My Bucket List

 Since I asked what others have on their bucket lists, I thought I would share mine!

One thing that I want to do, but I don't know if it's really a bucket list thing, is to reform or rebuild this house. 

The longer I live here, the more I realise that this house just isn't really livable!

It's too cold in the winter. I went into the kitchen/dining area to make lunch, about 11am, and I could see my breath. I can understand it being that cold first thing in the morning, but not that late! In the summer, it's too hot, there is little ventilation, and even though there is a lot of vegetation around, it is still uncomfortable.

The bathroom is hell to keep clean; mould grows so quickly. Even in the winter!

The shower area is freezing, and there are ice crystals in the shampoo! 

I want to make this place livable; this is where I'm going to grow old. I want a place that is easy to take care of so I can live as independently as possible! 

Another thing is to travel.

I would love to go back to the UK one more time, but the reality is that unless I come into a lot of money, that won't be possible. Flights are really expensive. The cheap ones are too long for me to endure. I was looking the other day. One flight that I could just about afford would take 36 hours! I don't think I could do that now!

There are many places in Japan that I would like to visit. Hokkaido in the summer, and Okinawa in the winter. I know that is the opposite way, but I don't think I could deal with the extreme weather in each place. Also, I heard that Hokkaido in the summer is nice because the humidity is low. Okinawa in the summer would be too hot for me; I have a hard time here!

I would like to visit the big cities, Tokyo and Osaka. I'm not sure that I can deal with crowds, though. There are lots of places that aren't that crowded or touristy that I want to go to as well. Hannah finds a lot of interesting places to visit; she has her list as well!

Then I have a list of things I want to study. Of course, Japanese is at the top of the list! I need it to communicate, but I'm also hoping that by constantly studying, I can stave off dementia and other related brain problems that seem to accompany ageing! I really don't want to be the old lady who sits and drools all day with no idea of what is happening around her; that really scares me! When Hannah was in junior high school, the students did a week of work experience. She went to a care home. On the last day, she came home in tears. She said that the residents were making a poster for some event, but most of them didn't know how to hold a pencil or use scissors. I don't want to be like that!

Another thing I want to study is Japanese history, especially in this local area. There isn't a lot in English, so I'll need some help with that. My kids like history and are willing to help me with that. Also, I want to understand what makes the Japanese Japanese, what is so unique to these people, and where that comes from. 

There are other things that I want to study, but those are still ideas swirling around my brain at the moment!

The last thing on this list is to develop some kind of crafting skills. I can knit, but only very basic things; anything that involves shaping is beyond me. I can read a pattern, but I always mess up. I think it's just a case of practice. I like to knit as it stops me from snacking, it's hard to eat when your hands are busy!

Another crafty, arty thing I would like to develop is to be able to draw! Just to be able to put something on paper that looks like something and not just a mess of lines would be great!

That's my bucket list! I'm sure I'll add to it or change things. 

The only one that is really a priority is the house.

On a totally different note, I made an interesting breakfast this morning! I'm always looking for healthy meals without breaking the bank. This morning I made oatmeal and topped it with a poached egg, a couple of small sauasages and spinach with a sesame/soy dressing! I didn't think I would enjoy it as I usually have oatmeal with honey and a banana. But this was actually very nice. I paired it with a soy smoothie, tofu, yoghurt, frozen strawberries, and I added a banana as the strawberries are a bit sour. Very nice and filling!

Breakfast

An Apology And An Explanation

 One problem with the written word is that sometimes what I want to express and what comes across is different!

Yesterday, I mentioned a YouTuber who had 12 books on her TBR list. I stated that it made me laugh, I wasn't laughing at her, I was laughing at the ridiculous situation I'm in with thousands of books that I haven't read! In today's world, where most young people spend hours doomscrolling, seeing a young lady excited about her TBR list is really refreshing! 

One person commented that having 12 books to read is a challenge if one's life is busy and you have responsibilities. I agree with that. The young lady I saw was maybe in her 20s or early 30s. I'm guessing she works, and outside of that, she might have household chores to take care of, maybe social or family commitments to see to. I don't know this young lady. I just saw her video, and it reminded me of all the books I have to read! And as I stated above, seeing a young person who is passionate about reading is refreshing for me.

A friend of mine contacted me privately and told me off, in a nice way. She asked why I was buying so many books and planning trips when, in the same breath, I'm complaining about not having any money. 

First, the books. Most of the books on my bookshelves are from when we would visit the UK. This was when the kids were little. We tried to go back every other year; sometimes it would be 3 or 4 years between trips. After my Mom died, we didn't go back for 13 years. 

When we were in the UK, I would shop a lot. Clothes for me, some I still have! Toys, games and books for the kids, things that we couldn't get in Japan. My Mom loved Car Boot Sales, the one year we went to one, and I got enough T-shirts for the boys to last 2 or 3 years!

Of course, I would go to all the bookstores I could find, I loved finding recyle bookstores. This was back in the 1990s and early 2000s, before Amazon made shopping for international goods so easy!

One year we went to Hay-On-Wye! I bought so many books! When we got home Mom asked how I was going to get them back to Japan! I had enjoyed the cheap recycle bookstores that I hadn't thought about getting the books back to Japan. My Mom was sending packages every month for over a year! 

I remember trying to read the books when I got them but my schedule was so crazy back then, most days I would be on the go from at 5:30 until I finished teaching at 9 or 10 o'clock at night. I would pick up a book at night, read a page and be asleep. So the books got put aside for later!

The books on my Kindle are free downloads. There are a lot of sites that link to free books on Amazon. Some days there are a lot of books that interest me, other days none at all! Out of the 7000 books I have on my Kindle, I think I've only paid for about a dozen or so! The only books I pay for are the ones I save on Everand, then I'm paying for the app, not the books!

The reason I want to travel is that with every year I see more years behind me than ahead! I'll be 64 this summer. Not really old but definitely not young. I feel that all the things I want to do, the places I want to see, the experiences I want to have, I should be making plans now. 

A lot of this has to do with Hisao dying so young; he was only 51 when he passed away. There were places he wanted to go in Japan. He always dreamed of visiting Shikoku, one place he never got to visit. I would like to go there for him.

Another thing he wanted to do was to get back into art. When he was in high school, he joined the art club. He loved to draw and paint. One year, one of his paintings was displayed in the local art museum. 

Young Hisao with his painting

He talked about building a little artist hut on the land we own in the mountains, a place he could go to when he wanted to paint. This was something he wanted to do when the kids had grown up. He never got to do that. To this day, the idea that he couldn't fulfil one small dream makes me sad!

To that end, I've decided that I want to visit places, I want to have experiences with my kids, with friends and really live my life to the fullest now!

We have no guarantee of tomorrow. I know we have no money, but I can still dream and plan. I can try to get new students to make money. I can budget, save to improve this house and save for fun things as well.

I'm sorry if my comment on laughing about the young lady with 12 books on her TBR list upset anybody; that wasn't my intent!

As I write this, I wonder if anyone else has a bucket list? 

Places to visit, things to experience, things to learn about. Drop a comment and let me know!

To Be Read Lists

 I came across a YouTuber talking about how she had 12 books on her TBR list. This made me laugh, just twelve books?

I don't have a TBR list; I have bookcases of books that I keep saying I will read, one day!

These are just four of the bookcases I have. The bottom photo shows several cookbooks on the right-hand bookcase. There are five more bookcases in the storage room as well. 

Then there are the books I have on Kindle, about 7,000, most of them free downloads. Plus, I use the Everand app, I think I have another 600 saved on there!

So many books, so little time. 

I decided that I should start to read through some of these books. This is what I'm reading at the moment.

This book accompanies the BBC documentary that I watched just before I came to Japan. I've read part of it before, but never finished it.

This is another book I started but never finished! It's about how the people of Okinawa live long, healthy lives.  I skipped reading the book and just used some of the recipes at the back. I'm reading the book now, I'm especially interested in the section on dealing with stress, as this is something that Hannah needs to learn. I know she is looking for answers herself, but any help she can get is good!

On Everand, I just started Charles Dickens "A Tale of Two Cities".  Another slow read, but interesting!

Also on Everand, I'm just over halfway through "My Next Breath" by Jermey Renner, the story of how he recovered from a devastating accident!

On Kindle, I've just started "The Judas Tree" by George DeFrehn III. It's an apocalyptic thriller. I've only read a few chapters, but it's holding my interest!

I need a lot of rainy, cold afternoons to cosy up with a cup of tea and maybe a cat to get through these books!

One good thing about having a Kindle is that it's portable. On days that I go to the other city to I usually have free time while I'm waiting for Mikey, I've found that I can read a lot. The community center is quiet and comfortable, just what I need to be able to focus on reading. Also, when I have hospital appointments I take my Kindle, while I'm waiting I can usually get through a few chapters of whatever book I'm reading!

Does anybody else have a TBR list, if so, how many books do you have?

Feeling Better

 I really wanted to get a good night's sleep last night, but of course, plans and reality were different!

I don't know about interval walking; I was doing interval sleeping!

I went to bed about 10 o'clock and slept well until midnight when the cats decided it was party time. I don't know which ones or how many, but they were racing up and down the corridor for about half an hour. Even though that woke me up, I don't mind that noise; they need exercise, and it's strangely comforting to hear them. Just as I was drifting off, the singing started. At first, it was just Steve, he picks up toys and walks around the house with them in his mouth, crying! That went on for a few minutes, but then the sound changed to yowling. I got out of bed to separate Fred and Steve. The problem is that the house is very cold, so getting out of bed means getting cold. Once I had sorted them out, I got back into bed, took ages to get warm, but I was finally drifting off to sleep when the yowling started again. Got out of bed, got cold, sorted the cats, this time Fred and Frodo, got back into bed, got warm, started to drift off to sleep when the yowling started again. I repeated that cycle about 7 or 8 times.

By now it's 3 o'clock in the morning. I gave up and fed them, finally, silence!

After the adventures and fighting of last night, this is how I found three of the cats this morning!

They were fighting just a couple of hours before!

At least I didn't have to get up early today, I slept until 7 o'clock!

I don't feel 100% better, but a lot better than yesterday. My head has been aching a lot, but my throat is no longer on fire! I've been drinking a lot of ginger tea, which is really warming! Also, I made nabe for lunch. Nabe is basically a one-pot dish. I cooked up chicken drumsticks. I used kombu for flavour, with some dashi, and just dumped a load of vegetables in. I also made takikomi gohan, flavoured rice with bamboo shoot! I usually add more things to the rice, but this was the first time making it without a rice cooker.

Hannah and I exchange photos of our meals most days!

This is the first photo I sent to Hannah.

She asked if it was my new diet.

This was my lunch after I served myself!

I managed to study Japanese for a bit and even did some exercise, not Japanese Walking, just some gentle stretches.

I really hope I feel 100% better tomorrow as I have a few chores to do! I need to see to the tatami room. David wants to start putting leaflets out for our school from next week. I want the place be ready, I don't want to panic if someone calls to see our school and nothing is ready!

I really hope we can get some good students. Send good vibes, please!

Sick

 I had great plans for today!

Get up at 5am, make breakfast and obento. Rest a bit more, prepare lunch, 11am meeting with a judicial scrivener to find out about changing the name on the land we have inherited.  Get back home, make lunch. Then spend the afternoon doing Japanese Walking exercise and studying Japanese. 

My day started out alright, even if I did find it hard to get up at 5am. I thought it was hard because the rooms are so cold, and that once I started moving, I would be alright. The past few mornings have been like that!

I got up, put the heater on, and started to make breakfast. I decided to make a quick consommé soup, boiling the water to cook the vegetables helps to heat up the kitchen. After I made breakfast and obento, I realised I was still feeling rather heavy and just bleh, no energy at all. I crawled back into bed, planning to get up at about 9 o'clock, but when my alarm went off, I was feeling worse. 

I finally got up, didn't start lunch, but had to go to the judicial scrivener's office. Stopped by a drug store on the way, that's when I realised I wasn't just tired but starting to feel sick, maybe the beginning of a cold!

Got through the meeting. We want to try and sell as much of the land as we can, but to do that, we need to change the name on the deeds. I thought all the land was in my mother-in-law's name, but some is in my grandmother-in-law's name, and even in my mother-in-law's sister's name. It's going to cost us about 15,00000 yen, about £7000. I was hoping we could do it bit by bit, but we can't! Another thing that I have to save money for!

I gave up on making lunch, I bought obento instead. I went back to bed this afternoon. I'm at the age where I know I can push myself, but that just means being sick longer. If I need rest, then I'm going to take it! I would rather rest for one day than push myself and end up getting so bad that I need a week to recover!

It's now 5:30 in the evening. I started dinner, looks like doing it bit by bit! I'm sipping hot ginger tea and really hoping that an early night and good sleep will help!

I'm not sure if I've caught what Mikey has been battling the past few days, or if the sudden drop in temperature has caused me to feel bad! The weather went from lovely, spring-like days with highs of 19C to freezing winter with highs less than 5C, overnight! There's a forecast for snow tonight!

Just a photo of Sam and Mama!

Japanese Walking

 Japanese Walking is another name for interval walking. The idea is to walk for 3 minutes at a normal, strolling pace, then 3 minutes at a fast pace. You do this for 15 minutes. Sounds nice and simple, something that I could do!

I've been trying this on and off for a few months! If I'm honest, it's been more off than on! When I'm at the community centre on Wednesdays, I have over an hour between classes, so I've been doing the interval walking there! I'm in a big tatami room, with heating in the winter and air conditioning in the summer. I can do up to 10 minutes now without pain! 

Other days I think I should walk around the garden or area, but I have so many excuses, it's too hot, it's too cold, it's raining, and of course, my favourite one, I'll do it tomorrow, which never comes! The other day, I came across a video of a lady showing how to do Japanese Walking at home, just walking in place. Why didn't I think of that? I also realised that I have a tatami room here, not as big as the community center but big enough to walk around!

So I'm going to start doing this Japanese Walking consistently. For the next week, I want to try 15 minutes every other day! The 15 minutes five days a week. If I'm alright, no back pain or knee pain, I'll try to add a couple of minutes every week.

One reason I want to focus on walking is that Hannah and I have a trip planned for the end of March, just 8 weeks away. I want to be able to walk, without pain if possible, or at least less pain. I know that keeping up with Hannah is hard, but I think if I can do this exercise, then maybe it will be easier. I don't want to be the old lady complaining about aches and pains all the time!

The weather here has been rather weird. Last week it was like spring, with temperatures up to 19 °C. The past couple of days, it hasn't got over 5C. 

I took these photos on Tuesday when we were at the other city to teach. I was wondering if it would rain or snow!

Dark clouds one way,

opposite view was a real mix!

The next morning, I could see snow on the mountain! It tried to snow here, but only a few flurries for about 5 minutes!

Snow on the mountain!

I'll let you know how I get on with this walking!

My New Printer

 This post contains an Amazon Affiliate link.

Last week, I was trying to teach one of my students some vocabulary for a test she is taking on Sunday.

I have books for this test, but every year they change the test, adding new words or different questions. One way I've found that helps is to print the previous test and go through it with the student. The test is run a few times a year, so the previous test isn't too different from the upcoming one.

I asked David to print part of the test for me, but it looks like his printer is no longer working! The first page was alright, but the next few pages had half the words missing. The last page only had one word on it!

I went on Amazon to see how much a printer would cost. I was surprised that they were a lot cheaper than I thought. Of course, there are some that are really expensive, but I just need a simple one. 

Because I don't have a credit card, I couldn't order one. When I buy from Amazon, I usually go and buy a gift card to use. I was talking to Hannah about this problem, she very kindly offered to buy me one. I'll pay her back or take her shopping!

This is the one that I got.

https://amzn.to/4a21kws

It's nice and simple. I can choose colour copies or black and white, which saves on ink. Hannah also bought extra ink, so I don't have to worry about that for a while!

My printer, all set up.

Of course, now that I have a printer, I can't find what I want to print!

I have one elementary school boy that I wanted to do some prints with, but when I went to a site that I had bookmarked a few months ago, an advertising button came up, saying that to enter the site, I had to watch an advert first. I clicked on it but closed it immediately as it looked like some kind of virus. My computer is alright, but I think the site has been hacked!

There are lots of sites out there that have great material to print; it's just a case of finding them. I use textbooks, but having prints gives extra practice.

Another thing I like to print is recipes. I have folders full of recipes that I've collected over the years. I know I can save recipes or Pin them, but I like having them printed. That way, any substitutes I make, I can jot down!

Also, I can print out sheets to practice kanji! No more excuses!

I'll let you know what I find!