March

 I was hoping that March would be a good month.

I was hoping the weather would be nice, not so cold!

But March came in like a lion, a very wet, cold lion! And it's leaving like a soggy, cold lion.

We had a few days of lovely weather, it actually got very warm for about a week, up to low 20Cs. Now it's back to cold weather, I'm sitting with the heater blasting at the moment!

I really wanted to clear part of this garden and get planting. Unfortunately our schedules and the weather didn't match up. On the nice days, everyone had work, on the rainy days we had free time!  We did a bit, but not enough.  

I'm getting used to going to the other city to teach. I only have to go two or three times a week. I'm hoping that we can get more students in April!  We need the money! I know that is a bad motivation, I should be thinking about how we can help people with their English study, helping kids in school, or adults who need English for work. But we are broke! So a few new students would really help!

The highlight of March was Hannah's graduation!

She worked very hard during the past four years to graduate. She got the top mark on her thesis. She learned a lot about herself and what she can do. The course she took was in education, focusing on elementary school education and special needs education. She is now a licensed teacher for elementary school and special needs school.  During the teacher training, she realized that being an elementary school teacher wasn't for her. In Japan elementary school teachers are moved from grade to grade, so one year you might be teaching first grade, the next year sixth grade. The changes are made during the two-week spring break, and teachers have about a week to prepare for the new school year. It's really hard on the teachers! Also, the curriculum is constantly being revised, and new subjects are being added. Plus, the demands made on the teachers' time are ridiculous; most teachers arrive at school at 7:30 am and don't leave until 8 or 9pm. In addition to working all day teachers have to work as social workers, which they aren't trained for. When Hannah saw the reality of this, she decided that, for her, doing another 3 years of study to get a junior high school license would be best. Her graduate course is divided into two parts, one is graduate study plus university study to get a license to be a junior high school English teacher. She is already researching her thesis! April 2nd is her entrance ceremony!  I think she's really excited about this course. She thinks part of it will be studying English literature. I think I would enjoy that course!

Hannah's graduation

April, I wonder what this month will bring?!

I'm hoping for warm weather. A chance to get the garden sorted and to do some spring cleaning. 

We will see!

New Start

 Hannah just sent me her schedule for next week! Her Entrance Ceremony for graduate school will be on April 2nd! A lot earlier than I thought it would be!

I've often wondered why April is the start of the school year, also the start for many people leaving university and starting work! I had all these poetic ideas. 

I thought that because April is the beginning of the growing season, when new shoots are coming up, cherry blossoms are still in bloom, the weather is getting warmer, and it feels as if the whole earth is coming alive again after winter's slumber. People want to get out and start new things, so beginning school at that time feels more natural.  

I loved that school started in April when my kids were in school, especially from junior high school, as I had to get up early to make obento. It was easier to get up early as the mornings grew warmer and lighter. By the time the mornings were cold again, I was already in the habit of waking up!

So why April?

Money, of course!

The early educational institutes were temple or shrine-run schools that accepted students year-round. After the Meiji Restoration (1868 to 1889), schools moved to having students enter in September.

The shift to April came in 1886. This was when the government fixed the financial year; one reason was to do with rice farmers. They harvest the rice in autumn, figure out their finances during the winter and are ready to pay tax in spring. Having the fiscal year end in March and start again in April made it easier for them.

This made it more difficult to fund and manage schools that had a different schedule. The government ordered "higher normal schools", a kind of historical teaching college, to change to April start. This trend then spread to other schools!

So, April 2nd will start Hannah's new adventure!

Starting university in 2021

Graduating in 2025

Just This And That

 I have a hard time thinking of catchy titles for my posts! I know what I want to write, but thinking of a title is hard. That's why this post is Just This And That!

Yesterday, I had to buy allergy medicine. I asked David, but he wasn't sure which one I use. I could have looked online and sent him a photo, but I decided to go out! Sounds so simple, just a 5-minute drive to the drug store, get the medicine, and be home to make lunch!

I got distracted! 

March and April are moving months.  Some companies still move staff from place to place every year or so. This means packing up everything and moving. As I know from experience moving time is a great chance to get rid of things that aren't used or not needed.  People buy furniture that fits in one house but maybe not right for the next place.  If stuff is old, then you have to pay to have it taken to the trash place, but if it's still in good shape, then recyle shops will take it. You might even get a bit of money!

So this time of year recyle shops are full. 

On the way to the drug store is a big recyle shop, I'm still looking for good storage for the kitchen. David and I went in to have a look round, there were some nice things but nothing that would fit in my kitchen. David suggested going to another shop, again lots of nice things but not what I wanted!

We then realised that it was almost midday! And I sill hadn't bought the allergy medicine. Two hours of just wandering around!  

We went to a store that sells groceries as well as medicine, we needed a few things.  Managed to get what we needed, by that time I was really dizzy. I hadn't eaten since about 6am, I think my blood sugar dropped very low. I left David to pay and went to the car!

One thing that made me sad was that there were no cherry blossoms. I thought they had all been blown down by the awful storm we had on Wednesday and Thursday. Today we went shopping in the opposite direction, into the countryside. There were a lot of cherry blossoms! I was happy to see them.

Lots of lovely cherry blossoms

But at the same time, the tree pollen is very bad.

Pollen from the trees

What looks like smoke is actually pollen. No wonder I'm sneezing and my eyes are burning!!

Natural Disasters

 Japan is a country of natural disasters.

There are many earthquakes almost every day; most are too small to feel, but sometimes there are bigger ones. Then there are volcanoes that are active; they just smolder away, occasionally erupting, so we don't forget about them. Of course, some earthquakes trigger tsunamis!

Then there are the weather disasters, typhoons, which used to be at the end of August and September but are getting earlier and earlier. Rains that cause floods and landslides are getting more common. And thunderstorms that shake the house are more normal than they used to be. Last week we had tornado warnings for this area!

I was always grateful that out of all the natural disasters Japan has, wild fires are few and far between. I actually don't remember any in the past 30 years, although I'm sure there have been some.

The summers here are very humid, and I think this stops wildfires from forming. That's just my theory! But between February and April, the land is a bit drier, and the possibility of wildfires is higher. This year has seen quite a few fires!

I was shocked at the size of one wildfire. Thousands of firefighters were bought in to tackle the blaze. Many people had to be evacuated. There was one death reported. 

Another country that I don't associate with wildfires is Korea, but they are battling a massive fire at the moment, too. That fire killed at least 26 people, destroyed homes, and even a 1000-year-old temple.  

I'm saddened by these disasters. Life is hard enough for most people but having to recover from such disasters is hard.  As I wrote on the blog about March 11th earthquake and tsunami, I don't know how people recover from these disasters. 

This post has gotten a bit heavy. Sorry, but these news stories were on my mind.

Just to finish on a lighter note, this was our dinner last night!

Butadon (pork meat) and miso soup

We were eating when David asked what I had written on my blog (he saw me writing earlier). I told them, David and Christopher, about the mouse in the miso soup. Let's just say they both checked their soup very carefully. Me? I was wondering if I had any toy mice lying around....ideas!!!!

Extra Protein In Miso Soup

 I came across an article the other day about a very popular chain restaurant in Japan. This restaurant has over 2000 stores throughout Japan.  The main dish is gyudon, beef cooked in a mildly sweet sauce, flavored by soy sauce and mirin (Japanese sweet sake), served over a bowl of rice. It's a simple dish that is very comforting! 

gyudon and miso soup, I think this is from Hannah's university cafe.

The article was about an incident that happened in January. Apparently, a customer ordered a breakfast set that included miso soup. When the meal arrived, the customer noticed a dead mouse in the soup. Not exactly the best way to start the day.  The customer altered the staff and posted a negative comment on the store's web page. The customer also informed the headquarters of the company and the city's health department!

The company removed the negative comment and didn't say anything about the incident until now! The company apologized and said that the store was closed for a few days to check for cracks where mice might come in! The staff were told to check for unwanted things in the food!  

The image that many people have of Japan is one of a very clean country. Which is true in many ways, there is litter in the streets but not to the extent I've seen in England. Where we live, there is a small problem of people throwing trash on the fields, but not too bad. 

But hygiene in Japan is another thing altogether, at least in my experience.

The incident with the mouse in the miso soup is disgusting, but one factor that was offered as a reason is staff shortages in those types of restaurants; in some places, one staff member is doing the job of two or three people, therefore, rushing to get things done and not noticing things!

One of the worst incidents I've experienced was not in food service but in health care. 

One dentist that I used was short-staffed. There was no receptionist, so when you went in, you called out hello, and the doctor or nurse would acknowledge you. After you were in the chair they would ask your name and get your file. Because of this system, the door between the waiting room and the treatment room was open.  As usual in Japan, the dental chairs were lined up,  with no privacy. At the end of the waiting room was a toilet stall, and the sink was outside. One time when I was waiting, the dental nurse excused herself to the patient she was working on. Went to the toilet, with her latex gloves on, rinsed her hands in cold water, still wearing her gloves, shook off the excess water and went back to the patient, putting her fingers in his mouth. I walked out! I was so disgusted. I never went back to that dentist.

After this incident, I became very aware of the lack of hygiene standards in Japan.

Until the pandemic, food cooked on site in supermarkets, usually fried foods, were displayed without any coverings. A few times I've told staff that the food needed to be removed because somebody had sneezed or coughed over it. The staff would look at me as if I were crazy!

I've read stories of food poisoning because staff at restaurants used the same cutting board for vegetables after chopping meat on it! At home, I'm very particular about this practice. I have three boards and never use the same one for meat and vegetables. My boards get bleached, after which I pour boiling water over them.

I feel so sorry for the customer who was served a dead mouse. I'm glad that he or she reported it, I hope that something can come from it, that restaurants can start to think more about staffing and training staff. 

The dentist that I wrote about is still open; that is scary. I should have reported him but this was many years ago, before phones with cameras so it would of been my word against his!

Coloring And Japanese Number Puzzles

 I thought that having a lot to read would keep me occupied while I waited for Mikey, but there is only so much I can read in one sitting.  I love reading and can easily get through one or two books a week, but I felt I needed something different to do. 

I thought about knitting or crocheting, but wool is difficult to find; there's a knitting boom at the moment!

So what else can I do as I sit and wait while Mikey teaches?  No wi-fi at the community center, so I can't do anything online. I thought about downloading videos from YouTube, but my headphones are broken. 

A stroll through Diaso, the 100 yen shop, gave me a couple of ideas! 

One is coloring. There are these lovely books for adult coloring. I chose one that seemed easy to do, just pictures of flowers. I was amazed at how absorbing it is. I haven't really colored since I was in elementary school and thought the idea of coloring rather childish.  But making the pictures come to life is a lot harder and requires more concentration than I thought it would.  I only do a few minutes at a time because my back starts to hurt but I'm really enjoying it.

The other book I found was a Japanese number puzzle book. Actually, this was Christopher's idea!  You have to figure out where the numbers go to complete a grid. The catch is not repeating the numbers in the small grid and not repeating them horizontally or vertically on the page. Rather challenging but fun, I was rather surprised the other day, I got so into it that 45 minutes passed without me realizing!

My coloring and puzzle book

Also, I try to walk around the gym if it isn't being used, I can do up to 3000 steps, it takes two or three times to get that many. It helps with my knee and hip, if I'm just sitting for the whole 3 or 4 hours I get very stiff!

I'm on the look out for more portable hobbies, but am very happy with what I'm doing now!

Cherry Blossoms

 According to the Japan Weather Association, the cherry blossoms are in full bloom where we live. Today is the start of the full bloom and the start of Hanami, cherry blossom viewing.

I haven't been to a hanami picnic in many years. When the kids were little, we would try to go somewhere with a picnic to see the cherry blossoms and enjoy a nice family time. Most years, we found it difficult to find a place to set up a picnic, and when we did, the time would sometimes be ruined by drunken elderly gentlemen!  After a few years, we gave up. My idea of sitting under the cherry trees, enjoying a quiet family time, versus the reality of having someone come up and yell at me, "Hello, hello," or just acting obnoxious because they were drunk, left me with a bad taste in my mouth for cherry blossom viewing. 

The last place we lived arranged a cherry blossom party every other year (until the pandemic). That was nice. The community leader would order obentos, and even if you couldn't attend, the obento would be delivered to you! We went a few times! It was a good chance to meet the neighbors!

For me, seeing the cherry blossoms means that it really is spring! 

This year we've had a few false starts to spring. A few days of lovely warm weather followed by winter temperatures again.  Today it's nice and warm, the high will be 24 °C, which is very warm for this time of year!  It's usually in the mid-teens!

I've been trying to get out in the garden, just pulling weeds and sweeping up dead leaves. I can't do much but at least 15 minutes everyday, it all helps! 

We have a few trees that are still blossoming. Not sure what, this is part of the learning curve!

beautiful camillias

Maybe azaleas, but I think it's too early!

Some other blossoms

being watched by the cats

The tape on the screen is to stop the cats from opening it. We will have to find a better way to fix this problem, but for now, it's alright!