Koromagae.....Changing Clothes

 It's June and I'm cold. This is so strange!

I'm not complaining! The longer it stays cold or cool, the better for me. I know that once the heat and humidity start, I'll be dying!

It's just weird!  I'm used to June being the start of summer, but it still feels like spring!

I remember when I first came to Japan, my husband told me that we have to change over our clothes from winter clothes to summer clothes. I was rather confused by this idea. In England, I was used to having a couple of cardigans or sweaters in my closet in the summer. English summers tend to be rather changeable. 

I soon realized that in Japan, you really don't need any winter clothes in the summer. Maybe a light cardigan if you go somewhere that has the air conditioning on high, Hannah always carries one as the classrooms in her university get very cold!

The changing of clothes to fit the season is called koromogae (衣替え). Which literally means "changing clothes"

This is done at the beginning of summer and winter.

In schools and workplaces, uniforms are changed in June, from the heavy winter uniforms to lighter, more breathable uniforms, and then back again in October.

At home, families clear out the off-season clothes. For me, it's a chance to send the heavy winter futons and coats to the cleaners. 

When the kids were little, I used this time to go through the clothes, check for damage, see if the clothes would be too small by next year, and basically declutter.  

A funny story! One year, I was sorting Hannah's summer clothes and was wondering if a dress would fit her next year. As I was doing this, Mikey came into the room. I looked at him, held the dress in front of him, and said, "Hannah, do you think this will fit you next year?" Mikey rolled his eyes and walked out!!!

This tradition came from the imperial court in the Heian Period, 794-1185. The aristocrats of that time had strict clothing customs; their clothes followed the seasons, and each season had its own rituals.

Samurai warriors in the Kamakura (1185-1333) and Edo Period (1603 -1868) adhered to changing their clothes with the seasons. This idea filtered down to the common people.

In the Meiji Period (1868-1912), uniforms were introduced in schools, government offices, and businesses. June and October were set as the months to change clothes.

There are so many products today to help store clothes, especially in the hot, humid summer. 

Breathable fabric storage boxes to stop moisture buildup. 

Dehumidifiers are essential during the rainy season. 

Moth repellents, very important. I had a student who had bought a very expensive cashmere sweater. She put it away for the summer but didn't put in the moth repellent. When she opened the box in the winter, her beautiful sweater had holes in it!

Every year, there are more new products to help keep clothes fresh in storage!

I was thinking of changing my clothes this week, but I think I'll wait a bit. 

Cats snuggled up together.

This is how I know if it's cold or not! Cats snuggled together means it's cold!!!

Ready

 I finally got my classroom set up.

This was the tatami room a couple of weeks ago. Just an empty space. I know that in Japan, it's common to have a room that's empty, essentially for guests to visit. This room was only used two or three times a year, for New Year's family gatherings, Obon, the festival to welcome the ancestors back in the summer, and for memorial rites of those who had passed away.

I always felt that it was a waste of space. When we moved here, I thought about changing this to a living room, but never got round to it! Which, I guess, is a good thing because I need a place to teach.

Today, David and Christopher got the furniture out of storage and set up the room for me.

Looks a lot better. I want to move the teaching materials into the cupboards. I think the only other thing to do is to tidy up the doors and screens that the cats have scratched up. 

The garden is going to take a lot longer to do, but I feel that is going to be an ongoing thing. We cut back the trees, pull up weeds, it rains, and everything has grown back!

I'm excited to start this little school. I really hope to get students!  This reminds me of the movie "Field of Dreams," where the farmer is told to build a baseball field. He is told, "build it and they will come!". I've built it, prepared my classroom, so I really hope they come!

May

 Even though I don't see much progress in the garden or getting my classroom set up, May has been very busy!

The few days' holiday at the beginning of the month was nice. Having Hannah home for a while was enjoyable. We talk every day, but just having her here was good for me!  I could take her shopping for her birthday when she came, and before she left, I could take her grocery shopping! I wanted to watch some musicals with her, but we were both sick and she had a lot of studying to do!

Hannah managed to order tickets for the Les Misérables Concert Tour. She called me a week after she ordered them and told me she had made a mistake with the credit card! To buy these tickets, she got another credit card. I think it's easier for her to budget that way. When she said she had a problem with the credit card, I imagined all sorts of things, such as being charged too much or not having enough money in the bank. She went on to explain that she had gotten a Mastercard. I told her that it was great, as Costco takes Mastercard. Her answer was, "That's the problem!"  I guess she won't be going to Costco with me!!

I posted that the rainy season had started. But not here. We've had a bit of rain, but not the weeks of nonstop rain!

I've noticed that the hydrangeas are coming into bloom. We have some out back, but they have just started to bloom. I'll try and get some photos when they are fully bloomed!

We've had a few really nice sunsets recently.

From my window, a lovely sunset

One thing that I'm going to challenge myself to do is to have a morning routine!

When the kids were in school, I used to get up, get breakfast, make lunch if the kids needed to take lunch. Put the laundry on, do dishes, clean, and then make something for lunch that could be served at dinner when I was busy!

Now I get up, take my medicine, have breakfast, and go back to bed or sit and watch YouTube for ages! Not good! 

I need a good routine, not just a busy doing-chores routine, but something that sets me up for the day. I'm thinking along the lines of making my bed as soon as I get up, getting dressed, and then having breakfast.

I want to start journaling, especially a gratitude journal. 

I have a few ideas that I'm going to try. Once I have a nice routine, I'll post it here! One thing that I do need to do is getting chores done early, it's getting warm, and I know once it gets hot, doing any housework will be hard!

June!! Hard month, Hisao's birthday and Mom's passing. But this year I'm going to open my English school here, and I hope I do well!

Wish me luck!

Not Ready!!

 I really thought that I would have everything sorted by now! I hoped that by the end of May, I would have my classroom set up and some of the garden cleaned out.

But of course, nothing is ready.

I think procrastination is a big problem for me. I always say I'll do it later or tomorrow. But, as my Mom always reminded me, tomorrow never comes.

Why do I do this to myself? 

I did this when we had to move out of the old house. I put off packing, cleaning, and moving until the last moment. Part of that was hoping that we wouldn't have to move! Then made myself sick by trying to do everything at once.

I'm doing the same again. I've put off setting up my teaching room until now because I just didn't want to clean and move furniture. I've put off and made excuses for not doing the garden, either the weather is bad, or I'm tired, but it has to be done!

Anyway, I managed to get the carpet moved into the tatami room. I got Christopher to do most of the work.

Of course, the cats have claimed the carpet for their own!

Cats are claiming the carpet

I'm amazed at how good this carpet looks.  This carpet is about 60 years old. It was in my husband's bedroom when he was a child. I've had it for the past 34 years. Tea, coffee, and cocoa have been spilled on it. I've used it in my classroom for the past 20 years, where kids have thrown up on it and peed on it, but it still looks good. I'll give it a good vacuum and wash it down with some hot water and laundry detergent to refresh it a bit.

I just had a walk outside. I needed to get some fresh air.

I've decided what I need to get done soon and what can wait a bit.

I really want to clean up the entrance and driveway.

our driveway

This is from the road. You can't see the house at all. So I want as much as this to be cut back.

Opposite view

All those branches that have been cut down need to be moved and burned. 

Misty Mountains

I had to get a photo of the mountains. The clouds are very low, I think we will be getting rain this evening!

One good thing is that we are seeing some Japanese plums. David picks them and makes this really nice drink for the summer.

Can you spot the plum?

I have a lot to do! I keep telling myself baby steps. I will get there! One day! As long as it's baby steps forward and not one step forward and two back!

Tomorrow I plan on going to the next town to put some leaflets. I hope to go early morning. I'll let you know if I get that far!

New Leaflets

 My new leaflets have finally arrived!

New leaflet

Not the best photo, but you get the idea!

The plan is to set up my room tomorrow, then send Christopher out on Saturday and Sunday to distribute the leaflets. I was going to send him tomorrow, but it's going to rain! I hope that I can get some students by the end of June.

I'm a bit excited by this. I hope I can get a few students, as our money situation is very tight.

We will see.

I'm a bit nervous as I haven't taught that much in the past few years, I've let Mikey do more and take on the difficult classes. Especially classes that need someone to explain grammar!

I guess it's time to take charge again.

I need to look through the junior high textbooks and see what is being taught.  I hope to get junior high school kids, high school kids, and adults. Also, I need to study Japanese so I can communicate with students and parents!

Here's hoping things work out!!

Harder Than I Thought

 On Monday, I wrote about my bad habit of sleeping during the day.

That day, I decided to stay awake until late evening, like a normal person, hoping to reset my body and sleep well at night.

Even though I was tired, I still couldn't sleep more than ninety minutes at a time. I really tried, I didn't read or watch TV when I woke up. I just lay in bed, hoping that just lying down would help.

Tuesday morning, I got up, made breakfast, but was so tired that I decided to doze again. Tuesday afternoon, I have to go to the other city to teach. I managed to shop on the way, do my two lessons, and had a long walk with Christopher. I actually got in over 3000 steps. I was so tired when I got back that I went to bed early and really slept.

But the night turned out to be rather weird.

The first thing that happened was that two of the cats had an epic fight. Because I usually sleep very lightly, I can hear when the cats start. Last night I didn't hear them until it got to the fur flying stage!

I went out to separate them, but Christopher was already there! He managed to put the cats into different rooms. I went to get a drink of water when I heard Christopher laughing!

Wondering what was so funny at 1am, I went to his room. He had a firefly in his room!

Firefly

He has no idea how it got in, as his screen is closed! He said between the firefly and mostiquito, it was very noisy in his room, they both buzzed around him all night!

Made for an interesting midnight discovery.

This morning, I woke up at 7am, determined to make today good. I had a nice lunch planned and a few jobs to do before going to the other city again.  But I was so deeply tired that I couldn't focus at all.

So I slept! A lot. I still feel tired, but I'm able to function. I've changed today's lesson to online. She is a high school girl, so not too hard to do online!

I also made the mistake of searching online about chronic fatigue. Looks like it's a death sentence!

There are a few diseases that have chronic fatigue as a symptom. Long Covid is one, and also myalgic encephalomyelitis. 

I have some of the symptoms of both, but not all. Also, it looks like lifestyle adjustments are as important as any medicine!  

I'll talk to my doctor next week!

Until then, I'm going to try and sleep more at night and push through the days! I have to get better, there's too much to do!

Breaking Habits

 I've written about this before, but I don't remember when!

I'm trying to change my life around, to do all the things that I have to do, chores, shopping, cooking, and teaching.  Then having time and energy to do things I want to do, read (I have over 6000 books on my Kindle, plus I have a lot saved on Everand). Do some baking, study Japanese and maybe try a new hobby!

But my bad time habits are stopping me from having the life I really want!

In my mind, I have this great schedule: get up between 6:30 and 7 am. Make breakfast, clean the kitchen, do laundry, and do any other chores that need doing. Go outside for a bit, pull weeds and try to tidy the garden. Come back in, spend time on my computer, then make lunch. Afternoons are for me to do what I want to do, then go to teach!

Reality, I'm awake at about 4am, I try to sleep again, but only doze! I get up at 5am, take my medicines, and have a small breakfast. I go back to bed until 10 or 11 am, get up to make lunch. I feel tired and very unfocused. After lunch, I read for a bit but then have another sleep until about 4pm. I get up, mess around on the computer, then have dinner, watch TV, and then sleep.  I try to turn off everything by 11pm, but it's hard. I'm usually asleep by midnight but wake up every hour or so. I don't sleep for more than 2 hours at a time. Waking up, I just toss and turn, worrying about not sleeping!!

On the days I have energy, I push myself to do things! This leads to extreme fatigue for about a week. I don't think it's normal to be that tired after a couple of days of work.

I have a doctor's appointment next week, I'll ask him about this constant fatigue and ongoing insomnia. I think part of it is depression, but I think there might be something physical going on. 

One good thing is that I'm trying to do some exercise again. Since last Monday, I've done chair exercises almost every day. Tuesday and Wednesday, I go with Mikey to the other city to teach, on those days, I try to walk around the gym, if it's free, for about 15 minutes. I try to get up to 3000 steps, some days okay, other times not that many!

I've also been a bit more careful with my eating. I try to be very mindful of what I've eaten and what the food will do to my body! As I mentioned, I've started to drink matcha, so far I've been enjoying it, and I hope to keep it up! Also, I've been making more salads and using a lot of vegetables; everyone needs more vegetables in their diet!

One thing that has cheered me up is the blueberry bushes!  Looks like we will have a lot of fruit this year!

Blueberries are just starting to grow!

I'm hoping to make jam this year!  I need to find a good, easy recipe!