of them. So we made room for them. It means I have to discard some things which were taken from the previous place. Now it is time to discard some things.

Outing and meeting in April with Haiku

The ten-day holiday comes tomorrow, and May comes.
Let me look back to outing and meeting in April with Haiku,

I had a good time in Karaku café with holding a small concert.
This month, it was a cherry blossom season, so that  there were a lot of audience.

Cher-ry blos-soms  Con-tin-u-ous per-form-ing   An-oth-er year

At a historical shrine, Yuki and I listened to an interesting, academic and funny  comic storytelling.


Cher-ry blos-soms Full of a-ca-dem-ic laugh  Com-ic sto-ry



This month I could held a laughter yoga meeting. This time three ladies came.
Though everyone had some troubles, we laughed off them.


Pe-o-ny;  Through just laughing  Share vig-or


I got a free ticket to an exhibition. So I dropped by an art museum.


Though it is not the work of this exhibition, I found this site.

It was cool and I was really surprised to know such "occupation", which is a kind of media artist.


Cher-ry trees with leaves  Think of no-thing to say  Just  spec-tac-u-lar

I hope if I hear your better phrases.

Who cleans . How often?

One day, it occurred me that I would clean ------first kitchen ventilation fan.
It has been 4 months since I cleaned it in winter cleaning.
We had this new ventilation fan fit when we renovated this house. It is said to have automatic cleaning function. However the outside has to be cleaned by someone. Who?

 

After that I happed to look up the light in the kitchen.
It was covered with oily dust. So I also cleaned it.

Cleaning some things sometimes makes me refreshed, though it often gets my burden.

Who cleans such things in your house? Do you hire anyone to do it?
How often do you clean such things?

Well, I don't cook oily dishes so often, however it tends to be covered with oily dust easily.

lunch with friends

A big 10-da holiday is just around the corner, however we have no plans except visiting our mothers. Our elder daughter is busy in preparing for her exhibitions. So we are going to see her in Tokyo while the visiting our mothers. Our younger daughter's family is Thailand, of course they don't visit Japan in this expensive holiday season.

In April, I had lunch outside with my friends twice.
The first one was after I did volunteer reading at the library.
A new café opened in the same building of the library.  And they offered lunch at a reasonable price.
This set and a cup of drink cost 500 yen.

 

It is a café "in the same building of the library". So probably they accept customers who read books which are borrowed at the library, and relax there for a couple of hours.

Actually we spent there longer than doing volunteer reading at the library.

Volunteer reading was finished before 12. When I came back home, it was past 3 o'clock.



 



 

 The next one was with another friend.
 Since she started to take home healthcare, one year has passed.
 I try to meet her once in a month, but sometimes she is not so good.
This month we could meet at a restaurant. She doesn't eat meat, so we usually meet each other at a Japanese restaurant.
She ordered Sushi, and I ordered simmered Tuna with soy sauce and sugar.

 

 

 

Cher-ry trees with leaves,   wear-ing a nat-u-ral wig    lunch-eon time

 

You might guess what illness she is suffering 



The first BBQ at the garden

I planted some  nursery plants in the garden. They are  parsley, ships-leaves, lemon thyme, lemmon grass, and paper mint.  As you guess, they all for cooking and herb tea. I couldn't find nursery plants of  rhubarb , so bought some on the net. 

Of course there are other herb plants  and trees which are begging to sprout in the garden  such as fennel, yarrow, raspberry , mulberry, and rosemary. 

While we were shopping  around for nursery plants and garden gadgets , we dropped by a butcher, (not a,supermarket) and bought these meat (not a supermarket). 

We did the first BBQ I in the gardening. 

I also baked cookies with rosemary.

Because tomorrow it is the day of laughter yoga here .

Saturday morning chores 0420

Today, it is a usual Saturday. It means I'm at home in the morning.

I made pre-cooked dishes for this week.

 

I cleaned the fridge while I was checking expiration dates. As a result I discarded 10 things.

 



Yuki is out to play tennis. After he comes back, we'll go out to a garden center to buy some nursery plants.

I was at home all the day yesterday.

Yesterday it was the day that our familiar gardener came to trim the trees in the garden. He comes basically once a year. Additionally he comes in summer to splay bug repellent and he also comes with sacks of wooden chips in winter.
According to our schedule, Yuki was going to maintain the garden by himself. However for "us" it was too difficult to do it. So after his retirement, we are going to ask the gardener to come once a year.
"After trimming:  The tallest thing in the yard  Yuki's nest"

On the day, the gardener went out to have lunch somewhere, probably he went to a ramen noodle shop. So I had my lunch with pre-cooked dishes of this week.

"At the noon of spring    having veggy lunch alone    with rest of home meals"







In the afternoon, a woman came with this homemade pudding. She was interested in a new curriculum of elementary school in 2020 so that I told her my information.

"At idyllic noon    Laugh, wit and wisdom    homemade pudding brings us  "

At night a lady came to take my lesson. One and a half months passed since she started taking my lessons.  These days she says " I have no topic to speak". So we wrote about ourselves using the way to mind-map.



"Spring sweet dumplings;  Worrying(wondering?)  is also fun   lead  to the next step"



English haiku 0418

 Yesterday, I wrote about English haiku. I showed  two basic rules that are including a seasonable word, and keep a 5-7-5 syllables structure.
I also wrote that I started to learn how to write haiku in Japanese from the scratch.
Haiku has a long history, so it was being made up the learning steps how to make a good haiku. It is the same that in the painting world, with the long history, the learning steps are being made.

The first step  to make a good haiku is the following.
The first phrase is a season word, and if you can do it, you try to stop with cutting word like ";", "_", "," . The world can't suggest to lead to the next phrase.
The second phrase is an adjective phrase of the last phrase.
The last phrase is a noun.

I take Haiku lessons by receiving corrections by mail, though only two haiku poems are corrected a month.

The first one was that
Spring weeds;  have to be pulled up   with bitter smile

In this case, the first phrase is the object of the second phrase. So, it is not good.
It was corrected.

Spring weeds;  mother and her daughter   with bitter smile


I'll show another one, I'm waiting for correcting it.
Anemone; with painted tiny hands  snack time

Can you guess? what scene did I describe?

English Haiku 0417

I sometimes introduce my Haiku poem in English.
And finally I joined "Hainku International Association"
Most events are held in Tokyo, so probably I hardly attend their events, but through their bulletin I can study English Haiku.
To tell the truth I have already started to take Haiku lessons in Japanese, receiving corrections through mail. So now I'm studying Haiku from ground zero. So I thought it was a good idea that while learning how to make basic haiku,  I translate my haiku by myself in English.

Let me tell you about haiku more.
As you might know, Haiku is the shortest poem in the world. It consists of three lines. In Japanese haiku, basically there are two rules. One is to include a seasonal word, the second is to keep the structure of 5-7-5 syllables.

Well, this time I knew. When we make Haiku in English, we have basically the same rule.
However, the idea of season depends on the country. Here in Japan  we have four seasons, so seasonable words are very important. But in some countries they have two seasons, or they have no season at all. So it depends on the country whether seasonal word is necessary or not. Or they might need a occasional word.

Although having a structure of 5-7-5 syllables is basic, the simplicity is the best.
So the most important structure of English Haiku is to consist  of three "short" lines.

I'll introduce my haiku about cherry blossoms.

In my diary blog, I wrote "this year I could climb up the mountain downtown while seeing cherry blossoms in the morning avoiding a crowd."

Cherry blossoms,  hearing morning radio   top  of the hill


I went to Tokyo and enjoied cherry blossoms with my mother.

Cherry blossoms,  saying  casually "fun"   my mother with cane


And this Sunday Yuki and I went to a nearby shrine to listen to RAKUGO (Japanese comic story telling. it was fun while it was really interesting and very academic comic story. The stories were not "funny",  they were interesting and it was necessary to understand the academic background of the stories.

 Cherry blossoms, with hidden academic ken,  the comic telling

If someone could tell me better choice of words, I'm very happy.

Cherry blossoms in this year

We could enjoy seeing cherry blossoms  this year again, though they are still blooming in Utsunomiya.

 

This year they started blooming much earlier than usual, but it took longer to fully bloom because of the cold weather. It is said  that as if the cherry blossoms were blooming while kept in the fridge.
 

As I wrote before, we "climbed up" the small mountain ( or hill) in the town  to see cherry blossoms.

 

 

I could have another chance in Toky with my mother.

 

 

Last year my mother could walk much longer. I really understood, my mother could do less activities outside.. I'm very sad, but  on the other hand, I consider it a lesson for her to show me  how we are getting old  naturally . Thankfully she has no serious illness, and does not suffer from dementia, yet  (but sometimes it could be trouble.)
 

 

And this picture was taken yesterday.

Yesterday Yuki and I went to a shrine downtown.

I'll do volunteer reading at the library tomorrow. Around there cherry blossoms are still blooming. So I'll be able to enjoy cherry blossoms a little more this week, too.
 

 

a story of a cafe & cake shop

One day I got a call from "Keiko-san".
Who is Keiko-san? She is the owner of a popular café & cake shop "Keika". As you can guess, the shop name comes from her name.
The place is nearby, and very famous and popular especially among young and young-at-heart ladies
All sweets are baked by Keiko-san, and the nice shop was designed by herself. And the coffee they serve  is made from her favorite coffee beans. The shop is not so big, but always full of people, every thing is  a little  bit expensive.

That call I got (mentioned above) that I got a call,  was that "Mieko-san,  raisin sandwich cookies you ordered have just been baked!".

I ordered  from her some special cookies.
Why could I do that and why did I do that?


Now she is a kind of charismatic pastry chef in Utsunomiya.
However I consider her one of the friendly lady-neighbors. And for her I am one of the women in the neighborhood.
Her mother's house is nearby. When she graduated from high school, she started a small shop and gallery at a room in her mother's house.  With permission from her parents she renovated the room by herself.. At that time there was few stores like that, and my daughters who were at kindergarten, were very interested in it. So we used to visit there.
What did we buy? At that time she made some small dolls which were probably around 100 yen, so my daughters could buy from their pocket money. And I bought imported chocolate . At that time it was difficult to get imported sweets. She would often say to me that her dream is to run her own café and serve her sweets.

After a while she closed the shop, and --- I didn't know what she did.
I sometimes saw her at a post office or supermarket and so on. Every time she greeted saying "Obasan" friendly.
Obasan  means -- a middle-aged lady. Well, well, if you use this word, be careful. It sounds good and friendly with respect, or rude depending on the relationship.

A few years ago  she opened her own shop nearby, but not  at her mother's house. She married and she had her own.

My image of her pastry was raisin sandwich cookies. But they are not usually on the menu.
So I ordered from her directly. She didn't bother to accept it, because I'm "friendly neighbor obasan".

 

Recently a  male neighbor man passed away.
So I wanted to bring Keiko-chan's sweets to his wife who is a member of my laughter yoga-club.
Did you notice that I wrote Keiko-chan, instead of Keiko-san.

My friend is older than me, so for her Keiko-san is Keiko-chan. She has known Keiko-chan since Keiko-chan was an elementary school student. My friend was very glad to get the cookies.

Well, well,  as I first wrote ,. the shop was designed by herself and very popular.
I went there to buy them in casual clothes. As soon as I entered into it, I thought my dress code was wrong. It doesn't need to be dressy, but a little more sophisticated outfit seemed to be suitable there.

And for Yuki, Keiko-san is Keiko-san, not a famous pastry chef. He is also interested in the place. ( the shop is open only from Wednesday to Saturday.)
So when he retires, I will take him there in a little bit "sophisticated" outfits. (So before going there Yuki goes to a clothes store  to buy suitable one to Keiko-san's shop.)
 

Coffee break at a cafe two days in a row

According to the Meteorological Agency yesterday cherry blossoms in Utsunomiya reached to full bloom. It took a little bit longer than usual to reach full bloom after they started to bloom because of the cold weather.

The day before yesterday, early morning, as soon as Yuki and I got up, we went to a mountain (or you might say just a hill) downtown and enjoyed cherry blossoms. We have enjoyed them "there" every spring since we came here. What I want to say is "I" can still climb it up.

After that we had breakfast at a café near the mountain park. We have kept this custom for more than 5 years.
We didn't have enough time there because Yuki had to go to work. However, it was enough.

 

 





Yesterday it was the day of KARAKU. It means I performed a 30-minute concert with Ms.U.
Near KARAKU, there were many beautiful cherry blossoms. So Karaku was  full of people.
Of course after the performance, we enjoyed coffee with sweets.

 

The owner is now around 70. He said (declared?) to us that he would keep the café open until he gets around 80. I said that I would follow him, though I'm wondering if I'll be able to play the piano when I get around 70 as good as now.



 

Bass recorder

In a half year, our life will change. We have positive thoughts and a little bit negative thoughts about it.
Anyway, "we" start to buy something new our last summer bonus. We will invest them on our next life.
I wrote "we". Probably Yuki will buy fishing gadgets.
I bought  this bass recorder.

To tell the truth, for these two years I was looking for used one on the Net.
Coincidently, at the timing of this moment, I found this one.

 

My friend and I started to make a recorder group about 3 years ago.

First  we did duo with soprano, and alto. A lady joined, so now we do trio with soprano, alto, and tenner. (I have a tenner recorder.) So three of us want to do quartet with soprano, alto, tenner and bass.

However, we didn't have a bass recorder. Of course it seemed to be difficult to find a bass player.

But, a person who plays the alto recorder can play the bass recorder like me. And it might be not so difficult to find a alto player. So I decided to buy a bass recorder by myself.

 

Yuki showed an interest to it, because it was really cool. However--- for him it seemed to be difficult. Because he is not good at reading music.

 

At home

Since the new era name had been announced in Japanese, we heard many different English translations, like "order and harmony", "pursuing harmony", like that. Such words sound strong for Japanese people. So the foreign ministry announced "reiwas is beautiful harmony in English".

Well, anyway the new era name brought us a positive feeling.
Yuki and I cerebrated "reiwa" with a little bit good quality beef and wine, or we had a good reason to get something expensive.
Though the beef was a little bit expensive, it was easy to cook. Additionally cooking steak is Yuki's job.
Well, though it is my image, good dishes are always with dessert.
So we bought reasonable cake, which means it was not so expensive.
---- the sweet was not so bad, but it was not as good as "I" expected.

I was not satisfied with the sweets.
So I decided to bake another sweet by myself the next day.
Now, strawberries are in season in this area.  We can buy good quality ones with reasonable price.

 

We had some at tea time the next day, and the rest for breakfast the following day.

 

Though it is a matter of no importance, I'm thinking

As the title shows, it is a matter of no importance, however---

 

These days when I'm asked to go out  somewhere from someone, I'm willing to accept the offer, ---even though it might be expensive.

 

These days, when I go out somewhere, I try to ask someone who might be busy, to go with me , --- even though it might be easier that I go there by myself.

 

And --- when I go somewhere with someone, it is fun with her or them.

And --- when I come home, I sometimes get a little depressed.

The reason is , though you might laugh,

---- She has lots of friends. I know that I don't need to compare my situation to hers.

---- She seems to be richer than me. I know the way to use our money is different.

 

I know, I am one of her friends, and she is or they are one or ones of my friends. Sometimes I think I want to be special for them.

I know, if I was  really worried about my financial situation, I would work more.

 

Getting along with some sometimes makes me tired, and being along also sometimes makes me lonely.

 

Well, well, how selfish I am!  When I grouch,( or complain) someone says it shows you get old.

I know it is easy to say everything comes from getting older.

 

Anyway the new era name "reiwa" was announced this week.

It was taken from the eighth-century work Man’yoshu, the oldest anthology of Japanese poetry, can be read as “fortunate” or “auspicious”, and “peace” or “harmony

 

On the day I baked "queens of pudding".

 

How bright, full of the smell of baked sweets, coming Rei-wa