Another Problem Solved!

 In Japan each household has to take their garbage to a certain place for pick up, usually twice a week. Each community as has a designated space, usually 20 houses has one space. The trucks then pick up from there. If a household has very old people or disabled people the city will arrange a pick up from the house.

When we moved to the old house a neighbor stopped by and explained when and where the garbage had to be put out, there was a space next to the small park on the next block. Moving back here we didn't get that courtesy! I think because we moved into my mother-in-laws house the neighbors thought we knew where the pick up place was! But we didn't. For one month we've had trashing piling up outside. The yard is massive so it isn't a big problem but the local cats kept getting into it, plus I'm sure there are other creatures about!

Yesterday I sent David to the neighbor's house to ask where the trash place is. She told him that there are two places one up the road near the community center, the other place is down the road, a cage near Yamaguchi's house! David just looked at her, who's Yamaguchi?

She explained that we had to cross over the road, walk down a small road and the cage is on the left hand side! Much better explanation than "next to Yamaguchi's house"

Just to make sure where it was Christopher and I had a little walk early yesterday evening. The moon was just rising. I managed to get some photos!

Full moon

One thing with living in such a rural area is that there is very little light pollution, on a clear night the moon and stars are very bright and easy to see.

This morning Mikey and Christopher took the trash. I'm glad that we got that sorted!

A Long Day

 Yesterday was very long and very cold!

Every other Saturday Mikey does volunteer English classes at different community centers. When we were living in the same city it wasn't a problem, I would stay home and cover his classes if he was late back. Moving has made the logistics more difficult. For me to get to the other city would involve using two different trains, something I don't want to do or going in the morning and hanging around until I have to teach in the evening.

Yesterday's plan was for me to go with Mikey in the morning and wait at the local shopping mall with Christopher until it was time to go to the community center in the afternoon. When I woke up yesterday morning I was too tired to go. I asked David to drop Christopher and me at the train station but David took us to the other city! That helped a lot!

Christopher and I had lunch at an Italian restaurant in the mall. This restaurant isn't too expensive, we had onion soup with garlic bread and shared a pizza. The soup was nice and warming!

onion soup

pizza

lunch

After lunch we met up with Hannah. She was at work in the city and wanted to come back home for a couple of days!  We did a bit of shopping, a lot of window shopping!

Then it was time to go to the community center.  We thought there would be a bus but when we went to the bus station we couldn't find a bus to the area we were going to and I was getting too cold to look around. We got a taxi with heated seats! It was the first time to use heated seats, I didn't want to get out!

When we got to the community center we were greeted by a rather rude lady! The community center had double booked the room!  Monday is Coming of Age Day, when all young people who have turned 20 get to celebrate becoming an adult. For the young ladies it means paying a small fortune to hire a kimono for the day!  The room that we usually use was being used for young ladies from the area to come and get ready.  Putting on a kimono is a complicated process, something most ladies don't do now, so the shop that hires the kimono also has staff that helps you dress and styles your hair.  

We asked this lady about the room, why she was set up in there as we had booked this room for every Saturday afternoon 2 months ago. Her response wasn't nice at all. She didn't apologize for the mix up or explain anything to us. She was going on about something but I couldn't catch what she was saying so I followed her to the room. She rounded on me and said "Don't come in here!"  I saw the kimonos hanging and said that they were really beautiful. Her response was "Don't look at them!!"  She then stormed out!  

So we were stuck with using the gym, a massive, cold room!  Hannah paid the meter to run the heating system but it didn't warm up the room at all. I had one lesson with very young kids, 4 and 6 year old brother and sister. I knew that using the gym wouldn't work for them, so we sat in the foyer to teach them. That was awful, it was so cold my fingers were numb!

The other classes we did in the gym but it was far too cold! 

I survived, somehow! I was so happy to get in the car with the heater blasting! 

Hannah came back with us, she doesn't have anything tomorrow so wanted to come home for a couple of days! As much as she likes her independence, coming back is nice! And she gets to hang with the cats for a couple of days!

Snow

 Yesterday I posted a short video of the snow. After I took that video it stopped snowing, I thought that would be the extent of the snow for this year!!

Last night it started again, this time a lot heavier and a lot longer!

This morning I woke up to this!

outside my bedroom window!

outside the front door

around the yard

Looked lovely.

The plan was breakfast, wash dishes, quick shower and out to shop.

Breakfast was okay.

Turned on the hot water to wash the dishes, no hot water! Checked the bathroom, same!

The water is gas heated. The set up isn't that good. The cold water pipes are all under the house, which is why they didn't freeze! To heat the water, it is pumped up from underground to the heater, which is on the back of the house and then into the house. The problem is that the pipes are outside the house and not insulated at all, just some tape wrapped round them!

the pipes bringing the water to the heater

A quick search came up with a few ideas, such as using a hair dryer to defrost them. The one we went with was using a freezer bag filled with hot water and placing it on the pipes!  I was sceptical but it worked!

Of course this meant that my schedule was off.

David came back about 10am, he is still working nights!  He said that some of the roads were still bad even though the snow was starting to melt! He counted about 10 accidents, cars that had skidded off the road or into trees!

We don't get snow here very often, not every year! The past 5 to 7 years I've seen more snow than the first 20 years here altogether.  I've never seen any gritters out, maybe in the city centers but not on the country roads!  

We finally got out about 12 o'clock.  First stop was the bank, but it was closed for lunch!  That is how countryside this area is!

I wanted to go to a supermarket in a small town about 30 minutes away. Somehow we took a wrong turn. We ended up driving past Costco. I still haven't been but at least I could see it. I was surprised at how busy it was. The parking lot is big and was almost full!

I was trying to get some photos of the mountains but on my camera phone it wasn't that easy!

Looks like it was still snowing on some of the mountains

This was the view from my bedroom this afternoon.

Cold mountains

The white patches worry me! They are areas that have had landslides, there are no trees or undergrowth!  Does that mean there is a possibility of a larger landslide?  

Tomorrow I'm out all day! I have one lesson but Mikey has back to back lessons. So I'm going with him in the morning and will spend the day hanging around!  Hannah called, she has work in the morning but will meet me at lunch time.  Something to look forward to.  

Snow is forecast for Sunday afternoon so I'll have to figure something out for the pipes before then!

I wonder how many more surprises this house is going to throw at us!

Mikey's Birthday

 Today is Mikey's 33rd birthday!

As usual I'm having problems processing this! 

Seriously, where does time go?  It feels like just a few years ago he was a kid now he is an adult.  Did I blink?

I found some photo's of him from when he was little. I took so many photos of him (and the other kids when they came along). This was before digital cameras, I would use a 36 photo film every month. I used to send a lot to my parents. Also I wanted to record of my kids lives! I love being able to look back and reminisce about things.  

2 years old, I don't remember where this was

3rd birthday with David

20 years ago

with his brothers

After watching some kids show

At a river near here, the statue is a Kappa, a water spirit

kids Halloween party a couple of years ago

outside our old house

starting junior high school

on a walk in the mountains

Seeing what his Dad had!

Sorry the photos are out of order.

And it's snowing. Not a lot and not sticking, but we do have snow. I'm glad I don't have to go out! I tried to take a video but not sure if you can see the snow!

Back To Work

 Today Mikey and I had to go back to the other city to do one class. It's a volunteer class that we've been doing for a couple of years now.  Most of the students are older, mainly pensioners. I think the idea is to give them something to do outside of their homes. 

It's nice class, very easy to teach plus Mikey does most of the work!

One thing that we do is introduce different cultural things for each season (the class is only once a month!). Today we talked about New Years traditions. Mikey gets creative with the whiteboard!

Mikey drawing

Happy New Year!

This one gentleman always remembers Mikey's birthday. He's such a sweet old man!

Mikey teaching!

After we had to go to another community center to get the key for this week! 

On the way I was watching the mountains! Snow and rain are forecast for the next couple of days! It looks like there might be snow on some of the mountains already!

Those mountains look cold

The photos aren't that good as Mikey was driving.

On the way back Mikey took a wrong turn!

It gave me the chance to see a temple that we go past!

Lovely looking temple

The sign says Happy New Year

It's going to be strange commuting to work. For the past 30 years or so I've worked from home! Now I have to travel about 40 minutes one way! I know I'm not driving but I still get very tired. How long can I keep this up?

Bit of Baking

 I seem to be shopping a lot more than I use to!  At the old house I could send someone to pick up things that I had forgotten, here I don't have that luxury! So shopping again this morning!

This afternoon I did a bit of baking!

I made banana bread, just to use up some left over bananas!

Banana bread

I buy bananas, thinking to have oats with bananas but somehow never get round to doing that! I always seem to end up with bananas going black!

After that I made bread and butter pudding.

bread and butter pudding

I haven't made this since I was in secondary school!

I was telling the kids about winters when I was very little, maybe 5 or 6 years old. Most weeks Mom would make this stew with green pea soup mix. I always remember this green colored stew!  On a Friday Mom would make bread and butter pudding, using the crusts from the weeks bread! She would use custard powder, as she said a cheats way.  Just talking about this made me want to have bread and butter pudding.  So tonight's treat is a nice cup of tea and some bread and butter pudding.

Tomorrow is back to work, just one class! 

One Month

 We've been here for a month now.

Things are a bit easier!  Getting a sofa really helped me to have somewhere comfortable to sit, watch TV (on my computer) and read!  Having the heater right next to me and blasting it means that there is somewhere warm, other than my bed. 

I've decided that the first thing I need to buy are air conditioners with heating element! This house is really too cold but I know in the summer it will be too hot!  Having a good heating/cooling system is going to be important.  I don't want another year being uncomfortable!

I'm trying to see the good here.  David was telling me about some customers at the Internet Cafe where he's working. Some are homeless and sleep at the Internet Cafe. One thing with this house is that it is ours, paid for in full (we have to pay tax, about 50 pounds a month), we can't be kicked out if we can't make rent or if the owner wants the house back!  Also there is enough land for each one of us to build something, either on the land here or on some of the other land.  For that I'm grateful!

David has been trying to clear some of the field! He sent some progress photos!

more broken tools

I guess there wasn't much progress! The tools he found are over 20 years old, I'm not surprised they broke. I think we have to invest in some better tools.

I noticed seed potatoes the other day. Planting is between February and March. I really hope we can grow some. I plan to get into the yard this week, if the rain stops. I have to get the soil turned and get out weeds and stones!  I hope my back is up to it! Good exercise!!