No, I'm not trying to buy somebody else's storage unit; that isn't allowed in Japan because of privacy laws. No, this is my fight with my storage room.
Next week, Hannah and I are going on a little trip, so I wanted to find one of the suitcases we have. I glimpsed one when I was upstairs the other week. I thought it would be easy to find it. But between me seeing it and today, things have been moved around a lot!
The other week, David and Mikey bought the old chest of drawers down for me. I wrote about that here, Jackie's Japan Journal: A New Chest Of Drawers. To get to the chest of drawers, they had to move a lot of boxes. They just randomly stacked them, with smaller boxes on the bottom (why?). The suitcase was in that general area!
Hannah and I spent a good 20 minutes moving boxes. sweeping up the trash on the floor and trying to organise one little corner. I found the suitcase, but we aren't sure we are going to use it as it's a bit bigger than I thought and might be difficult to lift on and off trains and buses. Hannah's suitcase might be big enough; we will see.
While I was moving some of these boxes, I found some of my old clothes, still looking new. A few tops and a pair of trousers. I decided to bring them down as they might fit, or at least be close to fit, another incentive to lose some weight. I know I said yesterday that I wanted to get things out of my bedroom, but I do need a few new tops for summer. If these fit, I can save a bit of money; if they don't, I can throw them away.
Another thing Hannah and I did this afternoon was to edit a few older videos together. Actually, Hannah edited it, and I watched, trying to learn how to do editing.
I never intended to start a YouTube channel, but I can't upload videos from my computer to this blog any other way. There is probably a way, but this was the easiest choice for me.
Here is the video Hannah made. It's very good for a first try!
I really like how she put the text on. I tried to do it, but got frustrated with the process.
Hannah came home this afternoon for a few days. It's nice having her here, but of course, I had to clean my room.
I do this every time she comes home. I clean my room, make space for her futon, and vow to keep it clean, which lasts for a week or so.
As I was cleaning today, I'm trying to identify where I'm going wrong with this cleaning business. I'm in my 60s, I have had my own place for 40 years, surely by now I should know how to keep house, it's not rocket science, is it?
One thing that I've noticed is that I focus my cleaning on the areas that everyone uses. The kitchen/dining area, the bathroom and toilet, the corridor and the entrance are the areas I clean a lot. I'm also spending a lot of time trying to get the tatami room to look nice, as I'm still hoping to get students, and that is the room I will have to use.
My room is always the last place to clean. I think I have too much stuff in my room. The TV is in here as I'm the only one who watches it, and there's no living room. My desk and a lot of books are in here as well. I actually spend most of my days in here, which is rather depressing.
At the moment, we don't have money to change anything in this house, and whatever money we get, the first things that need to be done are the water areas, kitchen, bathroom and toilet. Once that is done, I'm hoping to build an extension onto the dining room and have a small living area.
It's a dream!
What can I do now to make things easier and better for me? This is what I've been thinking about today. Dreams are great, but the reality is that the money just isn't there, and even small jobs cost an arm and a leg.
One thing I'm planning to do after my trip is to sort out this big cupboard; there is too much stuff in there. Do I need ot keep everything in there? I have two big plastic drawers of off-season clothes. I think I'll buy some plastic boxes that are insect-proof and then store the clothes in the storage place. I have another big drawer of sentimental things; I don't know what to do with that. I don't need them nearby, but there is some comfort in knowing they are near. I've already put some things in the storage area. Can I let the rest go there as well? It's just next door, but I worry about the conditions in there, hot and humid in the summer, with lots of critters running around the place, but this house is about the same.
Next week, Hannah and I are taking a little trip to Mojiko and Shimonoseki. These are two historical port towns on the Kanmon Strait.
Mojiko is on the island of Kyushu; Shimonoseki is on the island of Honshu. They sit face to face; the waterway is so narrow that there is an underwater tunnel that you can walk through. We are going to do that, I'm not going to think about earthquakes!
A lot of the history in this area is from the Meiji Era, 1868 to 1912. This was a time when Japan was opening to the world. Mojiko became an international trading port and later a major railhead connecting Kyushu with the rest of Japan. There are a lot of lovely buildings from this period that have been preserved as part of the Mojiko Retro district. There are a few different museums to walk around. The Mojiko Station is also an older building. It looks really beautiful, I hope I can get some good photos.
I asked AI what is good to do the first thing that came up was to try Yaki -Curry. It is a baked curry dish that originated in Mojiko. Hannah isn't keen on curry but will try it. I hope the weather is good so we can have a little stroll along the waterfront.
After walking under the sea, still not sure about that idea, we'll have a couple of days in Shimonoseki.
Shimonoseki is known for its maritime heritage, fresh seafood and historic sites.
The one place I'm looking forward to seeing is the Former British Consulate. It's an older building that is now a museum. We have booked an afternoon tea, that's one thing I'm really looking forward to.
I haven't had an overnight trip in many years. I'm actually looking forward to staying in a hotel!
I really hope the weather is nice, the cherry blossoms might have started, that would be really nice.
The weather here has been crazy, but typical spring weather. Cold, the warm, then cold again. We even had rain yesterday. My student, who is a farmer, was very relieved by the storm. I like rain, but not when I have to go out. Visibility was very bad along the river. I took a couple of short videos!
Even though I'm not driving, this kind of weather makes me tense!
Last week, I got really hit by the side effects of the new blood pressure medicine I was prescribed.
I managed to get them changed to a lower dosage, but that hasn't really helped; I'm still very sleepy, dizzy, and unfocused, though not as intense as last week.
I want to go back to the hospital, but the only time I have is on Friday, which is a national holiday. So I've decided to stop taking the medicine for now and track my blood pressure. I know talking to my doctor is best, but I just don't have time. I also know that if I can get some exercise in and eat better, then I should be able to deal with this problem naturally! A good friend of mine managed to do that, even in a very stressful job!
High blood pressure worries me because it was the underlying cause of Hisao's early death. He'd had high blood pressure most of his adult life, but never got treated for it. Except for the occasional severe headache, he wasn't sick; it really is a silent killer. We didn't know how bad it was until he went into heart and kidney failure. His heart had weakened so much that it could pump blood effectively. He ended up with fluid around the heart and kidney failure. This was 3 years before he passed away.
When I was diagnosed with high blood pressure, I went into full panic mode. All I could think about was that was what killed Hisao, I didn't think about dealing with it naturally, or what I could do myself, I just accepted the medicine. Now, I want to take responsibility for my health and address this problem more naturally.
I think it's all part of being more consistent.
I was talking to Hannah about being consistent, she said that I was very consistent in writing this blog, so what is the difference between that and exercising, eating right or cleaning? I realised that I enjoy writing, I love the challenge of finding something to write about and then crafting a good post. I don't enjoy exercise, not being able to eat what I consider nice, comfort foods (bread, sweets, etc.), and I hate cleaning.
But I'm going to have to change that. I have to enjoy exercise to get in enough in a week, about 150 minutes a week. I need to challenge myself to find healthy ideas for meals and snacks, and embrace low-sugar ideas. Cleaning is going to be the most challenging! Maybe listen to something while I'm doing it. Any ideas?
Just a few photos of my daft cats! These animals raise my blood pressure sometimes, especially when they are fighting. But at the same time, having a cat on my lap, purring away, helps my blood pressure come down!
Fluffy found the best place, in front of the heater.
I'm on a couple of Facebook groups for diet and weight loss.
I'm amazed and inspired by some of the stories I read. Some people start out at really heavy weights, some are over 500lbs (226 kgs), almost bed-bound, some house-bound, but they consistently work at losing weight; it might take years, but they get there. No private trainers, no fancy foods, just working at it every day. One lady I read about said that she struggled to walk down her drive, but she did it every day. Once she could do that, she added two more steps, then two more until she could manage a mile. Small things done everyday bought big changes for her.
I know my problem is being consistent. I try something for a while, but then I just stop. In Japanese, they say mikka bozu, 三日坊主, literally a 3-day monk. The saying comes from the fact that to become a Buddhist Monk takes a lot of discipline and hard work; most give up after a few days!
I realised this morning that my inconsistency rules my life. I start things, diet, exercise, study, even cleaning, but don't keep at them.
I have my reasons; the exercise was too hard, the diet too boring, the study too hard and cleaning, who wants to do that?
But are they reasons or just excuses to keep the status quo?
But I'm not really happy with the status quo; I want to change. I have to lose weight, I need to get off the high blood pressure meds as they don't suit me at all. Even the lower dosage makes me sleepy! I want to be able to walk more when I go out with Hannah. I would love to buy clothes from a store, not just online!
I have enough reasons and some motivation, but keeping on is so hard.
One thing I've thought about is scheduling my life more. Make a schedule to exercise and study, make a reward schedule for sticking to my diet, maybe buy myself something little to keep on or treat myself to some nice tea or fruits. Make a cleaning schedule for the house and garden so I don't keep thinking "I'll do it tomorrow" As my Mom always said, tomorrow never comes.
I have my to-do lists, but they are vague time-wise. Today I have a chance to go to the 100 yen shop, I'll see if they have some schedule books. If I find something, I'll post it here.
I'm getting too old to be constantly failing at everything! I need to turn things around now!
Just a couple of photos of the lovely flowers in the garden!
Bedrooms should be nice, peaceful spaces where we can relax.
I've always wanted that kind of space, the ones that you see in magazines or online, where everything is tidy, and there is a feeling of being able to sleep.
But reality is different. No matter where I've lived, my bedroom is always the dumping ground. When other rooms are being tidied, and things don't have a place, they always end up in my room, for now! Then "for now" turns into forever!
On Saturday, I decided to tackle Christopher's room. He can clean by himself, but there were things left in his room from when we moved in, and they've never been moved out. He didn't know what belonged to whom or what to do with the big drawers of extra blankets. I managed to figure out most of the stuff, clothes mainly, of course, everything needed washing as the stuff had been sitting in boxes and on the floor covered in dust. Guess where the clean clothes end up after they've been washed, yep, my room!
Clean laundry pile.
This is about a week's worth of laundry. I keep asking people to come and get their laundry, but it's always later. There's a big box underneath, so maybe not that much. I can hope!
I thought about sorting out the laundry, but I didn't have the energy. I wanted to do something, so I decided that I could sort one drawer. Better than nothing, also finishing one job always motivates me to do more.
That backfired big time.
I found an envelope with some old photos in it and old letters to Santa from the boys. I sat and cried. I have so many regrets from my kids' childhood; they really suffered at school because of bullying, and my reaction was always knee-jerk reactions.
Here are the letters, kind of cute!
I also found a very strange photo of Mom, pulling faces!
This photo made me smile!
A rather emotional afternoon, maybe I should have tackled the laundry?
This line from the song Circle of Life is my mantra at the moment. There's always something that needs to be done, and I never have enough time in a day, week, month or even a year to finish. I end each day with it'll do for now!
Yesterday the weather was really nice, sunny and warm, the awful biting wind had died down. I decided to have a little walk up to some of our land. I took a video on the way.
On my walk, I noticed that the gardens and fields were looking nice. Fields were ready for planting, trees were in bloom, and there were even some daffodils!
Daffodils always remind me of Mom. She would buy a bunch every spring, she said that they were her father's favourite flower, she bought them to remember him. Now I see them and remember her.
We got to our land, and it was worse than I thought it would be!
These are two parcels of land that we own. There are at least 12 more scattered about. I have the addresses, but I don't know where they all are. We own some up in the mountain that has old-growth trees on it. I only went there twice, so no idea where it is!
On one piece of land, there's a storage hut. I had a look inside, there's lots of stuff in there that I have no idea what it's for. A load of hay, I think that was used to keep the roots of the trees warm. I've seen that done around here. There are bags of soil or compost or something, I can't figure out the Japanese! I'll have to ask someone to see what it is.
There are also some lovely wood planks. I'm wondering if we can use them for something.
Lovely wood planks, what can I use them for?
A couple of other photos of the inside of the hut.
Just stuff thrown in.
Bamboo and sticks.
Today I decided that instead of vacuuming the ceiling, yes, I have to do that as well here, as spider webs keep appearing, I made a quiche for lunch. No brainer really, struggle to vacuum the ceiling or spend time enjoying myself making a nice lunch. The spiderwebs will be there tomorrow, maybe David can help me!
Today's lunch was quiche.
I made a couple of salads, a few chips and vegetable soup to go with it.
It's a friendly, gift-giving tradition celebrated one month after Valentine's Day. It's a chance for the men who received gifts on February 14th to reciprocate.
White Day started in 1978 by Japan's National Confectionery Industry Association to encourage men to give marshmallows to women as a return gift for the chocolates they received on Valentine's Day. An early nickname for this day was Marshmallow Day, but over time, the name shifted to White Day to include a wider range of white-themed sweets and gifts.
The holiday also reflects the Japanese cultural concept of okaeshi, or returning a gift to show appreciation. An okaeshi gift should be about half the value of the original gift. Okaeshi isn't just for White Day; it is part of Japanese culture. It can get a bit out of hand, you give a gift, get one back, have to return another one and so on!
The idea of White Day started in Japan, but the tradition has spread to other East and Southeast Asian countries, including South Korea, China and Taiwan.
Like Valentine's Day gifts vary depending on who you are giving them to. Also, in modern times, the gifts aren't just confectionery. Many people give accessories, flowers or small luxury items.
The past week, supermarkets have had big displays for White Day; it's really being marketed. I think part of this is because there are fewer couples than in the past. Young Japanese just don't date or marry.
But that's a whole other post!
I wanted a picture for this post, but couldn't find anything, so I used AI. Hope you like it!
Last night I decided not to take the blood pressure medicine this morning, but I did!
I think it's a habit now. My morning routine never changes. I get up, make obento, make breakfast, clean the kitchen as I go along, drink 3 to 4 cups of water, take my medicine and eat breakfast.
I was worried that I would be too sleepy and dizzy to get ready as the side effects kick in very quickly. It was hard, but I managed to leave just after 8 o'clock, as planned!
Mikey and I arrived at the hospital at about 9 o'clock.
On the way there, the weather really deteriorated. There's a saying in Japanese, Sankan Shion, 3 days cold weather, 4 days warm weather. It's very true, yesterday was lovely weather, warm and a bit cloudy, but I was alright walking round the garden for a while, I didn't need a jacket. Today it feels like winter, with ice rain and strong winds.
A couple of photos I took on the way to the hospital, just after I took these, the rain started.
We were heading into that storm cloud; the blue sky was where we came from.
I only had to wait an hour to see the doctor.
I know I complain about living in Japan, and it can be hard here, but I'm very grateful for the medical system they have here. It's not perfect, but it is good. After hearing what happened when my Dad had a fall, having to wait for an hour for an ambulance when the hospital is just a 20-minute drive away, then 12 hours for X-ray and blood work results, I wonder if I would even get to see a doctor on such short notice. I know here that I can walk into a hospital and will be seen within a couple of hours. I don't think I could have gone on for weeks with the blood pressure medicine making me so ill, I would have just stopped taking it, which isn't advised.
The doctor changed my prescription; the tablets were 20mg, the new ones are for 10mg, half the dose. I usually get 3 months' worth of medicine, but decided to get just one month to see if this dosage is alright.
After that, we drove to my hairdresser's. I've been going to this place for about 30 years now. It's run by 2 sisters, but one has retired. The lady who did my hair is now 80 years old, but still working, still has a lot of energy. We were talking about my hospital visit, she told me that she has never been in hospital, doesn't take any medicine or supplements. She says that she works, exercises, sleeps well and eats healthy food with a few treats! Sounds like a good model for a healthy life. The one problem she has is that she doesn't like to have customers too early in the morning; she likes to take her time to wake up and get ready for work.
I'm not too sure about my haircut. I think it's a bit too short, but it'll grow. I might get a colour when Hannah comes, she can do it for me.
I look awful in photos, and I'm no good at taking selfies, but I want to show my hair. No laughing!
Bit too short!
I'm red, and my eyes are swollen because of allergies!
I hope this new medicine works, I have a lot I have to do and want to do, I really don't have time to be sick or sleeping all the time!
Last week I started a new blood pressure medicine. For a week, I felt alright, but yesterday I started to feel awful.
My weekly schedule isn't very busy. Tuesday and Wednesday, I go to the other city to teach a few classes. I know that on Thursday I'm going to be a little tired from that, so I make Thursday my easy day.
Yesterday, however, I felt totally exhausted. Not just I've done too much, and my body feels tired, but more like I was drugged.
My alarm went off at 5am, I couldn't get out of bed; the room was cold, which makes it harder to get up. I felt like I was in a fog; I couldn't think clearly at all. I managed to drag myself out of bed, but just making an obento and breakfast felt like an enormous task. I often joke that I'm like a zombie in the mornings. Yesterday, I really was in zombie mode, I watched as the sausages burnt, I couldn't think what to do! I went back to bed and slept all morning. I managed to write a post, but I think there were many mistakes. I didn't even try to make lunch!
David made a quick lunch, I slept again after that.
Mikey and I left at about 2:30, my first class was at 4 oclock.
When we got to the community centre, the room I use was being used for an emergency meeting. Also, I was feeling a lot worse, completely drugged, throwing up, and my head started to pound. Mikey cancelled classes and changed his classes so we could come home early.
I went to bed before 10 p.m., slept until midnight, then woke up for the toilet and slept until 5 a.m. I managed to make obento and breakfast, I felt a tiny bit better than yesterday. But I needed to sleep again after.
David decided to change his room around this morning, a lot of banging, running the vacuum cleaner and cats fighting, but I slept through most of it!
I made a good lunch. Whenever I feel a bit off, I always think good, healthy food will help.
I made hamburgers, rice, salad, tofu and avocado salad plus a tomato soup.
Good lunch.
It was until I put ketchup on my salad instead of mayonnaise.
Why?
I called Hannah this afternoon and asked her to call the pharmacy about the medicine. She did that, but they couldn't help, so she called the doctor. I have an appointment for tomorrow morning, good!
It's likely the medicine, since it's the only thing that changed last week. All of the important numbers from the blood check were okay, the doctor didn't see any red flags for other problems.
I know I'm blowing this out of proportion, but all yesterday and today, I kept thinking about my Mom and Hisao. Mom was 64 when she died, I'll be 64 this year! Two days before Hisao passed away, I noticed he wasn't looking well, his colour was off, I asked if he was alright, he said yes, just very tired! That's what has been going through my head the past two days!
I'm going to have a little walk in the garden now, change my air a bit, it might help!
There are some events that are etched into our collective memory.
I remember people saying that they remember exactly where and what they were doing when President Kennedy was assinated. I can remember what I was doing when Princess Diana died. These memories shape and define us as a people.
One event that is seared on to the collective memory of the people in Japan, both Japanese and foriengers is the disaster of March 11th, 2011.
Even though I live in Japan, I'm at the opposite end of the country and had no idea about the earthquake and tsunami intil one of students told me about it.
My student was a young lad, maybe 4th grade, his lesson was from 4 o'clock. He came but was acting very subdued, he was always full of energy but that day was the oppoistie. I asked what was wrong thinking that he had caught a cold or was tired from school. He said that his Dad had gone to Tokyo but there had been an earthquake and his Dad wasn't answering his phone. I told the lad not to worry that Tokyo is prepared for earthquakes and his Dad would be okay. The lad told me to go and watch the TV, he then added in English "Bad, very bad". That last phrase made me pause, he had never used English before! I turned on the TV and was shocked at what I saw. The lads father was alright but it took a few days for him to contact the family.
The scenes on the TV were like something out of a movie.
The intial earthquake struck at 2:46, off the Pacific coast of the Tohoku region of northern Japan. The earthquake was a megathrust quake, it was measured at magnitude 9, one of the strongest ever recorded in Japan, the fourth largest recorded in the world! The quake was so large that the island of Honshu moved 2.4 meters (7ft10ins) east and the earth moved on its axis by estimates of between 10 and 24cm (4 and 10 ins). There were a lot of foreshocks and of course after shocks.
I found this video on Youtube that gives an idea of the extent of the earthquakes.
Have your volume on when you watch this.
The earthquake alone was very bad but what followed made it even worse.
A tsunami that took out whole towns.
It's hard to imagine the scale of the distruction caused by the tsunami. I remember watching as buildings, houses, cars, trucks were washed away. I tend to think of the structures that are built are strong but not against such a force of nature.
The last disaster that day was the Fukushima Nuclear power plant that went into meltdown.
This is only my understanding, I might be wrong and if I am, I'm sorry.
When the earthquake happened the safety measures that are built into the power plant went into action. The nuclear rods were being lowered into the cooling water, this was powered by a diseal generater. This would have been fine if the tsunami hadn't breached the sea wall. The tsunami knocked out all power so the nuclear rods weren't cooled down leading to the melt down.
That day remains in my memory. I cried as I watched families realise that their loved ones weren't coming home, and what made it worse for a lot of people was the fact that people had been washed out to sea, their bodies never to be found.
People lost everything, loved ones, pets, houses and jobs. I wondered how do you start again from nothing?
It has taken many years, but the area today has recovered. There are still signs of the destuction caused by that natural disaster, but after 15 years I think people have been able to rebuild lives. Not the lives they had before but lives that bring some joy and maybe a new respect for the earth.
That area of Tohoku is sesimetcally active, there are earthquakes almost every month, most are small, just a 1 or 2. I don't think I could live there. I'm amazed at the people of Japan, their resilisance in the midst of such massive disasters is something to be admired.
There are a lot of videos on YouTube about this day. Some are fascinating to watch, the skyscrapers in Tokyo look like they are dancing. The cranes on top of Skytree wave like flags, I flet sorry for the operators in them. One mad me smile, it's from inside Tokyo Tower, you can hear the annocement saying "There's an earthquake!", with the way the tower was swaying that was obivious.
Other videos are more harrowing, watching people being washed away in their cars, knowing that you are watching the last few minutes of their lives is awful (those videos I turned off). Some show the heroics of ordinary people as they pulled strangers onto buildings or up the side of hills.
Today at 2:46 I will stop, bow my head and offer a prayer for the people of that area. I will pray that the survivors will find the strength for another year.
Sorry if there are any mistakes in this post, I'm not feeling to great plus the app that I use to check spellings and grammar decided not to work today!
I don't know if other languages have this, but the Japanese language tends to have a lot of puns or word plays.
The ones I like are the word plays using numbers.
Today is March 10th, which can be read as san gatsu toka, literally 3 month 10th day. Which makes today Sugar Day. Taking the "sa" from san and the "to" from toka makes "sato" the Japanese for sugar. This was started in 1991 by the Sugar Industry Association.
One supermarket that I use has meat sales on the 29th of each month (except February, when the sale is on the 28th). Reading the numbers two and nine is ni and ku; niku is the Japanese word for meat.
Another one is to do with the layout of calendars.
The 15th day is always above the 22nd. This makes the 22nd short cake day in Japan. Short cake is a basic sponge cake, not the English shortcake biscuit. Usually, strawberries are used as a decoration on short cakes.
The numbers one and five are ichi and go in Japanese; ichigo means strawberry. Because the 15th is above the 22nd, like a strawberry on a cake, the 22nd is shortcake day!
Is that a good enough reason to buy cake on the 22nd of each month?
I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but Hannah and I are making plans to go to Tokyo in the summer. The musical Sunset Boulevard will be playing for a couple of weeks, and Hannah really wants to see that.
The tickets went on sale last Saturday. Hannah managed to get two good tickets, very expensive but I think worth it. She also managed to book a hotel and flight at a reasonable price. The only problem is that the hotel is about an hour away from the theatre, changing trains many times to get there. I'm glad I'm going with Hannah as I don't know if I could deal with that by myself!
It should be an interesting visit. I haven't been to Tokyo since I arrived in Japan, 35 years ago. I guess it's changed a lot. I was never really interested in going, big cities always feel the same: too many people, too much noise, and everything always seems to be a lot more expensive.
In Tokyo, many years ago.
We are making plans for the other days we will be there. I really don't want to see all the real touristy places, just the thought of the crowds and the heat and humidity makes me panic!
One area that I've read about is the Tokyo booktown, Jinbocho. There are over 130 bookstores; some sources say there are 200 stores. Of course, most are Japanese bookstores, but there are also foreign bookstores. Most are 2nd handstores, but there are also new bookstores as well, plus some stores that sell rare books. One store that I saw on YouTube is a cat bookstore, so of course, we want to visit that.
I don't know what else Hannah wants to do. She said that watching the musical is the most important thing for her. She loves museums about education or the Show period, maybe we can find something like that. Then, of course, there is always shopping, more like window shopping!
I have to start training to deal with all the walking and the heat/humidity.
Is it crazy to make these plans? Maybe. But I know I always put off doing things because of ....many excuses! Not enough money, well, that isn't going to change overnight, but I am working on it. Haven't lost weight, well, I can try, I have a few months. It's going to be hot and humid; that isn't going to change. It'll be hot and humid here as well.
I'm at the time in my life when I realised that time is important. We aren't guaranteed tomorrow. I need to make the most of the time I have now, doing things that I want to do, things that bring joy to my life.
One reason I'm thinking like this is, is the news of a lady I knew, who passed away a few days ago. She was just 70 years old and had been battling cancer for 5 years. That's so sad, from about my age, she was dealing with cancer, hospital stays, chemo and radiation therapy, constantly not feeling well and not having energy to do things.
So I'm going to live in the here and now, make crazy plans, spend time with those that I love. Also, take care of myself so I can make the crazy plans come true.
Yesterday it was so cold. I think it only got to about 10°C; of course, it felt colder in the house!
I decided to make some comfort food for lunch. Something warming, filling, and just feels right on a cold March day.
I made Butadon, Pork Donburi.
Donburi is a rice dish in one bowl. Lovely, soft, steamy rice topped with either beef, pork, chicken, pork cutlets or vegetables.
For a pork donburi, I cook onions and thinly sliced pork in dashi, then add the usual flavourings: sugar, soy sauce, mirin (sweet sake), and sake. I like the sauce to be a little bit sweet, so I add more mirin. When David makes it, he adds more soy, just personal taste.
To go with this, I made a pot of miso soup. I love miso soup; it's so easy to make and is a good way of adding a few more vegetables to the meal. My kids say that my soup is more like a stew as I put in so many vegetables!
A small side salad rounded out the meal nicely,
Butadon, miso soup and salad, nice lunch.
I ate a lot at lunch, so I wasn't that hungry in the evening. I remembered that I had a tin of baked beans in the cupboard. In the UK, these are standard food; here in Japan, they are a luxury. One tin costs about 500 yen, almost £3. I bought these beans a couple of months ago, so I decided that beans on toast for dinner would be another comfort food for me. This was more about nostalgia. I love Japanese food, but sometimes I just want something English, something that takes me back to my childhood! Maybe not that healthy, but it hit the spot!
Beans on toast with some sausages and mushrooms.
I'm wondering what comfort foods other people enjoy. Drop me a comment!
The storage area is a large building that has two floors. Most of the downstairs is for parking cars, especially if there's a typhoon. Part of the downstairs was changed into an office, but it isn't really usable, too hot in the summer, too cold in the winter. Then there's the upstairs, which is one big room. I've often thought it would be nice to convert it so it could be used for something, but there are massive gaps in the walls and between the walls and the roof. It has become home to many different creatures. This time of year, it's okay, but in the summer, I get very nervous about moving things about because I have no idea what is going to run out.
I haven't been upstairs in months. I think the last time was when Hannah came home to find somethings she was storing here. I went today, and it is a real mess. Part of it is things just being moved around without thought of stacking boxes or throwing out stuff that is not useful. Also, David and Mikey had to move a lot of boxes to get to the chest of drawers that I needed for my room.
This is a little video I took, it might be jumpy in places because I was tripping over stuff!
One of the biggest problems for me is the stairs to the 2nd floor. They are very steep and don't have any handrails at all. Even when I was younger, I found the stairs challenging; now they are almost impossible. I only go upstairs if there's someone to go with me. I can't carry anything down; the person who goes up with me has to help carry stuff down. Today it was Christopher.
Looking down the stairs, scary.
I took a little video of what was once the office. It needs cleaning out as well. The doors at the end of the video are from the original house, so about 70 years old!
Then there is the outside!
Oh bother!
Christopher moved the branches that were cut down ages ago; he hopes that it'll be dry enough to burn them next week. At least where the branches were looks a lot better.
The branches were dumped here; it looks a lot better.
I don't know why, but one of my ginger cats has taken to sleeping in my room.
He knows that he is only allowed on my bed or the windowsill. At the moment, there's a big box in my room that he has claimed. It's a set of drawers for Hannah, so it'll be gone soon!
When David isn't working at night, I ask him to take Sam to his room, but Sam won't settle at all. He has to be on my bed, on me!
At first, I was annoyed with him; he sleeps in the middle of the bed, and I have to keep pushing him to one side so I can stretch my legs a bit. But somehow it's become comforting. In the evenings when I'm sitting on my bed reading or watching TV, Sam curls up on my lap and starts to purr. That sound actually calms me a lot! Even if I've had a hard day or am feeling a bit down because of the usual worries (too many bills and not enough money, how to get this house fixed, how to......whatever the latest crisis is), the sound of Sam purring, the feel of his soft fur is like a balm to my soul, I stop thinking, I breathe deeply and tell myself that in this moment nothing is bad. I think that is the beauty of cats, only now is important. They don't fuss about next month's bills, about the house being a constant mess because of dust and spider webs; they just are. I need to be more in the moment. I'm always regretting past decisions, things I can't change and worrying about the future and all the "what ifs" out there. My what-ifs get crazy if I let them. The latest one is what if there's a massive earthquake. Why am I wasting time and energy worrying about a natural phenomenon that I can't stop! I can prepare, have water and food on hand, a first aid kit (which I need to check), but other than that, what can I do?
My evening with Sam have really helped me. When he is looking for love and to be played with, I put my book down or turn off the TV and really focus on him; that's when the magic happens. It's just such a relaxing feeling; it has helped me to unwind at the end of the day.
Yesterday was my 3-month check-up for diabetes and high blood pressure.
I will admit that the past few months, I haven't been really mindful of my eating. I know that over the Christmas and New Year's there are so many lovely foods that I only buy or make at that time of year, so I gave myself permission to eat. I thought that I would get that out of my system and that by the middle of January, I would go back to eating less carbs and sugars, but that hasn't really happened. I have good days, sometimes two or three days running that I am eating better and doing more exercise, then I'll have a few bad days where I eat the wrong foods. I don't overeat. I get full quickly; once I feel full, I stop eating, which is a new thing for me. I used to be able to eat even when I felt full; now, however, that makes me feel sick, which is a good thing! I also eat very slowly; it can take over 20 minutes to eat a meal, which is also a good thing, except I'm left alone at the table with only the cats to keep me company.
I was very worried about this check-up. My weight hasn't really changed; it's gone up and down the same half a kilo for the past couple of months, which is amazing considering the amount of junk I've eaten! I thought my A1C would be higher, but it was the same as the last test: 5.7! Also, my blood pressure has gone down; at the doctors it was 102/60. I asked to change the blood pressure meds as part of my gums have become swollen, I don't know if it's a side effect of the one medicine I was taking or if something else is going on! The doctor prescribed a different medicine but told me to come in if my blood pressure goes up or if I have other problems with it. Looks like I'll have to go to the dentist to find out what's happening with my gums!
I have a new goal: to get under 90kgs by July. Why July? The musical Sunset Boulevard will be playing in Tokyo from July 10th to August 1st. Hannah and I are planning (hoping) to see it. I'm going to start training for walking in the heat. Most summers, I don't do anything or go anywhere because of the heat and humidity. When the extreme heat was just three months of the year, that was alright, now though, most years it's about half the year. I don't want to be stuck in one room for half a year, so I think I need to start preparing for the heat and humidity now, build up my stamina, and find products that will help with the heat, especially with sweating!
This evening I'm going to sit with a notebook and a calendar and make some goals.
Also, I got a new rice cooker. David bought it for me. I think he was fed up with burnt rice. It wasn't expensive, 4,000 yen, about £20. It's so nice to just put the rice in and push a switch. No more watching the pan to make sure it doesn't boil over or burn the rice!
My new rice cooker
It's very small but does up to 4 cups of rice. It also has a basket to steam foods in, I'll have to try that out sometime.
Yesterday, when I changed over the chest of drawers, I threw out a few things. Not a lot, about one trash bag full, clothes that were falling to pieces, some that no longer fit, just trash really. But it wasn't easy! For example, I threw out a sweater that I bought about 15 years ago. I've only worn it a couple of times because it's not my style, wide neck, off-the-shoulder type. I got it from a recycle store, so not expensive, no real sentimental feelings toward it either, but I just haven't been able to throw it out!
Why? I can understand keeping things that have sentimental value. I have a couple of things that belonged to my Mom and Hisao, they comfort me and bring back memories. I also have a couple of baby clothes from each of my kids, again, comfort and memories. The same with photos and journals that I keep, I like looking back, remembering things, places I went, people I knew. Now that the kids are adults, I can tell them stories of their childhood. I feel that kind of family history is important!
Why do I find it hard to throw out things that I don't need, aren't useful and are not even worth keeping? Is it the fear that I won't be able to buy things? Is it the fear of not having things? I know that when I do get the courage to purge myself of unnecessary stuff, I feel a lot better. I feel lighter, more at ease. Getting there, however, is hard. Hannah and David are good at helping me when I need to declutter.
Once I was sorting out the teaching materials I had. I had built up a library of books, CDs and prints. I like that I had a choice of textbooks so I could cater to the students' individual needs, but I always went back to using the same textbook. I pulled books off the shelves, making two piles: keep or trash. The keep pile was getting very high! Hannah asked why I was keeping certain books, I told her that the grammar points were good or the dialogues were useful. She pointed out that the information was out of date. In one book, it had the question "Who is she/he?" with photos of Princess Diana and Michael Jackson; most kids wouldn't know who they are. Another book had a picture of cassette tapes, asking how many? Again, kids wouldn't know what cassette tapes are. With Hannah's help, I managed to throw out a load of books, making the room look a lot better.
The same with David. Before we moved here, we cleaned out the storage place. I had kept everything that I wasn't using, about 34 years of stuff, from baby clothes to school textbooks and loads of broken gadgets. David would pick up something and ask why are you keeping this. So much trash. It broke my heart, but I realised that the only value was sentiment, not usefulness! I kept a few things, but most were thrown out.
I think I need to learn how to do this by myself. I don't like the feeling of being afraid of letting things go. With spring starting, it's a good chance to go through the things that I have and do another good purge of trash. This house is too small, half the size of the last house. I don't really have space just to keep things.
I can do this! I'll just have to remind myself every day!
A photo of the mountains from the other morning. It's been raining all day today, which is good as the winter has been very dry and the reservoirs were getting low!
Did I mention that the chest of drawers in my bedroom stopped opening? About a month ago, the bottom three drawers got stuck. David managed to get them out, but they wouldn't go back in. So two of the drawers have sat near the door to my room. The cats liked to get in the top one!
Sam is in my drawer.
Maybe I could have coped with the drawers that were left, but they were getting harder and harder to open. The other day, it took 20 minutes to open one drawer.
My old chest of drawers.
I remembered that there are two nice sets of drawers in the storage room. I asked David to check them out, which he did. One was still good, the other one was not really useful, with very shallow drawers and smelled a bit musty.
Today, David said that he and Mikey could bring the good set of drawers down. I'm glad I have these muscle men to help me out; there's no way I could have gotten the drawers down the very steep stairs in the storage place.
While I was making lunch, they got the drawers down and gave them a good cleaning. I thought that just changing clothes from one set of drawers to another would take a few minutes. I didn't anticipate David's help.
The top part of the old drawers I had some books, I always seem to have more books than anything else. I had put them up there to keep them away from the cats. The new set of drawers doesn't have a cupboard space on top, so what to do with the books?
David opened the closet that I have and decided to reorganise it, to make space for my books. Great idea. The only problem was that the closet had become a dumping ground for clean laundry! Weeks of laundry that nobody had claimed was just shoved in there.
David pulled out a lot of the laundry, some of the boxes and files that were in there. Let's just say my room was a disaster!
Disaster!
Hannah called while we were doing this. I couldn't find my phone! I sent her these photos. She understood why I didn't answer!
Even though I hadn't planned to do this today, I'm glad we did. I managed to fill up a big bag of trash, things that I'm just hanging onto for the sake of hanging onto them. I found things that I thought were lost, some tops that should fit me now. Also, moving the old drawers revealed mould that had been growing behind them. David wiped the walls down with bleach. There is still a lot to do, but we made a good start!
My new drawers
The teddy bear is Hannah's. I don't know why it's in my room.
The baskets on the floor are clothes that belong to Christopher and Mikey; they'll have to put them away later, plus two baskets of stuff I'm throwing out!
