Hannah's Birthday, Costco And Good Friends

 Today is Hannah's birthday, 24! Where have those years gone?

When I see Hannah today, a beautiful, confident, young lady, it's hard to believe that she started life as a premmie!

She was so small, just 900 grams, that the doctor gave her just 30% chance of surviving past a couple of weeks. She was born so early, just 26 weeks, that her lungs hadn't developed at all! There was a possibility that she could have serious brain damage, with a very low quality of life.

But she not only survived, she thrived!

I've been looking back at photos of Hannah over the years!

With Hisao, just a few months old.

With Granddad, about a year old.

Her 6th birthday.

Having a laugh!

We were trying to take a photo for our New Year's card. But everyone was fooling around, it took about 3 hours just to get one photo! 

Graduating from elementary school.

Starting high school.

Graduating from university.

A couple of months ago at Mojiko.

She has dealt with the setback of being diagnosed with epilepsy very well. It took her a few months to get used to the tablets that she has to take; they make her sleepy, but now that she is used to them, they don't bother her so much. She is very determined to graduate with her Master's Degree in Education and work as an English teacher in junior high school.

She came home this morning, we had a nice lunch together. It was nice having everyone around the table, just talking and laughing!

After lunch, we went to Costco. I know I keep saying that I don't have money, but we went to Costco before Christmas, paying almost 5,000 yen for membership. I think it's a waste just to go once a year. The Costco we went to is about 30 minutes drive from here. I've been saving my 500 yen coins since Christmas to go again. I spent more than I saved, but Christopher paid on his credit card, I'll have to pay him back bit by bit.

The weather was really nice, warm, sunny and not really humid.

Just a short video on the way to Costco. I love the Japanese countryside (except for the insects); it always feels so open and clean.

Costco was packed. It's a Saturday and the beginning of the Golden Week holiday. We spent an hour shopping. I wanted to buy so much, but I stuck to the basics that I buy from Costco, the most important being cheese, really cheese. I managed to get some baked beans! A pack of six cost 1600 yen. I got two packs. A couple of months ago, I bought a tin for 500 yen at an import shop. I was tempted to buy some lamb, but a small piece was over 6,000 yen, maybe for Christmas!

The cabbage I got is massive and only 129 yen; last year, cabbages were about 700 yen.

And, finally, a shout-out to my friend who sent me some rice! She doesn't know how much that means to me! Thank you so much!!!

I Caught A Cold

 Or my allergies are very bad!

Not sure which one, but I feel awful! 

I woke up this morning feeling like I hadn't slept. I had a headache, sore throat, runny nose and no energy whatsoever. I know that a couple of kids I was teaching on Tuesday said that they had colds, so maybe I picked up something from them.

This is typical of me. I have a week's holiday, tomorrow is Hannah's birthday. I have plans and ideas for things I want to do. Getting sick was not part of the plan. I'm sipping ginger tea and trying not to feel sorry for myself.

I always feel May is the last good month. The last month before the heat and humidity set in and make just everyday chores feel impossible.

Having only one working air conditioner doesn't help. I should get at least one more for the kitchen/dining area, but of course, no money.

I was thinking about our money situation yesterday and wondering why it's so hard. I realised that David's and Christopher's combined income is enough to support one person, but it has to support three people. That's crazy.

This is the reality of Japan. I know people in other countries are also struggling, but I only know that from the news.

I'm really wondering what to do. We haven't got any new students; I actually lost one, which really doesn't help. I guess looking into online teaching! Also, I keep seeing these videos about making things like print-on-demand or digital products. They make it look so easy: go to Canva, click here, drag this and voila, you have a product to sell. I keep trying, but end up getting so frustrated that I want to throw my laptop through the window!

I'm just rambling, sorry!

Hisao in May.

This collage just came up on my Google Photos.

April

 It feels as if this month has flown past.

I didn't get as much done as I had hoped this month, but I've made a good start on a few long-term projects.

One is the storage room. I know it isn't really important to clean it out, but it feels like this little annoyance at the back of my mind. I went up yesterday, just for a few minutes, didn't do much, but managed to sort out two more boxes. I realised that when we were packing up the last house, a lot of stuff that should have been thrown out was packed up, so now I'm throwing stuff out!

Another thing I've been working on is the garden. Whenever the weather has been nice, I've gone out and pulled weeds. Not a lot, but it's starting to make a difference. I have a few plants that I want to plant out soon; they are on my windowsill at the moment.

Pumpkin, watermelon and green pepper plants.

I'm still hoping to get some new students. But so far nothing! I guess just keep on posting leaflets and updating our homepage. I really don't know what else to do!

I'm hoping May will be productive. We have a few days' holiday from Saturday, Golden Week. Hannah is coming home for a while; it's her birthday soon.

I'm thinking of setting a few goals for May. I always feel that May is the last month that I can do something before the heat and humidity start. 

Does anyone else have goals for May?

Memories

 Recently, I've been sorting out the thousands of photos and videos I have stored on Google. I pay for the cheapest storage, but I worry about using up too much space.

While I was doing that the other day, I came across some videos of the cats from a few years ago. I actually don't remember taking these videos; maybe Hannah took them.

These were all happy, funny memories.

As I scrolled down, I noticed that the photos went back to 2002, when Hannah was born!

I then came across photos from the last time we went to England before Mom died.

These were hard photos to look at!

Mom with Hannah

Watching the boys play

With me, Hannah and Mikey

Mom was 63, the same age as I am now!

It's hard to believe that a year after these photos were taken, she had lost her battle with cancer.

I often wonder did she feel old. I don't, I know I'm 63, my body feels older sometimes, but in my mind, in my feelings, I feel like I'm in my 30s.

Mom is giving Hannah her bottle.

With Mom's friend

Looks like they are having a good talk

Mom really loved babies and children. I always felt sorry that she didn't get that much time with my kids. One thing that has always hurt me was the fact that my mother-in-law could see my kids as much as she wanted to, but she was never interested in them, until they were old enough to help her with her field work. My Mom would have just dotted on them!

The view from Sedgley Beacon

Sedgley Beacon

One day during our trip, we had a walk over the beacon. It used to be a lovely area to walk, just to ramble around. I remember spending summer holidays here, just walking and talking with friends. I was surprised to find that part of it was closed off. 

I always loved that view. I used to imagine having one of the "posh houses" near my parents' house. I guess life had other ideas!

 I'm glad that we made the effort to go. I still remember saying goodbye. That was so hard. I knew it was the last time to see Mom. I tried not to cry in front of her; it was hard for her as well. But once I got in the taxi, I just bawled. I cried all the way to the airport, 3 hours on the coach! 

These photos are happy/sad photos. I'm happy that Mom got the chance to meet her grandkids, especially Hannah. But sad that this was the only time. I think Mom would be very proud of how my kids have turned out!

I Made Bread

 I love baking!

Some of my earliest memories are of helping Mom make apple pie and a Victoria sponge on Sunday mornings. While the oven was on for the roast, Mom would bake to use up the space in the oven. I remember her saying that it was a waste to heat the oven just for the meat!

When I was in my teens, it became my job to make the apple pie; apparently, my pastry turned out better than my Mom's!

When I had my own kids, I used to bake at least once a week. I found that the snacks and sweets here in Japan were too sweet. Also, the more I read about the obesity problems in the West, the more concerned I became about our health. By making cookies, cakes and occasionally bread, I could control what ingredients went in. One ingredient that is used in commercial snacks is high fructose corn syrup. It's one of the ingredients that the body can't use; it's converted into fat by the liver. Excess amounts of it lead to obesity, fatty liver and diabetes. 

Baking was my go-to thing to do when I got stressed. Measuring, mixing, pouring, waiting and of course eating the end product would relax me. One time, Hisao came home, and I had spent the afternoon baking 4 different kinds of cookies. The first question he asked me was, "Who upset you?" 

I used to bake for my students, for Halloween and Christmas. I stopped a few years ago as it was getting too much for me. But for the few years I did, I enjoyed the challenge.

Recently, however, I haven't taken time to bake. Sometimes I might make a cake or a few cookies, but I haven't really tried anything new. The other day, I came across a YouTube channel of a Japanese lady baking bread and cakes. I watched a few of her videos; she had English subtitles, which helps, and because she's in Japan, the ingredients she uses are easily available.

I decided to try her Garlic Cheese Bread. A simple, no-knead bread!

This is how it started.

Water, yeast, sugar, oil, skim milk powder.

Add the bread flour

Add the flour and mix to make a dough.

Let the dough rest, then stretch it out, let it rest again.

After stretching the dough a second time, it has to prove. This is where I realised that I hadn't watched the video carefully. The proving time was 2 hours. I somehow missed that bit of information when I first watched the video.

It wasn't a big problem. I had taken my computer to the dining area, so while I was waiting for the bread to prove, I messed around on my computer. I also washed dishes and cleaned part of the fridge!

After the dough had doubled, it had to be rolled out.

It worked; the dough doubled in size.

Once it was rolled out, I put a mix of butter, garlic and parsley on it and sprinkled it with shredded cheese, a lot of cheese! Then cut it into strips; each strip is then rolled up and put in a muffin tin.

Before baking.

The dough has to prove again and then be baked.

The finished bread.

They were really nice. The only problem is that the recipe makes just six buns. I'll have to double the recipe next time.

I think I should try some other easy breads. I know that they aren't that good for my diet, but I get so much joy out of making them.  I was actually dancing around the kitchen when I saw the dough had doubled in size. I was so happy that it worked!

May I Ask A Favor?

 I cringe when I hear those words on a YouTube channel; it's usually asking people to subscribe.

But I'm asking here, not to subscribe but to go to my Ko-fi page and leave a small donation!

Cheeky, I know, but we are really struggling at the moment.

David is trying to set up an English school here; he's been posting leaflets and has set up a web page, but no calls at all! 

I know the middle of the countryside isn't the best place to start an English school, but this is where we are. There's a junior high school about 20 minutes' walk from here, so I was hoping to get some students from there, but nothing no calls at all.

I've been trying to get online students, not really my thing, but I'm willing to try. 

I'm trying to keep positive, but it's getting harder and harder.

We are living month to month, there is nothing left over to save. I've been trying to save to do some work on this house. At the moment, it's more cosmetic work that needs to be done, but I noticed this morning an awful smell coming from under the bathroom sink. I opened the cupboard and noticed that the area is very wet, looks like there's a leak somewhere. The water has started to rot the bottom of the cupboard, and maybe the floor underneath! That is more than just changing the sink; I might need to redo the floor as well.

I've watched hours and hours of videos on how to make money, but it all seems so hard! I thought about making colouring books to sell on KDP, but I would have to use AI to generate the pictures and that can run into problems with copyrights and other legal issues that I just don't get. I thought I could get around that by using my own photos of the cats to make pictures to colour. But I would still have problems, maybe.

This is one of the pictures that I made using AI. Cute!

I need to figure out a few other income streams. I think a lot of people are in the same boat. 

Any ideas?

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!

 

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?