Creatures

 I seem to be sharing this house with a lot of little creatures.

Of course, the cats, but that was my choice, even if they are determined to drive me crazy! It's a good thing they are cute!

Taking over the table, it's near the air conditioner.

I do give the table a good clean before we eat there. I did try to stop them from getting on the table, but gave up! The cats are more stubborn than me!

The creatures I'm talking about are the ones that aren't invited into the house but somehow have wound up here!

The other day I was getting ready for an online class. I looked up and saw a massive cockroach strolling across the wall. I ran out, shouting for help. David came and saw the creature. I went to get some water while he took care of the cockroach. When I got back to my room, David was moving things around on my desk. He had tried to get the cockroach, but it had fallen onto my desk! There wasn't time to completely check my desk, as I had to start teaching. Halfway through the lesson, I saw the cockroach out of the corner of my eye. I apologised to my student and ran off shouting for David; of course, by the time David got here, the thing had disappeared again. That was two days ago, and I still don't know where it is! 

Actually, that is only the second one this year; not too bad, but I would rather have zero inside the house!

The other creatures that we see a lot of are the little lizards that we get here. I've heard different names for them, but I always call them tokage.

They are small and very fast. 

This house was empty for a few years; during that time, I think a few lizards took up residence here. When we were cleaning out the house, there were so many; every time we moved something, one or two would run out. These don't bother me; I would prefer that they stay outside, but unlike insects, I can tolerate them!

Yesterday evening Mikey caught one. He said he could feel something licking on his foot. At first he thought it was one of the cats licking his toes, but when he looked, there was nothing there. He went back to his reading, but the licking sensation continued. He checked again and found a little lizard crawling over his foot!

Mikey's new friend.

Very tiny and kind of cute.

Mikey put it outside. It looks like a baby; the ones I've seen in my room are a bit bigger.

I think this is one of the things that you have to put up with when living in the countryside.

I don't mind these creatures, but I would prefer they stay outside!

The Heat Continues!

 The extreme heat isn't letting up anytime soon!

Yesterday, Hakata, which is about an hour's drive from here, was 40.4℃. That's crazy hot!

Here everyday is over 35℃. I'm at the point now where I'm more than ready for winter!

As we drove to the other city to teach, I was watching the clouds build. I was really hoping for some rain, but all we got was a lightning storm.

This video is from the community centre where I was teaching. The sky is very dramatic; there are a couple of flashes of lightning!

Hannah sent me a video from her apartment; I think it was the same storm we were watching.

Again, dramatic skies but no rain!

Mikey had to go to a different community centre to teach. He said that as he was leaving, one drop of rain hit the windscreen, just one drop!

As I said, I'm ready for colder weather; even just a few degrees cooler would help. This constant heat is really exhausting. I'm lucky in that we have a couple of good air conditioners, but even though that helps, it is still hard. I don't want to move away from the air-conditioned rooms. Plus, trying to find the right temperature is hard. I get too cold, so I turn the air conditioner off, but after about half an hour I'm sweating again, so I put it back on. I've tried different settings, but nothing seems to work.

I really need to tackle the jungle! That's how overgrown the garden is now! I'm going to try and go out in the morning; even just a few minutes of pulling weeds or cutting back some of the bushes might help. I can't do a lot, but I can make a start!

There always seems to be a lot to do!

My Birthday

 I got spoilt for my birthday!

A good friend sent me a book that I'm going to start as soon as I finish Pride and Prejudice, which is taking longer than I thought, but almost there!

Christopher bought me a new cover for my phone; the cats had scratched my old one to pieces!

My old phone cover

My new cover and a backscratcher

Inside my new phone cover

He also bought me a new cord to recharge my phone; I keep breaking them, and a back scratcher!

Christopher treated everyone to cake as well.

Cake from Christopher

I was in my room yesterday evening. I could hear Mikey, David and Christopher talking and laughing; I wondered what they were up to! They were sitting, playing a card game. I'm glad that even as adults, they enjoy each other's company and like spending time together.

Just hanging out!

Today David took Christopher, Hannah and me out for sushi! Poor Mikey had to work!

We drove to the city where Hannah lives. Of course we got lost! 

I've been to Hannah's place many times, but because I don't drive, I don't pay much attention to where we are going! I remember parts of the journey, but how we get to a certain road, I have no idea! David is bad with directions and gets lost on the commute to and from his workplace, even after over a year of driving the same route! We only got lost twice, not too bad!

We picked up Hannah but had a bit of time before our reservation, so we went to a recyle shop. Hannah got herself some nice jeans and a top. She always does well at these recyle places; she got a new outfit for about 1,000 yen, £5. Another reason I should lose weight: I have to buy from catalogues. I would love to shop in these recyle places; lovely clothes and, if you are careful, very cheap!

We got to the restaurant. It was a conveyor belt sushi restaurant. 

As we sat down, Land of Hope and Glory started to play! I tried to record it; you can just hear it!

This played every 10 minutes or so! I have no idea why!

There was some sushi going round on the conveyor belt, but most of it you had to order. We kept watching the same things going round!

We ordered a selection of sushi and miso soup; Hannah got some fries. Both Christopher and Hannah had cake. I was stuffed by that time, so I just had a taste of Hannah's.

Enjoying the cake!

We had a lovely time.

I'm so lucky with my kids; they are really caring.

I had a lovely birthday!

A friend has challenged me to do 15 minutes of exercise, so I'm going to start tomorrow. 

I'll give an update in a week!

Sixty-Four

 That's how old I am today! 64 years old!

Just seeing that number makes me feel old!

I remember listening to the Beatles' song "When I'm 64" and thinking, "That's ancient!"

There again, I thought 38 was too old to have fun. Toward the end of primary school (elementary school), we were asked to imagine what the year 2000 would be like. I don't remember what I wrote, but I do remember figuring out that I would be 38, too old to enjoy any of the great inventions!

I'm not sure how I feel about being 64! It feels old, but I don't feel old. At least my thinking is still youngish! 

My body is still rebelling. I know I challenged myself to do better health-wise in August, but that kind of went out the window. I actually put on a kilo but have lost it again; I just need to lose its friends as well. I felt bloated for a while, so I'm not sure what is happening with my stomach. I'm back to drinking more water, which helps and having a bit of apple cider vinegar in my water in the morning. Exercise, however, is really hit-or-miss. I'm just so tired all the time, maybe because of the heat. I should just decide on a time and do some exercise; even a few minutes would help!

I am a bit worried about dementia! 

Recently I've noticed that I don't finish sentences! The kids think it's funny. I'll say something like "It's in the ......" and not finish what I want to say; the words just disappear from my head! Sometimes it's because I'm answering questions while thinking or doing something else. I think my fear of dementia is why I'm studying more- the use it or lose it idea. If I can keep my brain active, then maybe I can stave off dementia for a while.

Tomorrow David is treating me, Christopher and Hannah to sushi! Mikey has work, plus he doesn't like sushi!

Isn't this cute!

I'm still trying to figure out T-shirt designs! I love this image, but it looks like a picture just ironed onto the fabric. I want the image to look like it's part of the T-shirt! Trying to find the right prompt to get AI to do this is driving me crazy. 

This is one of my first T-shirts.

It's okay, but I want it to look more natural!

Just keep experimenting, I guess!

Thunderstorms

 Thursday and Friday, we had awful thunderstorms!

Thursday's storm was a bit strange. A lot of thunder but no rain. Mikey went to the local shops for me and sent this photo.

Rain!

The rain was very localised.

The sky in the evening was very dramatic as well.

The sky over the mountains.

The opposite direction.

Friday afternoon's storm was crazy.

Started at about 2 o'clock and lasted a couple of hours.

This time, there was a lot of rain and very close lightning strikes.

I'm not sure what got hit, but our power went out. I don't know if any of the neighbours lost power; we just had to reset the fuse box. It sounded like an explosion; my poor cats were freaked out!!

I took a little video from my window. I don't know if the microphone picked up the thunder, but it was very loud.

Losing power wasn't that bad- no air conditioner, but after the storm had passed, we could put power back on.

Not so lucky with the Wi-Fi.

The one box that brings the signal into the house was fried. It was an older mold so maybe on its way out already, but the electrical surge finished it off!

I always thought I could survive without the internet. I'm from a generation that didn't grow up with access to everything online, 24 hours a day. I was so wrong!

I had to cancel my evening class. My phone still had some data, but not enough for a lesson. 

I had no TV, as my TV is for streaming services only; I don't have an antenna or satellite. I have books to read, but of course nothing I fancied reading! I did read for a bit, but I had planned on doing my lesson, watching TV, reading and going to bed. It felt very strange not to be able to do those things.

David ordered the machine, which is why I can write this now. Took less than 24 hours to get here! I'm glad David knows what to do!

I've seen a lot of influencers talk about going screen-free. There's a trend to bring back hobbies such as knitting, crocheting, sewing, gardening, etc. The idea is to get away from screens to stop doomscrolling. I always thought that I didn't need to do that; I always felt I could survive and thrive without my screens, but after last night I realised that I'm just as addicted to screens as young kids are. 

I think I'm going to set up a study plan for the next few months. I did last year for the last couple of months of the year; I think I'll start earlier this year!

What do you want to study for the next 4 months?

Busy Few Days

 Tuesday and Wednesday are always busy; they are the days that I go and teach.

Once a month, Mikey and I do a volunteer class. It's a bit of a challenge for me as it's a large class, maybe 20 people all together. I prefer smaller classes, but Mikey is in his element! As I was going in yesterday, one of the ladies stopped me and asked if I could help with a document she had. The document was the death certificate of her great-uncle, who had passed away in the USA just over 100 years ago. My student said that she wanted to understand the death of her great-uncle and to be able to share it with younger family members.

It was rather difficult to read the document. She had a photocopy of the original death certificate; it was faded and looked like the original one had been folded many times, making creases through some of the important information. Also, trying to read the handwriting was difficult.

Between Mikey and me, we figured that the cause of death was some sort of pneumonia. He died in 1919, just after the Spanish Flu pandemic. I'm wondering if he had the Spanish Flu before and was therefore weaker than he would have been. Of course that is speculation. He worked as a labourer, maybe on the railroads. After the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, railroad companies turned to Japanese immigrants for labour. These immigrants were known as Issei and worked on the Northern Pacific and Great Northern railways, so he was in the right area.

I found it all very fascinating and a little bit sad. This young man had gone abroad to help his family out, but ended up dying alone in a foreign country! The student we were helping was so happy with the bit of information we could give her.

One of my evening students spent part of her summer holiday volunteering in the earthquake area. She's in the last year of high school. Her mother has some position with the city; I have no idea what, though. My student and her mother went to Costco to buy supplies, using money that had been donated. My student said that just one trip to Costco cost 150,000 yen, about £700; they made 3 trips to Costco. After getting the supplies, they drove down to the disaster area and spent time at a warehouse making care packages and then taking them to the different evacuation sites.

I think the experience was an eye-opener for my student. She lives near where we teach, so she experienced the earthquake, but there was no real damage here. The quake was M7.1 at the epicentre, but here about an M5- still big and scary, but buildings didn't come down. She was surprised to see some of the older houses that had been flattened. 

Some of the photos from my student.

She was amazed at the resilience of the people there and the "shikata ni" no choice attitude. Even while enduring life in evacuation places, with no real cooling system, needing a shower and some privacy, people were still rather cheerful and very grateful for the small care packages they received.

I told my student that this was the closest I've been to a natural disaster, and I don't want to get any closer.

As much as I enjoy my couple of days of teaching, I'm glad that it isn't every day, like before.

Just those two days have left me feeling tired; also, the fact that I got hit with very bad allergies yesterday doesn't help at all. Also, the heat hasn't broken here at all! Every day is over 35℃; that's hot. The humidity isn't too high, which helps!

Another Earthquake!

 The big earthquake we had at the end of last month was south of Kumamoto City, about a 2-hour drive south of here. Because it was a big quake- M7.1 at the epicentre and an M5 here- we have had aftershocks; most are small, but still a nerve-racking experience!

This morning, however, there was an earthquake just an hour's drive north of here. 

This one wasn't that big, M4.4, but rather shallow. Where we were was an M1; where Hannah lives, an M2.

This is worrying. The area where the earthquake was this morning is part of another fault line that runs through a densely populated area. Japan is 70% mountains, so cities were built wherever possible. At least with more modern buildings, the risk is minimised. Even though earthquakes freak me out, even the small ones, I would rather be in Japan than any other country that experiences earthquakes! Just looking at what happened in Colombia and Indonesia, which experienced massive earthquakes after the Kumamoto quake. Some houses came down in Kumamoto, but they were older buildings that hadn't been renovated up to the latest building codes.

I know that these quakes are going to keep happening, that it takes time for the faults to settle down. I also know that the pressure builds again until another quake releases the pressure. I understand the basic science behind what is happening; I just wish it wouldn't!

I'm trying not to think about it too much; if I do, I become paralysed with fear. My kids keep telling me that there is nothing you can do about it; if an earthquake is going to hit, it's going to hit. Sitting and worrying doesn't change that!

Instead, I'm trying to figure out why I haven't sold any T-shirts as yet.

Here are a couple of my latest designs!

These were designed with free AI, but I think I might have to pay for an AI service. Just to make the bottom T-shirt took almost an hour! I knew what I wanted but had a hard time explaining it to AI. I should learn to draw, might make things easier! 

Does anyone have any recommendations for a good AI service that doesn't cost an arm and a leg?