Finding Inspiration

 I've been wondering what to do about my English school. 

I've run an English conversation school for about 33 years. That's how I survived, paid the bills, and managed to save a bit.

Then COVID hit, and students quit. I hoped that after a while we would get new students, but that hasn't happened. The market is overrun by cram schools for kids.  Adults are busy trying to make ends meet, so they don't have the time or money to study English. 

I would love to retire, but I need money. There is so much that needs fixing in this house, and I really want to travel. 

Since moving here, I haven't felt inspired to do anything about our little school. 

Mikey is still teaching kids, and I have a couple of students, but not enough. 

A few things happened this week that have given me some inspiration to try and build up our student base again.

Once a month, Mikey and I teach a volunteer class at one of the community centers. 

This year, 21 adults want to take the lessons.

This shows that there is still an interest in learning English.

Then Hannah showed me a leaflet that was put through her door for an English school near where she lives.  

This shows that other schools are still out there collecting students.

Hannah said that making a leaflet is easy, so I've asked her to do one for me..

I don't think it will be easy to get students, but at least I have to try!

Another thing that inspired me was a video I watched of a lady who opened a small restaurant. The video follows her through the day as she prepares to open her store. 

Her story is rather amazing. She said that she always wanted to open a restaurant but never got around to it. Then her daughter's husband passed away at a young age, the daughter then got breast cancer, and one of the lady's older sisters suddenly passed away.

When these events happened, the lady realized that if she wanted to open a restaurant, she should do it now, as there are no guarantees for the future. So she jumped in and opened a small restaurant. A month later, her area was hit by COVID, and she lost all her customers overnight. A friend suggested making bento boxes instead, so that is what she did. Now her business is thriving, most of the income is from bentos, but she has a few tables in the restaurant as well.

I found her story to be very inspiring. She had a dream and invested in making it happen. I think that is where I've lost the plot. When we moved to the other city, I was determined to have the best English school there, and for a while, I did. But life happened and I lost the plot. Now I need to start again, learn from my mistakes and find a way forward.

I don't think it will be easy, but I am very determined to make a go of this!

Wish me luck!

Mikey teaching at our volunteer class

Definitely Not Cooking Rice

 The price of rice keeps going up. This is from a discount supermarket I go to.

That price is without tax

With tax, it's 4780 yen, about 25 pounds. This time last year, 5 kg was about 2000 yen, about 10 pounds.

This is crazy! We use a lot of rice. Even though I've been cooking more pasta or potatoes, we still have rice-based meals four times a week.

But after yesterday, no more rice for a while! My rice cooker broke! I asked Christopher to make lunch as Mikey and I were out in the morning doing a volunteer class. I planned on curry and rice, which is easy enough to do.

Came back at 12 o'clock to the lovely smell of curry simmering on the stove. I saw that the rice cooker had finished its cycle, opened it up, and found that the rice hadn't cooked.  The rice was warm but not cooked at all. We had curry with bread. It was okay, but not the same!

In the evening, I decided to try and cook the rice again, but had the same results. Also, I noticed that the rice cooker wasn't steaming and didn't get that hot! I ended up cooking the rice on the stovetop. I made a doria with the curry and rice. Doria is a Japanese type of gratin. Usually the rice is topped wth some kind of meat and then a white sauce is put on top. I layer the rice and curry and pour a cheese sauce over the top. It's nice and a good way to use up leftover curry. Also, because the curry soaked into the rice, it covered up the disaster that the rice had become!

I checked how to cook rice on the stove top, it's not that difficult but the only pot that I have is rather small and I'm wondering if I can cook enough rice in it. Also, with a rice cooker, the leftover rice is kept warm to use later. I guess any leftover rice will have to go in the fridge and be warmed up in the microwave later.

I would love to buy a new rice cooker, but all the money we have is going into the house. For me, getting air conditioners in before the summer is more important. I would love to buy 4 air conditioners, but even just one for the main room would help a lot!

So I think we won't be eating rice anytime soon. I'm thinking of trying to make flat breads. I haven't tried that in ages.

Hannah made herself a pizza on Sunday. She even made the base. Looked really good!

Hannah's homemade pizza. 

She had it with hamburgers and salad.

I think I'll have to try that!

Can I make bread? I haven't done that for years, I guess a little experiment over the weekend is in order!

Suffering!

 It's just allergies, but I feel awful!

I woke up at 3 a.m. with my eyes burning and a runny nose. Then, I started sneezing, which went on for almost two hours without a break. 

Of course, this happened on the busiest day of the week for me! Mikey and I do a volunteer class once a month; today was the first class for this year.  So I took my allergy medicine, made sure I had eye drops and a pack of tissues, and went to teach!

The class was full, 21 people came!  For me, it's difficult to teach such a big class but Mikey was in his element. He had them laughing and using English! I enjoy watching Mikey work like that, he really knows how to motivate people, helping them to relax and enjoy the class.

Fortunately, my evening class was canceled, so I can rest a bit and try to get over these allergies. 

I shouldn't complain as this is the first time this year that it's been so bad!  I'm a bit miffed as the weather is really nice and I want to get in the garden. All the weeds I pulled up a couple of weeks ago have returned and bought their friends with them! 

One good thing is that the blueberry bushes are in bloom, so I hope I can get some fruit!

Blueberry bushes in bloom

Idiots Who Visit Japan

Why do people come to Japan?

A lot of tourists come for the traditional culture, the history, or the food. All good reasons to visit Japan, or any other country. To experience something completely different from what you are used to.

I've seen on news programmes and YouTube videos people coming from China to shop, and they really do shop. One report that went viral a few months ago was about Chinese tourists in one of the theme parks here buying out the store without regard for other customers. 

But the reports that make me angry are the idiots who come to Japan with no regard for others, who think it's okay to act as if Japan is their own backdrop to make videos. 

Some of these videos have gone viral, the guy dancing on a train and trying to get some poor high school girl to join in, or the girl doing pull-ups on a tori gate. I get that they are trying to get views but surely there are better ways to do this.

Do these "influencers" have any idea what they are really doing? 

Japanese people are naturally insular, to the point of being xenophobic; we really don't need to show them that foreigners are ignorant and disrespectful.  We should be encouraging international exchange, not reinforcing the idea that foreigners are weird, scary, and should be avoided at all costs!

Japan needs tourists; the country needs the money the tourists bring in.  Unfortunately, tourism is now a dirty word. It's synonymous with overcrowding, disrespect for the country, and bad behavior. I know that the majority of people who visit Japan are well-behaved and try to follow the rules of etiquette and use common sense when visiting the country. But it only takes a few idiots to do things such as scribbling graffiti on national monuments or throwing trash on the ground for the media to paint all foreigners as bad and unwelcome in the country.

As a long-time resident, 34 years now, I feel that the surge of anti-foreigner sentiment is becoming scary. I live in the countryside where there are very few foreigners, so I haven't experienced any real prejudice beyond kids pointing at me! But some of my online friends who live in the bigger cities are saying that it's getting to be a bit scary now. One lady was traveling with her young kids on a train in Tokyo,  in the middle of the day, so not crowded. She was standing next to her kids when a man knocked into her. She thought it was an accident until he actually punched her. Another lady was in a convenience store and was punched by a middle-aged man. She was minding her own business when he came up and punched her. These are just two incidents, but from what I've seen, there are a lot of incidents involving foreigners, especially women, and a lot of this is because of idiots who show no respect for Japan.

When I'm out, especially in the city, I keep to myself, I try to follow the unspoken rules, and blend into the background. But somebody seeing me doesn't know if I'm a tourist or not. The mass media paint all foreigners with the same brush. We are here to destroy Japan!!  

It's sad. It makes me angry when I and other long-time residents, who work and pay taxes, are lumped in with idiots who come here and misbehave. 

I've seen headlines from other countries dealing with over-tourism.  I don't know if there is an answer to this problem. 

One idea is to show case other areas of Japan so tourists are spread out more and not crowding Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto. That would deal with the overcrowding but what to do about people who have no respect for the country they are visiting, not just Japan but other countries as well. Can we educate idiots?

Any one who is reading this, if you are thinking of traveling abroad please remember that you represent your country. your actions, both good and bad will reflect on the people who have decided to call the country your are visiting home, so please give a thought to them!

It Happened

 My weight! 

It's gone up!!!

I'm not surprised, my eating has been out of control recently! The past 6 months have been hard for me, so much stress, and I'm a stress eater! And yes, I know it doesn't help, but it's such an ingrained response that changing it seems near impossible.

The biggest stress was moving, just the physical work of packing up, deep cleaning two houses, and setting up in this house was a lot of work.  Everybody did what they could, but I did a lot, plus still working. The last month, when we were between two houses, we relied on bentos and instant foods. I had all of the kitchen stuff, but I didn't have a stove top to work with in this house; we had to wait to have a new one fitted. That took longer than I thought it would. 

Once we moved in, I realized that all the things that I wanted to do to this house would take a lot of time and money, which sent me into a deep depression. The fact that the house was a lot colder and darker than I remembered didn't help. So I ate a lot. Not really binge eating, but constant grazing! Just picking at things.

Until this morning, I have been bouncing up and down the same kilo. I was happy with that. I knew my diet wasn't good, but I've been more active since moving here, plus I've started to walk a lot more. I thought that just staying about the same weight was alright, as I wasn't in the right mindset to diet or eat properly.  I try not to diet but to be very mindful of what I'm eating. I like food, I like to try new dishes or rehash old ones. I enjoy cooking and baking, I try to balance out meals so that some things are healthy. It's hard, especially when healthy foods, like fruit, veggies, and fish, are very expensive, the less healthy options like pasta and bread are cheap, but I try! I fill up on salads and try to use leaner cuts of meat. 

This morning I decided to weigh myself, I was shocked that my weight had gone up, not a lot, just 500 grams ( about one pound) but I also know that if I don't tackle it now that 500 grams will turn into one kilo, then two and suddenly I'll be back to where I started.  

So back on the bandwagon. I have a doctor's appointment in June. I would love to lose two kilos by then, not a lot, but doable. I used to set these big targets and then get angry with myself for not meeting them, so I think smaller targets over a few years are better. I have to remind myself that from my highest weight I've lost 17 kilos, took me 3 years but I did it. I can do it again!

I also know that you can't out-exercise a bad diet! But I want to get back into doing some exercise. I've noticed that I get pain in my hip when I walk. I hope it's nothing serious, but who knows! I need to make time to go to the doctor and get that seen too. 

Spring is the time of renewal, and starting new things so this is a good season to start a healthy lifestyle. Wish me luck!

A young, skinny me

This is from when I first came to Japan, 34 years ago! I thought I was fat then!!! If I could get back to the weight I was then, I would be more than happy, about 65 kilos!! Big dreams!!!

Spring Cleaning

 It's that time of year again!

I have to do it, but really don't want to!

Spring cleaning!

I hate cleaning! I love having my house clean and smelling fresh, but the process just drives me crazy.

It feels as if it's never-ending! Which, with nine cats, it is.

Today I managed to vacuum and wipe down the tatami mats. I used hot water and a soap spray to clean the tatami mats. One big problem is that the best way to give them a good clean is to get on your hands and knees, but with a bad knee, that is rather difficult. But I tried. I did about half of the room before my knee gave out, do the rest over the weekend.

Another thing I need to tackle is the bathroom.

That door leads outside, very cold in the winter

Massive dead space 

This is all a wet space, so I thought cleaning would be easy.

The tiles don't get clean, no matter what product I've used or how much I scrub, they look dirty. The shower isn't long enough to reach the corners, so I have to fill buckets to throw in the corners to clean them.

Another big problem is the door and the massive window, both are useless and make the area very cold. Even now the weather is warming up, the bathroom is still too cold.

Also, the extractor fan doesn't work, that needs to be fixed as it will get very humid soon leading to mold growing!

I'm going to see if I can buy a new shower with a longer reach. It might make cleaning a bit easier. 

Ideally, building a wall just behind the bathtub, so the area is smaller, would be the best, plus changing the window and removing the door. But that will take a lot of money!

One thing that has worked is putting some baking soda in one of the kitchen cupboards. I was getting so fed up with this weird smell, like plastic but a bit stranger!  Hard to describe, but every time I opened the cupboard, I would heave. I don't want to use them, but no choice. So I decided to see if baking soda would work, and it did.  Next week I'm going to give the other cupboards a good clean and put some baking soda in. I'm also looking for some kind of racks so I can stack the larger pans and bowls in there.

I really hope the weather stays nice so I can get these jobs done (and get everyone to help!)

Wish me luck!!!!!

Karaage...Japanese Fried Chicken

Japan has a lot of different dishes that are unique to the country. Karaage, Japanese-style fried chicken, is one of them.

I asked the kids that I teach what their favorite food was, most of them said karaage, followed by ramen!

David makes really good karaage.

He uses breast chicken; most recipes use thigh meat. 

Thigh meat has a stronger taste but is twice as expensive as breast meat and is difficult to cut.

He cuts the meat into bite-sized pieces and marinates it in soy sauce, sake, dried coriander, and garlic. He leaves it to marinate overnight. The next day he dredges it in potato startch and fries it.

I love this, but it doesn't love me!

We had it for lunch today, but after two pieces, I have to stop as I know I'll get indigestion.

There's some leftover for tonight's dinner, but I won't be risking it.

Today has been a bit strange.

I woke up feeling overtired. I think my two days of teaching are getting to me!

All morning, I had an intense headache. 

After lunch, I went to close my eyes when I heard thunder rumbling around.  Checked my phone and found that there was a tornado advisory for this area!  I sent a message to Christopher about the tornado advisory, he thought I had misspelled tomatoe!!!

The sky was rather dramatic.

Just as the storm was starting

I woke up an hour later, still feeling rather bad. The storm had passed over, but my head was still pounding. Decided that I should go out for a bit, so I asked Mikey to run me to the supermarket. 

The sky was even more dramatic this evening.

Dark clouds rolling in

The opposite direction was even more interesting.

Clouds rolling off the mountains

Going to cook the karaage, I can enjoy the smell!!