Blueberries

 The blueberry bushes have a load of berries this year.

I'm so happy to be able to go out in the morning and pick a big bowl full.

I keep thinking that they have finished, and I am amazed that I can find more and more.

I really wanted to make jam, but without an air conditioner, the idea of sterilizing jars and making jam is not tempting at all! So, the ones that are left after I've eaten them are going to be frozen. I love blueberry muffins, but again, it's too hot to bake at the moment!

The past week, I've been having a bowl of blueberries and yoghurt for breakfast. 

It's nice to be able to eat something that we've grown. 

Picking the blueberries

Just being able to go out and get these fruits is such a nice feeling. In Japan, blueberries are rather expensive. I remember seeing about 10 in a pack for 400yen, about £2.00. To have enough to really enjoy them would cost a fortune!

Our attempt at growing other vegetables ended in failure. The only plant that survived is the strawberry plant. But I've decided that we have to try again. A friend sent me a video about growing potatoes in pots or containers. We have a lot of old plastic bowls and other containers, so I'm going to wash them out and prepare them for autumn/winter potatoes. I also want to find out if we can grow sweet potatoes!

Fortunately, the weather has been good so far. It's been hot, but the humidity is low, which really helps. I hope that the weather keeps on like this, if it does I think I can work outside in the early mornings and evenings. Evenings are harder because of the mosquitoes.

I will get this garden sorted out. This has become my mantra!

Goodbye To Hannah

 Mikey drove Hannah and me back to her apartment.

We made a brief stop for shopping on the way. Hannah had no food in her apartment, and I needed to do a weekly shop. Even though I didn't buy that much, I still managed to spend 10,000 yen, about £50.  I try to get the bargains, but food is getting more and more expensive.  Anyway, it's motivated me to try and grow some vegetables, even just potatoes.  Have to start somewhere!  

On the way to Hannah's apartment, we passed a restaurant, at least I think it's a restaurant. The sign they had outside was a bit strange. 

Strange Restaurant

That statue thing is supposed to be a hot dog!  Hannah said it was creepy, and I would have to agree!

And believe it or not, I managed another little walk this afternoon. I'm making the most of the nice weather we are having.  It's a little hot, 29C, but the humidity is still low. It might rain a bit later, but so far this summer has been a lot more bearable than last year. It's going to get hot from Wednesday, but still not like last year when the highs were over 38C.

Today I walked up to our land and it's overgrown!

The weeds are back

I need to make money so we can hire a digger to get this cut down. The land opposite was worse, even the entrance to the field is overgrown!

I managed to move some of the trash that is in front of the storage building. I want to clear that area so David can put his car in if there's a typhoon. We have so much plastic to get rid of. Some of the large bowls and buckets I'm going to use to grow potatoes in, but there are a lot of bits that need to be dumped. Must get this done!

A Little Walk

 It's July, and I actually went for a walk and enjoyed it!

It's hot, the temperature right now is 29C, earlier it was up to 34C, but the humidity is low, about 50%. That might sound high, but the humidity is usually in the 80s.

Yesterday evening, I noticed that outside was cooler than inside. I'd been out picking a few blueberries. I suggested to Hannah that we have a little walk. I planned to walk up to our land, just to see how bad it is! Hannah had a quick look at Google Maps and found a small shrine just behind our house. But because of the stream, we had to walk around the block to get to it. According to Google Maps, it would take about 10 minutes to get there. I still want to know who does the walking for Google Maps, as I think they have longer legs than I do!

The worst part of this little walk was walking on the main road, just a couple of minutes, but there is no place to walk, and cars tend to go by really fast. Also, this was about 6pm, so people are heading home after work.  Once we got off that road, it was really nice! The air was fresh, the scenery so wild and beautiful, lovely mountain views, and stunning cloud formations!

Walking toward the shrine

I think the cage on the right is for trash pickup!

Rather wild!

This was actually an overgrown house. Hannah went up to it and could see the house under the foliage. Interesting and a bit creepy. I'm amazed at how nature just claims back everything. You would think that with all the man-made material used in a standard house that nothing could grow over it, but given time, nature finds a way!

Shipping container

The first question that comes to mind is why, the second is how?  It's just left there. I would love to know what's inside. 

The tori gate

This marks the entrance to the shrine itself.

Writings on the gate

I'm not sure what these writings are, either who made it or who paid for it.

It does say the date that the gate was erected, Showa 11, 1936. So old but not ancient!

Community center

Before we got to the shrine, we found this building. At first we thought it might be a private house but it's a community center. Hannah took some photos of the interior, which looks like it's still being used!

Inside the community center

Around the corner from the building was the shrine.

The shrine

There were even brooms and rakes stored underneath.

Brooms and rakes

So I guess somebody must come to keep the ground clear.

Beautiful old tree

The area was kept nice but not overly taken care of. A nice balance between keeping it safe and letting nature have her way!

I really enjoyed our little walk. Finding something that I didn't know about made it interesting and exciting.

I hope that I can have more of these little walks. If the weather stays like this, I might actually be able to enjoy the summer a bit. I hate that I feel confined to four walls for about half the year.  

Hannah is going back to her apartment tomorrow. I've enjoyed having her here, but she needs to get back to her schedule. 

We are thinking of going for a day trip during her summer holiday, something to look forward to.

But I do need to be able to walk a lot more to enjoy these outings. Back to doing more exercise!!

Wi-fi Woes

 I never realized how much I rely on the wi-fi until it stops working!

The past few days, the wi-fi has been spotty, working great for a while, then just stopping. Everything I watch is through streaming services, yesterday I started to watch something when it suddenly stopped. I waited for a while but it just wouldn't start again. I asked Christopher to see if he could do something but he couldn't. I had to wait until David woke up, but he only had a couple of hours before work, so no real chance to see what was wrong and how to fix it!

Today I begged David to find out what's wrong and fix it. Took him most of the morning but he managed to get things working.

He basically reset everything, with a new password. He set up my TV, but not my other devices. I thought about waiting until he woke up, but Hannah needed to send something to her university, so she needed the password.

I remembered Mikey had the password, but he had gone to teach. I sent him a message and asked him to send the password.

The message I got back was "password"!

Not funny, but he did send the real password after!

Hannah is going back on Sunday. I hope she'll be alright. The cats will miss her!!

Hannah and Fluffy

Thunderstorms

 I thought the storm on Tuesday was scary!

The one we drove through yesterday was terrifying!

Not just the lightning strikes, but the amount of rain that came down. About 26mm of rain in less than an hour. 

The area that we were driving through tends to be lower.  A lot of the roads dip rather dramatically, that's okay when there's no rain, but with the sudden, intense storm we had yesterday, the result is localized flooding!

I took some videos, not very good as I was panicking! I think I got the inside of the car more than the storm! But they'll give you an idea of what it was like.

This was some really incredible driving by Mikey. The road we turned onto was completely flooded; if we had driven through it, the water would have been in the engine. We turned down the side road to go round and back onto the main road, but the side road was a lot worse. Mikey had to reverse back onto the road we had just come off. Fortunately, everyone was driving very slowly! My shouting is when lightning got very close!

We drove along the main road for a while, and I kept telling Mikey to just pull over. The area is industrial, with small factories and warehouses, but they were all lower than the road and flooded.

We finally found a convenience store where we could stop. This was after 4pm, and our first class starts at 5pm. Mikey decided that it would be better to cancel the class. It was really dangerous being outside and most of the kids walk to the class! He called one of the mothers, who offered to relay the message to the other families. 

We got to the community center alright! As we pulled up, the storm stopped. There was no slowing down of the rain; it was heavy, then nothing! 

I really don't like this kind of storm. If we are at home, I can cope, but being out in it was awful!

One thing that is unusual is the low humidity recently.  Even with all the rain we've had over the past few days the humidity is below 50%.  Most years it feels like a sauna when you are away from the sir conditioning! This year, so far, it's been more bearable! I hope it stays like that!

Hospital, Thunderstorm And Cats

 We managed to get Hannah to the hospital yesterday.

I wasn't impressed with the doctor; I think he had some sort of problem. Most of the time, I can understand most of what a person is saying, but with this doctor, I couldn't catch anything. Fortunately, Hannah had done a lot of research into different types of seizures.  She asked if she had functional seizures, the doctor said he couldn't give a definite diagnosis because the 2nd episode happened on Friday, but from what he was seeing, it's a possibility. 

When we came back, we talked for a while about what she should do. These seizures have more to do with the mind, the emotions we are feeling, and less to do with the physical brain. In my understanding, epilepsy happens when the brain's electrical system misfires. With functional seizures, it is more to do with the mind shutting down because it can't cope with the environment. In Hannah's case, it happens when she is overwhelmed with stress, exhaustion, and the heat. Both times she's had these seizures were because she had too much on her plate!

So she is going to see if she can get counseling at the university. Also, she is going to find a local hospital that she can go to if this happens again. I've offered to go and stay with her during times of high stress, like tests or when she is doing her teacher training. She will make a note with her name and address on it, and what to do if she has another episode. She said the scary part was sitting in the dark, not knowing who she was, where she was, and what she had done that day!

I hope that by having that plan in place, she can be confident to go back next week!

We spent the morning at the hospital. Came back, had lunch, picked up materials for our lessons, and headed back to the other city! 

Just before we left, it started to rain. Not a gentle summer rain but a real heavy downpour accompanied by thunder.

I took a little video of the rain, usually you can see the mountains, but the rain was so heavy and the clouds so low that visibility was very poor!

Rather intense driving!

The poor cats weren't happy with the thunder.  They all found hiding places.

Difficult to see, but that is Fluffy hiding. 

Also, I managed to take a photo of the Tanabata decorations at the community center where we teach.

Tanabata decorations in the entrance of the community center

Tanabata

 July 7th is the Tanabata festival. 

In kindergartens, schools, libraries, community centers, and other buildings, you will see bamboo decorated with colorful strips of paper called tanzaku. People write their wishes, hopes, and dreams on them. 

Tanabata decoration

The festival celebrates the story of two celestial lovers, which is originally from China and came to Japan in the Heian Period (794-1185).

Orihime-Weaving Princess, the daughter of Tentei (Sky King), was a gifted weaver, creating beautiful clothes by the banks of the Amanogawa, the Milky Way.  

Hikoboshi -Cow Herder Star- was a diligent and handsome cow herder who lived on the opposite side of the Milky Way.

One day, they met and fell deeply in love; their love consumed them so much that they neglected their duties.

This angered the Sky King, so he separated them and put them on the opposite side of the Milky Way.

Orihime was so brokenhearted that she pleaded with her father to allow her to meet her husband. Moved by her tears, the Sky King allowed them to meet once a year, on the seventh day of the seventh month.

This magical reunion depended on a bridge being formed across the Milky Way. It is said that magpies would form a bridge with their wings. If it rains, however, magpies can't fly and the lovers would have to wait another year.

Today's festival is a joyful occasion to make wishes and celebrate the star-crossed lovers.

I always feel that the real summer has started with this festival. 

I remember teaching in kindergartens, the kids would be so excited to "write" their wishes and put them on the bamboo. 

I don't think the UK has this kind of festival. I'm wondering if other countries do!