Rainy Season

It's that time of year!  Japan has a rainy season every year and I really hate it!

It is constant rain for 2 or 3 weeks, throw in a few thunderstorms for fun and the occasional flood and it adds up to stress.  Even when it stops raining the humidity is really high.  Plus it is hot.  Cooking and washing dishes I feel like I'm in a sauna. I remind myself that people pay good money to sit in a sauna so I should be grateful to get it for free!  It makes going out difficult as I sweat a lot and feel uncomfortable around people.  Most years I spend most of summer inside with the air conditioner on. I try go out more in the other seasons but this year we had the lockdown during the time I usually go out.  All I can say is that I am grateful for the internet and streaming TV services, otherwise I would be going mad!

Hannah was getting ready for school the other morning when the little black kitten decided to jump in her school bag!!

She wanted to take him but I don't think the teachers would be to happy!

Had better go and start dinner, yep time for another sauna!!

Hisao:s Birthday and a Long Drive.

Sunday would of been Hisao's 59th birthday.  That is hard to believe, in my minds eye I always see him as younger!  We didn't do much to celebrate as Mikey and I drove to

visit David at his base, Christopher and Hannah wouldn't be allowed on the base. Nice drive but very long!  We got there early so had a walk around the town, rather nice area, very touristy.  Found a cat shop where everything has a cat motif, opposite was a similar shop with everything dogs.

Saw David. He has lost weight and still on crutches from stress fractures on his knees! He has been so stressed but seemed okay, happy to chat!

On the way back stopped at a rather interesting museum. Motor cycles and cars were the main exhibits but there was a large selection of things from the 1950's '60's. Very interesting!

Some photos

About 10 years ago

Trying to take a family photo

Some photos from last weeks drive

Miffy styled café and bakery

Beautiful view

Jars of Air, last air from the last emperors time, first air from present emperor

Window from the Spencer family, Princess Diana's family

Very Expensive Bike, over a million pounds

Train outside the museum

• I would love to visit this area again, but not in the summer!

Disaster!

Woke up at 4am, basically too hot and the cats making a noise. Went to the toilet and noticed some water on the floor.  Nothing unusual about that, our toilet has  a spout and sink shape top on the tank so people can rinse their hands, sometimes that spills out. I thought nothing more of it!  As I had to be up at 4:30 I decided to stay downstairs.  In the living room I found the cats staring at this massive cockroach, I got brave and sprayed it, which knocked it on the floor, the cats attacked.  I actually felt sorry for the cockroach, a bit!  At 4:30 Christopher comes down, goes to the toilet, I can here him cussing, he comes in "Mom the cats have peed on the toilet mat", I told him to throw it in the bathtub so I can soak it and wash it out.  At 5am Hannah comes down, goes off to the toilet, comes running back in and asks if she can pee in the shower. I want to know why, went to the toilet and there is a good inch of water on the floor, it has flowed out onto the wooden floors in the corridor.  Time to panic! Got Mikey to call an emergency plumbing company, but all there plumbers were out on calls.  Mikey decided to see if he could at least slow down the leak, it was coming from where the pipe leads into the tank.  Mikey marched off with a screw drive and no idea, I'm thinking not a good idea, both Hannah and Christopher told Mikey to wait.  All I could here were screams and cussing from Mikey, what had been a slow tickle was now a deluge! Mikey looked like he had a shower with his clothes on! The only thing to do was turn off the water!  Big problem with that was I hadn't made Hannah's breakfast or lunch box.  Solution was going to a convenience store on the way to school. Plus I was desperate for the toilet!

One good thing about all this was Hannah had a good laugh before school. She has some tests today and was rather stressed last night.  This early morning adventure gave her a good laugh before school.

The plumber has just left, took an hour to fix and costs about 100 pounds but I have my toilet back and the water turned on!

An Interesting Find

Christopher was walking to the local shop this morning when heard a strange noise from a tunnel that goes under a walking bridge.  He found this animal,  maybe mama and babies.  We are trying to decide what it is.

Anybody know what this is?

The other interesting animals are our cats!  We got flea medicine for them, you have to put a drop on their necks.  You would think we were torturing them!  Fred, our gray cat, then decided to lick another cat and got the treatment in his mouth.  He spent the evening gagging and drooling all over the place.  He drank a load of water and seems okay.

Cute photos,

Two gray cats, same pose

Two black cats, curled up together

Fred comfy on the towels

Hannah with her army teddy that David sent

May!!!

This has been a very busy month!
A lot of students took time off because of the corona virus so I used
the time to clean.  Also we are still working on my mother in law's house.
I never realized how much stuff I had stored there.  We have almost finished the storage
area and can start on the main house.  One big problem is the clothes that my
mother in law collected.  I am finding clothes that still have tags on, never worn.
We took a few to a recycle shop and good about 10 pounds for them, not
bad, paid for lunch!
I've been suffering with a bad knee.  So painful.  Been to the doctors a couple of times,
I just get told to lose weight, which I am trying but being unable to walk makes
it more difficult.  Got some stronger pain killers, which I hope helps.  I need to be
more active!

Christopher has been learning how to cook.  He makes a nice chicken rice dish and
a bacon with 3 types of mushrooms topped with cheese!  Very nice!

Chicken Rice with Omelet

Bacon with 3 Types of Mushrooms and Cheese

I am not looking forward to next month.  Japanese rainy season, lots of rain, high humidity and
everything feels damp!

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Bye Bye Kitty

Last week one of our little kittens went to her forever home.
We took a nice drive to another city a few hours from here.  The young
lady who was adopting was willing to come here but I felt we
needed a day out.  A day away from cleaning and moving stuff.
So we jumped in the car and took off.  The trip was nice, through
lovely countryside and mountains.

Cloudy and windy weather but lovely views.

We met up with the young lady who adopted our kitten and handed her over.  I didn't cry, which
was amazing as I had gotten rather attached to the kitten.  But it's for the best, my house is full and
I really don't have room!

Bye Bye Kitty!

After that we had a little drive round.  Kind of sightseeing from the car as the area
was in lockdown.  We drove to a place that is famous for it's burgers.  No eating in
so we sat in the car and ate, very delicious.

Love being shouted at by a sign!

Bit of everything on the burger.

Got home rather exhausted but happy that one little kitten found a good home.  The
young lady sends photos and videos, it's nice to see kitty settling in so well.


































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Busy, Busy, Busy!!!

Since I last wrote I have been so busy.  We are trying to clean out my mother in law's house.
Big problem is that the storage area next to the house is full of stuff that I have dumped there over
the years, 29 years worth of stuff.  I found boxes with Mikey's baby clothes, he is now 28, why did
I hang on to this stuff.  As much as possible we have been burning things, old clothes, books and boxes of paper.  Next week somebody will come with a truck to take stuff the trash collection place. Then we have to start on the house!  I've done a bit but I go around asking "Why?"  5 massive draws of underwear, 4 draws of used plastic bags, looks like they have been there for a long time because they have melted and stuck together.  Boxes of supermarket plastic bags, they are in okay condition so am using for the cat litter.  3 boxes of handbags, shopping bags, back packs and purses.  And over 100 pairs of trousers that have never been worn.  I don't want to throw out stuff, it's hard for me to see good stuff just dumped and if I was the right size some of the clothes I would use.  But there is no way to recycle them unless selling online which takes time.  I thought about going to a recycle shop but it is really a rip off.  I once took three of Hannah's baby dresses, new, never worn, they gave me 100 yen,  about 80 pence, they sold them for 1500yen each, about 10 pounds.  I swore I would never go there again.   So am thinking what to do with all this stuff!

David is doing okay, still in basic training.  He calls on the weekend, which is nice.  He was supposed to come back the first week of May for what is called the Golden Week holiday, 5 or 6 days of public holidays, back to back.  But because of the coronavirus his base is on lockdown!  He said that he will get a holiday in the future, I hope so!  Because he is away I have been cooking.  Somedays that is all I seem to do.  I'm enjoying it but it's a challenge because I don't want to shop to often, I try for twice a week, before the virus I would shop almost everyday, small fridge and kitchen means it is difficult to store a lot.  Also I am trying to use up left overs.  Yesterday I made Doria for lunch.  It's made by layering left over rice and curry in a dish and topping with a cheese sauce and baking in the oven for about half an hour. Very nice.

Doria

I bought some shellfish yesterday for the soup but I bought to many.  So the extra ones I cooked in butter with Japanese cooking wine, very nice.

Shellfish cooked in butter and Japanese cooking wine

Our cats are doing okay, they have this crazy time racing up and down the corridor, this goes on for about an hour, somedays more.  They are all very cute but the older males seem to be fighting more, maybe they need more exercise.  I should play with them more but so tired lately.

Hannah said that this pose reminded her of the painting below!

Fred having a sand bath, it was just cleaned

Close up of Mama

Last week was Hannah's birthday.  She is all grown up at 18!  I had such a wonderful day planned for her, trip into the city, shopping, nice lunch and a musical. Then corona arrived and all that was canceled.  So I bought some really nice meat and we had a yaki niku party,  yaki means fried and niku is meat.  Bought very nice meat, some veggies to grill up, then we had cake and trifle.  We watched Roman Holiday.  Hannah was not happy with the ending!  Then we watched Andrew Llyod Webbers The Shows Must Go On.  She ordered some DVD and book so not too bad!

We are in lockdown, kind of!  No school until May 14th, maybe.  I try to not go out but we have students here.  Not many, about half have taken a holiday.  I bought some hand sanitizing gel that everybody has to use and most people wear masks.  I use a bleach solution to wipe down surfaces and am spending a lot of time washing my hands.  I keep hoping that this pandemic would just disappear but it looks like it is here for the long run.  So how do we live with it?