Should I Worry?

The past week a few students have called to say that they can't attend this weeks lessons.  Most of them are attending local junior high schools or high schools that have an outbreak of Omincron Variant in their school.  Hannah has had no work this week because the 3rd grade students from the local school were sent home on Monday or Tuesday and were told not to go out for a least a week.  So that had me a bit worried but this morning we got a call that one of Mikey's students has tested positive for the virus.  Fortunately she was absent last Monday so I'm hoping that she hasn't exposed Mikey or the other kids!  I guess it's back to wiping down everything with alcohol after each lesson and having the windows open, even though it's cold! David suggested having plastic dividers up on the desks but I don't see the point of them, the virus is in the air and can fly round the dividers.  The only way to be 100% safe is to wear a hazmat suit with filtered air.  

This past week I've been trying to cook fresh foods as much as possible, making vegetables are larger part of the meals.  It's the only way I can think of boosting our immune systems.  On Wednesday I made a big pot of meatball soup, very nice and warming.  Because I know the kids would feel it isn't enough I made bacon muffins and corn muffins to go with it.

Bacon Muffins

Corn Muffins

I want to boost our immune system because I don't want to get sick, not just covid but colds or flu, I just don't have time to be sick!

What A Life

The past week or so there had been an awful smell in the room that I share with Hannah.  At first I thought it might of been the cats so I checked around but nothing, then I realized that I hadn't taken the trash out for a week, so I did that and opened the window to air the room but the smell was still there.  It smelt like plastic.  Yesterday morning Hannah was studying when she noticed smoke, at first she thought it was just dust floating up. When she looked closely she saw that one of the plugs was burning!  Apparently she had too many things plugged into the extension cord and the plug had over heated.

It had burnt through to the back!

Rather bad!

Then last night we had an earthquake!

I know this is Japan and earthquakes happen a lot.  But where I live we don't get that many.  Until the Kumamoto Earthquake in 2016 I could count on one hand how many quakes I had experienced and most of them were very small!

Last nights earthquake was a magnitude 6.3 at the center but here a 3!  It hit just after 1 am.  We haven't had any after shocks but  nearer to the epicenter they have had a lot of after shocks.  According to the news it could take up to a week to settle down!  I know I panic easily but I think part of it is that it's the middle of the night. Things always seem worse at night!

27 Years

 Today is the 27th year since the Great Hanshin Earthquake.

A few months before this we had been in Kobe visiting Hisao's family.

I remember when the earthquake happened.  I use to have the TV on so I could listen to Japanese, at that time Mikey and David were little so I had no time to really study so listening was one way of picking up some words.  The quake hit early in the morning, at 5:46 am.  It registered at 7.3 on the Japanese Meteorological Agency scale.  Watching the news programs that morning I was shocked at the amount of damage that the quake caused.  I believed that Japanese structures were built to with stand strong earthquakes, I guess I was wrong.  One of the most famous photos was of a raised highway that had fallen over, another was the fires that broke out.  About 6434 people died in this earthquake.  At that time this was the biggest earthquake after the Tokyo earthquake in 1923.

One of my students lived in Kobe at that time.  She got so angry because her beautiful china tea set, that she had bought all the way from England, got broken.  She said that she had been so careful transporting from England just to have broken in her apartment!  But she was also grateful that she didn't get hurt and she could stay in her apartment.

This morning there was a memorial service for those who lost their lives in this disaster.  Even 27 years later it is still heart breaking for those families.

Going Cold Turkey

 On January 3rd I stopped eating anything with sugar in it! At my last check up I was boarder line diabetic, so the doctor said I had to lose weight or go on insulin.  So I am trying, but it's bloody hard.  I stopped sugary things but am eating too many cards.  Bread, rice and pasta make up a large portion of our diet, cheap and filling!  Fruits are so expensive,  about 5 pounds for a dozen strawberries!  Some veggies are cheap enough but I don't want to eat salad when it's so cold.  I should try making soups but most days I'm running around trying to get every thing done that I don't have time to spend ages in the kitchen.  Even with the kids helping out there is a lot to do!

Stopping sugar has helped.  Before I was racing off the toilet every two hours, which made sleeping very difficult.  Now I can go for 4 hours!  I don't feel that heavy and my fuzzy brain fog has lifted.  I did eat one small chocolate on Mikey's birthday, but felt awful after, nausea and headache.  So I can see that sugar is not good for me.  I hope that I can stick to it this time.  I am trying to think what to eat instead of carbs but I think that will take some time to sort out.  I made a good start just have to be consistent!

Michael

 Today is Michael's birthday.  He is now 30!!!!  

I'm really proud of the young man he has become.  Hisao passed away just 3 weeks before Mikey's 21st birthday.   I remember wondering how I was going to carry on, how to help David, Christopher and Hannah navigate the public school system, how to grow our business.  So many things that Hisao did for us that now feel to me.  But Mikey stepped up, put his dreams on hold and managed all the things that needed to do.  He has been teaching English since he was 18, helping out a lot.  He is now a known as a caring, fun teacher who has helped scores of kids get their first taste of learning English in a positive way.  He has built up a good following at the local community centers, he gets called to do magic shows for different events (at least until covid hit!), the staff trust him to take of the kids.  He also has regular classes that he volunteers for, we get a lot of paying students from those classes.  He is well known in our little city!

2020 was supposed to be the start of his magic career but that has been put back, he is hoping that this summer he will make his debut.  Let's hope the pandemic will have calmed down by then!

Few photos of Mikey through the years.

About a month old

First visit to UK

Starting nursery

UK 2003

Messing around

Who has the biggest ice cream?

3 boys!

teaching

Balloon art

Teaching at a community center

Last visit to UK, 5 years ago.

Wearing the other kids glasses

with Dad

???????

12 years ago

graduating junior high school

With Lou, our first dog

Sorry the photos aren't in order!  I have to go and start the lasagna, Mikey's request for his birthday dinner!

Outing

 Yesterday Hannah and I went to the big city to watch Andre Lloyd Webber Unmasked.

The concert was very good but a very tiring day!

We left early, but then got the slow train to the city.  The express takes about 30 minutes but that would of meant waiting on the cold platform for ages so we got on the local train, one hour but warm and comfortable.  I was surprised to see so many adverts for 'Go Travel' encouraging people to travel again. Even in the station they had a stand set up to look like a cafe with different destinations posted.

This is the stand they had at the station.

Looks very nice and did make me feel like going on an adventure but with this new virus I think it might be a few more months before I venture too far. Even with this trip I had Hannah checking daily for how many people had the virus!

Got there a bout 3 hours before the concert started so had a look round the stores. There's a massive book store so spent a long time in there.  Unfortunately I got over heated, so I found a quiet place to sit while Hannah had a look round!

After that we went to get lunch.  We had checked out the station's homepage before we went and found that there was a Burger King just 3 minutes walk from the station.  Burger King is not that popular here, MacDonalds are every where but not Burger King. The walk took more than 3 minutes as we were at the opposite end of the station.  I didn't think I was going to make it as by that time my knee was very painful.  We finally got there, I was so happy to get a place to sit down.  We ordered a double cheese burger.  Small but very filling, also the fries were really nice.

Burger King

After lunch it was time to get to the concert hall.  According to Google map it would take about 30 minutes to walk from the station.  I thought about it but after walking for a few minutes I realized that I couldn't do that.  So next choice was a bus but looking at the map we would have to walk a while to find the bus stop and again when we got off.  So I decided on a taxi!  Best choice as it dropped us at the door of the hotel.  The concert hall was part of a big hotel/ convention centre complex.  

Outside the concert hall

Door to go in, the straw like curtain on top is a New Year decoration

Poster for the concert.

We still had a bit of time to wait so had a look round.  I was amazed at the view looking back down the road we had just come down.

Looking straight down to the station.

There were a lot of rules in place to enter the venue.  Every body's temperature was checked using a wrist scanner, then we had to sanitize our hands and place our ticket stubs in a box.  

We had great seats, fifth row back!  One problem was the draft from the doors.  The doors were kept open and no heating, keeping the air flow fresh. I came prepared with a scarf and lap blanket!

The cast list.

The stage

The concert was introduced by a recording of Andrew Lloyd Webber.  Also between each set a short video of Sir Andrew was shown introducing the songs and giving some history of the musicals they came form.  Started with Jesus Christ Superstar.  Of the lyrics were in Japanese but even so I was moved by the actor who sang Gethsemane.  It's a hard song to sing but also act the part, especially in a concert.  But the actor did a good job of bringing in the emotion of the song.  There were songs from Joseph, Whistle Down the Wind, Phantom of the Opera, even a new song from Cinderella.  The concert finished with Stick to the Man from School of Rock.  The audience were on their feet clapping along.  Even though it was almost 3 hours it felt like just a few minutes.  

After we went to a cafe for a drink.  Hannah got a cake, I just had ice tea.

Hannah's cake

We managed to find a taxi to get back to the station then on the train again to get home!

I had a lovely day but I realized that unless I drop some weight these day trips are going to be full of pain for me.  I came home with a painful knee and back ache!

Hannah wants to go and see cats in March, I would love to go to so I have to do something about my weight and health!

Christopher

 Today was Christopher's birthday!  24 today!  

Tradition that we have in our family is that the birthday person gets to choose the lunch menu.  Christopher loves Japanese food so his choice was tonkatsu, which are bread pork chops that are deep fried, rice, miso soup and salad.  Nice simple meal. The soup was really nice as it has gone very cold again!

Took a couple of photos with Christopher, I'll put one up but Hannah said I look like a grandmother.  I need to get my hair colored!

Happy Birthday Christopher!

New Year's Resolutions

 This year I haven't made any!  It seems that I always make the same ones, make more money and lose weight!  And every year the opposite happens, gain weight and lose money!

Why does this keep happening to me?  Why when I set goals I never seem to get close to them? I've been thinking about this for the past few days, what is the magical blueprint to a better life?  One thing I've realized for myself is that I'm not consistent in what I do.  From studying Japanese to keeping the house clean I do bits and bits but never any consistency.  For example Ill spend half a day cleaning the yard but not do anything again for a month or so, going out every other day to sweep leaves, pull weeds etc would be better but I don't do that!  So this year instead of resolutions I've decided to give myself a motto "Be Consistent".   Let's see how that goes.

One thing that I have to get better at is my Japanese.  31 years in this country and my Japanese is very bad.  David told me about a video he watched about Mormon missionaries preparing to go abroad.  According to this video they are given 8 weeks to prepare during which they have to learn the language of their mission country. 8 weeks isn't enough time to learn everything so they focus on learning what is needed to witness about their faith, then when they are in their country they learn what ever else they need.  I thought this was a good idea so I'm going to focus on learning what I need to teach, how to explain grammar etc.  I need to get better at using Japanese to teach English!

Happy New Year

 New Years Eve was very quiet here.  Only Hannah, me and the cats. David had his night shift, Mikey and Christopher had early start for work.  I think this was the first time we didn't celebrate together.  We had a nice lunch, chance to chat and tell jokes, so that was nice.

New Years Day I made a nice roast dinner.  Yorkshire puds came out great, looks like they are going to be a staple.  Got some really thick pork chops from the supermarket in the next city, they cooked up nice and didn't dry out!

Lovely big yorkshire pud!

Spent most of the day just hanging out, reading and watching TV.  

In Japan there is a tradition of relatives giving money to children in the family.  Usually adult relatives give it to children.  It's called Otoshidama.  I never gave my kids money as I usually spent everything on Christmas! This year David gave Hannah otoshidama, he said that he felt sorry that Hannah never received it from her grandmother so he wanted her to experience it.  He gave her 10,000 yen, about 60 pounds!

Bed time found me really tired, maybe because the weather has gone very cold!  Wondered why my bed was looking a bit funny.  I pulled the blankets back earlier in the day when I was airing the bed, but one of blankets had been pulled over!  Moved it and found a pile of cat poop, right in the middle of the bed.  Hannah thought it was rather funny, "Happy New Year, Mom.  Starting out with shit, how will it end?"