It's Better to Burn Out...

The Friday Five for September 8, 2023

1. What song do you live for at the moment?
I don't really LOVE any song at the moment.

2. Is there a band or artist that you attach to a particular memory? What memory is it?
I tend to remember connections between music and movies/shows a lot. Every time I hear a song, I remember the movie or show it was in.  A lot of mullet rock is connected to Supernatural for me because I never got into them until I heard them on the show.   Of course, Kansas = Supernatural

3. What's the most beautiful song lyric you've ever heard?  
There are many beautiful song lyrics - no one lyric is more beautiful than all others.   Plus, lyrics on their own don't make a song.  To make it beautiful, the melody and voice have to be in sinc with it.

4. If you could choose any band/artist to cover any song, which combination would you pick? 
I've never thought about it, and don't have any preferences at this point.  One thing I really don't like is a love song by a band being covered by a choir.  The decision to sing a Japanese pop love song as a choir helped me with my decision to take a break.  Ug.  There might be exceptions but I would have to hear it to believe it.

5. What's the best concert you've ever attended?
I think I like performing more than listening - so my own, whether that was clarinet or vocal.  I loved the concert in high school where we sang The Messiah with over a hundred singers.  I wish we had a recording.  Both of my present choirs' concerts were memorable - gave me a high that was hard to come off of.

The Friday Five for September 15, 2023

Wow, so my questions I thought were lost were picked up for this week's Friday Five.
How many years has it been since I requested these?? Can't even remember. Anyway - here are my answers.

1. When did you recently have the feeling, "Life is good." Not very recently. Unfortunately you have caught me at a bad time. However, those moments usually occur when I see my kids having fun together, or just happy in general. Hopefully I will have some moments like this on our trip tomorrow - but more about that later.

2. Which do you need more, routine or spontaneity? I think routine is really important for me. I don't like it when someone suddenly says I have to do something right away and break my schedule. But if I realize I have to or want to do something, I also do it right away without doubting my decision. Sometimes, I get burned for it, but usually it's the best decision I've made. Like buying this computer. Of course, I was thinking about it for a looooong time, but when I saw the opportunity, I took it right away without second thought. Now, I wish we had the money for expenses on the one hand, but on the other I am glad I did it because sometimes you have to think about the long term happiness instead of the short term needs.

3. Do you have a difficult or annoying neighbor? Well, there is one child in the apartment next to our home that cries a lot. Not that it annoys me - it really just worries me. I wish I knew the situation so I knew it wasn't abuse or something. But there is no way to know exactly which room the child lives in from where we are. I just have to hope that the direct neighbors can act if anything is seriously wrong.

4. What do you want to change about yourself? I have a hard time with talking on the phone and with sales/business. I have the ideas but not very good at realizing them. I can make a ton of creative posters or whatever, but it's hard to go and ask for them to be put up. Ahhhhh I wish I could be more proactive in that sense. I have to do that today. I put it off yesterday but today.... I've got to go.

5. What do you like best about where you live? I love the parks. We have three big parks with lots of big old trees - cherry blossoms, plum and others. I would hate to live in a place without a nice park.


Other News
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Despite our money problems, we have decided that we need to go on vacation this year. First, we really wanted to go to Shin's friend's house in Yamagata. It would have costed a bit to get there but we could have saved on staying overnight and we could have stayed for at least 2 days. Unfortunately, that fell through because Shin did not contact his friend fast enough with our plans - to be fair, he didn't know if we could afford to go. But both the boys are adults now - the second looking for his permanent job from next April - and it might be our last chance to go anywhere together. Plus, we really really need a break from this place, our situation, etc. Hubby looked for a place for us to stay that we could stay with our dog and found a relatively cheap place that used to be a public facility or something. The building is old and the food (which is included! for breakfast a dinner!) may not be great but I won't have to cook and there is a pool on the grounds, a lake where we can play with Hana and even the beach nearby. Audrey has never been to the ocean (with us anyway, maybe she went on her school trip in elementary school) so we wanted to give her that experience as well. Hubby was bitching about the fact we had to pay cash for this place, and I was getting all worried, when he suddenly got out of bed and told me he remembered he got some extra pension money - he doesn't know what it's about, but maybe we can view that as a gift from God to have a good time. (He's not a Christian, but I have been talking about God helping us a lot recently.)

Hubby and I have been getting along better recently. We obviously talk more because of the money issues. I am trying to understand the situation and help with the ideas - he was always in charge of the money and now we can work together. It is nice. People say that money troubles is hard on a relationship, but so far it has been better for us in this weird way. I also talked with my mom about my problems.

It was actually after she told me she was in an accident recently - the conversation about that I am attaching from FB when I asked her how things were going:

Hearing about her experience gave me hope and made me realize that if God was looking out for my mom, He wanted to look out for us too - I mean he has been for so long - and if I just gave it all to him, he would show us the way to figure this all out.

We talked about me reading Christy (Catherine Marshall) again recently too, and how that had a big impact on me. I read it in my teens - it was one of my first love story novels! And I suddenly felt the urge to read it again. It is a cute love story, but it is also based on a accound of a young girl (the author's mother) who went into the Appalachians as a teacher/missionary in the early 1900s I think... and is also a testimony of sorts.

My mom, if you do not know already, was a Christian missionary here in Japan with my dad, which is why I was born and raised here. I am pretty much sick of church - except the music. I have had enough of sermons because I feel like I know it all already (and are they loooong) and unburdening on other people because I always tend to feel awful afterwards.

But my mom's strong and honest faith in God's plan gives hope and it is good to know that she will for sure pray for us and ask others too without oversharing. If God was looking out for my mom, He wanted to look out for us too - he has been for so long.  Anyway, I just feel that God can lead us in the right direction if we just have faith and hope.

Oh, I didn't mention in the last post, but I took one of my clarinets (A clarinet for orchestra) to see if I could sell it and get some money. If that works out, I am going to keep that money for something special or to pay for this trip or something. That's about it I guess. I'm finished with all the workshops and classes for a while. There is a makeup I have to do on Thursday but other than that, I'm free until the 14th when I start teaching again.

Aug 8

I didn't get to post this first part earlier so I am going to add a bit about our trip. We are back from the one night stay in Izu. We were all soooooo tired yesterday from all the driving/car rides and sleeping in an unknown place. Some interesting things happened — first of all, there was a typhoon going through the area so our first day was rainy and we were not able to go on the travel plan that Alex lovingly created for us. He works at a travel agency if you remember, and creates tour/travel plans for people from abroad. His first training trip was to Hakone, which was on the way to where we were going to stay and he had some ideas about our activities there.

We were planning to go to a pet friendly cafe with a view of Mt. Fuji, and also go on a cable car to the top of a mountain for another Fuji view. Hana could have also gone up in a cage provided. Hakone is up in the mountains and the road is a bit trecherous in the rain so all of that was cancelled. We went the "scenic" route around the coast.

The cloud cover opened up once in a while and once we got to Atami (a famous hotspring/ocean side resort area), we saw quite a number of people playing on the beach. We walked around with Hana for a while and she was able to do her business, and we ate our lunches in the car there before going on.

We stopped at a little lake created with a dam and a stream near there which was a beautiful spot that would have been fun to play in if it wasn't raining off and on. There was a family there playing in the water and catching fish and little crabs. There were crabs everywhere!

Hana had a crack at one on a road there as we took a walk. It was quite hilarious. The greenery around there was quite different from our area, and there were a lot of ferns, which made me feel like there were dinosaurs lurking around!

We got to the place we were going to stay shortly after sign-in time (15:00), and checked out our rooms. The place was pretty old but with the black lacquor style which made it look nicer than it could have. Each room was a separate cabin and hubby had gotten us two cabins: one for the guys, one for the girls.

Between each of the cabins ran small man-made streams. The boys' cabin had a view of the tennis courts while we had a view of rice fields. A very nice view if the weather had been better. We had futons to sleep on and it was real traditional Japanese style. Audrey had an incident where she turned on the water faucet and a cricket or some such bug came out of the drain or tap or something and she refused to take a bath after that saying she didn't trust the facilities not to surprise her again. It took her a while to go to the bathroom as well.

We rested for a bit then decided to go find a hotspring nearby, leaving Hana in the room. Alex drove. He had been taking turns with hubby for this trip, to get some practice on the highway and winding roads. Unfortunately, we could not find the hotspring the inn caretaker had recommended as Alex had made a mistake in giving his google directions. We had gone in the opposite direction.

I urged that we should find a bath near there at first so we didn't waste the trip, but when we got to the place closest to us, we found that it was closed. We ended up figuring that there wasn't enough time and had to turn back so we could be in time for dinner at six. Hubby suggested we get some snacks to eat with wine etc. later in our cabin in case the dinner was subpar. We also talked about going out to find the onsen again after dinner.

The rain was pouring as we went to the dining building. Having to walk to the building in the rain was uncomfortable. We had a few umbrellas but Audrey and I had to share and I exclaimed to pretty much everyone in the room (LOL) that my back was soaked when we got there.

There was only one other family eating in quite a spacious and lacquored, beautifully traditional room. The chairs and tables were all lacquored; even the highchair in the corner of the room. Dinner was also in the traditional style and better than we had expected. There was sashimi, crab gratin, potato crockets, whole boiled shrimp, chicken roll, rice, miso soup and tea.

There was enough there for hubby to have some alcohol with the meal and he suggested we not go out to find the onsen but have some alcohol now with the meal and enjoy it. We all agreed, if reluctantly. I was trying to maintain my diet as much as possible, but knew I had to eat some rice if I was going to get enough calorie intake. I did have some sake and that was nice.

We went back to our rooms and everyone was tired so we were unsure if we'd have the "drinking party" as planned, but Alex and Julian were playing boardgames on Julian's Switch in their room and I thought it would be nice to have everyone in the same room. I also felt like I could eat a bit more too, so I called the boys over and we had a nice time together. Audrey, Julian and Alex played games together and we talked about various stuff.

I took a turn at checkers with Alex and although I won the first time, the two times after that he beat me, I will say it was probably because of the wine :D

We went to bed early. Audrey was watching her Youtube while I practiced some Japanese hiragana sign language that I started learning the day before and I was lulled to sleep. I was woken up by a weird sound in the middle of the night, followed by a dripping sound. I thought I had knocked over something and went crawling in the dark to investigate.

I found that the dripping was from the roof! I quickly took the cigarette bowl (for putting cigarette butts in — it was a smoking room although we do not smoke) from the lounge table and put it under the drip so that the tatami wouldn't get wet. The drip was right on the border of the wood flooring lounge area and the tatami room. Sleeping after that was difficult. I could hear the ping, ping, ping of the drip as the rain continued outdoors. I checked my phone and it was around three. I practiced the signing as I tried to get back to sleep. Then, I was woken up again. This time, Hana was feeling threatened by something. It could have been a bug churping outside, like Audrey thought. She'd make a soft deep woof and then a soft growl with an occaisional loud bark thrown in as Audrey and I took turns telling her everything was OK.

With that eventful night, we were not very rested the next morning. We slept until around 7:40 when Audrey heard a sound at the door. She went to investigate thinking it was one of our boys and found two umbrellas at our door. I suspect it was because of my loud exclamations at dinner but not just me, I hope.

After around 5 minutes Alex came to tell us that breakfast was ready. The weather was again rainy as we went to the dining room and breakfast was again a very traditional Japanese breakfast filled with protein and rice and no vegetables whatsoever(but a bunch of seaweed... so that makes up for it a bit I suppose). Dried fish, pheasant ham, stewed hijiki(seaweed) with beans, stewed okara(leftover bits from making tofu — very healthy), miso soup with wakame seaweed, raw egg and nori (again seaweed) with rice. I had to eat a bit more rice than the night before to be able to eat the raw egg. It was all good but very salty and we went back to our rooms wanting to drink water.

Our trip back to our cabins, as with the night before, we were able to lower our umbrellas and there was a bit of sun. We decided to take the chance and go see a famous mountain called Ohmuroyama. It's a round mountain, just a large hill in shape from the side. By the time we got there it was sunny and super hot. Hubby had not looked up whether Hana could go up on the lift with us (Alex had looked everything up for the day before but this was hubby's activity) and the lift was just a bigger version of a skii lift so we were not sure but there was a tourism office on the second floor of the building so I went and asked about activities to do with dogs and the lady informed me that small to medium dogs were allowed on the owners lap up the lift.

Alex was quite sure he could handle it so I gave Hana to him (he has a hard time picking her up LOL) . Hana was very brave. We saw owners covering their dog's eyes, one dog was yapping with fear, one was quite restless (but small, so handle-able). We could tell Hana was nervous, but she sat still and didn't make a sound up or down.

Almost at the top of the lift, there was a camera where someone (a recording we thought) on the microphone was telling people to smile for a photo. Audrey and Alex had gone up first with Hana, hubby and I were second, and Julian had a lift to himself. When we got up, two or three staff members already with our pictures in hand greeted us and showed us our smiling faces. Even Hana was looking at the camera! We found out that the staff had actually been talking into a mike for each of our pictures and that they had included the sound of a dog toy for Hana so she would look at the camera.  We bought one, even though of course it was rather expensive (approx. 10 dollars/1000 yen) of Alex, Audrey and Hana.

There were of course souvenirs and softcreams and dangos(rice cake snacks) at the top but we were all very conscious of hubby being unable to dole out money so we didn't buy anything. Audrey did wish outloud to me about a softcream.

The top of the mountain was much more interesting than the side view. There was a big crator where there used to be a volcano. It was obviously not active. The whole mountain was covered with tall grass. A few volcanic rocks were sticking out here and there at the top with a couple of trees — like a huge meadow. It was quite scenic. There was also a trail around the crator of around 1km which we could walk in about 20 minutes. We decided to walk around and the view was really nice. We saw the ocean and islands around the penninsula and the cities below quite nicely. I regretted not bringing my hat or sun umbrella because it was super sunny still and I knew I was going to get burned. We also found out that the crator, a grass field, was used for an archery school, although we didn't see anyone doing any.

After our walk around, we went back down. Hana was just as calm as her trip up. We felt quite sorry for her having to go through so many stressful endeavors — especially the trip to and back in the car. She sat in the middle of Audrey and I and tried to get comfortable, but it was hard for her to sleep being jostled and pressured by the twisting and turning through the coastal and mountain roads. We thought about finding a place that could watch Hana for a while while we went to a hot spring but it was too difficult to do on the spot and we ended up going to a promontorium/Cape that we went to when the kids were little. There was a short suspension bridge there. The wind and waves were strong, crashing against the jutting rocks where the color of the ocean water was a beautiful milky blue.

While we were standing by the lookout, a caretaker suddenly came out and started exclaiming that if we looked out to the horizon we could see a big wall of dark clouds and rain coming our way. "It will be here in a jiffy!" He warned us loudly as if to make us all hurry back to our cars, and although I did go back a bit, thinking it might become dangerous by the cliffs, he didn't go on to say we should go back right away or tell us to evacuate so we ended up staying a bit longer until we felt a few drops of rain. Then hubby bought the kids some softcreams and shaved ice. We shared a macha and milk mix softcream, Audrey finally got her wish and she chose a macha softcream. The boys chose shaved ice which were a bit less expensive. I felt like Alex was trying his best not to be a burden on our finances and it was heartwarming but sad. I think Julian chose the shaved ice because he just likes that better. Alex did say that he didn't like how thirsty he could become from eating softcream but he had bought his own drink and bought me a water with his own money at the convenience store we stopped at earlier, saying something about not being a burden. It reminded me of me at that age. First-borns tend to be like that. The rain drops started to get more numerous and we quickly went back to the car to finish the last of our snacks — and just in time as it started to pour once we were inside.

We then went on our way, back the way we had come, first to Atami at around lunch time. Alex had found a cafe that was pet-friendly so we went in search of it, but when we got there, it was closed. The owner was there but she told us she had personal business and had to close early. This was the second time we found something on the net and the store had been closed! So what now? I had seen that many shops around there had take-out: one of the pluses of the COVID panic (the other being more online meetings/lessons and work-from-home opportunities). There was one store with a long line of customers waiting outside selling donburi (bowl meals), especially of sushi. The line was for people wanting to eat-in, but there was also a sign for take-out so we decided to get some and eat at the pier park with Hana (it was probably not pet-friendly — not many are yet). Alex again chose a cheaper donburi with hubby. Hubby seemed to want us to keep it at 1000 yen per person and I didn't want to eat much rice, so I suggested to Audrey that we share a gigantic mountain of sashimi atop a rice bowl costing around 2000 yen. She agreed readily.

Where we had parked the car, there was a dock for many yahts and a walk/park around it with lots of benches. We had eaten lunch there with MIL and her sister when we took them on a trip long ago. So we sat there again. The donburi were very tasty. Unfortunately, the cheaper bowls that hubby and Alex bought didn't have much fish on top and they felt a bit cheated. I also felt bad for Alex. I wish we had been sitting together, so I could have seen the situation and shared some of ours. I think we made the best choice out of the lot.

After lunch, we headed back home. Hubby took over with the driving and gave Alex a well-needed rest. We came back to near our home and hubby suggested we could go to a nearby hotspring, leaving Hana in the car, but it didn't feel right, having put Hana through such a tiring trip. We just needed to get home. Maybe we can go before my classes start next week though.

So, that's it. It was a memorable trip and worth it if it ends up being the last one we take together. I have some more news on the school and our living situation. Since writing about our troubles, there have been some developments. (1) we asked for reduced rent and were refused (naturally). The owner is very friendly though and gave us some ideas. If we gave him a plan for giving it back, he could delay the payment of however much we wanted reduced. In otherwords, he could give us an interest free loan. We thought that was out of the question. No more loans. The second idea was to buy the place from him for 90 Mil Yen. We could get a loan from the bank under my and Alex's name. The payments would be half of the rent we are paying now with a thirty year loan. This idea was tempting. It would be nice to have some land to our name. However, our accountant and real estate agent told us it would be difficult to get the loan because we still had a house loan on our condo and because Alex had only just begun working and didn't have the credit yet. Plus our income was set really low due to our situation. 

We thought about it for a very long time and finally wrote the owner a mail asking that we be allowed to give back two rooms we added to our contract and pay for just the original three rooms since we weren't using the place to full capacity. We sent this mail on the day we went on our trip. The day we got back, we got the happy news that he accepted the deal — except, we didn't have to give the two rooms back. He would reduce the rent as if we had. Because basically, it would cost money to put the rooms back the way they had been and was not realistic at this time. He asked us to give him a share of any profit we got from these extra rooms instead and be agreeable to him taking the rooms back at a time he needed them. So, we have got a little more leeway with our finances. We will not have to move so Alex will not have to move out — and he would have if we moved in with MIL. We have to try really hard to gain some more income because this is not going to be enough but still. One step forward and a big thank you to God for the guidance.

Here are some pictures of the trip.

These questions were written by Dreamwidth user Sabcatt.

1. What’s the last thing you got in the mail?
Black beans through Amazon.

2. What’s the last thing you sent in the mail?
New Years cards.

3. How many unread emails are in your inbox right now?
None, I hope. Not in my personal one anyway. My original email address has been taken over by hubby and there is a lot of junk mail, so A LOT of unopened ones there.

4. What is your most recent text message about?
To hubby about how things were going badly at the phone shop.

To explain, my smartphone is dying; thankfully not quite in the last stages, but the battery doesn't last a whole day - so I am in need of another. I bought my last one 5 years ago, and it cost around 800 dollars. Crazy. We paid for it in two installments by credit card. This time hubby is too lazy to come with me, so I am doing it all on my own but it is taking for ever.

I have to go back to when we got a letter from YMobile, a company we got our pocket wifi from (what's it called over there I don't know) to use at our classroom. The credit card being used to pay for the monthly usage payments was running out and I needed to update the info. All I wanted to do was change the due date. They said I could do it online, but I had the hardest time because hubby had lost the documentation and I couldn't find the phone number attached to the machine, nor the password. I went to the shop, hoping they could do it there and they told me that because the contract was with hubby, I needed his ID. Again, all I wanted to do was update the due date of the credit card... LOL So I went home and went back another day with hubby's drivers license and they got to work. I waited for like thirty minutes and the girl came back to say they couldn't do it there. I had to go to a different store, far away. But by that time, they had showed me the phone number and I had found the password in a mail, so I decided to try again online just in case. And I got through! But when I tried to just change the date, the screen said I couldn't. I had to change the card LOL WTF By this time I am PISSED. I phone and explain the situation by phone. They tell me I can't do anything without my husband present.

So... I ended up changing the credit card so I could get it done quick before the end of the month.

Cut to yesterday. I go to my appointment to get a new phone at DOCOMO, a different company. My present phone is under my husband's name. They tell me I can't even buy a new one without a consent paper written all in my husband's handwriting. I also need a copy of his drivers license again. I am sooooo tired of this, I ask if I can change the contract to my name. They say I can do that too with the same documents. So I go home, get hubby to write the document. One thing I was a bit worried of was that the name was different from that of my ID - My ID has my full name in English, we used my name in Japanese, a shortened version registered at city hall. I have ID with the shortened version too, but it is my insurance card and not as good as my foreigner's ID card. I go back to the shop today, pick out the phone that cost around the same as my previous one, still with a nagging feeling that it wasn't over. I was right. They told me I needed a registration of residence showing both my long formal name and the shortened version. And probably also the actual ID of my husband. A copy may not cut it now. I was soo frustrated I was tearing up.

Anyway... I went to city hall, waited in line for thirty minutes and finally got the copy of registray. I can't go to the phone shop today or tomorrow because I have class, but I have made a reservation for Sunday. This time, I am sure I can get it.... well, let's not jinks it.

5. Do you have a favorite postage stamp design?
The ukiyo-e postage stamps here are pretty.
I always like seeing Christmas stamps from other countries.
I used to collect stamps. They should be in a box somewhere.

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

I'm reading some books by R.J. Barker - Wounded Kingdom trilogy and now, the Bone Ships. I really enjoyed the Wounded Kingdom so I thought I'd continue. I have been reading a lot of fantasy that has been disappointing in various ways so I'm glad I finally found something.

I have a new class on Tuesdays - a mommy class for a mom of a cute little baby who will be going to India in June. If she would have paid for private classes, I could have got her an Indian teacher to get her used to the accent, but it didn't work out. Still, the class is fun, and the baby is adorable.　

AUDREY HAS PASSED the exam for the public school she wanted to go to!!! Wohoo! She's happy to be going to the school she wanted, and we are happy it's not costing us an arm and a leg LOL! She still had final exams to study for though - three days after the entrance exam! Pretty crazy. Why do exams when the grades don't matter, I would not understand.

I have been watching Carnival Row and This is Us on Prime. They are both watchable, but not the best. I also just finished watching Hollywood. That is pretty good but it has a lot of sex and racism stuff and is a bit depressing too.

My mom called and it was really nice to talk with her. They were in the middle of a snow storm. She got a promotion - we don't know if that means she gets more money or if it just means she will be doing two jobs LOL She is a tutor and a tutor trainer and the promotion gives her certification to do more in the training department. I love how she is 85 and still getting promotions.

I have been having teacher interviews and I got to meet a really nice dude. He was a physical therapist in the States before moving to Japan with his Japanese wife and now is a stay-at-home dad but wanted to get out and do some work even if he couldn't do it in his field. He had the most twinkly eyes, I think I half fell in love with the guy and was super excited to have him on board, but he is pursuing other options and he may not come. I was soooo happy after the interview so that was really hard.

Two more weeks until holidays, and everyday is super busy messaging teachers and staff, etc. I have Easter to prepare for as well. Well, I have got to get this out now that it has taken me a week to write. I'll come back later to see how you are doing.

Oh, by the way,
Happy Hinamatsuri!

1. What's a food you liked when you were younger but don't anymore?
White bread. I used to eat a lot of bread, but ever since my diet, my urge has gone. I am perfectly happy with a lettuce wrap or cauliflower crust.

2. What's a food you used to not like but now you do?
I used to not like to mix my food when I was younger but I don't mind it at all now. I can't really think of anything else.

3. What's a food you enjoy eating both warm and cold?
Thick soup and green curry.

4. Are there any foods you can't get anymore? Why not?
Mcvities Digestive biscuits. The company that used to sell them here stopped. A different (smaller) company is selling them now, but they are not available anywhere. I used to use them for our barbecue s'mores because graham crackers are even harder to come by, and am super bummed.

5. What's your favorite "breakfast for dinner" (or "dinner for breakfast") food?
Scrambled eggs and sunny-side-up eggs with sausage. I like sweet food for breakfast so I hardly ever eat eggs at breakfast, but I sometimes eat them for dinner. I never eat dinner for breakfast.
----------

The next questions were from December so I changed the tense.

1. What was the best thing that happened to you last year
I was able to read lots of books - 68 total.
I ate my favorite foods. This may be the most important. I pretty much lived for my snacks LOL
I enjoyed my classes.
Alex got his job.
I can't remember anything particularly special happening but it was peaceful mostly.

2. What are you looking forward to this year?
Doing the same as above. Also, Audrey will be entering High School, which will be exciting. I bought a drawing book to learn how to draw cute drawings and possibly draw my own illustrations for my books since I cannot get anyone to do it for me. We will see how that goes.

3. Did you do anything special to ring in the New Year?
The usual - we ate soba noodles on New Years Eve as is custom in Japan. That's about it. We were all tired from being sick and went to bed early. On New Years Day, we ate Osechi, the Japanese New Years food.



4. What would you like to see more of next year?
I'm ok. I'm a little worried about how much of a recluse I am becoming. Seriously, I have a hard time caring about anything outside of the house and it is a bit worrying - just want to stay home when I can, other than taking Hana for walks. I have become super lazy. I should find some ways to go out and meet people. Having to work from Monday to Saturday, then having choir on Sunday really doesn't help. I really want to quit after the April concert.

5. What was your best New Year’s Eve ever?
The best New Years Eve was when I watched Guardians of the Galaxy with my kids like 4 or 5 years ago. I was super into LJ too, and posting constantly about everything. It was super fun having all the wonderful friends there. It's really sad not having any of that excitement and fervor and just, energy in general now *facepalm*.

1. Do you play any sports on a regular basis? Which?
I do not. I used to be in a soccer club at my Japanese elementary school. A cool tough girl asked me to join with her. She was awesome. I was terrible. All the boys hated having me on their team. I tried to join the basketball team in JH but I would have been a bencher so I declined. All my kids did sports - Alex did soccer all through elementary and JH as well as swimming and gymnastics for a few years. Julian did a bit of soccer too but continued swimming for longer. He did 3 years of basketball in JH. Audrey swam too and did 5 or 6 years of tennis. Hubby (former PE teacher) believed all kids should do some kind of sport in JH to even out the growth spurt. After seeing my kids (esp. Julian and Audrey) slim up in JH from their sports I wish I had joined basketball even if I sucked. I gained a lot of weight in those years.

I used to love swimming, I enjoyed racket sports like tennis, badminton and ping-pong but we didn't really have any teams in our school. Nowadays, I just enjoy walks with my dog. I don't even run. I have a long lead for her at the park so she can run by herself LOL

2. What professional sports do you follow?
None. Hubby loves to watch soccer, but he watches in his room now. I used to enjoy watching the Toronto Blue Jays and the Olympics baseball and hockey when I was in my twenties, rooting for the Japanese and Canadian teams.

3. Do you get enough exercise?
I think so. I try to walk as much as I can and I do exercises and stretches in the mornings.

4. What sport would you like to learn?
None in particular.

5. Are there sports activities you used to participate in but stopped?
See above :) I did also do some tennis with hubby and the kids when they were small. That was really fun and I miss it.

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I finished watching Shameless and the next season of Manifest. I really enjoyed Shameless and the ending was really good. Manifest was great too.

Warrior Nun is out! And some other shows I am looking forward to as well. Gonna finish HTGAWM first. Two more seasons. I am enjoying it!

I have decided to adapt The Elves and the Shoemaker for our Christmas play. I need to get everything ready for the 27, when I need to give all participants their materials/parts. Hope we can start practicing next week in classes though if I can get the program set by then.

1 Who do you know would be more likely to stress over small stuff?
I think there are many definitions of what "the small stuff" is. I stress over anything I have to do that is not planned in advance, or any event I plan for the school. My hubby stresses over messes. Personally, I think that is much smaller than my issues, but to him it must be super important.

2. Who do you know would be more likely to win at Hide and Seek?
My students sometimes hide when I am out of the room. Sometimes it is super cute, sometimes it is annoying LOL. Like 1st and 2nd graders hiding under the table or behind a board in the classroom is cute because I can find them right away and they are not trying to take up extra time or anything. Then there are the big kids that "hide" in the next room, pretending not to be at class. I'm not going to go over there and convince them to come inside. I just start the class and wait for them to trail in.

3 Who do you know would be more likely to live the longest?
My family is pretty long-living, so is my hubby's mother's family - so if we take care, we may live into our 90s too. I don't have any relatives in their 100s though.

4. Who do you know would be more likely to own up to their own mistakes?
My mom, maybe. My dad was horrible and so is hubby. I try to own up and even hesitate to make bold statements because I hate being wrong but I don't want to be like my dad (or hubby) either.

5. Who do you know would be more likely to name their pet something gloriously ridiculous?
I don't know what constitutes gloriously ridiculous. My students' pet is called Tart (the food), others we see outside are named Salt, Mocka (a black poodle LOL), Choco... Weird (and yummy), but not gloriously ridiculous LOL

I've read a bunch of books in the past week or so. They ranged from fantasy to scifi with similar themes of feminism, racism, life choices, depression etc. The Year of the Witching was a fantasy about a girl born with witch powers in a place where the patriarchal(societal/controlling) and matriarchal (nature/witches) religions were at war with each other. It was the kind of book that I would have enjoyed studying in school with all the underlining themes and meanings, too many to go into in detail here. Troubled Blood (by JK Rowling under another pseudonym) was a murder mystery but also included a lot of mystical beliefs, thoughts about "the person behind the mask," discrimination of women in the workplace and other. There were similar themes with the previous book on motherhood. The Midnight Library was about a girl who's depression overwhelms her after the death of her cat and losing her job and she overdoses. She enters an in-between world "the library" where she is able to experience various other versions of her life and decide which life she will live. This one was similar in situation to my next book Departure, which was about a group of people who are taken to the future to try to fix a disaster they would create if they continued down the same path. Seeing the mistakes they make, they decide to act differently on their return. Then, When No One is Watching. This was a suspense/horror story about one black girl and one white guy in an old black community in Brooklyn. As the two main characters suffered from depression, the book reminded me of the Midnight Library. The alcohol and the drug use (not illegal) to escape from their pain makes them pretty vulnerable and unsure of what they are experiencing and adds to the suspense of the story. It was also scary because although it is fiction, the situation is based on very real racial strife.

Anyway, I enjoyed them all and it was fun to find similarities and differences.

The barbecue was fun. The weather was perfect. Alex and Julian were wonderful and the students and families really enjoyed it. We made hamburgers. We bought some really nice buns (yellow buns, probably with egg in them) from COSTCO for everyone. We also made s'mores. I prepared a special bun for myself with coconut flour and that tasted better than I imagined but was also quite dense and filling so I couldn't finish it. I ate around half of the hamburger with the bun and the rest of the filling without.

The barbecue was on Sunday and we were all pooped by the end and lay down for naps as soon as we got home. I got thank you e-mails from two families, which was quite special. I had work on Monday so that was tough too, even though I had the morning to recuperate. I was so tired by the end of the day. Tuesday I forgot that I had choir practice in the morning and was a bit late but I was glad to be able to go after missing the Sunday practice.

Audrey had midterms so she couldn't go to the barbecue. She had only 5 subjects and finished today. They always have short days on exam days so the first day was three subjects, the second day was two. She came home for lunch both days. I haven't asked her how it was, but I think she worked pretty hard so I hope her efforts pay off.

Alex had his orientation "ceremony" with his company. He met the other 7 new employees (starting in April), the Department Head, Administrator and President. He told me they had lunch together at a hotel restaurant in the same building as the company. It was a French course meal! Wow. He was nervous but he seemed to have been able to talk with the others and glean some information on where they were from and which universities they went to etc.
He came home with a colleague that lives in the same direction.

I am now watching New Amsterdam on Amazon Prime and enjoying that as well. Anyone watched/ing it?

Here are some pictures from this week.
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1. Do you tend to remember book titles or authors the most?

Book titles, definitely. But I forget those too, if they aren't particularly noteworthy. I don't really note the characters' names either, unless I have to tell someone about them. That is one of the biggest reasons why I started my Supernatural blog back at LJ, writing about specific episodes. I wanted to remember as much as I could. I included quotes, songs etc so that I could.

2. Do you play any memory games to try and improve your memory.
No, not regularly, but I will tell you that since I have started eating kale everyday, my memory has definitely improved. I can remember Japanese kanji characters that would not have popped into my mind otherwise. I looked it up and found that there was actually a correlation so, definitely recommend it!

3. What is the very first movie you remember seeing in a movie theatre?
I didn't really watch movies at the theater when I was small. My parents may have taken me to see some Christian movie, but it doesn't come to mind. The first that comes to mind at the moment is Neverending Story. Next is Back to the Future. I stood for that one - the theater was packed.

4. What sense do you tend to rely upon the most?

Sound, I think. I also use a lot of music and rhythm to teach English.

5. When was the last time you felt lonely and what made you feel better?
Writing here, of course :) Also, cuddling with my daugher. We are hug buddies. She will just randomly come to the living room for a hug and is always there when I need her. My two boys are affectionate and there as well but hugging them for long periods of time like I do my daughter would be inappropriate :P

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Our barbecue planned for yesterday was cancelled due to a huge typhoon passing by. We will hopefully be able to have it on the Second of October.

Alex plans to go on a trip to Hachijojima, an island off the coast of Tokyo, on Thursday. Audrey is going on a school trip from Tue to Thur to Kyoto and Nara. Hope the weather clears soon.

I'm stressed from various work issues. Two teachers are quitting; one at the end of September, one at the end of October, and I have to find appropriate teachers to replace them or do the classes myself. I'm reading a mystery called Troubled Blood (Robert Galbraith) which is surprisingly engaging considering none of the characters are remarkable in themselves, and I'm still watching GRIMM - skipping through it for the best parts. This week we have two national holidays - today is Elderly Day, when we are supposed to say thanks to our elderly, and Friday is the Fall Solstice. I don't often have national holidays off, but I do this time so this week is only three working days. That doesn't mean I'm not working: writing mails to students and teachers and trying to salvage the teacher situation, but I don't have to teach, so yay.

That's about it I guess. Hope to get to some of your posts later.

1) What are you wearing right now?
An ivy green sleeveless knit shirt and navy culottes with a white sunflower or merrygold print all over the culottes are very light cotton, long and easily mistaken for a skirt. I also have some ankle socks on.

2) What would you rather be wearing right now?
I am not unhappy with what I am wearing, but I wouldn't mind just being in my shorts and tank. It is so hot and muggy. Also, I really need some more tops that fit my present stature more. All my clothes are so baggy.

3) What is your favorite outfit of clothing that you currently own and wear?
A long pencil style cotton brown skirt that flares down at my ankles. I bought it in Canada before my wedding and I have gone on and off wearing it due to my changing weight, but I can wear it again and I am enjoying it.

4) What is your favorite outfit of clothing that you have ever worn?( Because there are cute pictures of me below the cut )

1) What's the weather like where you are right now?
Today was very sunny and hot. I stayed inside with the air con on. Saturday we had a typhoon go through. Not bad. It was a nice day in.

2) Has your weather been seasonally appropriate lately, or has it been unusual?
Well, our rainy season was unusually short. Other than that, it's been normal.

3) Have you noticed any trends in the weather near you over the past few years?
We haven't had snow in ages. I am starting to despair of ever getting any.

4) Are you worried about climate change?
Yes and No. I think the Japanese governments might be trying to make us paranoid recently though for some other reason. They talk about reducing garbage by taking away garbage cans in public places, but that's dumb because people are going to take the garbage home and throw it away there anyway. That is not an overall reduction. They have pressured stores into reducing the use of plastic bags by making people pay for them separately, but people are going to need some bags to throw away their garbage at home so they are going to buy them anyway. So, all they are doing is taxing the consumer more and more. If they would reduce the excess packaging on the products, I think it would be more effective way to reduce garbage.

5) Are you doing anything to combat climate change?
We reuse and recycle.

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