Twenty Nine Years!

Today is my 29th anniversary of coming to Japan.
I was only coming for five years!  I figured make some money and go back to England!
Never happened, we kept putting off going until it got too late!
When I visited England a couple of years ago I couldn't imagine living there now, it is
so different to what I remember.

I've spent the past couple of days going down memory lane with my kids!  I seem to remember the
weirdest things.  I arrived at Narita Airport in the evening, Hisao was supposed to meet me but he was late!  I remember having a mini panic attack, I had very little money, no way to contact Hisao and no idea how to get to his place!  He turned up almost an hour late!
I remember buying shoes, first thing I bought in Japan, that rubbed my feet so bad, I ended up with massive blisters!  We spent a couple of months in Tokyo, but I really didn't like it!  Great place to visit but not to live!  I don't like any big city much!  Coming back to Hisao's home town was the best thing for us!

Twenty nine years ago I wouldn't have believed how my life has turned out.  I thought things would be so different.  I never imagined being a widow, with my own business, 4 kids, 1 dog and 7 cats!

Took a couple of photos of photos from when I arrived here!

Quality isn't that good sorry!  Such a long time ago!

Birthday Week

This week we have two birthdays.  Today is Christopher's, he is now 22!  He can drive me crazy but he is also a very caring young man with an incredible sense of humor.  We walk his dog at night, usually at 11pm or so!  The other week he was moaning that his trousers were to loose and coming down.  He said it was all the weight he had lost.  I countered that it was because the elastic was old, his reply was "Mom, let me dream, let me hope!"   He is still trying to find a job!  He had a good job last year but the store got flooded for the second year running, which meant that there wasn't enough money to keep on extra staff.  He was the last hired, so the first to be let go!  He was disappointed but he got some good experience in the few months he worked there.
David is doing fried pork cutlet, salad, rice and miso soup for dinner! Christopher's request!  Keeping it simple as we are still recovering from the flu that hit everybody over the winter break!

Christopher at 22!

Christopher at 12, when he graduated from elementary school

Have no idea what to do for Mikey's birthday.  My oldest boy, he will be 28.  I guess he isn't a boy any more!

Mikey from last year

Happy New Year 2020

I hope every bodies new year is going better than ours!
Last night was okay but nobody had appetite so our yakiniku party was not so much fun!
Then Mama cat escaped and came back with a live mouse!  David and Hannah were standing on chairs, I'm chasing the cat who is chasing the mouse.  Finally caught Mama who had the mouse in her mouth.  Rescued the mouse, David took it outside!

One rescued mouse!

This morning Christopher told me that he had vomited last night and he had a 39C fever.  Took him to the local A&E, he has the flu.
David said that he was tired this morning, came back from the A&E he has the same symptoms but won't go to the doctor.  He is now sleeping!
So all my plans for a lovely dinner have gone out of the window. Hannah isn't feeling good and doesn't want to eat, Mikey is at work so that leaves just me!  I'll have some soup a bit later!  I had to cook the meat because I had already defrosted it, hopefully do a proper dinner tomorrow!
Let's hope things get better!

Lion King

Hannah and I went to see Lion King on Saturday!
We made a day of it, the show was in the evening so we went early and had a nice late lunch.
Trying to find a place to eat is so difficult, there are too many choices.  Finding something
in our budget, where we don't have to wait for half an hour to get seated and the kind of food we want meant us walking all over the station. The fancy restaurants are on the top floors, the more basic places are in the basement. We checked out the fancy places first but the queues were very long and the prices were rather shocking.  We found our way to the basement, which is like a whole shopping area underground, where we found a nice restaurant.  Hannah had fried chicken and tofu, I had beef with eggplants, both were served with rice, miso soup and salad. Very nice and filling.

Our lunch

After lunch we walked to the shopping mall where the theatre is located.  It's a small mall, with a lot of luxury stores, nice to look at but I couldn't afford to shop there.  We walked around a bit and I enjoyed people watching.  We sat down at one point, I was watching a man and his young son, they both looked exhausted, I think the wife had left them so she could finish her shopping in peace.  The poor guys were sat there yawning and I thought the kid was going to fall asleep.
We finally got into the theatre.  It's a fairly new building, and is designed with comfort in mind, the lobby is very big and the flow pattern to the theatre itself is nice, no over crowding or feeling of being pushed around!   First stop was the shop to pick up some things, I think  Hannah enjoys this as much as the musical.  She got a T shirt, calendar, key holder,  a book about the production and small bag to put everything in.

Hannah's goods

As always the show was incredible.  We had seats at the front, on the end of the row, during the opening the animals came down right past where we were sitting.  I was reluctant to watch Lion King because I felt that the puppetry would distract from the drama, but as the play went on I forgot that it was puppets and masks and got caught up in the story.  The kids playing Simba and Nala were very good.  It really was worth the effort to go and see it!
Back at the station the lights were still up from Christmas, that was nice to see as we headed home!

Hannah's wish list for next year

Lights near the station

Christmas

I wrote before that Hannah had a ski trip with her school!  She doesn't like skiing, said she spent most of the time falling down. She enjoyed the bit of sightseeing and of course the food. I've finally managed to down load the photos.

In flight meal

Hannah and her teachers

Hotel room

Shopping Mall

Lamb and veggies

Christmas was very low key this year! Mikey was working and Hannah and I are still under the weather after having the flu last week.  Everybody got some presents, not as much as usual but a few nice things! Of course Hannah got the most!

Musical DVDs, of course!

Book on psychology

Christopher with a mini nano block puzzle 

Didn't cook a traditional dinner, decided to put that off until New Years.  We had takoyaki and pizza instead.  Takoyaki are small dough balls with bits of octopus inside, tastes better than it sounds.  I did a lovely trifle for dessert!

David in charge of the takoyaki!

Finished, Christopher's nano block puzzle

We had a nice day, very quiet but with just the right amount of daftness to make it fun!  Hope everybody reading this had a wonderful day!

Seven Years

Last week was seven years since my husband passed away.  I accepted that the first
couple of years would be hard but I really thought things would be easier by now!
In some ways they are, I've accepted that my life is not what I wanted as I grow
older, that I'll have a lonelier old age than I had hoped for.  Also dealing with our business causes so
much stress, which direction to take it in, how to grow it.  Helping Hannah with her future. I miss Hisao's quiet wisdom a lot, he would step back from a problem and think things through, me I just give a knee jerk reaction and then regret it! So the past week has been rather a downer, plus Mikey, then me and now Hannah have be battling the flu!  I had so many plans for this week but have done nothing.

Few photos of Hisao

Because we have been sick we haven't done a memorial for Hisao, hope to do it next week.  Then Christmas.  I need to recover quickly!

Doctors, Dentists and Vets.....Take 2

Last week Mikey got sick, with the flu.  He went to work Sunday morning,  he is working for his friends event company, but came back at lunch time.  David drove him to the local A&E,  Mikey got a load of medicine and I haven't really seen him since then!  He has been sleeping and resting as much as possible. Hope he recovers soon as I am not feeling great!

All 3 of the kittens have colds. Poor  things are sneezing so much,  they crawl on to any available lap,  then curl up, purring and sneezing.  They went to the vets on Saturday and had some injection, they need to go again today!  Hope they recover soon!

I'm still dealing with the dentist. Had a new filling fitted.  The dentist put a temporary cover on it but that came off so it feels a bit strange.  I am hoping just one more visit will finish this course of treatment.

Hannah went to Hokkaido last week on her school ski trip.  She didn't enjoy skiing, every time tried she fell down.  She enjoyed the food, one evening they went to a restaurant that serves lamb, it is one of the meats that is not popular in Japan. She said that the hotel's breakfast service was very good!

dinner, chicken and egg on rice, miso soup and salad

Apple Pie

Cheesecake that Hannah bought from Hokkaido