It's Hot!

 According to the news, many places in Japan are experiencing a heatwave.

The city of Kofu in Yamanashi recorded a high of 38 °C. This area does get very hot, but not in June.

Heatstroke warnings have been issued to many areas, but unfortunately, 3 people have already passed away due to heatstroke!

This happens every year. Many are older people who don't run air conditioners because of the expense. I've often wondered why the local community centers aren't open up for older people to go and spend the hottest time of the day there. One thing I have noticed over the past few years is that some supermarkets have a small seating area. You can buy lunch and just sit in that area for a while. I think it's a step in the right direction. 

Another problem is the people who have to work in this heat. I noticed this poster in a supermarket the other day.

poster in a local supermarket

It's basically apologizing for the staff having to drink while they are working. I think for some Japanese, this is seen as bad manners! For me, however, it's common sense!

One news report that I watched this morning showed a delivery driver. The company gives them a special vest that has fans in it and a watch-like device to track their temperature. The staff are encouraged to drink and eat salt candy.  I'm glad that some companies are starting to see how dangerous heatstroke is and are taking some preventive measures!  I'm also wondering when this common sense will trickle down to the schools. A lot of schools continue with sports activities outside, even in the extreme heat. Every year, we see the same thing on the news: ambulances lined up outside schools because some of the kids have heatstroke!

On a personal level, I finally got my air conditioner fixed. It wasn't broken, the problem was the wall socket and the plug on the machine were a different shape. I checked a few places and got quoted about 20,000 yen to fix this (about £100). This morning, David called a few companies and got quoted 5,000 yen (£25), a much better price. 

The guy came this afternoon and changed the plug, took less than 5 minutes! 

I'm so happy to have an air conditioner that works! I would love to have one in each room, but just having a place that I can sit in that is cool helps a lot. Also, being able to have the air conditioner at night will help me sleep better.

I want to buy one for David's room, he sleeps during the day, when it's very hot, and I worry that he isn't getting good sleep!  Need to save some money for that!!

Bit Better

 Still feeling miserable. I think until I figure out how to make some money, it's going to be tough here.

I really hoped that I would get a few students. 

This summer is going to be hard, but I'll survive. Somehow.

Is anybody making money online? 

Even though it's tough, I still have to cook and clean. I enjoy cooking, it helps with my stress to make good meals, or do some baking!

I made a nice lunch today, goya champuru.

Goya is also called bitter melon. 

Goya, bitter melon

Although this isn't my taste, it is very healthy, so I try to use it a few times a month in the summer. It's high in potassium, vitamin C, and antioxidants.

This vegetable is very popular in Okinawa, which has the highest rate of people living to 100 years old, and most of the elderly there are still active! 

I made Goya Champuru, stir fry with pork, tofu, and eggs! 

Goya Champuru

I know it doesn't look that good, but it tasted great! Because it has so much protein in it, I didn't get hungry for a long time!

I've taken to having little walks around the garden, just to get some fresh air. I was surprised to find that it was cooler outside than inside. There are some beautiful flowers in bloom.

Pretty Flowers

Big Mistake!

 This post is going to be a total moan fest! Sorry!

I really regret moving here!

There I've said it. It's not a place to live. 

I've tried to be positive and find the good here. But the bad outweighs the good. For every good thing, there are 10 bad things!

We've been here for 7 months, and I honestly can't see things getting any better.

I've put leaflets out to get students, but no calls at all. Mikey told me that he called the local kindergartens to see if they would like English classes. They said yes, but only offered 1,000 yen an hour, whereas in the other city, he gets 5,000 yen an hour! If I had known that there was so little interest in English, I wouldn't have bothered putting leaflets. 

We can't do anything with the land but have to pay tax on it, 10,000,000 a year, about £5,000, not sure if I have the Japanese right. I get my zeros mixed up.

We've looked into selling it, but to do that, we need to change the name to one of our names. That costs a lot of money. Even if we change the name, we can only sell to farmers as the land is zoned for farming. The zoning can be changed, but that would cost a lot of money as well.

So we are screwed!  

Nobody has the time or energy to clear the land to grow stuff. We tried, but the bit we cleared is overgrown again.  The few plants we tried to grow have died off. To get the land cleared properly, we need to higher a small digger, but again, no money.

I have searched the internet for online teaching, but most of the sites require a degree or a TESOL certificate. I tried applying by leaving that blank, but the application won't go through. The few that don't require degrees don't need English teachers. I keep checking, but so far, nothing.

I've thought about setting up a web page to get online students, but I have no idea how to do that!

I've spent hours watching YouTube videos on how to make money online, but everything is US or UK-centered and doesn't work here. I thought about making low-content books to self-publish on Amazon, but I think the market is saturated.

I even thought about crowd funding, but it's not a thing in Japan. 

Christopher can't find a job. He keeps looking, but there is nothing local, and he can't drive. This is causing a lot of tension between David and Christopher.

I'm tired, hot, and miserable!

Just writing this has me in tears!

I really regret moving here. I know we had no choice, that renting another place in the other city would have been impossible, but here feels like a death sentence.

Just to finish on the one positive thing.

David picked some of the Japanese plums. A lot got blown down, the wind has been crazy.

Japanese plums

David said that you can make jam from these, so I'll see what I can find. He usually makes this nice drink from them, it's very refreshing in the summer.

Wild Weather

 I know it's the rainy season and there will be a lot of rain for the next week or so. 

I'm used to that. For me, it signals the change from the nice weather to the awful hot and humid weather. The time of year I dread and feel like it's an endurance test.

But today the weather is really crazy.

The rain isn't too heavy at the moment, more like a drizzle, but the wind is very strong!

I just had a quick walk outside to check the blueberries; they are still there and haven't been blown down, but we are losing some of the Japanese plums!

We don't have any air conditioners, so I'm worried about the summer. The only way I've survived is by having air conditioners. One function on the newer air conditioners that I like is the "dry mode", which doesn't cool the room too much, but removes most of the humidity from the room. I used to put that on when hanging the laundry. Dryers aren't common here; the space for the laundry machine is usually too small to fit in a dryer as well. I had a washing machine that had a dryer built in, but it never seemed to really dry things. Also, I like the smell of clothes that have been outside!

The wind is helping to keep things a bit cooler, but it sounds rather scary. I'm worried about some of the tall trees that are next to the house! I really hope they don't get blown down!

The cats are unsettled by the weather. I really hope that they don't fight too much tonight!

Alan, flat out!

Sam is doing the loaf!!

Mottainai

 I've been thinking a lot about what we consume.  Not just food, but everything we buy, from clothes to electronics.  From cosmetics to cleaning supplies and everything in between.

One reason this is on my mind is looking at the storage place we have here. It is packed full of stuff. I posted photos of the upstairs room, but downstairs is just as bad. The garage area is big enough for two cars, but it's full. Another reason is from watching these videos of people who buy storage lockers and resell what they find. These videos are from America, I don't think they do that in Japan. A lot of the stuff is no good, but sometimes there are things that have value. One, I watched they found about 10 pairs of sneakers, brand-name sneakers, each pair worth over 100 dollars. The sneakers were new, still in the boxes with tags on. Another unit had brand-name bags, again new, with tags on, over 2000 dollars worth. All I could think was, what a waste, mottainai!

Mottainai is a Japanese philosophy of cherishing what we have. The core idea is an expression of regret over waste. Buying things that aren't used is mottainai; it encompasses the misuse of resources, a respect for the inherent value of things. 

I've heard this word so much since I came to Japan. My students would use it if they didn't finish their course book, but had to quit studying English. Some of my neighbours would gift me vegetables from their garden, stating that it would be mottainai if the vegetables just rotted away. I've used it as I passed on baby furniture that I bought for Hannah. I knew I wouldn't have any more kids, but just keeping a baby crib would be mottainai.

The word mottainai is common in Japan, I hear old ladies tut about the waste a supermarkets, teachers at school when prints that are made aren't used, and office staff wondering what to do with the extra supplies. The word gained internal attention when Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai heard about it during the Kyoto Protocol. She adopted it as a universal slogan for environmental protection.

Even though convenience is king in modern Japan, the spirit of mottainai is remarkably relevant.

In modern Japan, food waste is discouraged, with creative ideas for leftovers becoming more and more popular. One thing that I do is to use up leftover curry. I make curry bread, basically I butter one side of sliced bread, put panko on it, that makes the outside of the sandwich, put curry in the middle, with bread on top, panko side on the outside, and fry!  Leftover spaghetti sauce gets turned into pizza bread.  If I make too much oatmeal for breakfast, I use the leftovers to make pancakes.

Japan has few natural resources, so people are encouraged not to waste resources. Most electronics have an "Eco mode" on them. During the summer, most public places have the air conditioners set to 28C, which is supposed to be comfortable without using too much energy. Recycling is a big thing here.  There are recycling stores, but most cities have recycling centers as well. When the kids were little, we went to one and bought some yard toys for about 1,000 yen, new they would have cost over 10,000 yen.

I'm thinking a lot about how to embrace this idea more. One thing I do is I try not to impulse buy. At the moment, we don't have any extra cash, so impulse buying is out of the question. I've done it in the past and regretted it every time. So, thinking before buying saves waste down the road. 

I'm trying to reduce food waste. I plan meals, and I also have ideas on how to use any leftovers. We have our main meal at lunchtime, which means that any leftovers can be used in the evenings. I love a bargain, but I realized that buying something because it is cheap doesn't save money! 

Another idea of mottainai is to appreciate what you have. Look after your things, from the smallest item to the largest item. We live in an age of fast fashion and extreme consumerism. But over-consuming doesn't help. The buzz that we get from clicking on something on Amazon, then getting a package, or two or three. doesn't last! Appreciating what we have, taking care of things so they last, can give one a sense of peace. I'm not saying never buy things, but being aware and wonder if buying things is mottainai.

Is anybody going to embrace mottainai? Let me know in the comments!!

Moody Cats

  I've noticed over the past few days that our cats have been moody!  I'm not sure how else to describe their behavior!

There have been a lot more fights than usual, even the cats that are more laid back have been fighting. Also, a lot of random hissing at each other and at us! Even Fluffy hasn't been trying to get our food! The cat's routine is rather fixed; they play, chase each other, eat, groom, and then sleep. The past few days, however, it's taken them a lot longer to settle down to sleep. It's as if they can't find a comfortable place to sleep.

And some very sad faces!

Sam is looking very sad!

I know that cats are sensitive to change, but since we moved here 7 months ago, we haven't changed anything. The cats settled down very quickly. Actually, the move for the cats was a lot smoother than I thought it would be. I was prepared for a lot more fighting and marking of areas!  Since we've moved, we haven't changed anything, same food, same water bowls, and same litter. The cats still have their cat tower and beds, so why acting out and looking so miserable?

When I thought about things, I realized that the cat's behavior mirrored my own. I'm feeling down, I'm having terrible headaches all the time, and generally snapping at everyone. I know that I feel like that because the rainy season has started, and the air pressure is very low. At the moment, it's about 964hPa; normal is about 1000hPa.  We moved to the foothills of a mountain range, the pressure is always slightly lower here, but with the rain, it's become even lower. 

I checked online about this, and apparently, cats are very sensitive to the air pressure. I think that is what is wrong with my cats, poor things. I have no idea what to do for them. I'm trying to be patient, keeping myself calm, and loving on them.  I hope the rain stops soon, but the rainy season is usually one month long!

Fluffy was letting us know that the water bowl was empty, the others were full, but she wanted that one!

Sam and Steve, not really settled.

The only good thing about the rainy season are the beautiful hydrangeas.  In the old house, we had a few bushes of pink and light blue ones; here we have these deep purple ones. 

Purple hydrangeas 

It was difficult to get photos as the ground is muddy and rather slippery!

What Are They Building?

 The land behind our house has been vacant for many years.

When I first came here, 34 years ago, an elderly lady lived there by herself. After she passed away, the house and land were just left unattended. Sometimes somebody would come and clear the garden, but not very often. As time went on, the house started to collapse, and the land became overgrown. I was worried because a large bamboo grove had sprung up bordering our land, with some of the plants taller than our house.

Then, sometime last year, the whole space was cleared out! I was so relieved that the bamboo had been taken out!

I wondered who had bought the land and what they were going to do with it!  It was a lot larger than I had thought, so the possibility of having a few houses built on there was one idea I had.

In January, the diggers turned up. They spent about a month digging out the large stones and roots from the old trees. After that, the whole area was tilled. It looked really nice, just a flat area with fresh soil. Then, trees were planted, followed by smaller bushes and plants.

A month ago, a small rectangular-shaped wall was built, with room for a door. Maybe one house will be built.

On Monday, the crane arrived!

A very big crane

The body of the crane

The crane put these metal beams in place. I've seen houses built before, and they've always used wood as the frame, not metal.

Mikey asked the old man who owns the land, he said that he was building a warehouse. I want to know what he is planning to store there! 

One thing that surprised me was that the crew left the crane there. It's been there since Monday. Yesterday, the rain was too heavy, so they didn't do any work. I don't think that would happen in the UK; leaving machinery like that is asking for trouble! How about in your country, is it alright to leave things unattended?

Today, the rain is a lot lighter but still drizzling!

I was shocked at how high the river was when we drove past yesterday!

The floodplain is covered.

What looks like little islands are actually part of the floodplain. The river usually runs behind those islands.

The building in the background is YouMe Town, a massive shopping mall. I don't go there very often, but there's a small store that sells imported foods. Sometimes I go before Christmas to get some treats!