Of Course.....

 I got sick!

Not really sick, just very bad seasonal allergies. Actually, this season it's the first time I've felt really sick because of allergies. I've been eating yoghurt almost every day for the past few months, maybe half a year now, and I've noticed that my allergies aren't that bad. Most years, by this time, I would have been sick for about 10 days, with really heavy sneezing, maybe 3 or 4 hours non-stop sneezing, sinus headaches, sore throat and low-grade fever. This season, however, I've only had two days like that. I'm still taking medicine, but a lot less than usual.

Of course, I got sick just as I started to use my planning book! But I didn't give up on it. I realised that this is my problem. I start something, a new diet, exercise routine, study program, whatever I'm working on, then life happens, and I give up.

Not this time. One of the ideas behind my planning book is to see what I need to do to make my life better. Giving up because things aren't working out how they should defeats the purpose of the book. 

Life is messy. It's full of starts and stops, of nights lying awake, wondering how to pay the bills, of days feeling like you've been hit by a bus. Days when just the thought of exercise makes you cringe, or seeing another salad makes you run for the hills.  At least my life feels like this sometimes, most of the time, maybe!

This is real life. Not some YouTube or Instagram snapshot. It's my life, running on empty most of the time. But I need to find a way to be accountable and consistent in my choices.

Like eating yoghurt every day, I read that eating fermented food can help with gut health, which helps with allergies. I don't really understand the science behind but I figured, why not give it a go? I like yoghurt, plain with no sugar. I add a banana or some other fruit and have it for breakfast. I was consistent with that, and now I can see that my allergies aren't as crippling as in the past. So, being consistent in one small habit is reaping the rewards a few months down the line.

This is the reason behind the planning book: being consistent in areas of my life that, at this moment in time, are important.

A few people have left comments or reached out to me personally. First of all, a big thank you, it's nice to get comments!

Secondly, I realised, after my last post, that it seemed like I was trying to tackle a lot at once. I'm not, I've done that so many times, and it has never lasted more than a few days.

My focus now is on my health, especially eating and moving. I'm not going to diet as in follow a set program. I've done that so many times in the past and never lost any weight or felt better in myself. I'm trying to be mindful of what I eat, making sure I get enough protein every day and plenty of vegetables. But if I have a bad day, I'm not going to beat myself up about it! The same with exercise, today I went shopping, so I'm counting that as part of my exercise for today! I'm not looking for perfection, just consistency!

The other things I wrote, sleep, study and cleaning, I'm not actively trying to do more, just being aware that these are areas of my life that I do need to address!

I've only had the planning book set up for 3 days, so I'll write more on how it's helping once I've used it for a few more days!

The other day, I was shopping when I noticed these bikes parked outside the store.

Bikes outside a store.

The bags in the basket are from the clothes shop, just over the road. This is so Japanese. In the UK, the bikes would have been taken. Here you can leave your shopping in the basket while you shop!

Crime does happen! But not as epidemic as in other countries. It was nice to see this somehow. 

My Planning Book

 Today I managed to go out and pull some weeds in between rain showers.

This is how much I could pull out.

A lot of weeds.

But when I looked at where I was working, it didn't look any different.

Did I make a difference?

I felt this is what my life is like at the moment. 

I'm trying to reset my life, make changes that I need to make, but it all feels futile. I keep working on routines, on doing the things that I need to do to make my life better, but I don't see any progress.

I still haven't lost weight, haven't gained any, which is good, I guess. My eating is all over the place; some days are very good, other days are very bad. 

I ache and feel like I have no strength in my legs. 

I sleep too much during the day and watch TV until late at night.

I haven't picked up a study book in weeks. 

The house and garden are still a mess.

Before I went on my little trip, I bought a planning notebook. Just a simple 100yen book. It's been sitting on my desk, staring at me since then.

Today, after the weeding that had me so frustrated, I decided that I had to set up this book. Start tracking what I'm doing, what I need to do to improve my life.

This is how I've set it up for now.

Just a place to note what I'm doing.

Sleep is the first thing on the list. I struggle so much with staying awake during the day. Sometimes I am really tired or sleepy. At the moment, I'm taking a load of allergy meds, which make me so sleepy. When I'm like that, a little nap helps; otherwise, I get awful headaches. But I know that crawling into bed during the day is just an escape. I don't want to deal with the stress that I have, especially our money situation. It's bad, I know, but I haven't been able to break this awful cycle. I've proved to myself that I can get up and keep going all day, but most days I don't want to. My plan for this week is to get up at 5am (except Tuesday, I don't have to make obento on Tuesdays), make breakfast and obento, then sleep again until about 9 o'clock. On Tuesday, I want to get up at 7am and start my day!

The next two things are water and eating. I'm good at drinking enough water, most days. My eating needs a lot of work. Last year, I managed to stop eating carbs at breakfast and dinner, just a small portion at lunch. I lost a bit of weight doing that. At the moment, I don't eat carbs at breakfast, but dinner is a lot harder. Some days I have a sandwich for dinner, if I could get good bread, it might be alright, but the bread here is very light and not filling at all! Also, I need to stay away from sweets; I've been backsliding on that lately.

Next is cleaning. I've let that slide. I do the dishes; it feels constant, but I know it isn't. Other than that, I haven't kept up with housework. Everywhere is a mess. I always feel that this house is tatty and uncared for; the tiles in the bathroom are broken, there are holes in the walls and doors (not just the cats, but from when we lived here before). I don't like this house; cleaning feels like a waste of time. I have to change this attitude, try to make it nice, somehow! 

 Exercise, I need to do some every day. Either walking, stretching or something. I really don't enjoy exercising; maybe walking is alright, but other than that, it really is a burden. I know that if I don't start and keep it up, then in a few years, I won't have the strength or energy to do anything. I want to have energy as I get older. I don't want to end up being unable to do anything for myself, so I have to start now!

I added going outside to my list. I was going to put gardening, but some days I don't have the energy to do anything but I like to just walk around the garden, see what flowers are blooming, check on the blueberries. I spend so much time in my room, so just getting outside is good for me.

The last thing on my list is to study. Japanese, of course, but also history. I've found that I'm really fascinated by history. I want to try to learn more about Japanese history, especially this area. Also, I realised that I don't know much about English history.

At the bottom of the page, I've left a space to write down the positive things from the day. I need to have a much more positive outlook on life. 

I don't know if I'll keep this planning book like this or change it as I go along. We will see.

If anyone else is doing anything similar, drop me a comment.

Shopping

 Shopping is a love/hate experience for me!

I love to find bargains, but hate it when everything I usually buy keeps going up.

I remember when we used to visit home, in the 1990s, my Mom would do a big weekly shop at Tesco. The store she went to was a massive place which sold all the groceries Mom wanted, plus clothes, household items, toys and books. All the shopping was done in one place, and the prices always seemed reasonable. I'm guessing that's not the reality in the UK now!

Here I go to about 7 different supermarkets and two different drug stores in the hope of getting what I need. David usually stops by a discount supermarket on the way back from work. He gets a lot of daily things like bread, milk, cheese, eggs, and cleaning supplies. That helps a lot!

I buy most of the vegetables, meat, fish and yoghurts. Between us, we spend over 10,000 yen a week, about £50. Sometimes less, most of the time more. Plus, Christopher picks up things from his supermarket if there's a sale on stuff that we use.

Today, Mikey took me to two supermarkets. One has a good selection of fruits and vegetables, plus the fish was reasonable today; the other usually has good meat.

Today, however, everything was very expensive! I know that a lot of items went up this month, but I wasn't expecting to see such a large increase in basic foodstuffs!

These packs of beans used to be 70 yen, now they are 88 yen.

They are small packs, but great for putting on salads or throwing into soups. But a price increase of 18 yen was rather shocking.

The same with breast chicken. For many years, the price was 39 yen for 100 grams, making it a good choice for a tight budget. Today, in a discount supermarket, breast chicken was 129 yen for 100 grams. I know that there's been a problem with chickens and eggs worldwide because of the bird flu, but that's a crazy increase.

If it's just one or two items that have gone up, it's not a problem, but it looks like everything is a lot more expensive. According to the news, about 2,000 items have gone up.

I wanted to try something new, so I bought these today.  

Quail eggs.

I plan to wrap them in pork mince and bread crumbs and fry them. Mini scotch eggs! These are for Christopher's obento; he likes these quail eggs, I don't know if anyone else does!

We really have to grow some vegetables. David has bought a few little plants to start. At the moment, they are in my room. I hope they grow!

pumpkin plants

Watermelon and green pepper.

We wanted to get some strawberry plants, but they didn't look healthy at all!

I'm really trying to save money and be frugal, but it feels like a losing battle.  I cook mainly Japanese-style meals, as buying imported food is very expensive.

Any ideas for budget meals?

I have a few that I'm trying out, I'll let you know how that goes in another post!

Ten Years Ago

 This week, 10 years ago, the Kumamoto Earthquake happened.

I can't believe it's 10 years, feels like just a couple of years ago.

I wrote about it here: Jackie's Japan Journal: EARTHQUAKE

I remember thinking that this was the closest I had been to a large earthquake,the epicentre was about 2 hours drive from where we lived and I don't want to get any closer.

I've been through typhoons and thunderstorms that were scary, but an earthquake is on a whole different level of fear, at least for me.

With weather disasters, you can track the storm's location and prepare. With an earthquake, it just happens, no warning, sometimes the phone alert will go off, but that is only a few seconds before the quake hits. The closest weather disaster like that is a tornado. 

One thing I want to know is how the Japanese people keep so calm when these disasters happen.

I remember watching the news, the station was reporting on one area that was badly hit, showing some of the damage to the roads and buildings. This was a live report. During the report, there was an aftershock; the camera panned to the entrance of the shopping mall. People were walking out very calmly, parents were reassuring their kids, and staff were helping older customers who weren't steady on their feet. No screaming, no hysterics, just moving to safety.  

Another scene I remember was of a line of people that had to evacuate, this was the morning after the big quake, M7 at the epicentre. They were waiting to get a riceball and some tea. Again, everyone was very calm, the old ladies stood talking like this was an everyday occurrence. There was no pushing, no demanding special treatment.

My reaction was an overreaction. I felt so vulnerable. Maybe because it was just a few years after Hisao died, maybe it was because I had never experienced anything that terrifying before, maybe it was because I felt that the safety of my kids depended on me. Maybe a bit of everything. One of the first things I did was to check the price of tickets back to the UK! I knew I couldn't go back, but I wanted an option! 

Since then, we've had a few jolts, nothing that bad though. The past couple of months, there has been a swarm of small earthquakes south of where Hannah lives. Hannah calls me to see if we felt the earthquake, but usually we don't!  

One thing in Japan is that there is a lot of awareness of earthquakes. From a young age, children are taught what to do in case of an earthquake; it is drilled into them. One thing they are told is to follow instructions and not panic. I think I need this training!

I hope I never go through another earthquake like that!

I talk to the mountain that we are at the base of, I ask it not to fall on us! I worry a lot about landslides caused by rainstorms or earthquakes.

The mountain.

I know it looks faraway but a road that runs parrell to here was inundated by a landslide a few years ago. If I hadn't seen that maybe I wouldn't worry so much!

The Garden.....Again

 It has been raining continuously for the past few days. Not heavy downpours, just constant, non-stop rain.

This area has needed this rain; actually, more rain would help. The winter was very dry, with very little rain and almost no snow, even in the mountains. Some of the dams that serve the area are very low, about 30% of capacity! I don't know if a few days of rain helped, but at least the fields and gardens got watered.

This was on Tuesday, going to teach. The clouds were so low that you couldn't see the mountains!

Today, however, the sun is shining, the temperature is just right at 22℃, and the garden is coming alive again.

It's still a mess. We need to get out and really pull the weeds and start to plant a few things. But even with the weeds, the bushes and trees look beautiful.

These flowers are so beautiful; the tree is full of them. They are Japanese snowball flowers, I think.

I'm not good with flower, tree or shrub names, I just know what I like!

This is just outside my window.

The last of the cherry blossoms!

Another beautiful azalea.

I took a little video. The first bush in the videos is the blueberry bush; it's really blooming. I hope that we can get some fruit this summer. When it's really hot, I love to mix yoghurt and blueberries, then put them in the freezer as a nice cool snack.

I sat outside for a bit, just enjoying the sun and the warm breeze, listening to the birds in the distance. I was joined by this little guy.

A new friend?

I don't like insects, but I'm trying to appreciate their place in the ecosystem. I told him to stay outside, where he'll be safe! 

David bought a couple of pumpkin plants, which are sitting on my windowsill. I hope we can plant them out soon.

We are going to the home centre tomorrow, so I might pick up a couple more little plants to try. 

David's Business Ideas

 David has been working at an Internet Cafe, doing the night shift for a few years now. He took the night shift as it pays a bit more. When we lived in the other city, it took him just a few minutes on his bike to commute. Now he has to drive between 40 to 50 minutes, one way. This is getting to him; he's constantly tired. He's been looking for local jobs; there are a few, but the wages are very low, and there is no chance of advancing. Most are minimum wage, about 990 yen, about £4 an hour; it's not worth the effort. By the time he pays tax, health insurance, work insurance, etc., his take-home pay would be about 10,000,00 yen, about £450.  So David has been thinking about starting a couple of small businesses.

His main focus is to build our English school here. He's making a home page and has been putting leaflets out for the past month, but no calls. I know this happens sometimes, we just have to be patient.

The other buisness ideas he has are rather unique. One is to grow and sell small cacti. He bought one this morning, from which he can grow others. 

Cute

People seem to like these little plants, so he thinks it might work. This idea I can get behind.

The other idea he has has me freaked out!

Selling cockroaches as pet food! 

Apparently, there is a market for cockroaches to feed to lizards and some type of fish. These aren't native cockroaches but ones from South America, that are cleaner and don't carry bacteria that could kill the animals that they are fed to. 

I told him that if he wants to try it, that's okay, but not in the house, not anywhere near the house! We have a hut on the land near here that he can use. I hope he doesn't think to bring them home with him!

He is looking into this now! I'm trying to think of other businesses that he could start. Any ideas?

Visiting My Friend

 Yesterday, Mikey took me to see one of my friends.

She had invited us for lunch. It was the memorial day for her husband, who passed away 28 years ago. It was nice to sit and reminisce about the past. 

Another reason she invited us over was that she plans to return to her own country at the end of this year. She's been here for 35 years, about the same as me, but feels that at this time in her life, being in her own country is better. She's a few years older than me and is starting to find that the colder weather is not good for her anymore.

Of course, living here for so long, she has a lot of things. She's very good at giving away things, selling off larger items that she no longer needs and throwing away stuff that has seen better days. Unlike me, she doesn't have a massive storage place to dump stuff. Her house is tidy and comfortable, but of course, there are a lot of things that she can't take back. 

She offered her fridge and washing machine to Mikey; he and his wife have finally found a place to live, but they can't move in until September. My friend's fridge and washing machine are only a couple of years old and still in good condition. I hope that this will help Mikey. Money is very tight at the moment.

She asked me to have a look around and tell her if there's anything I would like. I asked if I could have the desk, she was so happy about that. 

She also loaded us up with a lot of books for teaching. She still has a few classes, but most of the materials she has she isn't using amymore.

She told me that if she doesn't start to get rid of things, then the process of moving will drag on! 

I made that mistake when moving houses. I put off throwing out stuff, moving things that we weren't using. In the end, it was a scramble to get out of the other house!

Packing up 35 years' worth of memories is going to be hard. Saying goodbye to what she has known for so long is hard, but she is excited to start a new adventure. 

I'm happy for her, but of course sad for me!

We will keep in touch, but I liked the idea of being able to visit, even if it is just once or twice a year!

My friend lives in the city. I don't usually go into the city, especially by car. If I go, it's to go to the theatre with Hannah, then we'll use the train.

Where I live, I'm surrounded by mountains and trees; there is green everywhere. During the day, it is so quiet, the only noises are birds and my cats; sometimes I can hear the old man who is working the land behind our house. I think I've gotten used to the quiet.

On the drive in, I noticed how much variety there is in the buildings.

I was trying to figure out what the last building was! It's really beautiful. Maybe a hotel or a wedding venue. I love the domed roofs and the columns on the front.

We took a different route on the way home. 

This road always scares me. There are three lanes; the ones on either side go one way. The middle lane changes depending on the time of day. At about the 10-second mark, there are signs over the road showing which lane you can use. I often wonder what happens as the lane changes direction!

We drove past one of the self-defence forces bases. 

This plane has been here for many years!

I had a lovely day out! 

I hope to visit a few more times. I promised my friend that once she has decided on the date for her departure, we will help out with moving everything.  Things that she can't sell or give away will have to be trashed, so we can help with that!

She has talked about this move for a few years, going yesterday and seeing how the house is already a bit emptier has made it real for me!