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supernutjapan) wrote2023-05-12 09:29 pm
The Friday Five for April 28 and May 12 and other news
April 28th
1. Would you ever go "under the knife" (or laser, or dental pick) for cosmetic purposes? What and why, and would it really be worth it?
I don't think so. It's way too expensive over here. Some people go to Korea to get it done. I've never really felt the need.
2. Describe your dream home, including location, design, and who/what’s in there with you.
I have many fantasies, lol and I can never really decide on one kind of home. I do like a yellow and white or forest green and white wooden type home. Any type of home looks wonderful with a few well placed trees in front. One thing I really would like is my own bedroom and a study/library where there are comfortable chairs as well as computer desks. I guess I am imagining for my present family of 5. Pretty soon it will be just me, Hana our shiba and hubby, though which is not a happy thought. It would be nice to be able to have a cat too.
3. You have one month to travel the world, all expenses paid. Where do you go and what do you do once you arrive?
I'd go on a cruise. Where can you go for a month? Greece would be nice.
4. What scares the bloody heck out of you? Would you face it down if someone paid you? What’s your price?
I am a coward, so no one could pay me to face down anything that scares me - especially something that "scares the bloody heck out of me" LOL\
5. And of course, you’re stranded on an island. What five simple items do you have with you? How do you survive? Anyone in particular you’d like to be stranded with? What would they bring to the table?
A knife, a dog, an ax, a fishing rod, a sleeping bag or blanket would be nice. I haven't considered this question in a while. I will try to fish, hunt and gather to survive. I don't have anyone in particular, except my kids - especially Alex. He is really good at all the survival stuff and loves it too. Audrey and Julian might not enjoy it as much. If I was single and had no kids, I'd go for the muscular, kind, handsome dude.
MAY 12th
1. What was the first album you ever bought?
I really don't remember. Hubby remembers his first record so well, but to me, it being my first purchase probably didn't seem that important. Probably because it didn't cost so much. I remember several cassettes I bought for myself. One was the soundtrack for Empire of the Sun, another a soundtrack of Trois Couleurs (Three Colors), a french movie that I also liked but I think that was a CD, so a bit later maybe. I also remember buying ... possibly a record?? of a clarinet piece I was playing in highschool. These are all obviously classical music. I made numerous tapes of soundtrack off video by plugging my tape recorder into the video machine somehow. I got my fix of popular music through a friend that recorded songs off the radio in the States over the holidays and gave us copies. Also my sister bought Simon and Garfunkle and Billy Joel so I got to listen to those for free too. I used to have a two cassette juke box too, to make copies of stuff. And, later on, one with two cassette and one CD player. It used to be so easy LOL. Computer copies of CDs are relatively easy too, but not as quick as one push of a button.
2. What format was it? (cassette, CD, other?)
Answered above.
3. How old were you?
I'd say highschool.
4. Where did you hear it?
In a movie.
5. Did your parents approve?
I remember my mom was uncomfortable with me playing the modern clarinet piece I was listening too because it was so disharmonic. She understood why I bought the music though. Other than that I don't remember really sharing the music with them, but I wasn't into heavy metal or hard rock at the time so there was nothing for them to be disapproving about. I remember though that a boy in my class who was also in my singing group liked Guns and Roses and took a lot of crap for the type of music it was and kept having to explain to adults how they were a Christian group and the lyrics were really good. The difficulties of being a missionary kid and going to a missionary school.
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Today is my birthday! So, yay :)
The last two years have been quite memorable. It was a month before my 50th birthday that I decided to lose weight — after seeing the terrifying weight gain of menopause. That was the second year into COVID panic. I successfully lost quite a bit of weight and have now kept it off for two years. Work has been really challenging financially. This year, though, finally we are getting an increase of trial students and new beginners so I am cautiously optimistic.
Today, I made a chocolate cake for myself without any flour — just cashew nut butter, eggs and cocoa. It is the best cake ever. No different from the flour cake I made for Julian in April in taste or texture... well, just a bit more dense maybe but just how I like it. I have asked my daughter to decorate it — cream and strawberries inside, chocolate frosting on the outside (dark chocolate frosting made of honey, coconut butter and oil and cocoa). That's going to be dinner for me! I've got steaks for tomorrow though, and Sunday we will go out to the salad bar italian place we like. We will take MIL and make it a Mother's Day dinner as usual.Hubby has been extraordinarily nice — giving me kisses and hugs several times this morning. Julian gave me a hug and best wishes before he left for school too. Audrey and Alex were up early and left soon after I woke so they were too busy to remember to say anything but, that's pretty normal. I got a phone call from my mom too this morning. It was so nice to talk with her if only for a bit before she had to go tutor.
One thing I am having a hard time with is my decision about choir — whether to continue or not. I know, I said I was going to quit, but after the concert (did I tell you we had 286 guests in the audience? It was fabulous!) I got a lot of positive responses from people I didn't even know. We were greeting the people in the foyer and these girls from another choir group stopped me and told me they really enjoyed my alto. An American woman whom I invited told me that my expressions were wonderful (Japanese people have a hard time with facial expressions, I think...) and that the Japanese members should learn from me LOL I also heard similar things from MIL. I am always gratified to hear her praise the performance and see she enjoys them so much.And then I think about my peeves about choir — how stressful not having a day off is etc., and then think about all the other members of the choir and how much more they are putting into it than I. I hardly did anything toward the preparation of the concert other than show up for practice and it seems like everyone else did so much. And then I think about how I love singing, and possibly how it is one thing I am good at and maybe the hard work and the stress of practice is worth it for something that I enjoy doing. To be able to improve, to be able to perform and give others enjoyment in that way etc. So anyway, I explained that to my daughter, who quit the tennis club at highschool right after joining because she wanted her Sundays free and asked me to promise to quit too when we had talked about it before. But still my heart is undecided. Thinking about going to practice this weekend and starting a new piece or two that we have to have down by July is really hard. And yet, I don't have the courage to write to the teacher and tell them I want to quit either. So, maybe I am just making up excuses? But maybe it is better anyway? AAARG.
If you'd like to hear a part of the concert, I got our second stage audio. It is four relatively short etudes: study/practice pieces written by Ko Matsushita.
1st: Fish at Night. Singing about the fins moving under water, the scales shining dimly, the eyes unblinking.... fish are alive, under the light of the moon.
2nd: Earth Sleeps under the Clouds — singing about how the mountains sleep, the ocean sleeps, and finally the round water planet sleeps... under the clouds.
3rd: Ocean (Child laments that a fisherman did not come back from the sea.) Very sad... talking about how he used to sing to her/him, how he took them to the festivals and made toys for them, shouting out to the sea, "why does it not care?"
4th: Birds ( Lots of chirping :D) The birds sing. They sound like they are having fun and sing with beautiful voices, like spreading bits of rainbow. They sound like they feel cool and sing with beautiful voices like a flower smiling at the sun.
This concert was on the 30th of April. After that, I had two days of work, then our Golden Week holiday — 3rd, 4th and 5th of May as well. On the third, we went for a picnic with a friend in the park. I was beginning to feel a cold or allergies or something coming on. I think it was allergies but it was like I used to have when I was young. Kind of asthmatic, having a harder time breathing, then I had a runny nose as well so I was a bit worried that it could be COVID, considering I got COVID during the holidays during the winter. I couldn't get tested over the holidays but I stayed home just in case and did my classes on Saturday on Zoom. I got the test from Tokyo government for free and tested myself but I didn't have it so I went back to work on Monday.
I've been reading a new series of books called the Great Library. It is pretty good and I am giving it 4 stars so far. I watched the Night Manager and Citadel on Prime. I really enjoyed them. I am watching YOU on Netflix now. I'd been avoiding it, but it's actually good too.
That's about it, I guess. I was going to attach some photos, but scrapbook is being mean and not accepting them from my phone so... That's it for today.
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What a lovely sound your choir makes! I say if it brings you more joy than frustration, continue with it - unless or until the frustration becomes greater <3
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I'm happy to hear that you're having a good time with your family.
I always find it interesting to hear stories from another generation before my time. I'm appreciative that a lot of the technology carried over to my time growing up in the 90s. I even remember the eight track, even though it was obsolete by then because my parents still had their collection. I believe they either sold it or got rid of it in a garage sale during one of many moves that we had throughout my childhood.
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Hahaha, yes, I was kind of in the midst of everything from records to tapes to CDs/MDs (in Japan) and then I guess now it's kind of the Internet/HD age.
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I made the transition from the discman to mp3 by 2002 when my parents got me a 250 mb mp3 player from Korea for my birthday that year. Around that time, there was the Microsoft Zune, but I don't recall anyone I knew owning one.