Kagoshima Trip (Part One)

 Hannah and I left Friday afternoon and arrived back Sunday evening. Even though it was only one full day in Kagoshima, we managed to squeeze a lot in!

From Hannah's apartment to Kagoshima, we used a bus, train and the Shinkansen. 

We arrived early at the train station and decided to have a late lunch. There's a really nice cafe called Ufufu; the name comes from a Japanese onomatopoeia for a soft, feminine giggle. Somehow the cafe has that kind of atmosphere.

We weren't very hungry, so we got a pizza and some chips to share.

After eating that, we decided that we should get a little something else, so we ordered a pancake. We thought that it would be rather small, but it turned out to be very big!

That's my phone next to it, that's how big it was. I got maybe three mouthfuls, Hannah, who said she wasn't hungry, managed to eat the rest! It was very nice and fluffy and not overly sweet!

We then got the train to the Shinkansen station.

In the Shinkansen station is a model of the area showing the station and how the tracks come into the station.

These were our tickets.

We found the platform alright. One thing with in the train stations that I like is that the informations comes up in English. With the places I'm used to I can read the Japanese but with places that are new to me I'm not sure of the Kanji!

As we were waiting the Shinkansen bound for Osaka, I think, pulled in.

The Shinkansen is very comfortable to ride but very nosiy when waiting on the platform. 

The view from the station shows where I usually teach. There are two pink signs, the one on the left hand side says Diaso, the community centre I teach at is just behind there.

Hannah on the Shinkansen

We got to Kagoshima at about 6 o'clock! The trip on the Shinkansen felt very fast, it took about an hour and a half but felt a lot faster!

I thought I could write more but I have to get ready to go and teach now!

Part two tomorrow, I hope!

I'm Back

 I wanted to write about my trip to Kagoshima, but I'm still very tired and have to work this afternoon,

I had a wonderful time; it's a really beautiful city with a lot of fascinating history.

We walked a lot; we ate, maybe not a lot, but certainly very good food; we laughed a lot and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

As always, I regret not losing weight and getting healthier. By the end of the trip, I was in agony with my back and legs!

Just a few photos. I hope tomorrow I can write in more detail about this trip.

Our tickets for the Shinkansen.

Near our hotel

Sengan-en gardens and cat shrine.

The Meiji Restoration Museum

From the Shinkansen on the way home.

I really hope I have a chance to write tomorrow!

Changing Plans

 I don't really like change. I prefer routine, so I know what I'm doing and where I'm going. But of course, life is not easy; it tends to get messy and being able to go with the flow really saves a lot of stress.

This month I've had to let go of my routine and really learn how to go with the flow.

Mikey and I use a community centre to teach in. I go every Tuesday and Wednesday, same place, same staff, same group who uses the gym, judo club one day, karate club the next. I'm used to seeing them, using my basic Japanese to greet them. It's nice; it's routine. A few shops nearby are within walking distance if I have a bit of free time. This month, however, we can't use that community centre as there's a big festival at the end of the month and the centre is being used for preparation and practice. 

Mikey spent most of the last week calling other community centres, but most are already booked up. We had to reschedule Tuesday's class as there wasn't any place available. That meant that my Tuesday felt strange; I'm used to doing everything in the morning and getting ready to leave by 2:30. This week I could relax, take more time with the chores and spend time designing T-shirts and reading; I actually enjoyed myself.

On Wednesday, Mikey found a community centre that we can use for this month. It's an older building but still nice. One problem was that the toilets are at the other end of the building. You have to go through the kitchen and down a corridor to get to them. When we arrived, I could find them alright. My problem was trying to find the light switches in the dark. As it's an older building, there were lots of creaks and strange noises, which seemed a lot louder in the dark

Different community centre.

I've also had to go with the flow as I'm staying at Hannah's for a couple of days before our trip to Kagoshima.

I have a very set idea as to what a good breakfast is. My idea of breakfast is eggs, some kind of meat, either bacon or sausages, toast (recently I don't have toast every day) and some fruit and yoghurt. In the cooler weather, I make a more Japanese-style breakfast: miso soup, rice, some kind of protein, and some vegetables.

This was breakfast at Hannah's this morning.

The gold pack is Calorie Mate, a Japanese bar that gives you essential nutrients. Quick and easy. I like Calorie Mate but would never consider it for breakfast. And yes, that is a pack of Pringles!

Another change that I have to deal with is our trip to Kagoshima. Hannah and I planned to visit a cat shrine on Saturday, but the weather is refusing to cooperate; it's going to rain! As much as I don't mind walking in the rain, I don't really want to traipse around a shrine in it. I want to take photos and video, which isn't easy when balancing an umbrella. We changed our plans and are going to go to the shrine Sunday morning; we will spend Saturday at a museum and aquarium.

Going with the flow really does help. I guess life is never perfect, and all the plans we make can be changed without notice.

I don't know when I can post again. I'll have a lot to share after our Kagoshima trip.

Confused

 Does anyone else confuse themselves, or is that my own particular talent?

Daily life can be confusing because I have to deal with things in a language that I can barely understand. If it's anything important, I get one of the kids to help out; otherwise, I try to muddle through on my own.

Today, however, I got myself so tied up in mental knots that I'm now exhausted.

It all started with a video about making money from Pinterest. 

I've had a business Pinterest account for years but have never figured out how to use it. I've read blog posts on it, but I never figured out what to do with it!

I've put a few of my T-shirts on there, but it didn't really help.

Then I came across this video, an answer to all my prayers: a simple, easy way to make a bit of money from Pinterest using Amazon Associates.

I already have both Pinterest and Amazon Associates set up, so I just had to follow the steps for making pins to promote Amazon products.

I always thought that you had to use the products to promote them, but apparently not.

The video showed how you go to Amazon, find a product in your niche, take a screenshot of the product photo/description and go to ChatGPT and ask it to make a pin for you and create the title and description.

So easy, so quick....NOT!

I decided on cat goods as my niche, so I changed the name of my Pinterest account. I found a nice cat climbing tower that, if I had money, I would buy.

Then the fun started! How to use a snipping tool; what is a snipping tool? I had a little chat with AI, who I think is slowly judging me as I keep asking very obvious questions. Found out how to do that, not perfectly, but it's a start.

ChatGPT made me a nice pin.

The pin that ChatGPT made.

It made the title and description. I did another couple of products last night, but I was very tired, so I stopped after three pins.

I checked my Amazon Associates account, and I had two clicks; it's a start.

Encouraged by this, I decided to make a few more pins today. I did two more then realised that the link was going to Amazon JP, the Japanese Amazon page.

But the pin is in English. When I clicked on the link after making the pin to make sure it works, it took me back to the product page set up in English because that is my setting. I don't know if anybody else would get the product page in English or the default setting of Japanese. If they get the default setting, there is a way to change it to English, but would people bother? It's not hard but I think if people saw Japanese, they would just click away without seeing if the language could be changed. 

So I decided to be clever and set up an Amazon UK account. Another 40 minutes of filling out forms, trying to find my phone number and the postcode for this address.

On my UK site, I want to promote books, but it doesn't go with the cat theme on my original Pinterest account. Brainwave: create another Pinterest account- so easy....NOT.

Each Pinterest account has to have its own email address, so I had to set up another Google account. Another half hour of messing around, mixing up passwords and swearing at the computer (I hope the crows weren't listening), I finally got everything set up and made one pin for a book that I would love to read.

I then realised that I should have used my new email on the UK Amazon account.

That's tomorrow's problem to solve.

All I want to do is make money!

Good Day/Bad Day

 Yesterday was a good day.

I managed to get the entrance, genkan scrubbed. Actually, David did it for me after I almost threw a bucket of water over him! I had a bucket of hot water to throw onto the tiles. Just as I was going to throw it, David opened the door; another second and he would have gotten very wet!

While David was scrubbing the entrance, I swept the corridor and the tatami room. I made lunch, just curry and rice. I spent time making designs for my Etsy shop and even went for a little walk!

Today I did nothing. I made an obento and breakfast. But that's about it. I'm so tired, but I don 't feel like I did that much yesterday to be so tired today!

I think part of it is the weather; it's cold and raining. I like this weather, but it's come on so suddenly that I don't think my body has adjusted.

Also, I've been doing a bit of exercise, not a lot but I think my body is wondering what's happening!

I want to get cleaned up and go shopping tomorrow. I really hope the rain stops so I can get laundry done.

One reason I want to clean as much as possible the next couple of days is that I'm going to Hannah's on Wednesday, then on Friday we are going to Kagoshima.

I'm really looking forward to this trip. We are going by Shinkansen. Staying for just two nights, just enough time to see a few things without exhausting ourselves. There's a cat shrine near the city that we are hoping to visit, but depends on the weather. Cool and cloudy is good, rain not so good!

On a funny note, I think the crows near here have been listening to closely to me.

I try not to swear but sometimes things get so hard and I get very frustrated that I do swear, especially the "F" word! Especially dealing with AI or the internet in general. Yesterday morning I was listening to the birds, there are some lovely sounding birds, really beautifil songs, then there are the crows! When I was listening to the crows yesterday it sounded like they were saying the "F" word over and over. 

Alan and Toast

Where they are sitting is next to Christopher's room. Christopher usually feds the cats. This was last night and they are waiting for dinner. They can hear Christopher moving around in his room! I thouhgt they looked very cute.

I'm sorry if there are any mistakes my AI spell and grammar checker isn't working!

A Little Walk

 I went for a little walk to clear my mind, but came back with more problems!

One problem is that all the land we own is overgrown. Having it overgrown on the land is bad; it looks bad, but on one piece of land that I walked past, the bushes and weeds are over the road. The road is narrow; two cars can just pass, so having to swerve to miss the bushes is really dangerous. The big problem is that there's only David, Christopher and me to cut them down. I don't like to ask David and Christopher, as they are exhausted by work, which leaves me, and I know I can't do that much. And of course there's no money to hire anyone!

The other problem is to do with the people who are renting our storage place. It's some kind of recyle business. They were told that they can store stuff in the shed, but they've left stuff in the field.

This is not good

The land is zoned as farmland; we could get a hefty fine if this is reported.

I don't think people from City Hall come and check, but the locals are rather spiteful toward our family.

The story I've been told started when my husband was in junior high school, so in the mid-1970s. My mother-in-law bought a very expensive spray machine; it cost about 30,0000yen, about 600000 yen, £3000 in today's money. The next-door neighbours took it; they just walked into the storage and took the machine. My mother-in-law wanted to call the police, but the neighbourhood association said not to, as it would cause a lot of problems. So she just left things alone. Until 1989, the city offered to buy land from the people in this area; if the city bought it, then there would be no tax, and the city always paid the best price. The catch was that everyone in this area had to agree to sell. My mother-in-law refused to sell, so everyone missed out! I don't know what her motive was; maybe pay back. But because of these two incidents, and maybe others that I have no idea about, the neighbours are still a bit spiteful. I try to greet them, but my Japanese isn't good enough, and the dialect here is rather strange; even my kids have a hard time understanding them, especially the older people.

So seeing the things left like that is a bit worrying!

I'll ask David to call the owner of the business and explain the situation.

Other than those two things, I enjoyed my walk. The weather is just right; going is hard, uphill, but coming back is nice.

I took a little video.

And some very pretty flowers; I want pretty flowers in my garden!

A Different Perspective

 After all the problems with my first Etsy order and my meltdown and overreaction, I talked to Hannah.

She had a very different perspective. She said that it was bad, but at least it was only one order; if it had been 10 orders or 100 orders, that would have been awful. She also said that I had learned a lesson and not to make the same mistake again. Wise lady!

So I have learned my lesson. I've spent most of yesterday and today going back through my listings and adding size charts; also, for every new listing, I'll add a size chart.

What I was going to write about yesterday was setting up another curriculum for self-study through this autumn and winter. Of course, Japanese- I think I'll be studying that for the rest of my life. I now have Netflix; they have some Japanese dramas with English subtitles. I plan to watch one, first with the subtitles, then without. Dramas give a more natural language experience than textbooks or even videos made for listening practice. I remember being in England once; I overheard somebody shout "Ta, mate" and wondered if any of my advanced students would have understood that phrase. I think that with language, what you learn from a textbook and real language are very different. I'm lucky because I live in Japan, so I get to hear the real language.

I need to improve my reading and writing. I'm going to ask Hannah to make some worksheets to practice writing my name and address. At least I should get that down!

Other things I want to get into are history, especially the history of Japan and this area. I have a few books to go through, and there are a lot of local museums to visit.

If time allows, I want to restudy nutrition. I've forgotten a lot of what I learned before, and there have been a lot of new discoveries about how food impacts our bodies.

I want to get back into knitting. I can do the basics but have never had the confidence to knit anything that needs shaping. My Mom taught me how to knit, but she always had to undo the part where the shaping was. I could never get it right. Time to try again, a simple pattern to start with!

Plus, I'm still learning about design and selling on Etsy! And this house needs a good clean. During the summer, I kept the main areas clean, but I've noticed that the cats have messed up some places that I haven't cleaned properly; also, there's so much dust all the time.

It's going to be a busy few months, but I actually like being busy like this. One reason I really struggle in the summer is that I can't do anything; I just feel drained all the time. I'm looking forward to the cooler months, until it gets too cold!

Alfie and Toast are being cute!