supernutjapan: (Default)
I started this post on Wednesday but now it's Saturday. I am including the Friday Five and posting!

1. Do you buy and use canned food?
Yes. I buy a lot of canned tuna, salmon and sardines for salads and tuna melts; canned tomato sauce, diced tomatoes for chili/meat sauce and stew. Canned beans are too expensive here so I use the dried variety. I recently bought some Campbell soup, but I don't do that very often.

2. What is your favourite canned food?
British spelling - must be from the Commonwealth. I am not particularly crazy about canned food. Tuna is quite useful.

3. Do you like some canned food better than the fresh or dried version of it?
No. They just have different uses. I mean, how can you make tuna melts with fresh tuna? And canned tomatoes are much more mellow and flavorful than fresh tomatoes and better for meat sauces. But they are not better. Just used for different things. Raw tuna is yummy, as are tomatoes.

4. Do you have a can that just sits at the back of the cupboard? has anything weird happened to it? or do you still plan on using it in the future?
I use up the canned goods I buy pretty quickly, but the minestrone has been there for a while. Of course I plan on using it but maybe later in the year when it gets cold again. I just went to the cupboard and found a couple of cans of "yakitori" that my husband bought and I have no use for. It's canned skewered chicken with a sauce similar to teriyaki. I think he bought it to eat with his liquor and never felt like eating it. He also buys canned mackerel, which I don't like particularly but he likes to use instead of tuna sometimes. It is cheaper and is supposed to be very healthy with DHAs. It has a distinctive smell though and is not a very good substitute. OK, I take back my answer for number 3. I think I really prefer mackerel fresh or half dried like the Japanese do. Not that canned mackerel doesn't have it's uses. It's just better fresh.

5. What is the weirdest thing you have seen canned?
Bread! It is probably not the weirdest out there, but I just can't think of anything else now. And, I just remembered I have some canned bread stashed away that I got from our water guy. They are for emergency use so I have it stashed for such an occasion. That might have been a better choice for number 4 too, since I don't know if I will ever use it before the due date. I did taste one and it tasted fine, though.
DSC_0606.JPG


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The weather is perfect right now. I just wish it would stay this way all summer: hot and dry during the day, cool at night, like summer in Vancouver.

The grass at the park has been mowed like the shaved head of a Japanese high school baseball player. Unfortunate that the clovers, which were blooming all over, are mowed down as well but, at least we won't get bit by mysterious bugs. Hana roams around the park on her long lead while I can sit down for a while on the lawn and start this post.

Workwise, two kids are quitting: one with social issues whom I would have been relieved to see the back of last year but was doing so much better this year, it is unfortunate; and one girl who just doesn't want to continue any of her naraigoto (afterschool lessons) and her parents are leaving the decision up to her, which I cannot understand. It's just not the same as sports or music. I wish they would just keep her in class until JH, when she starts studying at school in earnest. She is in fourth grade and will most likely forget most of what we studied by the time she enters JH. Such a waste of many years of study.

Walking through the park with Hana, we came across some JH students whom Hana decided to say hello to. The boys were trying to pet her from above, and she wouldn't let them, as usual, so I told them to go from below and they got a few scratches in and exclaimed as to her cuteness. Then Hana continued down the stairs on the way out of the park when her lead got stuck and I needed to go back and pull it free. The end of the (30m) lead has a metal ring, which was hooked on a tiny bit of concrete stickigg up from the edge of the path! I looked down the stairs at Hana and saw a JH girl trying to avoid her by going around the stairs to the side. I felt apologetic - it was obvious this girl didn't like dogs - even though Hana wouldn't do anything to frighten her. As I went down toward Hana, the lead got stuck again! on the edge of the stairs! The girl, meanwhile, had made her way to the top of the stairs, and most probably hearing me exclaim, loosened the lead for me. Arigato gozaimasu! Sweet kids❤️

I made a new dessert today - lemon bars. I bought some ripe lemons on a discount and was waiting for an opportunity to use them. The bars turned out pretty well, except the tapioka flour was not evenly distributed so the curd was lumpy, and the whites were not completely mixed in so I had some white spots. I think the problem was that the curd was not made on the stove but baked directly onto the bars. I might try it on the stove next time, then bake it after it has hardened a bit if that works better, or at least sieve it to get the lumps out.

I am watching Mentalists. I had watched some of it long ago but never had the urge to watch it again, to the end. It's mostly hilarious with it's sarcastic humor, but also thrilling and scary in places when the serial killer almost gets to them. I love it. I am almost at the end, watching Season 6. Two fifth grade girls were on their way out the door after a class as I watched the last bit of an episode where finally two of the characters got together. It was an excellent scene and I was laughing at a remark when the girls came over to see what I was laughing about . I had my earphones on of course. I told them about the kiss and they said they wanted to see it - I was surprised but I guess they are on the mature side for their age. I showed them the scene and they told me the couple looked like they were eating eachother's lips LOL It reminded me that my daughter had said the same thing once. I was amused.

Well, I guess that's about it. Some pics under cut.
see pics )

Golden Week

May. 7th, 2022 04:52 pm
supernutjapan: (Default)
Japan has a lot of national holidays. May is a month when we have a concentration of them. Actually, it all starts on April 29th (Showa Day - I think it was the Showa Emperor's birthday), then we have May 3rd (Constitution Memorial Day), May 4th (Green Day), and May 5th (Children/Boy's Day). So those lucky workers who can get holidays on Monday and Friday have 9 days off this year. This "week" of holidays is called Golden Week. Everything is crowded on Golden Week, so we usually stay home except for going to a nearby lake to see the carp decorations or some other nearby activity.

This year, I went to sing karaoke with my kids on Tuesday. I was going to go shopping with Julian to buy him some clothes, but Alex started talking with Audrey about going to karaoke and I thought Julian would like that too, so we combined the trip and I went along too so I could pay for it and make it an outing. This was a karaoke box shop where you could rent a room as a group. It was fun to go out with the kids and spend some time with them. Afterwards, we still had time to go shopping and I bought clothes for all the kids.

On Wednesday and Thursday, I stayed at home, but we made takoyaki together for dinner on Wednesday, and I bought the kids sushi for Thursday night.  For the takoyaki, we use a flour based "pancake" type mix, but I didn't want flour in mine so I made mine with just egg and a bit of baking powder.  The sauce and mayo were the same so it tasted exactly the same as the real thing.

I have started rewatching Once Upon a Time since finishing my rewatch of Agents of Shield.
I’d watched it several times previously but when I found it on Disney+ I had to do another. I love the romantic interests this show chooses for Emma. First the Sheriff, played by Jamie Dornan (50 Shades), who dies way too fast,

then Hook, played by Colin O'Donoghue (There was another in between which I was not keen on… glad he dies LOL). I have finally gotten to mid Season 2 and am now enjoying Hook, who thankfully ends up staying till the end of the series.

It was fun to recognize a main character from The Good Doctor as Snow White’s father here as well.

I remember really enjoying the whole series, and I am having a blast watching. However, I only see 2 seasons mentioned here on Disney+ and I know there is much more. I have the sinking feeling I will have to look for the rest somewhere else. When I watched it before, I watched on Netflix USA using VPN. Is it still there? I couldn’t find it, and am guessing it is now Disney exclusive… And not all available in Japan by the looks of it. I could be wrong, but I don’t even want to confirm, I feel so disappointed if true. There are even videos out and it can even be bought on Prime. Why would it not be available on Disney? It doesn’t make sense. I am hoping it is just a glitch and Season 3 will magically appear when I am ready for it. I can’t watch using VPN on my TV or tablet so I would have to find a different way. Buy it on Prime maybe, since I will probably want to watch it again in the future.

Tomorrow is Mother’s Day and I am thinking of making a pomegranate and cranberry tart to celebrate. I also bought some flowers to be delivered to my mom. I don’t do it every year, … actually only once before to test it out… but I miss her a lot and needed to do something. I am hoping maybe we can visit hubby’s mom also and share the tart. I also have choir practice tomorrow and am getting my very expensive order made choir dress. I will have to pay over 500 dollars for it. Choir is costing a lot of money now that we only have 11 members due to covid and we have to save up money to prepare for our concert next year. Our teacher will be working overseas after our concert and it will be the last concert with her. We also have a church concert planned for July of this year, where we will be able to wear the new dresses as well. I wish I could just quit, with all the extra costs, but with the new dresses just made, I can’t. LOL It would be a waste of money, and I can’t exactly say I don’t want the dress.

My birthday is next Thursday, and I don’t want anything except a food processor - I want one that can do spirals and make nut butter without overheating. My present food processor is good enough for a half cup of butter, but if I want to make more, or even mix in other ingredients for energy balls or something, I need a bigger one. I feel bad for asking my kids for it after they got me the knives for Christmas. It would cost around 200 - 300 dollars.

I couldn’t take Hana for walks this week because her stomach wasn’t doing well. Usually, she does some poo at home before I take her out, but since we ran out of dog food, I had been giving her sasami (chicken breast) instead for a couple of days. She stopped doing her regular poo since Thursday night up to this morning. I asked Julian to take her for a walk anyway while I had class because I didn’t want her getting sick, and she seems to have safely done some poo on her walk. I am so relieved. I now have some regular food, so she should be ok. Sorry for the overshare, but this is one of the important ways I can tell if she is healthy, and something I was really worried about.

Here are some pictures -
See pics )
supernutjapan: (Default)
1. Do you like other people buying you clothes?
Hubby has pretty good taste, so I don't mind when he does sometimes, but it is better if we go together. Last summer, he bought me a dress that was "free size" which was not. I was losing weight so I used it as my incentive to get to my desired weight and now I can wear it. It is pretty and light material and very nice in the spring/summer/fall, but I would have never been able to wear it if I hadn't lost 15 kg.

2. Have you ever brought a present for someone that they hated/disliked?
I don't know. I don't have any rude friends that would tell me when they hated/disliked it.  I do try to get people things that they can use or they have already indicated they wanted. I bought a black sweater for hubby once that he didn't wear at all for a long time, but he often keeps clothes because he treasures them so I don't think it was because he disliked it. He wore it after a while and it looked very dashing. Every time he wears it I tell him so :)

3. What nicknames do you have/have had?
I don't really have any. My first name, Dawn, is too short. Wait... I think my New Zealander teacher calls me Dawny. I don't like it as a nickname, but he says it nicely so it's ok. I have many names - Dawn Marie Reiko so people can chose which one they like or even a combination. My Japanese friends called me Reiko-chan.

4. Did you have any pretend or imaginary friends?
I used to when I was young because I was an only child and played by myself a lot. I heard from my mom that I came in one day and told my mom I had been walking on the water with Jesus. Otherwise, my imaginary friends didn't really have any names, I don't think. They were the hand that moved my other doll while I played.

5. Would you say you are a good or bad influence to others?
(I think the proper English is influence on ...?)  Well... What is a good influence and what is a bad one? What is good and what is bad? Is it bad that I take a lot of time for myself and am not cleaning all the time? I have characteristics that are not necessarily thought of as good by a Japanese person, but is normal for a westerner.  I also think many Japanese people need to loosen up a bit, think more about their needs instead of always about others and how they are seen etc. If I can help people do that, then I consider myself a good influence.

*******************
Another uneventful week has passed....

That's how I started this section of the post when I posted this at LJ yesterday. I have taken to using my picture storage there because it is unlimited, while this site's storage is practically nonexistent - way less than LJ's free accounts.

Anyway, I have been bummed by how boring my posts must be with nothing interesting. It is not that my life is not fulfilling and enjoyable. I love my job but at the end of the week, it is hard to remember what happened. It reminds me of those times I spent with my mom in the kitchen. She enjoyed having me help her with the dishes - she'd wash and I'd dry or vise versa, and she would ask me about my day. The only problem was, she wasn't really good at drawing stuff out of me. Her question was, "How was school?" or "How was your day?" and all I could think of to reply was, "fine." Sometimes, I'd be able to remember an anecdote after a bit of thinking, but I don't think that happened frequently. So, maybe when I am writing these posts nowadays, I am asking myself the same question and finding the same wall.

My life is predictable. I like it that way. Schedules are really important to me - sometimes I think I am borderline autistic in that sense, not that I understand autism very well, but that quality stands out to me. I also need a lot of me time, I think because stuff stresses me out. I don't get severe panic attacks or anything, but I need to know that I can have that time and someone upsetting that schedule suddenly is again very stressful.

That makes it sort of boring to write about unless I can find something within the routine that particularly impressed me. I am going to do my best from now on to try to keep such interesting tidbits from work or family life in my mind so that I have something interesting to record - for my own sake (so don't give me platitudes), and hopefully you can enjoy them too.

One thing that comes to mind that I couldn't include yesterday when I wrote the post was that dinner yesterday was very nice. Saturday has traditionally been a special time for us to get together as a family for dinner. I usually make something special that the kids can enjoy, and also give myself some wine. It is the end of the week for me. I only have Sundays off. Saturday is a very busy day because the kids don't have school and I have classes from 8:45 to until yesterday, 5:30, with 1 hour break for a quick lunch. I am exhausted by the end but also relieved and ready for some celebration. Recently this has been disrupted. First by Hubby being unhappy with me quitting drinking for around 6 months or so while I lost weight. He felt like he couldn't enjoy this dinner unless we drank sufficiently, together, and now often doesn't participate at all. He often goes to his mom's house to take care of her and goes to the gym, or goes out with someone else to drink. When he does participate, he drinks way too much and basically ends up finding a way to be unhappy with me and goes to his room to drink some more and it's awful. Then, Audrey had to add another class at cram school from 7:30 to 10:00, now that she is in her third year of junior high and preparing for high school exams. So, now she can't participate either. It sucks.

Yesterday, hubby again went to his mom's, which is better than the alternative, so I was fine with that. Audrey, on the other hand, didn't have cram school because the school was closed for golden week (I will explain that later). On her request, I went and got some steak. There wasn't enough at the store for that to be the main course though, with three hungry kids, so I also got some sweet potato and ingredients for taco salad and a broccoli basil salad. I baked the sweet potato in the oven - one small one for each of us, then we cut them lengthwise and put the taco salad ingredients on top. The kids loved it and told me someone could set up a shop with variations of it. Then, Julian told us about his visit to the museum. It was an exhibit about differences between the evolution of Pokemon and Dinosaurs. How pokemon change shapes and that is called evolution in Japanese but it is not actually so. They change as they grow up, but when they give birth, their children go back to being what their parents were before, while animal species actually changed shape and didn't go back etc.

Then I asked Alex about his walk with Hana. Then Audrey told us about something that happened to her at school. And we had a lovely time talking and eating. Afterwards, Alex and I watched Heike Monogatari - on Netflix and Amazon Prime here, but unfortunately not with English translation - until he decided to take a bath and go to bed. I then went on to start watching The Good Doctor on Netflix. I really really enjoy this show. All the cases so far are so emotionally engaging as are the challenges of Evan (I think his name was) as an autistic intern.

I am going to try to continue to write about some interesting or fun thing that happened by consciously trying to remember them! So here is the rest of the post on LJ.


I finished rewatching "Agents of Shield." I had forgotten some of the details from the later seasons, so it was good to be able to rewatch it again. I really enjoy that series. Yesterday, I watched a short series called "Heartstopper" on Netflix. It was adorable and made me wish for "fireworks" too and also made my heart ache badly.

Hana met some friends at the park that she used to play with all the time when she was younger. One, Ume, is 2 years older than her, the other, Kai, is over 10. Both parents/owners give Hana snacks when they come so she loves them. Ume, who is a Shiba inu, doesn't run much anymore but Kai, who is a small poodle, is very energetic and loves running after the ball. Hana is lazy so she doesn't run much either but is a bit more energetic than Ume. It was fun to watch them.

One of my Saturday classes needed to be moved back because the student had sports club activities on Sat. Now my day extends to 6:30. I'm bummed by that because now dinner preparation will be moved back, but on the plus side, I have an hour in between classes to have a snack and write or whatever.

Hubby is speaking to me again after a drunken outburst on Sunday that ended with me stopping him from getting in a fight with Alex who came in to support me.  Ayayai... I don't really want to think about it any more.

I am enjoying watching my basil and chive grow from seeds.  [personal profile] casey28 do you think I should I sparse the basil more?  I do not have a green thumb like you!  The chives I planted in the egg container were washed away in the rain because I forgot to make holes but some of those I planted in a regular planter have belatedly started poking their heads out and I am excited... but they are quite close to the edge so worried as well.

Some pictures...

See pics )
supernutjapan: (Default)
I was delayed in posting because it took me some time to organize my thoughts. I am combining last week's news with this week's.

*************April 15th******************
1. Have you ever felt a generation gap with your friends?
Very rarely. As I mentioned in the previous post, I feel at home with people both younger and older than me. Differences are interesting.

2. At what point in life does the generation gap seem to be the largest?
Elementary and /Junior high school. It is only a few years different, but interests are totally different. Growing up, most of my girl cousins were 3 or 4 years older than I and I could never mix with them. I felt quite left out. Now, the age gap with them doesn't seem wide at all. We are connected on Facebook and enjoy the company like friends.

3. What role, if any does music play in generation gaps?
I enjoy music from 40s and onwards so, maybe that has something to do with how at home I am with a variety of generations.

4. Despite your attempts, have you become your parents?
My dad was good at debate and used to argue with me on a lot of subjects. It galled me that he never gave in or admitted when he was wrong. I may be similar LOL I do admit I am wrong if I find out I am because I hated it so much. I do like to discuss various topics but my memory is not the greatest so I try not to make any direct assertions without looking it up and making sure I can prove it.


5. Do you think your generation's fight is similar to your parents generations fight?
Generation's fight? You mean, what we strive for? What are goal is? Obviously not. I was born and grew up in an age of relative peace and prosperity that my parent's generation created and I feel lucky and also ignorant/naïve because of it. Compared to prior generations that may have focused a lot on attaining peace and gender equality, my generation focused more on saving the Earth, I suppose. That seemed to be a big focus in University, anyway. Now, it looks like there is a lot of focus on LGBT equality and sexual orientation.

***********April 22nd****************

1. Do you think the media have created a negative effect on self image?
Yes - media has a great impact on us all.  it was a lot worse before I think. Recently there has been more effort to cater to various body types. The show The Bold Type is about three girls working for a women's magazine and it takes up a lot of those issues.

2. Do you think the entertainment industry is the main reason why there are so many men and women with eating disorders?
Yes.

3. Have you ever had an eating disorder?
No... well, I did use to binge eat sweets and snacks and I guess it was for emotional purposes so maybe that can be counted. It never got as bad as it could have.

4. Do you believe that depression is a disease or an excuse?
I think it is a state brought on by hormonal or other imbalance in the body. Some more prone than others due to family history. It is definitely not an excuse.

5. Do you believe that it is possible to develop depression, or are you born with it?
I think it is like any other bodily condition. It can manifest later in life but is something you may have the tendency for from birth.

That is my understanding - I am sure there are people who can explain it more correctly/better.

*****************

Last week was my first week back at work after three and a half weeks off. The weeks off were spent relaxing and watching a lot of TV so this first week was quite tiring.

I finished watching all I want to watch of Suits - to those interested, I stopped watching when Mike didn't come back in Season 6. He was the one I was most interested in, and I quite resented the fact that they thought his character was not worth developing further.

I am now almost finished with season 4 of 9-1-1 and enjoying that. There seems to be more to the series, but Disney+ doesn't seem to have it - maybe that's just Japan? 

Some of the stuff handled in western shows, I can't imaging happening here. For example, a Japanese person would NEVER go up on a billboard on a freeway to proclaim love (unless they had some mental illness) and I have never heard of any Japanese person setting a bomb in their previous company because they were fired unfairly. Japanese people also hardly ever go to a therapist and that is a huge part of American TV shows LOL That is one thing that maybe needs to change in Japan though... considering how many people commit suicide here. I don't watch much Japanese TV but it makes me think that peaceful countries sure make for boring TV. LOL I have heard that there is a Japanese version of Suits and I am somewhat curious to see how they do it.

Anyways...

Some happy news is that hubby finally brought over the TV from his mom's house so we have a TV! We had been paying for optical cable TV (internet TV) for the longest time without a TV to watch it on and it was driving me bonkers. Now the Firestick and the cable TV are all set up on the TV so we can watch movies etc. together. Alex and I were able to watch a French movie adaptation of City Hunter together. This is originally a popular Japanese comic and anime geared toward adults - particularly men. The French movie was very well made and hilarious. I was happy to be able to enjoy it with my son.

Audrey is now watching 9-1-1 with me too, so that means I can't watch it without her LOL Instead, I watched Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Loki. I was never interested in Loki in the other films, but this show is enjoyable and was fun after the dark nature of the former.

The other day I made some chocolate pie with coconut milk. I didn't like it as much as others I had made. The sweetener was honey, and there was too much of it so it was way too sweet and left a vaguely burning sensation in the throat as honey tends to do.

Today is Julian's birthday. He is now 21. I am preparing a strawberry cream pie (banana cream pie with strawberries) on his request, and hubby will get some chicken from COSTCO.

Posting some photos.Read more... )
supernutjapan: (car&music)
Here are this week's Friday Five at last.

1. how did april fool's day start? non-serious answers only.

I'm not quite sure of the meaning of this question, but if it means the origins of April Fools - 
It's Loki's holiday, obviously.  People liked listening to stories about him but also knew that his tricks shouldn't be something to copy every day, so they created one day of the year when tricks and Loki could be celebrated.
I'm not trying to be serious... but I could actually be right.

2. ever pranked anyone?
I may have tried to trick family members on April Fools once or twice when I was younger, but I dislike pranks with a passion so I wouldn't put anyone else through it either.

3. what's something foolish you've done lately?
A few months ago I bought some Chive and Basil seeds because I can't get chives at the supermarket here and I really like them, and basil is available but expensive and I thought I'd grow some.  Yesterday, I went to the store to buy some soil and planted the seeds.  The basil was easy because it just had to be planted in a planter.  Chives supposedly need a smaller plant bed? I'm not sure what you call it in English.  I thought I was being smart using a plastic egg container, but I forgot to make holes in the bottom, so the little cups filled up with water today when it rained.  Such an idiot.  Thankfully, I planted some in a regular planter as well, so those were saved.  I really don't have a green thumb but I've grown chives and basil before - they should be pretty easy to grow. *crossing my fingers*

4. what's made you laugh this week?
I watched the Graham Norton Show this morning on Youtube.  



5. what does april bring in your part of the world?
Cherry blossoms and a new school year.  Strawberries are more accessible/cheaper as well.  My son Julian has his birthday in April so he will probably ask for cake with strawberries.


-----

In other news, our Easter picnic was cancelled today because it was raining when I woke up at 6 this morning, and the forecast said it would rain all day.  Great.  LOL  We've postponed to next week.

I finished watching the Bold Type.  It was quite an emotional season.  I'm now rewatching Tiitans for Dick Greyson.  That reminds me that recently, I've been getting a lot of pics of Brenton Thwaites in my Pinterest feed, some of which were from a movie called Office Uprising, which I'd not known about before.  I had to watch it because the pics looked pretty cute.  I found the whole movie on Youtube.  It was hilarious! 

Well, I guess I'm going to bed!  Have a nice day everyone.
supernutjapan: (Default)
I'm writing this while I wait for the Friday Five to be posted. If they don't post today, I guess I will snag an older one from archives.

So this is from March 26, 2021 -

1) What spring holiday(s) do you celebrate?
On February 2, we have Setsubun, a "holiday" (not a national rest day, just a special day) to cleanse the home of bad luck/demons and bring good luck in by throwing dried beans. The designated food for this holiday is the long, uncut sushi roll - which you are supposed to eat without cutting... not like in this picture. We used to celebrate this day when the kids were smaller but now, not so much.
Setsubun
(Picture left to right of thick sushi roll (looks like raw salmon and tuna and egg rolls inside), a two horned demon mask worn by a grown-up to be the brunt of bean throwers or the perpetrator of screaming children, and little dried soy beans in a traditional box type snack bowl.)

On March 3, we have Girl's Day, celebrated by decorating the house with some special dolls, eating mixed sushi and Sakura-mochi. I bought some sakuramochi and made sushi for dinner this year for my daughter. Unfortunately, we don't have a doll set. I really want one though.
sakuramochi
(Picture of a four step array of the imperial household dolls, starting at the top with the prince and princes, three women attendants in the middle with two sets of round celebratory rice cakes between them, five men musicians below them with drum and lute, and at the bottom two guards with bow and arrows on each side and two sets of bowls for celebratory food for the prince and princes, and some more colorful diamond shaped rice cakes in the middle. And, a picture of Sakuramochi. There are two kinds, traditionally of Western and Eastern Japan, left to right respectively. The Western Japan type is pink sticky rice with bean paste inside, wrapped with a pickled cherry leaf. The Eastern Japan type is a pink rice pancake with bean paste inside, also wrapped with a cherry leaf. These leaves are edible. The saltiness compliments the sweet snack.)

On May 5 is Boy's Day, renamed Children's Day because for some reason if you have Girl's Day it's fine, but Boy's Day is sexist. March 3rd is not a national "rest" day, but Children's Day is. It is part of a three day holiday called Golden Week, which, combined with April 29th, can make a nice long holiday for company workers who can take time off.

We celebrate it by putting up carp flags on a pole outside of the house. Usually at least three carp. One big blue one as the father, One a little smaller red one as the mother, and another color for the child(ren). People often also have a warrior's helmet as a decoration inside the house if they have boy children (as opposed to the dolls for Girl's Day). I used to have one of those helmets when I was small. I think my parents got it as a gift for some unknown reason, me being a girl (an only child) and all.
Kodomonohi
(Pictures of the cylindrical cloth carp "flags" lifting horizontally in the spring breeze and a traditional warrior helmet decoration.)
The snack designated for this day is Kashiwamochi.

Kashiwamochi
(Picture of kashiwamochi - a white rice cake folded over bean paste, wrapped in a big leaf. This leaf is just so the rice cake can be transported without sticking or drying out.)

Also, as part of my own heritage, we celebrate Easter - more as a Spring celebration and business event than as the Christian holiday. It is used as an excuse to enjoy the cherry blossoms - also called Hanami. When I was a child, my mother would make Easter bread called Paska every year. This is a bread with lots of eggs in it, baked in a round tin. It is my dad's heritage, since his grandparents came to Canada through the Ukraine. They were Mennonite Brethren (sort of similar in beliefs to Amish), one of the founding fathers in Holland, who were forced to move to Germany and then to the Ukraine and finally to North America due to their believe in non-violence. The Mennonites took with them the Ukrainian Paska recipe with them and it became part of their Easter tradition.

Anyway, I carried on this tradition and actually made Paska for the event participants for many years until hubby told me it was too time consuming and costly. I sometimes still make it for my family.

2) How do you celebrate it?
Answered that above.

3) How was your celebration different in 2020 and/or 2021?
No difference since it is a private celebration without need of partying.  I think we cancelled the Easter Picnic in 2020 but resumed in 2021.

4) What special foods do you make or acquire for your spring holiday?
Also answered above.

5) Is there special music for your spring holiday?
There is a famous children's song for Setsubun, Girl's Day, and Children's Day

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I had to write today, not only because it is Friday, but because everything is going well but I am not feeling it. I think it's because I am worried about the Easter Picnic. It's not like I have to prepare much for it, and I've done it for so many years it is not worth any worry but I just don't really enjoy the thought of "an event." Especially one I am leading. I have this nervous feeling in my stomach all the time. It will be fine once I get into it - it's just the waiting that's killing me.

What we usually do for our Easter picnic is hide Easter eggs around the park for the kids to find, go through some preposition and nature vocab like "under the tree" or "in the grass", then after they find the eggs and tell me where, we separate into families and eat the lunches we brought individually. Then, as the kids finish their lunches, we go on a nature search to recognize Spring, and do some activities on a checklist individually with their parents, like kite flying, playing with a ball, grass sledding etc. At the end we get together for some group games like egg racing and What time is it Mr. Wolf depending on the age of the kids. It is the same every time, and it would be nice to have something different to do... any ideas?!

Today went to a party wholesale warehouse to get some stuffings for the (plastic) Easter Eggs. I was going to just put little chocolate eggs inside, but realized that some of the smaller kids maybe are not allowed chocolate. I'm thinking maybe puzzle erasers might be something they'd enjoy.

Yesterday the weather was nice and the cherry trees at the park were full of blossoms so I got a lot of pictures. Hana usually doesn't sit and pose for me, but I had a few plastic bags I rustled which tricked her into thinking I had snacks and I got a few good pics :D

Unfortunately, it rained quite a bit last night and I am afraid many of the blossoms fell. I hope we have some left for Sunday!

On to books - I read the first Dune book. It was interesting enough that I finished it, but it was not as good as I remembered it to be. Specifically, the description was seriously lacking so that not only could I not see it in my mind, the situation was very hard to grasp. Also, the main character being a super human (smarter than a computer, the strongest fighter, having the power to read the future) with few relatable qualities - it is ok for the first book, but I don't know if I want to keep reading the second, the beginning of which has turned me off considerably. Reading about a revolution leader against tyranny is fun, but reading about a hero turned emperor being cruel, making errors and accumulating enemies, not so much. Not in my present frame of mind anyway.

I started reading Dune because I was getting tired of watching TV - more specifically rewatching shows I'd already watched like Agents of SHIELD. I did finish watching the second season of Bridgerton and enjoyed that. I like that they are setting the stage for other romances to give them more focus in future seasons. Yay the Bold Type is back! I've started watching that now and it's looking interesting :)

Also, I suddenly felt like going to my old diaries from high school and over and reading them over.  They are all quite interesting and reminding me of events I had totally forgotten.  I might introduce some anecdotes that could be entertaining.

Now to Hana and cherry blossom pictures from the park -

Read more... )
supernutjapan: (Default)
1. What does the outside of your house look like?
The house I live in now is a two story house.  Looking at it from the front, there are two parking spots, the back of which is a short length of concrete stairs going up from the left of the building.  The wall to the left of the stairs is covered in ivy, above which is our school sign, red background with a yellow cartoon bird on the right of the words "Mockingbird English School" in white.  Above the stairs, on the landing is a small deck with flowers on the right and a stand with a screen/phone on the left behind a side advertising flag for "English Classes Here."  Behind these are two white doors, matching the color of the building.  The entrance facing the street on the left is for our school, the entrance on the right is for the landowner's piano school.

Back down the stairs and across the parking spaces, the right side of the building, is a small gate that opens on to another set of concrete stairs with a small garden around it on the top level.  On the left is an orange tree, which bears the most sour of oranges - so sour, I really don't know when they are actually deemed ripe.  The oranges stayed on the tree for at least 3 months before hubby cut them off.  Next to it further inside is a blueberry tree that is starting to blossom.  On the right is a scattered bunch of plants and trees, none in bloom at the moment except for a single yellow daffodil in the middle of the patch of soil.  To the right at the top of the stairs is our heavy wooden front door, protected from the rain by an archway.

2. Which room do you spend the least time in?
Julian's room.  I go in there to find clothes in his closets, and pop in to tell him dinner is ready, but that's about it.
Next is Alex's room, where I follow Hana into every other day.  It is part of her little routine to go to the toilet to jump on and off Alex's bed and it goes better if I chase her :D
Next is Audrey's room, where I sometimes climb into her bed if I can't sleep.
I guess the bathroom goes here somewhere :P
Next is my own bedroom, where I only go at night, usually, since hubby is usually in there doing his own thing.

3. Which room do you spend the most time in?
The living/dining/kitchen area.  I do everything there during the day.

4. Is your home in a convenient location?
It is.  I used to live up the hill and it was quite inconvenient without a car because of the hill.  Now I live only a few minutes from the station, and even closer to the supermarket.  I am at the bottom of the hill so I can lug my shopping home on foot, and there are parks close by in 3 directions.

5. What is the color of your front door?
We have a medium brown wooden door.

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