Coming Of Age Day

 Today is another national holiday in Japan, Coming of Age Day.

Although there have been ceremonies to celebrate young people reaching adulthood, the modern form has been around since 1948, and it's held on the second Monday of January. 

The age for adulthood was lowered to 18 in 2022, but most ceremonies still focus on 20-year-olds, probably because drinking and smoking laws haven't changed.

Local city halls and community centres host ceremonies called Seijinshiki.The ceremony usually involves speeches from local officials,  reunions with classmates and visits to shrines. And of course, photos, lots of photos.  The shiki part means ceremony. I know this because David doesn't like anything with shiki in it. For example, the graduation ceremony, known as sotsugyoushiki. 

I'm not sure if this still happens, but in some places, young people would be given gifts. One of my students told me that her group were given Japanese plum trees to plant. She said that every year, when the tree would blossom, about the end of January, it would remind her of her Coming Of Age Day and the determination she made then to live a good and productive life!

Young people get to dress up in their best, special kimonos for the girls, called furisode, suits or hakama for the boys.

Girls in their furisode

None of my kids attended this ceremony; they weren't really interested. Instead, we had a little party at home. Some of my students who went to the ceremony said it was a nice day, but a lot of money, especially for the girls. The kimonos are usually hired for the day and cost up to 250,000 yen, about £1000. 

I like to see the news on this day, as there are usually segments showing the young people all dressed up and going to the city hall or shrines. 

Also, this is a nice little break; everyone is back at work, trying to get back into the rhythm of life that had been interrupted by the New Year's holiday. This feels like a little breather before the real work of the new year starts! 

Japanese Study

 I keep saying that I'm going to get back into my Japanese study, but time passes, and I don't do anything!

This afternoon I was determined to do some study and reached for my laptop!

I realised that this was the mistake I kept making. 

I keep looking for resources to study instead of studying.

There are some good sites out there, but I get easily distracted by links, then YouTube, then something else catches my eye. I then look at the time and find an hour has passed, and I haven't even started to study!

Today I decided to pull my books out.

I have a lot of books. As I said before, I have a bad habit of collecting books but not reading or using them!

My Japanese textbook

I bought this book when I first came to Japan, about 35 years ago. It still looks new; there are notes inside as I've been through it a few times. The notes tend to trail off after the first few chapters! The sad thing is I bought some books for teaching English at the same time, those have been replaced many times as they just fell pieces because they were used so much!

Today I wrote out some of the vocabulary from the first lesson.  This book uses hiragana, katakana and romanji (Romanised Japanese). I want to write the vocabulary out with kanji as well. I'll ask one of my kids to help with that.

I also wrote the important grammar points. These are things I know but don't know!

I think I pick up a lot of Japanese just by listening to things around me. The kids talking, when I'm out, students who change between Japanese and English, YouTube videos, etc. I can hear sentence patterns, but I've never really studied them. This time I'm going to pay more attention to grammar. 

This is my notebook today!

It's a start

I also found an old kanji drill book that we bought for the kids. We have a copy machine, so I used to copy the pages they needed.

This is today's effort.

Kanji practice.

I did two pages of this. I know the meaning of most of these kanji, but how to read and write is another question!

This is rather bad, I put the date on when I was trying to learn before!

May 8th, 2017!

Nine years ago!! 

Leave me a comment to encourage me!!!

Home

 What makes a place a home?

Is it the building?

Is it the people you share that building with?

Is it the memories that you make there?

I've been thinking about this for a while now, actually, since we were told that we had to leave the old house and move back here. 

At the other house, I felt at home. Even though it wasn't mine, and toward the end, it needed a lot of work done on it, it felt like home. It was comfortable, I could relax there. 

This house has never felt like a home. Even when it was newly built, there wasn't a feeling of being comfortable.

My mother-in-law had this built after a massive typhoon took off most of the roof of the original house. 

After it was built, my mother-in-law and her mother just moved all the old stuff they had back into the new house. Having all the old things put in made the small rooms seem smaller. 

There's a small living room that is off the dining/kitchen area, but it was never used as a living room, just a place to store things. 

Another thing that stopped this house from feeling like a home was the fact that they put their names on everything. When I first noticed this, I thought it was because my Grandmother-in-law had been in the hospital. I was bringing in some laundry as it had started to rain when we came to visit. I noticed that some of the towels had her name on them. A hospital stay would explain this. But I noticed that the fans had their names on, the heaters for their own rooms had their names on. They even had identical sewing boxes with their names on! This made it feel more like an institution than a home!

Also, the ornaments my mother-in-law collected weren't displayed; they were just stored in cabinets. And the only photos were of dead relatives in the room where the Buddhist altar was.

I never had a sense of home when we visited here; it was just a place to live.

When I look at old photos of where we've lived, I like to notice the things on tables or shelves.

I notice cups or dishes and wonder what happened to them!

What happened to those glasses and that tray?

If you look very carefully, you can see some piggy banks on the windowsill. These were promotional gifts from a bank. But they have a funny story attached to them. Hannah had one; she was about 9 at the time. She kept taking the money out of the other one and putting it in her piggy bank, until she got caught! Hisao put tape on the other one, which Hannah tried very hard to take off. She was a bit disappointed that her source of income dried up! 

This photo, as well, brings back memories and a feeling of being at home. 

This was January 2024, the lads were playing some daft game, talking and laughing. I look at this photo and see all the books we collected, some were for teaching, others were my reading books. The silver box that holds the Christmas decorations and the tree waiting to be put away. All of those things are now in storage because this house is too small!

Even after living here for a year, it doesn't feel like home. 

There is no real place to hang out together. We have a sofa in the dining area, but no living room. I thought about changing the tatami room to a living room, but I will need to use that room to teach in! 

I really don't know what to do to make this house feel like a home. I thought about putting up some photos or some of Hisao's paintings. I would love to paint the walls in the tatami, entrance and corridor. At the moment, the colour is this horrible green colour, which reminds me of snot!

This green colour.

It doesn't look too bad in the entrance during the day, but the tatami room and corridor are dark, and this colour just makes it feel darker!

Of course, having nine cats doesn't help with keeping the place nice. They have destroyed the doors to the tatami room!

Naughty cats!

But the doors are made of paper, the wooden doors are alright!

I really want a living room. Sometimes we hang out after eating, but the room is either too hot or too cold. Having a space where we can be together would be nice. 

I know my kids are adults and want their own space, but having a place to hang out together or to invite people to would really make me more settled here.

Leave a comment if you have any ideas about making a house a home. I'll try and put up some more photos of this place, maybe I can draw the layout, so you can see what I'm up against!

Mikey's Birthday

 January is a birthday month for my family. Mikey and Christopher, just days apart, my niece's birthday is in the middle and Dad's birthday towards the end of the month.

Today is Mikey's turn. He's 34 today! 

I remember coming home with him from the hospital, totally freaked out. I had very little support, no real close friends to call on who had babies. My mother-in-law wasn't that interested until Mikey was older. I didn't even have an international phone line at the apartment we were living in! To call Mom, Hisao had to drive me to a nearby park that had an international public phone! 

The first few months were hard, but he was such a lovely baby ( except he didn't sleep much!). 

When he was 7 months old, we visited England. He went to my parents straight away; he wasn't a shy baby at all. 

This was at the airport, we had just arrived in the UK!  He let Mom pick him, no crying, no fuss!

I often wonder how much a person's character comes from nature versus nurture.

Mikey is still very outgoing. He loves to entertain, to do his magic show, and to talk to people. Even as a baby/toddler, he had no problem with other people being around!

David is the opposite. He really doesn't enjoy other people's company. As a baby/toddler, he was very shy. He never warmed to anyone outside of his family. 

With these two, I can see that their natures are very different. I don't think my parenting style changed that much!

Just a few photos!

With Hannah, 21 years ago.

In England

Dressed for the kids' Christmas Party.

With his Granddad in England.

His magic show, December 2025.

He took Hannah back to her apartment this morning. I gave him some money to have a nice lunch with her!

Back To The Dentist

 The tooth that fell out and I had put back in fell out again this morning!

I managed to get an appointment with a local dentist this afternoon. It took an hour, but the tooth is back in; no guarantee it will stay. I hope it does for at least a couple of months, then I can think about what to do about the few teeth I have left! I need dentures made as I have no back teeth. I had some made about 20 years ago, but they either made me gag or fell out when I was eating. I also found it difficult to talk with them in, since talking is how I make money, it's not good if I can't talk!

The dentist clinic I went to is one I used many years ago, maybe 20 years ago, when I lived here before. They have opened a new clinic next to the old building. I don't know if the original dentist is still practising, all the staff I saw were very young! The clinic is very nice, still using a Disney theme in the decoration and, of course, a lot of fancy new gadgets, including an interesting X-ray machine!

The X-ray machine can take panoramic X-rays! As you sit in the chair, the machine moves around you, taking X-rays as it moves! It reminded me of the opening of "Joe 90".

I never watched this programme, but I remember the opening!

I really have to study Japanese more. The dentist was very busy when we arrived, so I went in first while David found a parking space. I told the receptionist I had an appointment, managed to enter "My Number Card", which is a card that has information about you embedded on it, for the doctors or dentist, it gives access to my national insurance. I was then given a form to fill out: name, address, age, etc. I could understand what was written, but couldn't even start to write anything. I had to wait for David to come and help me! The same thing happened during the consult. I could understand what I was being asked, I could even answer some questions, but I kept getting stuck, not having a word or phrase to use!

I've been thinking about my Japanese ability recently. Why is it so bad? Surely after 35 years, I should have a better understanding of the language, I should be able to read basic things, deal with doctors, dentists, the city hall, etc, but I can't. I think one reason is that I never had to use Japanese. I never went anywhere without my husband, then my kids. I never used the language at home; we always spoke English. I never worked outside of my own business, and since people were paying me to learn English, I never felt comfortable using Japanese with them. Studying Japanese was more of a hobby, not a necessity to live here.

Am I too old to learn Japanese?

I want to have a fuller life here. I have cooking apps, lifestyle apps that I can watch but not fully understand. I go to the library but can't get books, I see things when I go out, but don't really understand what I'm looking at. 

I've been thinking about a word for this year, what I want to accomplish, some sort of focus.

I've decided on two words: "Health and Learning"

Health, because I've realised I'm not getting any younger. I don't want to end up being one of these old people being kept alive by medicine, just sitting in an old people's home, drooling and wearing nappies. I want to be a sprightly old woman who can enjoy her twilight years, surrounded by loved ones.

Learning because I want to fully enjoy life here. I want to learn Japanese, as well as Japanese history. I think that if I can keep learning, it will help ward off dementia. 

Cheer me on, please!

Just a little video I took yesterday. This is near where I teach on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  The store Fly-z is a recycle store, I always think that they should have chosen a better name! The store with a pink sign, Diaso, is bad for me. It's a hundred yen shop. Most items are just a hundred yen; a few things are a bit more, but clearly marked. The problem is it's so easy to pick up things, thinking only 100 yen. Then you get to the register and find that you have spent 2,000 yen! If I remember, I'll do a post on the things I buy from there.

Back To Work

 After a lovely Christmas and chaotic New Year, it's time to go and make some money!

Christmas was lovely and very unconventional for me. 

I always think of Christmas as a time to stay home with family. Nice food, a good movie or two. Relax and enjoy time with your family!

This year, we had a lovely dinner on Christmas Eve. It was nice to have everyone around the table, laughing, talking, reminiscing. I'm glad we could do that this past Christmas, as I'm not sure how many more times we can do that!

Christmas Day was great. The Phantom of the Opera was spectacular. The Christmas Market was crazy, just too many people. I hope this year I can go earlier, I've also seen that there are markets at other places, so maybe I'll have a chance to explore them!

Even that weird week between Christmas and New Year was nice. Hannah and I could visit a little British Village and a Frog Temple.

New Year's started off all right; we could celebrate together. But ended in chaos of ambulance rides, emergency room waits, and then a dentist visit!

I really hope that things get better from now on!

I only have a couple of lessons today. I'm looking forward to seeing my students and catching up with them. 

Also, I need to get into the garden this week and try, yet again, to get it sorted to grow something! The weather is nice at the moment, sunny and cold. It might be colder tomorrow, but above freezing during the day! At least it isn't snowing. I've been watching the news from the UK. It looks very cold there!

A few photos from Christopher's birthday!

Christopher with Mom

I wanted to put this one on the other day, but I was having problems with Blogger. What I was typing and what was showing up on the page was different!

I made a cake.

This is a nice, moist chocolate cake. I thought I had lost the recipe, but I managed to find it again. Even though it has 2 cups of sugar in it, it isn't overly sweet! I only had a small piece. I used to love sweet things, but I've found that I'm satisfied with just a taste of sweet things now!

Christopher and Sam, both sleepy!

For me, starting work again is the real start to the New Year, a time to put into practice the plans and ideas I have to make this year great!

Hospital...Again

 This morning was a follow-up visit for David.

He had a neurological consult to see if he had some kind of seizure and an echo of his heart to see if there was a problem there. Of course, everything was normal, also because a few days had passed since he collapsed, the reason might have resolved itself! I'm glad that he doesn't have any serious problems, but as always, it's a worry! 

This latest episode has made him determined to quit his job. He has been working nights for 5 years now. When we lived in the other house, it was just a 5-minute bike ride to work; now it takes over 40 minutes to drive there and back. Not a long commute but a stressful one, the roads aren't well-lit, and when the weather is bad, it can be rather treacherous. He's always tired, doesn't eat well and feels a lot of stress. 

There used to be a stigma against changing jobs in Japan, especially for people my age. The idea was you work for one company for your whole life, even if the job isn't great or you are struggling with your health, mental health or physical health. I remember talking to students when I first came, they would complain about their jobs, the overtime, the co-workers who would gossip or spread bad rumours, many little things that made life miserable. I would ask why they don't change jobs, just the thought of that would horrify them! Now, however, people are more aware of how stress impacts our lives, how it builds up until something gives, either our mental or physical health! I've come across a few YouTube channels of young people who stepped away from their jobs, especially jobs in the corporate world. As one YouTuber put it, "I just want to breathe again"

I've been lucky in that I've run my own business for many years. Of course, there is pressure with that as well, but I've put priority on my family. I would make sure that I never have classes on Sunday, I would take holidays, maybe a couple of days a month. I would have a long holiday in the summer because I know that I get sick in the heat and humidity. 

This past year, I haven't had many students, my schedule has been very relaxed, and I think I needed that. I was burnt out from teaching, stressed from moving and starting over. Dealing with the issues in this house, then with Hannah's health, was enough for me; a heavy workload as well would have been too much for me! Now, however, I'm ready to do more! I've found that I actually enjoy teaching! I think that the students I have now are really nice, both the few adults I have and the kids I teach. I'm ready for a new challenge.

I hope to build up my school, restart both here and in the other city! 

I had a little walk around the garden yesterday and found these cute flowers!

Aren't they pretty!

Also, the mountain is looking very majestic.

Grey morning, but there is something about that view that always captures my heart!