The building Is.....

 A train station.

The creature is a kappa, a water sprite.

Tanshimaru Station

This town is east of where we live, nestled at the foot of the Mino Mountain Range. Between the mountains and river is a vast fertile plain.

Tanshimaru has become famous for fruit picking, especially grapes. There are also wineries, I know of one but I think there are others.  There are a lot of places to visit in the area. Each season offers different things, spring there are cherry blossoms, autumn the beautiful leaves. All seasons the view from the foot hills are spectacular.

For the more adventurous there's a hang glider launch site. I've watched people jump off the mountain and glide down to the valley. Even just watching I've found myself holding my breath, hoping that they can find a safe place to land!

The creature being depicted is a Kappa, a water sprite or water demon.  

Kappa watching the trains at the station

The kappa are supernatural creatures that live on land and in water. They are the size of a small child, have a shell on their backs and a bowl of water on their heads that holds their life spirit or supernatural powers. There are tales of kappa harming people but also of them helping people.  Some of the images of the kappa make them look cute and playful but other images make them look like demons. 

Living in this area I've heard about kappa many times, I know they like cucumbers but never really bothered to the read about the stories associated with them.  There are so many different gods, ghosts, supernatural creatures and monsters in Japan, some the legends go back to the earliest settlements in these islands.  Looking for information on kappa I've come across a few interesting web pages.  Christopher has an interest in these things so I can ask him later.

Yesterday I got a call from Hannah. She was on her way home from work, she told me to go out and look at the moon!

Hannah's photo of the full moon

I went out and saw the moon rising, very full and very large. My phone camera doesn't do it justice.

Full moon

One thing with living in the countryside is that there is very little light pollution, the stars were very bright last night! 

On A Roll

 First of all I'm in pain! My legs are killing me from that little walk yesterday! It wasn't even 20 minutes. I think it was coming back, going up hill that got to me.  Where we lived before was flat, here we are in the  foothills of a mountain range, so there are hills everywhere. Views are great but hard work for those of us who are out of shape!!  Anyway I'm more determined to try and get out to walk more. It's good for me. 

This morning I was still inspired by the corner I cleaned out yesterday, so I decided to tackle another job that I've been putting off. 

When we moved I dumped a lot of stuff from my room into these big boxes, I stored these in the cupboard that's in my room but the cupboard is not as big as I thought and having these boxes in there made it difficult to get to things. The reason I didn't want to deal with them is that the boxes contain things that have sentimental value for me. But I need space and I'm not throwing away things just putting them in storage. 

So I went through them, took a long time as I kept stopping to look at things, remembering things, laughing at some of the old photos in there, wondering why I have certain things!

I came across a letter from my Mom. It was written when I was just pregnant with Mikey. Just a chatty letter, letting me know what was going on back home. As I read it I could picture what she was talking about. My Dad had decorated the hall and stairs, Steve was on holiday from university, Alan was looking for a job, Mom was cleaning at the school but because it was the summer holidays she was going in the morning. Nothing special but it felt nice to go back to that time. 

Also, I found a lot of photos. Some I had forgotten about. A lot are from Hisao's family and I have no idea who they are!  

A few of the photos I found.

Building the storage room, early 1960s

Mom and Dad, I wonder what Dad was searching for

A very young Hisao

Maybe the first time I was in Japan

This afternoon I went shopping and drove past a very interesting building.

A little quiz. 

What creature is it? 

What building is it?

Come back tomorrow for the answers!!

A Good Day

 The past couple of weeks I've been busy every day but felt as if very little has been accomplished. A lot of my time has been spent in the car or just waiting around.  It's okay and I know that at the moment I don't have a lot of choice but after a day of sitting around my energy feels low. I've been walking around the gym at the one community center because I get stiff just sitting but I still feel drained at the end of the day! 

This week I haven't had any classes. Tuesday was a national holiday, my Wednesday class sent a message that they can't come and the rest of the week I don't have anything, sometimes I go if Mikey has to change his classes so I teach one of his classes while he teaches another.

This morning I woke up to the sun streaming in through the chink in my curtains. The past week or so it has been bitterly cold with snow or rain. Seeing the sun this morning cheered me up, even though I had over slept!  Got breakfast then decided to go for a walk. I walked with Christopher down to the trash collection place and then a bit further to one lot of our land. 

View as we walked down

Even though the sun was shinning it was very cold. We were greeted by kids from the local junior high school, as they rode by on their bikes they called out "Ohayo gozai masu" Good morning!!  Very different to when Mikey attended that school, the kids then were rather bad mannered.  

Back of our house

I was surprised at how big the house looks, the right hand building is the storage place, left is the house. From this angle it looks bigger.

I managed 2000 steps with this little walk. Coming back was harder as it's up hill but I did it!

When I got home I decided to use the energy I had from the walk to get one corner in the living/dining area cleaned up. There was a set of drawers and a couple of boxes in the corner, plus a load of stuff just piled up there. The boxes were from our moving in, things that I didn't want to deal with, the same with the drawers. Today I was determined to clean out that area. I got Christopher to help!  We managed to fill a trash bag, just so much stuff that I was keeping but have no idea why!  Threw out the boxes and most of the stuff that was inside, cleaned the corner out, washed the drawers and put them back. Looks a lot better. When I look at that corner I feel so good, it had been plaguing me for a long time but I never had the energy to deal with it before today. 

After that I made lunch and did a bit of shopping. So today was a good day, I accomplished something.

There is still a lot to do in the house and with the land. I know that it's going to take time, energy and money but just accomplishing this one thing has given me a boost!!

Solved....

 ...the rice problem!

Yesterday I went into a couple shops that I don't usually use to see if the rice was cheaper. But it's actually more expensive, 3800 to 3980 yen before tax, after tax over 4000 yen (about 20 pounds). I actually cried, that is a lot of money for us!  

I was asking my student how she is coping and she said that she has rice. I knew that her family farms and I've bought rice from her before but that was at harvest time and I thought she only had some at that time. But it tuns out that she has a store of rice. She'll bring me some next week for 2000 yen, I'm so relieved!

Hannah returned to her apartment yesterday! We drove her as she had too many bags. She came with 3 went back with 6!!  She raided the fridge, freezer and pantry!! I don't mind, I bought a few things for her as well, I guess it helps!  

The weather was nice and mild which made the trip pleasant!  

A Tori Gate across the street

This gate was to a shrine in the castle. There is still a shrine but it's not visible from the gate. I love finding these kind of places.  When we lived here before I struggled so much because of my kids being bullied in school, that seemed to take up a lot of time and energy. This time around I can step back and see the beauty and history of the area! Also because my kids grew up here they know a lot of the history and can find out about things easier than I can. 

No Rice Meals

 Rice is getting more and more expensive.

Last year 5kg was about 2000 yen (about 10 pounds), beginning of this year just under 3000 yen, now even the cheapest brand is over 3000 yen, 3300 t0 3500 yen (17 pounds to 18 pounds). 

If it was just rice that has gone expensive we could manage, but everything has gone up, not just by 10 to 50 yen but a few 100 yen on most basic things. 

I really try not to buy a lot but we have to eat! 

One problem is that the cheapest Japanese meat doesn't work for western meals.  You can get cheap pork and beef sliced, very thin. There are very few roast cuts, and the ones that I've seen are expensive. Pork chops are good and chicken breast is getting cheaper again.

Japanese pork slices

Christopher pulling faces!!

So I'm trying to figure out what to do with this kind of meat. 

Today I fried it up with onions and mushrooms, used basil, salt and pepper to taste and added starch to thicken the juices up a bit. I served it with mashed potatoes and a green salad.  

Another idea is to make patties with the meat. I added some green peppers chopped small, starch to bind it together. Again either potatoes or chips, and salad!

I want to make some kind of flat breads to go with curry or stews! 

I need to get creative, find a way to make things stretch.  At the moment it's easy as soups, stews and curry go a long way. A pot of stew will last for at least 3 meals!  But what to do in the summer?  I hope by then we will have a few vegetables from our own land.  

This week the temperature should be a bit higher, still very cold but we can get out and do a bit. I want to get some potatoes started!

Hannah's Visit

 Hannah came to visit for a couple of days!

It's nice having her home. We chat everyday on the phone but having chance to sit and talk is really different. Also she had chance to talk to her brothers about different things, I have no idea what as they speak in Japanese!

She bought some gifts from her trip!

From Hannah, Weetabix is only available at import shops.

cute bag for me, Hannah said the sumo wrestlers look like me!

I made lasagna for lunch and did a bit more baking!  I've enjoyed getting in the kitchen, it feels like a long time since I did any baking. Problem is that I now have a mountain of dishes to wash. 

We have a mystery. Holes have appeared in the garden. David noticed a hole last week, when he asked if we had dug up the bushes we all said no. The past week has been to cold to do anything outside! At first I thought it might have been the old gentleman that has been cutting down some of the trees, he worked for my mother-in-law and still wants to help out. I just went to have a look and noticed a few more holes, looks like some kind of animal, maybe a wild boar.  Looks like figuring a way to humanely remove them from here.

The holes

Just did a bit of reading on wild boar, apparently they dig for insects and also they make nests in the ground. Yet another thing to learn about!

Bit Of Cleaning And A Bit Of Baking

 I really have to get my insomnia under control, going to sleep at 2 or 3 am isn't helping at all! I go to bed about 11pm, I'm tired and kind of sleepy but as soon as I lie down my mind goes into overdrive. I keep a notebook and pen by my bed, hoping that writing things down will get them out of my head, but it doesn't work. I've tried relaxation techniques and yoga to help me relax but nothing seems to work. The problem is that I'm up at about 6:30 am, get breakfast and do a few chores, but then I'm sleepy and rather grumpy so I go to sleep a for another hour or so. I don't think that is helping me. The past week has been extremely cold, the only warm place was my bed, which means getting back into bed was so easy! I hope that with the weather warming up a little bit my bed won't be so tempting.

I'm still trying to figure out this commuting to work business. When I taught at home I could do some little chores while I was waiting for students to come, if they didn't turn up I could use the time to prepare other lessons or organise things in the office. Also when Mikey had classes and I didn't I could do things around the house. Now I have to travel 30 to 40 minutes, teach one or two classes, then wait another hour or two for Mikey. There's no Wi-Fi so I can't do anything online.  I've been taking walks around the gym, sitting on the floor for hours makes me stiff!  The one problem with being out of the house for a few hours 3 or 4 days a week means that chores aren't done. Everybody does what they can, but sometimes it feels like a loosing battle. The kitchen never looks clean as pots, pans and dishes are left on the drying racks as there isn't enough space to put them away. One corner of the dining area needs to be sorted out, still stuff dumped from moving, the bathroom and toilets still need a good clean. The list is endless.  Plus we need to do outside, that got put on hold this week because of snow and ice. 

Today I managed to do a few things. Cleaned the oven, did a deep clean of the counter and cleaned off the sofa.  I need to get the floors done, maybe later!

I also spent time baking! I planned to do a few things but have only managed to make some snickerdoodles. Hannah is coming tomorrow and she requested these! I'm wondering if I'll have energy to do some muffins!

Another thing I was cleaning out are the photos I have on my cloud. I'm running out of storage space so I went through them. Do I really need ten photos of the same cat, in the same pose?  I managed to remove a lot but came to a stop when I found these photos.

The old house

Just seeing these photos broke my heart. I know there were a lot of problems with the house but it holds so many memories for me. I really loved living there. I think in my 34 years in Japan that was the best place I had lived. Not just the house but the area was so convenient. Shops, clinics, dentists and schools were all within walking distance. Here there is nothing. I feel isolated. Even if I don't talk to people just knowing that I can walk to the shop helped a lot. 

I'm going to put some more snickerdoodles in to bake.