I'm Back

 I didn't go anywhere. I've been busy over the past few days, plus I've had writer's block!

The weather here is terrible; it's been raining nonstop for the past 3 or 4 days. When we drove past the river yesterday afternoon, I could see that it had already burst its banks and was starting to flood the area next to it.

Already flooding

Where the trees are on the far bank is a park area, but it was already underwater.

When we were driving back last night, the fog was so thick that Mikey had to take a different route.

This is all part of the rainy season, but there are two typhoons heading towards Japan, we might get the edge of one. Places south of here have already been inundated with this rain; the added rain from one of the typhoons isn't going to help at all. Plus, the northern part of Japan had a rather large earthquake this morning! 

I'm still trying to figure out my T-shirt business. I need to choose a shop platform to use. Etsy, Shopify and Amazon are the most popular sites. Each one has good points and bad points. I'm looking for one that is beginner-friendly, and I don't want to spend too much up front, since I have very little confidence that I can sell anything!

I have to get a few chores done! Everything feels damp because of the rain. I need a couple of dry days so I can get the mountain of laundry done!

News Fast

 For just over a week, I've been trying not to watch or read the news.

It's harder than I thought, as the news is really in your face more than I realised before I decided not to watch or read it.

It's on my computer when I open my browser; it's on Facebook because one time I clicked on a news report from a British newspaper, and on YouTube. 

I never noticed how invasive the news was, how the headlines, photos and videos are there to draw you in. 

Are the headlines more sensational now than before because of the competition with social media and citizen journalists? 

Yesterday there was a train crash in the UK. The headlines all state the same thing but with different levels of emotional framing. For example, one headline stated "Driver dead and nearly 90 injured", whereas another just says "Bedford train crash latest: Injury toll rises to 100". Same news, different emphasis.

How often do I get caught by headlines, thinking that I need to know this news, spend time watching or reading only to realise that the news has nothing to do with me, that I can't change things, I can't undo the awful thing that has happened, and I'm left feeling sad and depressed because of it!

Lives are being destroyed across the globe because of wars, famine, crime of all kinds, the basic unfairness of life. Political leaders are more worried about the next election than the pain of the people they are supposed to be serving. Families are torn apart because of a thoughtless action that has killed someone, destroyed lives and left communities bereft. I read these stories; I cry for the families, I wonder if there is anything that I can do, and I realise that beyond prayer there is very little I can do.

What is the purpose of news? Do I need to know about every single knife crime in the UK? Even if my heart breaks for the families or it makes an interesting debate for my advanced students, debating the cause of escalating crime in the UK, what the government should and can do and why it isn't happening in Japan, does taking in that news help me?

No, it doesn't. I chose not to vote in the UK, as I don't live there and the government actions don't impact my life. So even in the one way I could influence things, I don't. I have no voting rights in Japan, but I encourage my kids to vote. I think having a voice is important.

I feel that taking in the news hasn't helped me, hasn't shown me what the world is really like. I joke with my students that in the winter in the UK everyone is going to be killed by a new virus, die from the cold or a storm or be invaded by Russia or nuked by them. The past few years, every winter has been the same news, with a smattering of royal scandals, knife crime or immigration takeover. But when I talk to my family or friends who live there, they say it isn't that bad. Yes, some areas are bad, but that hasn't really changed. Growing up, there were areas of my city that we were told to stay away from. The news makes it seem that there are criminals on every street corner, that all politicians are crooks and that you shouldn't trust anyone at all. 

I think some news is important. I think having discernment is important. Being sucked into the latest sensational news doesn't help at all; getting angry because of the awful things that are happening isn't helping me and doesn't change things.

So my news fast is opening my eyes to other things. I can see that I spent a lot of time watching or reading news, getting bent out of shape because of it (probably doesn't help my blood pressure) and having all this anger with nowhere for it to go!

I would react to a news headline of the murder of another kid with anger and grief, but that doesn't undo the action. I would wonder why young kids are killing each other; where have we gone wrong that kids think murder is justified? But what can I do? I have this little blog, but I don't want to go down that rabbit hole! I found that I would carry that pain and sadness with me. Not interacting with that for the past week, I feel lighter. Yes, these things are still happening, but I have enough problems to deal with!

Also, I didn't realise how much time I spent watching and reading the news! I was on my computer the other day. I finished writing this blog and was wondering what to do next; I was thinking of trying different AIs to design some T-shirts. I realised that after writing my blog, I would usually start looking at the news. I could spend up to an hour on that! An hour of shouting at the screen. What a waste!

The only news I look at now is the weather news; there's another typhoon just forming, so I'm keeping an eye on that!

Has anyone else done a news fast?

This is my news. Fluffy stole my chicken; she got my fork as well!

Rain

The rainy season started at the beginning of the month. We've had a few showers and lots of cloudy days, but no real heavy rain until yesterday!

It has been pouring down, almost nonstop, since yesterday morning.

I like the rain, but at the same time, this kind of heavy, persistent rain does make me worry. There are advisories out for floods and landslides. In the other city, I never really worried as the house was nowhere near a river, stream or mountain. Here we are at the foot of a mountain, and just  5 minutes away, the little town floods almost every year. We lived there when the kids were in school; every rainy season, the kids would come home with a map showing which areas to avoid during the rainy season, as the streets flood.

This morning Mikey and I had a trail lesson in the next city. This was the first trail lesson in a couple of years; that's bad!

This was on the way to the city! 

It doesn't look very strong on the video, but it was. The river we are driving along is the Chikugo River. There are large spaces either side of the river that are for flooding. On the opposite side to where we are driving, there are parks and playing fields, which are rather large. The river has been known to flood up to the road! Which is amazing; I wonder how much rain had to fall for that area to flood!

I took a little video on the way back. You can see the fields are flooded, ready for rice planting. Also, visibility was bad. Usually the mountains are visible, but not today!

I took a few photos as well, showing the poor visibility.

It hasn't been too bad here; some places in Japan have had a lot of very heavy rain almost every day since the start of the rainy season. 

Also, another typhoon is just forming off the Philippines. The prediction for now is that it will go toward Okinawa; after that, who knows. I'll keep an eye on it; I know the chances of it hitting here are small, but it's better to be prepared!

Pain

 I'm not sure what I did, but I've pulled something on my side. The pain is just under my ribs, going down and around my back. Yesterday, I was trying to reach for something in the back of my closet. I felt something pull but thought I was alright, and I was, until this morning!

I've been trying to gently stretch it out; it feels a lot better than it did this morning. As I was making breakfast and obento, I realised that reaching for things was very difficult. Fortunately, it's on my left side, and I'm right-handed, so I haven't had to use that side too much.

Another problem is that it hurts to laugh, and of course, Christopher had a funny story to tell me this morning!

I don't know where he finds these stories; some Japanese site, I think. The story was about 2 men and a dead fish. One man had gone fishing and caught a large tuna; he called his friend, saying that the fish was too much for him to eat and would the friend like to have some. The friend said yes and turned up at the apartment a bit later. The man met his friend in the parking lot and explained that the fish was too big to carry upstairs by himself. So the two men are carrying a big fish, about 6 feet long, wrapped in a cloth to the stairs. As they were going, they were talking about how to cut the fish up. They decided that the best place would be the bathroom, as there would be a lot of blood and guts; one man suggested using a saw to start the cutting. What they didn't realise was that a lady was walking past, listening to their conversation. About 20 minutes later, the doorbell rings. The owner of the apartment goes to the door, wearing an apron covered in blood and holding a bloody saw. He opened the door to two police officers!

The story ends there, but I can imagine the scene; the officers must have been told that the men were dismembering a body!

I thought this was so funny; it was 6 o'clock in the morning, and I was in pain, maybe that's why I thought it hilarious!

It reminded me of the time I yelled at David to move the dead body, a cockroach that had been killed and left on the floor. I was wondering how I would explain that if the police came knocking on the door and asking where the dead body was!

It's pouring down with rain at the moment. I'm glad, as the past few days it's been very cloudy and humid but no rain. This is nice, gentle rain. I hope it stays like that, but we are under a thunderstorm advisory. 

The view from my window.

When I opened my window, this little guy came inside.

What should I do?

I don't mind these little lizard things, but I don't like the idea of it wandering around my room. I'll ask Christopher to catch it later.

Mono-Colouring Packaging In Japan

 A few months ago, I came across a news article saying that because of the Iran War, tofu was going to become more expensive.

I was really puzzled by this. Why would tofu, which is made from soya beans grown in Japan, become more expensive? I can understand foods or goods that are imported becoming more expensive, or things that rely on oil or oil products, like plastic goods, becoming expensive. 

Turns out that it's the packaging, especially the dyes that are used in making the colours on the packaging. One executive from a tofu company said that the company was thinking of making the packaging mono-colour to save on one chemical that is needed to make the colours.

A few other companies planned on following suit, changing from bright colours to mono-colours. On different news programmes, the new packages were displayed. 

I thought that this might be a big thing in the bigger cities, where turnover is higher. 

I didn't think that they would end up here!

Until Christopher came home with these yesterday.

The orange is the original package.

Apparently the supermarket he is working at has just recieved there first shipment of the new packages.

I know in the grand scheme of things that this isn't big news. But it triggered memories from the pandemic. The feeling of seeing something on the news but not believing it would come here!

I remember watching when COVID was first discovered in China, the lockdown in the city, news footage showing deserted streets. I thought it would be similar to SARS, not a big deal. But as countries around the world started to show signs that the disease had spread to them, I got a bit worried. 

I'm not sure when or where COVID first appeared in Japan. I remember a cruise ship that had people with COVID on board and how that was mishandled. I guess the first cases were in Tokyo, before the government stopped people from coming into Japan.

This was news; this was happening somewhere else- yes, in Japan, but not in Kyushu. Not in the small city where I live.

Every day the news would report how many were sick in each area; I watched as the numbers near where we lived started to grow. But I still didn't think it would affect me, my family, my friends or students.

I remember the first sign that it was getting closer to home. I stopped into a convenience store to pay a bill. On the counter, there was a plastic partition between the staff and the customers. The same day, I went to a supermarket that had a butcher's counter. If the meat is on sale, I usually get 1kg and ask the staff to separate it into two bags of 500 g each. There was a big sign saying that they would no longer do that, as it takes time and they want the customers to move quickly out of the store.

This made me cry; it made the reality of the pandemic very real. For the first time, I was scared!

I had a similar feeling with the packaging; it was something on the news, nothing to do with me. It wouldn't come here; the war would be over before it got that bad. I know mono-colour packaging isn't bad; I actually like the new packaging, but it's what it represents. The fact that the situation in the Middle East is still fragile, and that we are seeing the results of that war in our supermarkets. I wonder what will be next; already, gas (petrol) has gone up a bit. How much will this war impact Japan and other countries? I read somewhere that fertiliser could become in short supply, leading to crop failures and famine in some of the more vulnerable places. What other things will change in our day-to-day lives before the war ends?

I hope this war ends soon, before things get even crazier! If the worst thing is mono-colouring packaging, then that's good!

It Came

 At the beginning of the month, I wrote about designing a T-shirt on Printify (Jackie's Japan Journal: I Had An Epiphany!)

It took an hour of messing around with AI and Printify, but I finally made a design that I liked. Printify lets you order a sample, so I did. Took a couple of weeks, but it came yesterday.

The quality is very good. The hem, sleeves and neck are all hemmed so they don't fray. The material is nice and soft.

This is me unpacking it. I tried to show the hems; not sure how good the video is.

I ordered the biggest size, which fits me! 

The T-shirt looks good; me not so much!

I never know how to stand for photos, plus my face is all blotchy and swollen from allergies. But you can see that the T-shirt looks nice; it's very comfortable.

The next step is to make a few more designs. I'm going to try different AIs to do that, just to see what is good. Then set up a shop on either Etsy or Shopify; both have good points and bad points.

I'm busy teaching until Thursday, so I think this weekend I'll try and get everything set up.

I really hope I can make some money from this venture. Even if I don't, I can say that I've tried!

Stories

 I feel like I am the keeper of stories.

When I was little, my Mom would tell me stories of her childhood. She grew up in the countryside, in a time and place that no longer exists. She was the youngest of 8 children, 6 boys and 2 girls. Her mother died when she was only 6 years old, so she was raised by her older sister.

I loved listening to these stories. I don't know how true they are or how exaggerated they are. 

One story that comes to mind is about jam. Mom was born in 1939, just as World War 2 was starting. Rationing started in 1940; Mom said that because my Grandfather worked on a farm, he could get some food from there, things like vegetables or eggs. But there was a lot of stuff that they just couldn't get; one was jam; sugar was rationed. The story Mom told me was that one day the kids at school were given a jar of jam each to take home for their family to share. My Mom and the brother just older than her decided that since there were 4 kids from their family getting the jam, their Dad wouldn't miss their jars. After school, they snuck off into one of the fields and ate their jars of jam. They went home, and their Dad asked where their jam was. Mom's brother said that because there were four kids from one family, only two got the jam. Their Dad just stared at them, then said, "So what is that red, sticky stuff around your mouth?" They had eaten all the jam but forgot to wash their faces after! The punishment was that they couldn't have any of the jam that the others had bought home! Plus, Mom got sick from eating so much sugar in one go!

She had lots of stories like that. Just silly things that she did as a kid. Stories of hard times but fun times. As I got older, she would tell me of how hard it was living in the countryside, that walking to town would take about 45 minutes, there were no buses at that time. That everyday chores took longer because there were no modern conveniences.  These were never told to elicit sympathy but more to show how lives and living situations change over time. 

I like family stories; I loved listening to my Mom and trying to imagine her life and that of her brothers and sister.

I feel that everyone has stories to tell, that these stories are part of our family history and should be preserved for future generations. I've told my kids most of the stories from my Mom. For me, that is important; they didn't have a lot of time with her. 

I think I might take time to write these stories down and make a little book for my kids. Not just Mom's stories but mine as well.

The end of the month will be 22 years since Mom passed away. I still want to call her and tell her about my kids and what they are doing!

Just a few photos of Mom.

With Alan

She thought there was no film!

At her job, cleaning.

The photos are scanned; I have an app, but I'm not very good at using it!