New Leaflets

 My new leaflets have finally arrived!

New leaflet

Not the best photo, but you get the idea!

The plan is to set up my room tomorrow, then send Christopher out on Saturday and Sunday to distribute the leaflets. I was going to send him tomorrow, but it's going to rain! I hope that I can get some students by the end of June.

I'm a bit excited by this. I hope I can get a few students, as our money situation is very tight.

We will see.

I'm a bit nervous as I haven't taught that much in the past few years, I've let Mikey do more and take on the difficult classes. Especially classes that need someone to explain grammar!

I guess it's time to take charge again.

I need to look through the junior high textbooks and see what is being taught.  I hope to get junior high school kids, high school kids, and adults. Also, I need to study Japanese so I can communicate with students and parents!

Here's hoping things work out!!

Harder Than I Thought

 On Monday, I wrote about my bad habit of sleeping during the day.

That day, I decided to stay awake until late evening, like a normal person, hoping to reset my body and sleep well at night.

Even though I was tired, I still couldn't sleep more than ninety minutes at a time. I really tried, I didn't read or watch TV when I woke up. I just lay in bed, hoping that just lying down would help.

Tuesday morning, I got up, made breakfast, but was so tired that I decided to doze again. Tuesday afternoon, I have to go to the other city to teach. I managed to shop on the way, do my two lessons, and had a long walk with Christopher. I actually got in over 3000 steps. I was so tired when I got back that I went to bed early and really slept.

But the night turned out to be rather weird.

The first thing that happened was that two of the cats had an epic fight. Because I usually sleep very lightly, I can hear when the cats start. Last night I didn't hear them until it got to the fur flying stage!

I went out to separate them, but Christopher was already there! He managed to put the cats into different rooms. I went to get a drink of water when I heard Christopher laughing!

Wondering what was so funny at 1am, I went to his room. He had a firefly in his room!

Firefly

He has no idea how it got in, as his screen is closed! He said between the firefly and mostiquito, it was very noisy in his room, they both buzzed around him all night!

Made for an interesting midnight discovery.

This morning, I woke up at 7am, determined to make today good. I had a nice lunch planned and a few jobs to do before going to the other city again.  But I was so deeply tired that I couldn't focus at all.

So I slept! A lot. I still feel tired, but I'm able to function. I've changed today's lesson to online. She is a high school girl, so not too hard to do online!

I also made the mistake of searching online about chronic fatigue. Looks like it's a death sentence!

There are a few diseases that have chronic fatigue as a symptom. Long Covid is one, and also myalgic encephalomyelitis. 

I have some of the symptoms of both, but not all. Also, it looks like lifestyle adjustments are as important as any medicine!  

I'll talk to my doctor next week!

Until then, I'm going to try and sleep more at night and push through the days! I have to get better, there's too much to do!

Breaking Habits

 I've written about this before, but I don't remember when!

I'm trying to change my life around, to do all the things that I have to do, chores, shopping, cooking, and teaching.  Then having time and energy to do things I want to do, read (I have over 6000 books on my Kindle, plus I have a lot saved on Everand). Do some baking, study Japanese and maybe try a new hobby!

But my bad time habits are stopping me from having the life I really want!

In my mind, I have this great schedule: get up between 6:30 and 7 am. Make breakfast, clean the kitchen, do laundry, and do any other chores that need doing. Go outside for a bit, pull weeds and try to tidy the garden. Come back in, spend time on my computer, then make lunch. Afternoons are for me to do what I want to do, then go to teach!

Reality, I'm awake at about 4am, I try to sleep again, but only doze! I get up at 5am, take my medicines, and have a small breakfast. I go back to bed until 10 or 11 am, get up to make lunch. I feel tired and very unfocused. After lunch, I read for a bit but then have another sleep until about 4pm. I get up, mess around on the computer, then have dinner, watch TV, and then sleep.  I try to turn off everything by 11pm, but it's hard. I'm usually asleep by midnight but wake up every hour or so. I don't sleep for more than 2 hours at a time. Waking up, I just toss and turn, worrying about not sleeping!!

On the days I have energy, I push myself to do things! This leads to extreme fatigue for about a week. I don't think it's normal to be that tired after a couple of days of work.

I have a doctor's appointment next week, I'll ask him about this constant fatigue and ongoing insomnia. I think part of it is depression, but I think there might be something physical going on. 

One good thing is that I'm trying to do some exercise again. Since last Monday, I've done chair exercises almost every day. Tuesday and Wednesday, I go with Mikey to the other city to teach, on those days, I try to walk around the gym, if it's free, for about 15 minutes. I try to get up to 3000 steps, some days okay, other times not that many!

I've also been a bit more careful with my eating. I try to be very mindful of what I've eaten and what the food will do to my body! As I mentioned, I've started to drink matcha, so far I've been enjoying it, and I hope to keep it up! Also, I've been making more salads and using a lot of vegetables; everyone needs more vegetables in their diet!

One thing that has cheered me up is the blueberry bushes!  Looks like we will have a lot of fruit this year!

Blueberries are just starting to grow!

I'm hoping to make jam this year!  I need to find a good, easy recipe!

Teru Teru Bozu

 It's raining! It's been raining since last night, and it looks like it isn't going to stop anytime soon. The rainy season is upon us, very early this year.

I was saying to Hannah that the weather wasn't cooperating at all. I have so much that I want to get done outside, but can't because of this constant rain! 

She told me I should make Teru Teru Bozu! I had forgotten about these.

Whenever there is a lot of rain, like now with the rainy season, or there are outdoor school trips or festivals planned, these handmade ghost-like dolls appear hanging in windows. They are usually made from tissues or white cloth. They look like ghosts or a bald-headed monk.

Teru Teru Bozu hanging on my laundry hanger

I often wondered where this idea came from. I thought it was just something for the kids to do when it's raining!

The name Teru Teru Bozu means shine monk. Teru means to shine or be sunny; when it's repeated, it emphasizes the wish for sunny weather. Bozu means Buddhist monk or someone with a bald head. Literally translated, it means "shine, shine, monk."

The tradition of Teru Teru Bozu dates back to the Edo Period (1603-1868) in Japan, but its roots are thought to be older, adapted from the Chinese during the Heian period (794-1185).  The Chinese customer involved a paper doll of a young girl holding a broom to sweep the clouds away.

The history or legends of where this idea came from are rather dark.

One story is that a feudal lord asked a Buddhist monk to stop the rain that was destroying the crops. The Buddhist monk said that he would stop the rain, but he couldn't. The feudal lord was so angry that he had the monk decapitated, wrapped his head in a white cloth and hung outside. The strange thing was this stopped the rain!

The other story is that the Teru Teru Bozu is a Yokai, a Japanese supernatural entity. This entity is named Hiyoribo. He is said to be a weather monk who can't be seen on rainy days!

Today, the idea of making Teru Teru Bozu is something kids do on rainy days! Making a wish for better weather! I remember when I used to teach at kindergartens, there would be a load of Teru Teru Bozu hanging around the classrooms during the rainy season. I think my kids made them as well.

I'm hoping that my two little Teru Teru Bozu that I have hanging up will bring better weather tomorrow, so I can get out and tidy the garden more!

Matcha

 I like Japanese green tea, kind of!

It's very bitter, so whenever I drink it, I usually have some kind of Japanese sweet with it. Traditional Japanese sweets are very sweet.  I love Yokan, a jelly like sweet made from red bean paste and agar or Dorayaki, small pancakes with sandwiched together with sweet red bean paste.

The tea or the sweets alone don't work for me; they are at the extreme end of the taste spectrum, very bitter or very sweet. But taken together, they are really nice!

But matcha is something that I have never wanted to try.

Matcha is a finely ground green powder that is made from tea leaves that are grown in the shade. Because all of the leaf is used, it delivers a richer, more concentrated flavor, which is earthy and slightly bitter.

The powder is whisked with hot water to create a frothy drink. Matcha is also used in desserts, ice cream, and cakes. There is even a match latte.

I have shied away from matcha after my first experience with it many years ago when I first came to Japan.

I was in a store that was selling ice cream. There was green ice cream on sale. I assumed it was mint. So I ordered one. Turned out to be matcha ice cream and not a good one at that!

Since that disappointing experience, I've kept away from matcha until now.

The other day I was listening to a podcast, I forgot the name of the doctor I was listening to!! He was talking about the health benefits of matcha, saying that there is some chemical in the matcha that stops the stem cells of breast cancer from growing.  Since I've already had breast cancer, I'm always looking for ways to stop it from coming back. I know that stopping sugar is good, but I'm having a hard time with that at the moment!

It's also rich in L-theanine, an amino acid that promotes relaxation and focus, something I really need! 

So I bought some matcha and have been drinking it for the past few days. It's not as bad as I remember it!

Hot matcha

Today was a latte matcha

 Christopher makes it for me; he doesn't make it too strong which helps.

The podcast was talking about food as medicine, something that I find very interesting.  

I've managed to download a few books on this idea and am going to try and see if I can start to prepare healthier meals without losing taste!

Throw Back Thursday

 I've noticed that some blogs and Facebook groups have different themes on different days. I always like the idea of Throwback Thursday.  A chance to wander down memory lane, so I thought I would add it to my blog! I don't think I'll be doing it every week, but sometimes it's nice to share where we've been!

This first one is about Hannah. 

This is from Christmas 2011. Hannah would have been 9 years old. We had been in the old house for about a year and a half. Our little school had taken off, which meant I was very busy, so the holidays we had were very important to me, a chance to be with my family without the time stress of getting ready for work.

I had the tradition of putting up the Christmas tree at the end of November. A bit early but I always took down before the New Year's holiday!

This was our Christmas tree, this is from a different year, but gives you some idea of what it was like!

Our Big Tree

To get this up meant moving furniture and doing a big clean of the living room. It would take most of the day, and after we would watch a movie together with the first batch of Christmas cookies!

The year that Hannah was nine she helped out with decorating the tree. Once it was up I told her that Santa would be watching closely from now on, so she had to be a very good girl!

Her answer was a classic Hannah answer!  She said, with a very serious face, "I'll try to be good, Mommy, but you know life happens!"

I couldn't believe what she came out with! I actually wrote it in my journal!

This is Hannah with the tree that year!

Hannah with the tree

This was also the year that we took 3 hours to get one photo for the New Year's greeting card!

This was the image we used; the ones above were part of the daftness that day.

The kids were copying this image. I have no idea where this came from!

My kids version

evolution?

This was a great Christmas!

I'm glad that I keep a journal, and that I have a load of photos from these times!  Very precious!!

David

 David always seems to have funny stories!

The other day he climbed on top of the storage building!

David on the roof of the storage building

I asked what he was doing up there. He said he went up to clean out the gutters but found that it was the best place to see the mountains! He was wondering if he could spend time up there reading!

The next day he sent me this photo!

Snake

David said that he was picking up some of the tree limbs that he had cut down. Went to grab one and it slithered away!  

I forgot about the snakes here! Another thing to look out for!

The other day I was telling David that Hannah was having problems with her ears, that they felt blocked. David told me that last year he went to the doctor because he had the same problem. 

The doctor examined David's ears and then tried to explain what was wrong and the course of treatment. David couldn't hear, so he said in Japanese, can you say that again please. The doctor then switched to English, but still speaking in a low voice. David asked again for the doctor to repeat himself, at which point the doctor started to use his phone and Google Translate.  David gave up at that point!!

I have had the opposite problem with doctors, when I can't understand they start shouting at me in Japanese. Doesn't help!

David is shy and doesn't like to be with people, except his family! But he loves taking selfies, he took so many that his phone camera doesn't work! Here are a few.

with Hannah

pulling the same faces as the cats!!

Always pulling faces!