Start＊＊

Hellooo all! It’s been a while since the last post.

I have been…

started a new life as a full-time worker at the same office. Am I promoted or trapped? I don’t know.

Tatsu, my son, entered the middle school. He is now taller than I, eats a bucket of rice literally every day, oh dear!!

The uniform he is wearing is called as “Tsumeeri” or “Gakuran”. It’s too big for him now!

Momo, my daughter, is in the third grade. She becomes more artistic, has been into Tobidase Dobutsu no Mori(DS vedio game), and Kyarypamyupamyu(an girl idol).

It’s amazing/sad you can have all traditional daily events in this game!

My husband, I think it’s kind of “Mid life crisis” for him, he’s been trying to get a new job. I hope it won’t be “whole life crisis” !! But you know, the middle age men are so stubborn.

OK. So, I made up my mind to stay calm and believe all things gonna be happy. Don’t say I’m desperate. I really think it’s  gonna be all right, somehow. I might be upset if I were in 30′s but I became tough by now. Whatever happens, happens! I love this English phrase!! If you want to know it in Japanese, maybe it’ll be “Naru you ni naru! なる様になる”　Words have a magic, they make you feel easy, don’t they??

Have a happy weekend, or the Golden week if you are in Japan!! Bye〜

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Things I’m wondering in American TV dramas

No.1  A green lamp

I often find a green lamp on a desk, especially in a scene of a lawyer’s office or an executive’s room.

Like this

It always has a green shade. I’ve never seen one in blue or brown or whatever but green. I’ve been wondering if it exists in reality?  I mean, does it look so lawyers or executives?

No.2 Patient’s clothes

In medical dramas or crime dramas, patients or victims are always wearing clothes with small and blue patterns.

Like this

Maybe these are so common for the American that nobody cares, but for me they are very interesting.

Have you ever found any interesting or unfamiliar thing for you in Japanese dramas?

はろう〜最近、断酒中です。

居酒屋のノンアルコールカクテルドリンクメニューに

カルピスコーラを見つけたので

うちでやってみた。なんか美味いような気がする。

カロリーオフカルピス+ゼロコーラでやるのね。

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Grandma passed away…

My 89-year-old grandma passed away on the 13th early morning. She had been sleeping(unconscious) since May only with IV. It’s weird feeling among family like sadness with relief, you know? Or the Japanese word “Dai-oujou”  makes us feel easy. ( Dai-oujou means a good life, like living long enough and died of old age. )

It was the first funeral for my kids. They had never seen a remain ever. So, i guess it’s kind of shock for them. They were scared at first, but.. they gradually got used to it, and then stared at her so carefully! Their curiosity overcame fear.

At the cremation place, Momo hadn’t known what would happen next before my explanation. She said “It’s too rough for her! You never burn her?! “.  Tatsu knew the fact people must be cremated, but still he looked shocked seeing the place he was standing at like the steel doors, and spooky sound of fire, polite but cold face men on duty, they put someone’s casket into it so naturally, etc..  The final moment to say good-bye to grandma, we wetted a small branch in the water and spread it around on her casket. It’s one of ritual manner, but this one was so easy to understand for kids why they did so.

My kids learned a lot. The way people passed away from this world. The way how to say the final good-bye. The meaning to live. The meaning of family. My grandmother taught them a lot with her own body.

2 and a half hours later, we met her bones. So fragile and thin. Again, Momo was scared to watch them. Moreover, you have to pick up these small pieces of bones with long chopsticks and put bones into a pot to bring it back home! So scary for kids, I guess. But! ( you knew it?)  Momo got used to it again, and she tried to pick up much bigger bone. OMG….It’s not a competition, Momo.

I won’t let them do like that if it was not my grandma funeral. But i knew she was smiling by our side to see her grandchildren picking up her bones so hard!

It was an easy and peaceful funeral. One thing I regret….I should have talked to her much more after I became an adult. I don’t know how she survived the war and had raised 5 children. It’s too late to regret.

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運動会 Sports Festival

Tama-ele game; Two teems, White & Red, comete the number of balls in the baskets. This game is popular for younger grades.

Kibasen;Cavarly game. You win if you grab off a cap from a rider. Tatsu was a rear leg.

For Tatsu, it’s the last Undo-kai as an elementary school kid.  When I saw the Undo-kai 6 years ago for the first time after he got entered the school, I thought elder boys playing Cavarly game looked so big and strong. Now Tatsu and his friends have become like that before I knew it. Kids glow so fast.

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Have you ever hire a nanny?

On the American and the British dramas, which I see very often, they hire a nanny for their kids. I can’t know what these hired nannies exactly do to the kids by dramas. Don’t know how familiar the parents and the nanny are each other, or these nannies should have any certificate, and more than anything, are kids really OK leaving alone ( not alone exactly but ) at night when parents go to a dinner party?  Is it a real thing?  What kind of people hire a nanny?  Do nannies really exist??

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glee

Maybe, I’m outdated but I’ve been into ‘glee’ these days. I love to hear the songs arranged so nice. While first one or two episodes, I thought I didn’t like Rachel because she was a very annoying girl. But, as I keep watching I found myself loving her annoyingness. (My spelling checker found it’s a wrong word! )  The story line is so-so, I think it’s a bit too young for me, but I like watching it while doing house chores like ironing before I go to bed. I can unwind myself with their songs and dances. Japanese drama doesn’t have that kind of show, i guess.

Do you know any good drama? (in English) Super natural, psychic, or medical ER type of movies are not my thing. Please tell me your feeling about any dramas you saw recently!  ( Oh! I love ‘Private Practice’ very very much because of Taya Diggs! huhuhu..)

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ピーティーエー/PTA

I was chosen as a new member of PTA this year. ( A new school year starts from April in Japan.) My job is to take photos of students and report about annual events on the school magazine. I’m happy with doing these chores seriously but I don’t like that unique mood of the PTA culture. For example, I have to take part in the first ceremony thing to start the new PTA of this year and it has a ‘dress code’!  means ‘be fancy’. It’s totally a ritual thing. We have to wear suit to pledge to teachers and ex-PTA members not to change their culture. I hate that but I don’t have nerve to wear jeans there…  Do you have such a PTA in your culture?　Also, i’m curious that have you ever heard or had any uncomfortable feelings like ‘stay at home moms’ VS ‘career/working moms’? In Japan, definitely you have that!! and very scary, hehe……I’m calling myself as Ms,Switzerland. I love the drama “Desparete housewives” but I don’t want to be like that. (^^)

ＰＴＡ役員なっちゃった。。第一回総会にはスーツ着用とのこと。そんなたいそうな事なんかな、て思う。誰に対して正装なんかな？

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Fushimi-Daigo-Uji in Kyoto

I took a one day trip on last Sunday. It’s a little bit early to enjoy Sakura (Cherry Blossom) but exciting because I’d never been to Fushimi, Daigo, and Uji Area in Kyoto. ( You can enlarge the photos by clicking over them.)

ＪＲ春のトクトクきっぷで京都旅行。伏見稲荷、醍醐寺（世界遺産）、平等院鳳凰堂（十円玉ね）へ～

Fushimi Inari is now very famous among foreigners and tourists. You might have seen these red tunnel of a bunch of Torii.

Adults love strolling. Kids love running through them.

The black ones are for Shinto priests. They looked comfortable.

I didn't see his face, but he must have been handsome! Don't you think so?

思わずシャッターを切ってしまった。私、いわゆる制服フェチかもしれん。。

Daigo-ji

Tatsu wanted to come here after he saw a travel guid book of Kyoto temples. He tried so hard to take a photo like he saw on the book.

If you look for somewhere very old and authentic Japanese style rooms or garden, I recommend you “Sanbo-in” by this Daigo-ji. Sanbo-in was kind of a villa of Shogun Hideyoshi Toyotomi. (Sorry if I mistake. That was what I’ve scaned from the brochure given at the entrance. ) There are amazing rooms with decorative fusuma (sliding door), and Japanese gardens. You can walk through corridors or sit by the garden to get Zen! I felt like as if I were acting a queen or maybe her maid in a samurai movie. Photo shooting is prohibited strictly there, so I can’t show you how beautiful they were!!! But I guarantee, you should go there.

After Daigo-ji, we moved to Uji area. The goal was “Byodoin”

10 yen coin

You can guess what I wanted to do? But I failed!!!

Zenzai with Maccha Ice cream. Temples and Zenzai in Kyoto. hummm ^^ You never leave without having Zenzai!

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A happy new year!

A Happy New year!

My resolution is…..” To enjoy the moment you have now.”  ” Be laid-back.”  

You know people who make these kind of resolution never be laid-back!!

I will “TRY MY BEST”  to be laid-back.   Yeah,  I am  cursed with “Try your best” spirit.   

 Akemashite Omedeto!

This's from Momo's Shichi-Go-San photos.

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You should run by walk.

I heard this news..”The research said that the cars could run only 9 km/hour when people tried to escape from the huge tunami hit Japan in March. It’s caused by the traffic jam. 9km/hour is as slow as you jog.  Also about the distance people drove their car,  40% of the drivers drove for under 1km or so. ”

These kind of research makes me think. How could you run with two or three toddlers? the elders? the disable person? Or should you use a car even though you know it’s a bad idea?  You leave them, run by yourself and then may live with deep regret all of the rest of your life? My thought goes around and around. You never know what happened before it happens.  The most scarly thought is what if a disaster happens when my kids are at school?

So, only I could tell my kids, “Run by walk to the higher place! Think and take an action by yourself! and Survive! Your mom and daddy will do the same thing and we will meet again.”

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