It's Hot And Humid

 I know that's stating the obvious, but I never realised just how it feels to walk outside in this weather.

My default setting during the summer is as close to the air conditioner and fan as possible. I refuse to move, to go outside, unless I know that my destination is within a few seconds of leaving the air conditioner. Watching news reports of how hot certain cities are, I marvel at people walking around, going to work or just going out. I've been very lucky in that, until last year, I worked from home. Going out when it's hot was an option for me, not something that I had to do. Even now, I only have to go out twice a week, then it's in a car, not being jammed into a train or bus! 

Yesterday and today, however, I've been out. Yesterday, Hannah and I got the bus to go shopping, so we weren't outside that much, but it was still hard on me. Today we had appointments to have our hair done. Hannah said that the hairdresser was close, just a short walk down the road. I believed her until the walk got longer and longer. It wasn't really that far, maybe 10 minutes walk for me! 

I'm glad that I walked to the hairdresser's and back. I thought about getting the bus, but it was quicker to walk! According to the app I have on my phone, I did 3,776 steps. I don't know how accurate that is, but it's a good number of steps!

The hairdresser was very nice. He really took time to understand what we wanted done. When he was cutting the front of our hair, he would stop and ask if we wanted more taken off. Hannah had a colour put through the bottom of her hair. He explained each step that he was taking. 

Hannah took a selfie after we had finished.

I've given up trying to look good in photos.

Tomorrow, Hannah and I are going to Tokyo! 

I'm really looking forward to that! I'll be posting about our trip when we get back!

Just found a new use for a phone stand!

Volunteer Class

 For the past few years, Mikey and I have been doing a volunteer English class once a month.

At first, I didn't like this class; the students are lovely, but there are just so many at one time! I'm used to teaching one-to-one or in small groups of 3 or 4! There are 20 students in this class!

Fortunately, Mikey is good with larger groups; it doesn't bother him. He is a magician, so performing in front of an audience is natural. Also, Mikey is bilingual, as are all my kids, so he can explain things and translate as we teach.

Now, however, I look forward to this lesson. The students are bright and eager, they are all ages and very willing to learn. One thing that amazes me is their willingness to speak in English in front of everyone. I know I wouldn't want to do that in Japanese, even in English, I don't like to speak in front of others!

Yesterday was this month's lesson. It was a lot of fun, a lot of laughs. 

After the lesson, one lady stopped me and offered me some pouches that she had made. I'm amazed at the workmanship; they look professionally made! I chose two for me and two for Hannah.

Aren't they beautiful!

That was actually very good timing, as I had planned to buy a couple of pouches the next day!

Then another lady came up and said that she was a fan of this blog! It's the first time that somebody who is not related to me or a friend has said that they like my blog! I was very chuffed! 

So I had a very good day yesterday! Also, I noticed that a new store has opened on the way. I hope to shop there sometime!

Today I'm at Hannah's apartment! I arrived late last night. We are going to Tokyo on Saturday, and her apartment is closer to the airport. I was planning on coming on Friday, but Mikey is busy, and last night was the only chance to drop me off!

This morning we took our suitcase to the post office to send to the hotel. The suitcase is small, but I couldn't envision dealing with crowds, heat, changing trains and a suitcase. By sending the suitcase on it is one less stress. Also, it wasn't so expensive, 2500 yen, about £11.

After that, we went shopping to pick up a few bits and pieces. One thing that I've been looking for is some kind of deodorant for my face, because I really sweat on my face. I managed to get some today, I hope it helps!

We had lunch out, of course!

Lunch

Just a burger and fries, I haven't had that for a while, so it was a nice change.

On the way back, I noticed a couple of things that made me smile.

At the bus station.

This little statue is in the bus station. It's a statue of Ebisu, one of the Seven Lucky Gods of Japan. He is the God of Fishermen and Trademen. I just love the face, so lively and happy.

Then I noticed these flowers growing in the gutter as I got off the bus.

They are so pretty and fresh-looking. 

I've had a nice day today. Sometimes it's nice to have a break from our usual day-to-day schedule. Don't you agree?

Doctors......Again

 I feel like my body is falling to pieces.

I ache in so many different places, my lower back, my neck, and my knee. I know part of it is my weight, but I had back problems when I weighed 40 kilos less and was decades younger! 

I planned to go to an orthopedist this morning. I've been having pain in my lower back if I stand for more than half an hour. I've had this problem since I was in my twenties. It isn't continuous; I can go for a few years and have no problems at all, then it suddenly gets very bad. The pain isn't extreme, but with going to Tokyo this weekend, I thought it would be better to get some strong painkillers.

However, a few days ago, my allergies got very bad! My nose is dripping all the time, and then I have these intense sneezing episodes. I've sneezed so hard that I have pain around my ribs! So I decided to go to the ear, nose, and throat doctor. Not my favourite doctor to visit. I hate having things shoved up my nose or down my throat. But I can't get anything done when I'm dripping and sneezing, plus the over-the-counter medicine isn't really helping. 

Usually, going to the doctor involves long waits, but this morning was very quick, maybe just a 10-minute wait. I was very happy about that. The doctor had a look, then I had a couple of X-rays taken.

It turns out that what I thought was just allergies is a slight infection in my sinuses. I was prescribed stronger anti-histamine tablets and a course of antibiotics.

After I finished there, David, who was driving for me, suggested buying a new mattress for my bed. My old mattress had a big dip in the middle and springs coming through, not comfortable at all. We managed to buy one, which is nice and firm. I hope I can have a good night's sleep tonight.

Of course, the mattress came rolled up, in a box and of course, one of the cats got in the box straight away!

 

Sam is in the box

I've been designing more T-shirts. I thought I was doing very well with adding new designs. I think I have almost 30 now, but then I checked some of the top sellers, and they have over 500 different designs. I guess just keep adding designs.

Last night I was watching a video that showed that one very popular design is a cat in front, taking a selfie, behind the cat is a UFO. I decided to make my own version of that, a cat taking a selfie with a Japanese yokai, Japanese yokai are a diverse group of supernatural creatures, including spirits, demons, monsters and shapeshifters. Each region has its own stories about these supernatural creatures. I might write a post about this later.

Where we live, there are a lot of stories about a water creature called a Kappa. I wrote about them here, Jackie's Japan Journal: The building Is.....

These are the images that AI came up with

I like this, but the Kappa is a bit too scary.

So I tried to make it cuter, but then it is too cute.

I'll have to have another talk with AI. I want something in between these images!

I also had an idea for a Christmas theme one.

Cute

I'll save that for later!

By the way, I've noticed random links on some of the more recent posts. I haven't put them there, and I have no idea why that is happening or what to do about it! If I add a link, I will introduce it, not just paste something. Sorry about it, I will try to figure it out!

Old Photos

 Yesterday was very hot!

In the city, it was 37℃, even here it was 34℃, that's at the foot of a mountain. I always thought it was a lot cooler here, but just 3℃ different.

I'm so glad that we got a new air conditioner put in; it really helped yesterday and today. I'm now on my summer schedule, get chores done early, before 8 am and put lunch ready. It makes such a difference.

After getting chores done yesterday, I decided to tackle a couple of boxes that I have in my room. These were full of odds and ends that I threw in when we were moving. I keep saying that I would sort them out, but it was one of those jobs that was easy to put off!

The first box I pulled out was full of a strange mix of memorable things, tickets, leaflets of places I visited and receipts for bills paid. That one was easy to deal with.

The second box had me wondering. I came across a load of photos that I found in the outside storage area. These are photos that belonged to my mother-in-law. 

I had a look through some of them. I can guess who some of the people are, but there are a lot where I have no idea who's who. It's sad as there are no relatives on my husband's side of the family to ask.

It's also fascinating to see the way people lived. Some of the photos are from the 1960s, I can recognise my mother-in-law and my father-in-law from the photo that was in the tatami room. In Japan, after people pass away, their photo is displayed in the room where the Butsudan is, the Japanese family Buddhist altar. I call them the dead photos; I'm sure there's a special name for them.

This photo made me pause.

The child in front of the man is my brother-in-law. The baby is my husband, Hisao, and the man is my father-in-law. On the back, it says that this was taken at the New Year, so I think it must be 1962. Hisao was born in 1961. According to what is written on the back, my brother-in-law was four and Hisao 6 months old. Hisao told me that his father died when he was one year old. Maybe just a few months after this photo was taken, my father-in-law passed away. He looks happy in this photo; it's sad to think that his life ended just a few months later!

This is my mother-in-law, very 1960s style. There's no information on this photo. I wonder where she was going or doing.

This is another interesting one. From what I've been told and figured out, the house in the background was not built on this land. The family lived further up the road before the 1960s. The original house built on the land where we are now was built when my husband was a child. The two boys are my brother-in-law and Hisao; the old lady was Hisao's great-grandmother. 

I'm not sure who these ladies are or who the child is. I think the lady on the right is my mother-in-law. I love what they are wearing, very typical working clothes. I think they all worked in the fields.

This is a photo of the storage building being erected. There's another photo like this somewhere. 

These photos give a snapshot of a bygone era.

It's sad to think that there are no relatives on the Japanese side of my family to pass these on to or to ask questions of.

I'll have to find a way to curate these and all the other photos that I've found, make some kind of story of the family, a small history of the family. 

There are very few photos of my family from so far back. I think in the 1950s and 1960s, cameras were expensive and considered a luxury, not something to buy unless you had a bit of extra money, which I know my parents didn't have. I think it's great that my kids have these photos of their Japanese family to look at and talk about!

Now it's so easy to snap photos, plus we always have a camera handy on our phones. I know that I take 100s of photos every month. I'm glad that we can do that. When Mikey was a baby, I used to take 36 photos a month. I felt it was important to document as much as possible, and I would send a lot of photos to my Mom. I think part of that is the fact that I love history, especially the history of ordinary people. I know that understanding the history of a country, the wars, the development of the country, the kings, queens and leaders is important, but whenever I read that kind of history, I'm always wondering how did the common man live, what he did to make money, to provide for his family, what kind of house did they live in or what did they eat.

Does anyone else have interesting old photos?

My New Air Conditioner

 Before we moved to this house, I was watching a series of videos about a man who had bought 3 Akiyas, empty, abandoned houses, in Japan. He got a good deal on these houses, but they all needed a lot of work. One thing that he did caught my attention was that he was working on houses in the summer. He said that he wanted to replace the air conditioners, but other, more urgent repairs needed doing, and he didn't have the money. When he checked the air conditioners, he found that even though they were old, installed in the late 1980s, they were in good condition. He turned them on and found that they were working all right. After I saw this, I thought that we could use the old air conditioners here. The air conditioners were put in when the house was built, about 34 years ago. I thought that if air conditioners from the 1980s work, then surely ones from the 1990s should work.

I forgot that my mother-in-law never took care of things. For example, the extractor fan over the stove was cleaned once, when we lived here before. The same with the windows, cleaned once! The bathroom tiles came up after a year and have never been replaced, just a few examples of how she didn't take care of the house!

Last summer, I opened the air conditioner in the dining/kitchen area and gagged at what I saw. It was thick with dust, oil residue and mould, which actually looked like it was moving. I thought about cleaning it, but realised that I would have to take it to pieces, and I think some of the pieces would have dissolved if I had moved them. David didn't know how bad it was. I told him it was bad, but he thought I was exaggerating. He turned it on, and the smell was just awful!

The old air conditioner, even the outside, was dirty!

Last summer, I endured not having an air conditioner in the kitchen/dining and thought to do the same this year. But I couldn't envision another 3 or 4 months of not being able to do anything in the kitchen or hurrying through meals because it's too hot!

Yesterday, David and I went to an electrical store and bought a new air conditioner. It's not the best one, or even a really strong one, but it was what we could afford. The one I wanted costs 300,000 yen, about £1,300. We got the cheapest one, 70000 yen, about £300. 

This morning, the electricians came and installed it! 

My new air conditioner

It took just over an hour to put it in. They ran a series of checks to make sure it was working alright. It was so nice to sit and eat lunch in a comfortable room. 

The unit is on the opposite side of the room from the kitchen, so I think the kitchen area won't get cold, especially if the burns or oven are on but it will make it easier. To make it better for me, I've decided that as far as possible I'll do lunch in the morning while I'm making obento and breakfast, also I'll start to do the chores after that, so everything is done before 8am, when the heat starts!

I'm glad that we got this unit. Just changing one thing has made a difference to how I feel about this house.

By the way, when I checked my blog yesterday, I noticed a link that I hadn't put in. It didn't show up on Christopher's computer, and I have no idea why it was there. If I put any links, I explain what they are for, if a random link pops up, it's not from me!

My Survival Kit For Summer In Japan

 Summers in Japan are brutal! Today was 33℃, with humidity at 55%. That isn't too bad, but this is just the beginning. I always hope that the summer won't be extreme, but it usually is.

To be honest, the best way for me to survive is to stay inside with the air conditioner on. But, unfortunately, I can't do that. Two days a week, I have to go out to teach, which would be alright, but the air conditioner in Mikey's car doesn't work. The drive is about 40 minutes, by the time we get to the community centre, I'm melting! Also, Hannah and I are going to Tokyo next weekend, where, from what I've read and seen on various videos, it feels a lot hotter. Tokyo is a heat island because of all the concrete. Also, just seeing the crowds, I feel hot!

So I've bought a few things to help out.

Summer survival kit.

The bottle in the back is Aquarius, a sports drink that helps with dehydration. It contains electrolytes, which help in the heat. The bottle in the photo is a big 2-litre one that I keep in the house. I buy a smaller bottle, plus some water, when I'm out.

I have two fans, the pink one is really great, it fits into my bag and isn't heavy, the only problem is the battery doesn't last that long, so I have a folding fan as well!

Next to the pink fan is a pack of wet tissues that has a cooling effect. These are great when you feel sweaty and sticky.

 

The front of the package promises that you'll feel 3℃ cooler when you use them. I don't know if that is true, but they are very refreshing!

The spray bottle is a liquid to spray on your clothes; it cools them down. It helps if you have to be outside for a long time.

The grey scarf is a thin, gauzy scarf. Every year, I get sunburnt on my neck. This year, I'm determined to get through the summer without sunburn, so I'll be wearing that scarf a lot.

The last thing is a small hand towel to wipe the sweat from my face. I sweat a lot, especially from my face. I'm looking for some kind of deodorant that I can use on my face. At the moment, my face is very red and sore because of constant sweating and wiping. I use a very mild moisturiser, but even that is stinging at the moment.

This is my basic kit; I'll probably buy other things in Tokyo; it's hard to know what I need now!

After my trip, I don't think I'll be going out that much!!

Does anyone have any tips for surviving summer?

Tanabata....Star Festivalbata

 Yesterday was the Tanabata Festival, I forgot until I saw the decorations at the community centre where we teach.

The entrance to the community centre and the Tanabata Festival decoration.

At the heart of Tanabata is an old Chinese folklore that made its way to Japan during the Nara period (710-794).

The story is of Orihime, the weaving princess and Hikoboshi, the cowherd. They were so enamoured of each other that they neglected their duties. These two lovers were separated by the Milky Way and only allowed to meet once a year, on the seventh day of the seventh month. Their reunion depends on clear skies; rain is said to represent the tears that keep them apart.

The festival is celebrated by people writing wishes on coloured paper called Tanzaku. These are then hung on bamboo branches. In many places, the bamboo is later set afloat or respectfully burned, to send the wishes to heaven.

When my kids were little, and I had a lot of students, I would have them write their wishes in English. It was a fun thing to do, write the wishes and make the decorations. Lots of giggles, lots of mess, but lots of fun.

This festival endures today because it is simple, heartfelt, and universally relatable. The idea of wishing for something and then sending that wish out into the world, and believing in the possibility of connection, resonates across cultures and generations.

What would you wish for?