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!

Oh Bother.....Again

 Why can't life be simple?

I set up my Etsy Shop, I've put links on social media, and I'm paying for some adverts. I'm doing all the things that the so-called gurus on YouTube and the internet say to do. I get one sale, and that has gone wrong!

The customer ordered the wrong size! He wants to exchange it for a smaller size. I've just spent the last half hour trying to figure out what to do. Thank goodness for AI, or it would have taken longer. According to AI, the company that prints the T-shirts doesn't deal with returns or exchanges. I had a choice of the customer sending the T-shirt back to me, and then I buy the right size for him, but that leaves me out of pocket. What I've decided on, and what Etsy policy is, is to give him a special discount for another T-shirt and keep the original. 

I'm now sitting here, almost crying, totally stressed out and feeling so frustrated. All I want to do is make a bit of money. I'm not looking at becoming a millionaire, just enough to pay for living, to have a bit of financial freedom to buy things I like without moving money around to make sure everything is covered.

I know I've travelled a lot this year, but Hannah has paid for almost everything; I pay a bit, like restaurants and entrance to museums. 

I just wish it wasn't so constantly hard. Since the pandemic, our little school has started to go downhill. We never recovered the numbers we had before. We were asked to move from the house we were renting, but I think it would have been impossible to stay there, as I don't think I could have covered the rent.

Moving here means that I save on rent, but we have lost more students and not really gained any. Also, this house needs to be renovated. I'm worried about the toilet tank; it leaks and needs to be replaced or connected to the main sewage, but that costs a fortune. Also, the smell under the sink is getting worse. The sink is a built-in unit, but I think sewage or water has leaked between the unit and the ground, and that is what is making it smell very bad! I keep cleaning supplies in there, but taking anything out makes me heave; the smell is that bad. Plus 100s of other things that need to be fixed. 

Sorry, got lost on a tangent there.

One good thing is that I didn't turn to food for comfort. I thought about it; I even asked Mikey to go and buy me a snack bread, my ultimate comfort food. But I talked myself out of it. I want to lose 5 kg by my next hospital appointment in December, so I can't just eat what I want. I have to try to stay focused on healthy choices; snack bread is not a healthy choice. I made myself a cup of tea and had a small banana instead. 

Hannah had a nice surprise this morning. She went to an electrical store near her apartment to buy ink for her printer. The store is closing down soon, so they had bags of things that they don't need and can't really sell. Hannah got a bag of nice goods!

At the back are two file holders. Some eco bags; the pink things in the front are pen cases;
the paw print thing is a water bottle holder. There's a small tray as well.

These are tubs for the fridge and some freezer bags.

About 3000 yen, about £15 worth of stuff, most of which she can use.

I'm going to go on to my store and add size charts! That is going to take ages; never mind, I've learnt my lesson!

September

A month of sniffles and sneezes, doctor's visits and a nice outing.

The weather drastically changed, from highs in the mid-to-high 30s °C to the mid-20s °C; the nights are especially cool, which I'm really enjoying. I don't need to run the air conditioner, which helps with the electric bill.

However, the cooler weather brings its own problems; allergies are very bad. I don't know what I'm allergic to, but every year as the weather cools down, I start to sniffle and sneeze like crazy. I get rather frustrated because during the extreme heat I can't really do anything, so I look forward to the cooler weather, but then get hit by allergies. At least now I've found a good doctor, which helps!

This year I'm dealing with problems with my neck. I was so shocked by my X-rays last week. Usually, when I get X-rays or other imaging tests, I can't see what the doctor is talking about. The doctor points out anomalies on the screen, but I can't understand what they are seeing. Last week's X-rays, however, were very clear about how bad the structure of my neck is. I could see that my neck is misaligned to the right. The painkillers are helping but not fixing the problem. I'm wondering if seeing a chiropractor would help! Something I need to think about.

The highlight of the month was our trip to Yotoku Inari Shrine.

We had such a lovely day. I hope to go back when I can walk more. I want to see the red torii gates that are lined up. I didn't have confidence to walk that far the other week.

The wind chimes were so beautiful.

The Japanese Garden in the shrine.

There was a small shopping street next to the shrine.

The entrance to the shopping street

A different god from the shrine god.

Hannah stayed for a few days, which was nice. 

To end the month on a high note, Hannah got a 4.00 GPA for last semester, the highest points available. She usually got 3.5 or 3.8, so she is very happy with her result. She worked very hard last semester, and it is reflected in her grades.

Give Up Or Keep Going

 I'm talking about my Etsy Shop.

I've been putting designs up constantly for the past two months and have made only one sale!

I've watched 100s of hours of videos from people making way more than I do. I've read about styling, what's trending, how to find your niche, how to avoid having too many colours to choose from, and where to advertise. All great ideas; I've tried most, but I've had only one sale. I wasn't expecting to make a fortune straight away, but I would love to be able to cover the cost of the store. I managed to do that this month from my one sale, but I'm losing confidence.

The problem is that I don't really have another source of income. I think that the one girl I'm teaching will quit soon, she's in her last year of high school so she will have to start to study for her university entrance tests from next month. I have just 3 other students. Mikey is teaching the rest of our students, so I give him the money for the students he's teaching.

I really thought that I would be able to make some money with Etsy, but maybe I need to rethink things. 

The only other thing is to keep teaching English, but I don't want to teach at this house. It's too small, and if I'm honest, it's impossible to keep clean. In the last house, I had two rooms dedicated to teaching, and I kept the cats out most of the time! Here, I don't have space to do that. The one room that could be used for teaching has been taken over by the cats. I tried to keep them out, but they don't really have anywhere else to go. 

What's next? This is the question that stops me from sleeping. At the moment, I can survive; the kids pay for almost everything, which I know is alright, but it feels unfair. If they are going to pay for utilities, food, etc then they should have their own places, but because they are paying for everything here, they can't save to move out! Hannah is paying for all the trips we're taking! Again, I feel that is unfair because she is working and studying; I would love to help her out more.

At the moment, I'm making Halloween goods, I've come up with some really cute designs.

The model is AI-generated

These are available at JackiesNekoTales - Etsy Japan

Even if you don't buy, please just have a look. It helps my store if more people visit! It helps my heart as well!!!