Mikey

 Yesterday was Mikey's birthday!  Thirty-two!!!

As always birthdays bring up so many memories.  Do others find this?

I remember when he was first born, Hisao came to visit, he sat by Mikey's cot and kept saying that Mikey was super cute!!  

He was the hardest baby, not because of him but because I had no idea what I was doing.  I had read a lot of baby books to prepare.  What I realized was that I know what the baby should do but the baby doesn't know what to do, he hadn't read the book!!!  At that time we didn't have an international phone line in the apartment.  To talk to my Mom we had to go out (at midnight because of the time difference) to a park that had a public phone with an international line.  So I was freezing, trying to explain to my Mom what was happening with Mikey and getting her advice.  My mother-in-law didn't help, she thought that giving money was enough.  It helped but a kind word would have helped more!!

Some photos, not in order!!

About 12 years ago

with Granddad,  7 years ago

yellow hair!!!!!

New Years 2024

with Hannah, he was maybe 11 years old

graduating junior high school

starting nursery

first visit to the UK, with Grandma

Christopher

 Today was Christopher's birthday. 26!!!!

I made his favorite lunch, breaded pork cutlet, I did it on the grill instead of deep frying! Miso soup and two kinds of salad, and of course rice!

No presents, no money!  I hope to have some extra at the end of the month then I can take him shopping!

Today's lunch

With every birthday I always feel nostalgic.  Time really does fly by.  For me Christopher was an easy baby,  I guess being the third one and born healthy I didn't worry as much.  His biggest problem as a baby and toddler was all the middle ear infections he got and the barbaric way that the doctors took care of it.  Every time he got a middle ear infection the doctor would cut the eardrum to drain what was inside.  I changed doctors after an English doctor told me off.  We went to England when Christopher was a toddler and of course, the flight made his ears bad.  I took him to the local GP who was really upset at the scar tissue on the eardrum.  The doctor told me that this practice was done many years ago but now medicine is better and the cutting procedure is not necessary. 

I found some photos of a very young Christopher.

Baby Christopher

Maybe 10 here

six?

Long ago birthday

The question is how old do I look, answer 28!!!

Not A Good Start

 2024 hasn't gotten off to a good start in Japan.

I wanted to post about the earthquake but am a little bit worried as there is a lot of misinformation out there.  An article I just glanced at stated that some people on social media are saying that this earthquake was an artificial quake and using images from the March 11th earthquake and tsunami saying that it's from this disaster.  

So I'll post my observations, please check reliable news sources as I might be wrong.

One thing that always amazes me when there are disasters in Japan is how calm people are.  Of course, during the earthquake, people start shouting but there isn't the absolute panic that I've seen in other countries.  In stores, most people drop to the ground, away from shelves, and wait until it's safe to get out.  The staff are calm and reassuring.  The baskets in supermarkets are designed to be used in case of an earthquake, they can be held over your head and act as a cover.  Another thing I've noticed is that even young children know what to do.  Earthquake drills are held regularly at schools.  I think this helps to lessen the panic.  At school the kids know to get under their desk, head first and to hold onto the legs of the desk, then to follow the teacher's instructions to evacuate the school. Doing this so often it becomes second nature to protect your head and listen to instructions.   

The big problem at the moment is getting to remote areas that have been cut off because the roads are so badly damaged.  Besides the local emergency services, the Self Defence Force has been mobilized for search and rescue in that area.  In past disasters, they have provided a variety of services from mobile hospitals to mobile baths for those staying at schools or other public places.  

One news segment I was watching was comparing the death toll of this quake and the one in Turkey/Syria last February. Both were 7.5 magnitude but in Turkey, about 55,000 people died, and whole apartment blocks collapsed.  In this latest quake in Japan, the death toll stands at 70 (that might go up as they get into the remote areas).  One reason might be that the population here is not so dense but also the fact that the Japanese prepare for disasters, have quick responses to them, and are always learning from past disasters.   For example more people were killed in the tsunami during the March 11 quake. People didn't respond fast enough, this time the highest tsunami alert was broadcast, across TV screens people were told to "Run Away", no polite "Please Evacute", just get out of the area.  I think this jolted people and they realized that they had to get away.  Also the alert told people not to go to the coast.  

All that was on January first.  So I was thinking that things should get better!  HA!  Plane crash at Haneda Airport!  I feel sorry for the Coast Guard crew that were killed, they were taking supplies to the earthquake area.  But again the training of the crew on the commercial flight and the calm way passengers acted saved lives.  I've only seen one video from inside the cabin.  The cabin was filling with smoke, you could hear people crying and coughing on the smoke.  But people were either sitting or just standing by their seats as the crew shouted instructions.  I thought people would be climbing over seats to get out!  In a few interviews I've watched the passengers praised the cabin crew for saving their lives!

I've decided not to watch the news for a few days.  It's all too stressful!

And a bad start for me.  Weight is up!!  Big sigh. I know I haven't been trying for the past month or so. I hoped I would just stay the same but I've put on about 2kgs.  Getting to 62kgs by 62 is looking like a real dream!  Also, my allergies are bad!!  

And we haven't been to the other house.  There is so much to do but we are busy or the weather is bad.  Many excuses!  This is causing me a lot of stress, which leads to munching!! Not good.

Tomorrow is Christopher's birthday.  I'll do a nice lunch but not sure what or who will be here to join in!! 

But that's another post!

New Years Holiday

 For us, the New Years celebration was nice and quiet.   

On the 31st David had work, I thought it was at the usual place which is about 10 minutes by bike.  Mikey said that he was taking David to work, I thought it was because the rain was very heavy.  Turns out that David was asked to go to a different branch in the next city.  David could have driven himself but he didn't have confidence to drive back after working all night.  He was asked to go to that branch because last year they were overwhelmed with customers.  This year, however, there were very few customers, a combination of the bad weather and the economy failing!!

New Years Day I did a lovely roast dinner.  I'm never inspired by traditional Japanese food, it looks nice but isn't filling and very expensive.  A good roast chicken with stuffing, roast and mashed potatoes, sausages wrapped in bacon, Yorkshire puds, and steamed veggies is a lot better and about half the price.

lovely lunch

Everybody helped to clean up in the morning.  I noticed that the lads had disappeared, I thought they were in their own rooms until I heard them laughing.  They were playing some card game!  It's nice to see them do that, with everybody being busy and having very different schedules they don't have time just to hang out together.

Lads playing a card game

The rest of the day we just hung out.  Christopher and Hannah walked to the local recycle book shop and got some more books.  I don't mind but I'm trying to downsize!!

Just after 4pm, our phones started to ping, breaking news from the news app.  I was shocked to see that such a large earthquake had occurred.  I know this is Japan and we do get a lot of earthquakes but most are small and aren't mentioned on the news but this was a 7.5 quake.  Plus the tsunami warning.  I feel so sorry for the people in the area affected by this.  New Years is such a big holiday, most families get together, spending two or three days.  It's a nice time to relax, enjoy good food, catch up with family and friends.  To have that shattered in such an awful way is so sad.  Also, the constant aftershocks do nothing for your nerves.  You spend every minute waiting for the next one.  The aftershocks could go on for a week or more.  Plus a lot of people had to evacuate their houses, some because of the tsunami warning, others because their houses had collapsed or were unsafe.  Not nice spending time in a school gym.  Plus it's very cold in that area.  

2023

Looking back on the year, lots of memories, some good, some bad, most just things that happen.  

Things started out on a low note, I got diagnosed with diabetes and we lost the house.

In the first five months I did really well on my diet, lost about 7kgs.  I'm not sure what happened but after May I just couldn't keep it up!!  And of course, I've put weight on over Christmas.  Try again in the New Year, I need to get back to cutting sugar and carbs!  I have a doctor's appointment on January 24th, I hope my blood sugar number is lower!

Losing the house has been much more difficult to deal with!  I think that because affects all of us and not just me it's harder.  Both David and Christopher will have to find new jobs.  Christopher will have to learn how to drive and we will need another car.  I'm trying to find positive things about the house and area but for every good thing, there are ten bad things.  The house is about 33 years old and has never been taken care of.  The toilet tank is broken and even if I can't do anything else I have to get that changed.  They are building new houses on the neighboring land and I'm hoping that the main sewage has been connected to that area, if so then we can ask to connect our house as well.  The tiles in the bathroom have been broken and are dangerous.  This happened about a year after the house was built and never repaired.  Most of the outside drains to the rainwater are broken and held together with tape.  We still have a lot to do.  My goal is to move in by October, we have until January 2025 but moving in January would be hard as it's too cold and that house gets very cold.

I need to get to the city hall and find out what we own, and whose name is on the deeds to the lands.  There is a "land bank" run by the city hall where we can register the land, people can then buy or rent it from us.  I would love to get that sorted as soon as possible.

The kids have settled into their own routines.  University, work, and teaching English.  Nothing has changed in that area.  David got a promotion a his work, not sure what but it's a bit extra money.  Christopher is still at the supermarket.  Hannah is doing well at university, the highlight for her was her month-long teacher training.  From April she has just one more year to do!  Mikey has been very busy, teaching of course but also working for his friend's cotton candy business.  This is the first year since the pandemic that festivals have been held, so of course very busy.

Mikey ended up in hospital for 3 days with gallstones.  That was a shock.  I think he has realized that he needs to take care of his health more, he is eating better so maybe it wasn't a bad thing!!

Summer was long and very hot!!  It's getting harder each year to deal with the heat.  I don't know if it's because I'm getting older or that the summers are hotter and longer.  Most days I'm just exhausted by the heat and find even the easiest of tasks difficult to do.  One thing I found was getting up very early, about 5am and doing the basic cleaning really helped.  By 8am floors had been swept and mopped, dishes done and some days lunch started.  Then I could just relax with the air conditioner, read or watch T.V.  I feel a bit sad because I think that half of the year I'm stuck in the house.  Going out is hard, even just to the local shop I get sick!!

Managed to see a couple of musicals with Hannah.  She went by herself a few times to see things that I wasn't interested in.  I'm glad that she wants to go out, and happy that she has her own money to use.

So 2024.  Big question mark.  I hope things get done, that we get the other house repaired and that the move is smooth.  

Happy New Year to everybody!!

Mikey balancing his phone on things!!

David and Hannah 

Christopher at work

Hannah's birthday

cabbage hat

road outside flooded

David's birthday

Hannah

Mikey's drawings

Mikey's magic show

Christmas

 This year was a very quiet celebration.  Again Hannah and Christopher had university and work on Christmas Day so we had a nice meal on Christmas Eve.  Also, I told the kids not to buy presents as money is tight and they are each saving for different things.  I bought a little gift for everybody but spent under 100 pounds.  Also, I didn't bother trying to buy traditional foods through the internet.  

Christmas lunch was a large chicken leg (no whole chickens but I got one for New Year's), with loads of vegetables, Yorkshire puddings and baked stuffing.  

Christmas lunch

David bought a load of sushi and cakes for dinner.  I had some chicken breast cooked, so chicken sandwiches, sushi and cake.  Nice.

Recently Google Photos has been putting memories of Christmases from long ago.  Here are some memories that have come up.

Hannah is the baby here

Just being daft

Because of the daftness, it took 3 hours to get this photo for our new years card!

Christmas morning opening presents

I like looking back on these photos, kind of bittersweet!!!

I was hoping to get away with not cleaning because it's too cold but the weather has warmed up so no excuse!!  Big sigh!!!!

Mikey's Magic

 Between Christmas parties for our students and doing magic shows Mikey has been run off his feet since Wednesday.  He finishes on Sunday but the next two days will be crazy for him.  He has to drive from teaching to the magic show venue back to teach then another show at another place.

Wednesday was his first show at the elementary school where Hannah did her teacher training.  She had to go back a week after she finished to hand in a report.  She was talking to the homeroom teacher who said that she wanted to do an end-of-term/Christmas party for her class and had to do magic, which she didn't want to do.  Hannah said that her brother was a magician and of course, the teacher asked if he could come.  From the photos, it looks like the kids had fun.  I can't put photos of the kids because I don't have permission but there are some interesting ones of Mikey.

Floating table

I have hands!!

I don't know this trick but looks fun

And just to add to the fun, we've had snow the past couple of days.  It's gone very cold, -2 last night.  Hannah went to university only to be told that most students hadn't turned up so just go back home.  Poor girl, it's 40 minutes train ride and then 30 minutes walk.  I did tell her that most people wouldn't go and that there was a good chance of classes being cancelled but she had to go!!!  The snow has almost gone but it is very cold again so I'm wondering if we will get some more tonight!

our yard this morning