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!

 

The Storage Wars, Yet Again

 I have decided that I have to tackle the upstairs storage room.

35 years' worth of stuff has been dumped in there.

In every house we rented, there was never enough space to keep everything, so every few months, things got packed away and put into storage. The idea was to go back and sort out the stuff, throw away what we didn't need and keep things that could be useful later. This was great when the kids were little; outgrown toys, clothes and school books got put up there. The problem is, we never went back to throw out things! When we knew we were moving here, we did clean out a lot of the oldest stuff. Mikey was in his 30's, but I still had his baby clothes! Why?

The few times that we cleaned out left me in tears. I found a little bag that all the kids used for school. I remember buying it for Mikey; it had Mickey Mouse on it, I thought seeing a familiar character would comfort Mikey when he started school! Just finding that had me sitting on the floor, crying. It wasn't the things themselves, but the memories attached to them. Another box we opened had some of Hisao's clothes. I thought that I had thrown out everything, but obviously not; that was another lot of crying! What I decided to do was to keep a few things that hold very special memories and let the other stuff go. I told the kids that once I had left the storage room, the boxes that we had sorted through could go into the trash. It helped if I didn't see it being thrown away; I didn't think about it!

When we moved in here, a lot of stuff went upstairs. We moved from a house with 6 rooms, plus a big living/dining/kitchen area, to a house with 3 rooms, a tatami room and a kitchen/dining area, less than half the space we had before, so no room at all! A lot of things had to be put upstairs. In the other house, we had two rooms that we used for teaching, with 100s of books and other teaching materials. The rooms were off-limits to the cats.

All those books had to go somewhere.

The photo is of the main classroom that we had set up; the room next to it also had a load of books. Then there are all the things that Hannah didn't move to her apartment. Her toys, books and more books, plus clothes that she wasn't sure whether to keep or not. 

So a lot of stuff is still up there, but as I know, it's impossible to organise a lot of stuff, especially when some of it is really trash.

This past week or so, a couple of things have happened. One is that David started taking the outside trash to the city incinerator; he's made a few trips with his car loaded. Which means we now have a way to dispose of the trash, which has helped clear my head. For a long time, I've been wondering what to do with all the trash. I know there had to be a way to get rid of it, but how? Now that has been sorted. The other is my mindset; I have to tackle this situation, otherwise it will be hanging over my head all the time. It's like an itch in the back of my mind that won't go away! 

Today, Christopher and I went upstairs. This is what greeted us.

I stood in the middle to take these photos; both ends of the room are a disaster.

We did a lot, but I didn't take any after photos. 

I really hope to be able to go upstairs a few more times this week. I sorted one box of very old clothes that can go in the trash. I also found 100 yen and a necklace that I bought for Hannah a few years ago, she had put in a different box from her other jewellery!

I didn't get to the books; there are still boxes of books that need shelves, so that's the next thing to tackle.

I would love to get this done before it gets too hot! Today it was about 22℃, next week it'll be up to 27℃, that's getting a bit too hot to work in!

I have to keep my determination to get this big job done, but I think once it's done, it'll be easier to keep clean and to find things that we need from up there. I want to store off-season clothes and blankets up there, which, at the moment, is almost impossible. 

Wish me luck!

Spring Cleaning

 I had a plan! Start spring cleaning today, get in the corners, under the places that don't see daylight, get the toilet and bathroom tiles to shine!

How much did I do? Zero, nothing, not even one little swipe of a duster.

Before you start shouting at me for being lazy, I have a legitimate reason! Really, I'm not making this up!

I've had a headache since yesterday afternoon. Tuesday and Wednesday, I'm out teaching, so I know Thursday I'm not going to have the energy to do much. But I went shopping to buy some tea, which, as you know, didn't work out! It had been raining on and off all morning, actually, I noticed that the rain got heavier every time I had to go out. In the car, the rain almost stopped, got to the mall, parked, and the heavens opened up. The same as we were leaving the mall, went to the doors, almost no rain, stepped outside, and it suddenly got very heavy again!

After lunch, the storm really picked up, rain, wind and a bit of thunder, that's when my headache got really bad.

When that storm passed, I decided to have a little walk outside, just around the garden. I was hoping that by getting a bit of fresh air, my headache would recede a bit. It didn't, but I took a nice video of the garden and the sky, which was looking very dramatic.

I don't enjoy storms, but at the same time I'm fascinated by how the weather changes, the clouds and different colours in the sky are so interesting!

Last night was awful rain, wind and thunder. I woke up at 3am with a raging headache. I took some painkillers, which kind of helped. I sat watching the lightning over the mountains. Spectacular but a bit scary as well.

This morning, I went out to check that there was no damage from things being blown about. Looked like everything was alright.

It's been raining most of the day again, but not as bad as yesterday.

I really hope that we have a few days of nicer weather, as I do need to get this cleaning done.

One place that needs doing, that I haven't done at all, is above the shoe cupboard in the genkan, the entrance.

The shoe cupboard is very high, and I can't reach the top to clean without a long ladder. I don't know why they didn't just block off that area; it's been left open to catch all the dust. I guess it's never been cleaned since the house was built!

The space above the shoe cupboard.

I was hoping to keep ignoring it, but Alan, our black cat, managed to get up there the other day.

How did he manage it?

David to the rescue.

I'm glad that David was here to get Alan down. I know cats can jump, but we were worried that he could hurt himself!  I can climb up to clean, but I don't think I could keep my balance while holding Alan. I'm thinking of putting something up there to block it off!

That is one area that is desperate to be done, but I've noticed that the cobwebs are back and covered in cat hair. It's that time of year when the cats start to shed their winter coats. Cat hair gets everywhere, so I have to start brushing them more often!

Wish me luck. I really do have to make a start. 

Does anyone else do spring cleaning?

Disappointed

 Last summer, we drove 30 minutes to a shopping mall that we usually don't shop at because there was a shop selling British tea. I managed to get a box, which made me very happy. I was at the same store in January of this year and noticed that they had two different brands of British tea, but as I'm the only one who drinks tea, I still had a lot of tea bags left, so I didn't buy any. This week I noticed I was running low on tea, so today I asked David to drive me to the mall to buy some more.

There was no British tea at all!  There was one brand that claimed to be English tea, but I had never heard of that brand, and it was very expensive. Never mind, I wanted some Caijun spice; this is an import shop, so I thought that they would have that, but no.

In the end, I bought some vinegar!

Malt Vinegar.

This is hard to find in Japan. Vinegar here is usually rice vinegar. I buy apple cider vinegar and some type of black vinegar, but malt vinegar is only available at food import stores.

I also managed to get some nice broccoli and mushrooms. Small things, but that made me happy.

I planned to do a little bit in the garden today, but it's been raining on and off all day, we even had a thunderstorm this afternoon. Not too bad, but I don't like thunderstorms. I really hope we don't have another summer like last year with these crazy storms. This is a post from last July, Jackie's Japan Journal: Thunderstorms

I still have to make dinner, but not sure what to make! Better see what I have.

Having A Laugh

 The other evening I was sitting on my bed, watching TV, when David walked in and took some photos. He didn't say anything, just took the photos, and walked out. 

About an hour later, I called Hannah, who had had an online interview for a part-time job, and I was wondering how it went.

She told me that it went alright and the company would call back later. She also told me that she had shouted at her coat stand.

Her coat stand is usually in her main room, near the kitchen door, which means that you can see it on the camera. Hannah thought it looked untidy, so she moved it to the kitchen for the interview. Then forgot about it! After the interview, she went into the kitchen to get a drink, saw the coat stand and shouted "David!", thinking that David had turned up at her apartment!

The coat stand Hannah thought was David.

We had a good laugh over that!

I asked her about the photos that David had sent to her. I figured that was what he was doing. She looked at the photos and started to really laugh! She was laughing so hard that she couldn't send the photos on to me for a while. She said I looked like I'd seen a ghost!

The photo!

Hannah then sent this to our family group message board! Mikey sent this.

Thanks, Mikey.

I had a good laugh as well.

But I was shocked at how old I look!

I have to remind myself that I'm in my 60s, as I often make plans thinking that I have the same energy as when I was in my 30s or 40s. I know that not having energy has more to do with my health than just my age, so I'm working on that. I hope that in the near future I'll have a lot more energy than I do now.

Also, in my mind, I think I look like the top photo. But the bottom picture is me now!

Hannah and I, 22 years difference.

So whenever I see photos of myself I'm kind of shocked!

I've never looked good in photos, but I know that it's important to have photos. It's one thing I regret with Hisao, he was always taking the photos or videos, so there aren't that many of him.

Does anyone like their own photos?

Trying To Change

 Yesterday, Mikey and David loaded up David's car with a load of trash from the storage area. David asked if I wanted to go to the trash place, a massive incinerator, in the morning. I said yes as I wanted to go and check the price of a few things at the home centre on the way home.

This morning, however, I was really tired, no real reason. I told David that I wasn't going to go and went back to bed after making breakfast and obento. As I was lying there, all I could think of was the quote attributed to Albert Einstein."Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result" I realised that I keep saying that I'm going to do more in the house, do more in the garden, spend time studying and exercising, but I keep on sleeping too much in the day and not doing all the things that I want to do. I proved to myself that I can get up and keep on going all day when I was away the other week. Why can't I do the same thing here! Mainly because I don't want to, I don't want to face all the problems here, the lack of space, the need to constantly clean, the lack of money to make changes that are needed in the house and garden!

This morning I decided to do something different, so I got up, got dressed and went with David. I'm glad I did, as we had a nice morning!

The city incinerator is a massive complex. Your car is weighed as you enter and leave, the weight difference is how much you have to pay. Today's trash cost 1,200 yen, about £6, to dump. Very reasonable.

The place that you drive into has these massive doors that open after you back up to them. Then you throw your trash into the pit; there are staff who help, so the process is very quick. We had a load of plastic to throw away, as well as some glass containers and old pottery. The glass and pottery went to another area to be disposed of. I saw piles of different things that were sorted to be disposed of, old heaters, computers, TVs and other electronics were in a different area.

The doors to the furnace.

What happens if the parking brake fails?

Mattresses are being stripped down.

 

The sign on the container says pet bottles, but I read it as pet bodies, I'm glad I was wrong! That made David laugh!

We stopped at a couple of stores on the way home. We have to change the mesh on the screen doors, so I wanted to see how much that would cost. Not too expensive, so we will try to do that soon.

On the way home, we decided to take a detour to see a large cherry tree. I've driven past the sign for this tree many times, but have never taken time to stop and have a look.

I'm glad we stopped as the tree and the surrounding area are very beautiful. I thought the blossoms would have finished because the weather has been very wet and windy, but the tree was at full bloom. Most cherry trees are in public places, like parks or riverside walks, so the surroundings look very tame. This tree is on the side of a mountain that is covered in forest. The area around the tree has walkways, but looking up the mountain, it's just trees and underbrush, kind of wild. I think there are hiking trails, but not for the faint-hearted or the old!

This tree is 120 years old!

The view from the mountain.

I took a little video. There was a class from one of the kindergartens walking around!

After that, we came home, and I made lunch. I'm tired now, but I'm also happy that I decided to try something different today!

What I Learned

 My trip was really good. I think just getting away from this house and the day-to-day problems and situations was good for me.

I learned a lot about the history of the area and the people there. Having someone who could translate really makes a big difference; there are some English signs and information, but of course, the Japanese has a lot more detail. At two museums, there was information about two different poets that I want to check out. The history of the area is rather fascinating. I'm hoping that I can find more information on that area. This is part of my study. I want to keep learning as I think it helps my brain!

Another thing I learned about was travelling in Japan. This is only the second time I've travelled in Japan. I had a budget for the trip, Hannah paid for the hotels, I paid for the food and museum tickets. Most of the museums were 400 or 500 yen each, so not that expensive. I thought about buying a ticket online that would give us access to 5 places for one price, but I realised that we wouldn't have time to visit all the places on that ticket, plus it wasn't that much cheaper. If we had visited all the places listed, it would have been just 100 yen more than the one ticket. A good lesson learnt, sometimes things that look cheaper aren't! Another thing was the cost of food. We got breakfast and dinner from the convenience stores, and for lunch, we ate out. It still cost a lot more than I thought. One thing I'll have to consider when we go to Tokyo later this year. 

Using the parcel courier service was a good decision. It cost about 5,000 yen altogether, about £24, but so worth it. The buses we used were packed, plus the step up and down were rather high. I know I couldn't have lifted the suitcase; Hannah might have been able to, but it would have been a struggle. I'm going to use that service when we go to Tokyo, not having a suitcase on packed transport really helps!

I also learned a lot about my body. I'm not that fit, but I was able to push myself to walk and go to all the different places. Most days, we did over 10,000 steps. By the end of the 4 days, I thought I was going to pass out from the pain in my legs and lower back. But I made it, I do need to get more exercise in before going to Tokyo because walking there is going to be hell, not just the walking but the heat and humidity as well!

The past week I've been trying to get out into the garden, so between rain and wind storms, I've had a go at weeding and tidying up. Also, Mikey finally got rid of the old car. It's been sitting in the driveway for a year; it's good that it's gone!

Today, Mikey and David managed to tidy up the front part of the storage area. I took a little video, ignore Mikey swearing at me! I do!

A few photos from last week. On the way to the supermarket, we went past a temple that had beautiful cherry blossoms and carp streamers out!

Very beautiful, but I think with the storms we've had the past few days, most have blown down already.

I've been trying to write this for the past couple of hours, but I keep getting interrupted. I'll try to post again tomorrow!