Porcelain

I have some friends who are quite the artiest. One of them paints on the dishes. She paints beautiful flowers. Roses are her favorites. The large plates on the wall and on the cupboard are just gorgeous. Well, owing to her friendship with us, I go visit her with some other friends of hers and learn a bit of porcelain paintings.
It's like painting on papers in one way but is quite different in another. The more you move your brush on the same spot using same color, the more you'll find your brush takes off the color on a plate. No matter how it is, I enjoy this get-together. I enjoy porcelain and to tell the truth I love our "lunch time" and "coffee break" updating our daily-life.

Hina-Arare

Valentine's day is over. Now every store which sells Japanese sweets(Wagashi)is ready for Hina-Arare(small cubic rice crackers)of various flavors, and Hina-gashi(Japanese sweets made from beans and grains) for the coming Dolls Festival for girls on March 3. This is our next fun.
The Dolls Festival is especially for girls and this custom has a long history. Nowadays many family with girls decorates the set of dolls with ancient costumes to wish their daughters' lifelong happiness. We decorate some Hina-arare and Hina-gashi next to the dolls for offerings.
Here are some Hina-Arare and Hina-gashi which I got from the different stores. They are so adorable to look at and worth decorating by the day of March 3.
I packed some of them and sent it out for my daughter studying in Kyoto.
I can easily imagine how she looks when she finds all these Hina-arare in the box.
Eventually women love the Dolls Festival no matter how old they get.

Blogging from my mobile

I'm now on the way to one of my friends. The weather is changing every
minute. Windy and Sooooo cold.

The way we have the Valentine's Day in Japan

One of the Japanese confectioneries had brought about this western culture into our society almost fifty years ago. But they somehow moderated it. What they did is that they promoted the Valentine's day as the very special day that women can confess their love to someone special with a box of chocolates. Since then every year women of all ages have been so anxious to get prepared boxes of chocolates for this day. In fact every chocolate manufacturer put varieties of fancy chocolates into markets and we all happy to visit every department stores and shopping centers to pick up your favorites. Indeed all the chocolates corners turned to be colorful and fancy stages. It worth of visiting and looking around. Nowadays women's giving chocolates to men on the Valentines day is so widespread and get popular among friends and company colleagues and staffs and even in families to show their appreciation.
I bought two boxes of chocolates from different chocolatiers for my husband and my son. Here is still one left with me. It's the one for my husband. I'll keep it until he gets home from New Deli, India next week. I can't wait to hand it out to him and enjoy fancy chocolates together at coffee time.

Happiness is doing something I'd love to

I wish I could draw. I enjoy drawing once in a while, not very often. I enjoy it for my own sake. Since I am not a regular painter, I don't have enough good tools. As a matter of fact, I paint on my lap top computer using a soft for drawing. Changing a mouse to a pencil, it's much easier to draw. Thing is that I don't have enough time to draw. If only I had abandoned all those house chores one day and spent the whole day in anyway I like, it will be such a treat!
Whenever I stroll around the books at the shop, I always stop at the corner of books of drawing. I've found this very cute little text book for illustrating. There are lots of model drawings and with some tips for drawing on every even numbered page, a reader is supposed to draw his/her own on every odd numbered page on the right.Isn't it neat? So I bought it and now in between house chores at the kitchen table I open it and with a pencil in my hand, I enjoy it. Gee,it's really fun and I'm enjoying letting time pass for one of my favorite things.

What a magic!

A friend of mine, who visited Cappadocia, Turkey in Dec. gave me a souvenir.
It is an "Instant Fruit drink---Apple Tea".
I didn't forget about it but it was just the matter of timing to open it.
So today I felt like trying this special tea which my friend brought back with her as a souvenir all the way from Turkey to some of her dear friends who are anxious to get something nice from her.
When I opened the bag, I was so much surprised to see all the white powder inside.
How could you dare to call it a "tea"? Is this some kind of a joke?
Being skeptical for what I'm looking at at this site, I just followed the direction putting two spoonful of this apple tea powder in a cup and poured hot water onto it. See what had happened? Two spoonful of this white powder turned to brown---the color of what I understand as "tea" in my life.
How exciting! It surely gives everyone in my family a nice surprise and enjoy it.

Erasable pen

I don't know whether a word "erasable ball-point pen" makes a sense to English-speaking friends. This ball-point pen is very unique in a way that you can erase without ink eradicators or erasers. Ink disappears simply by rubbing, using a hard rubber attached to the other end of a pen. The manufacturer developed this special ink of which color is just rubbed off by way of friction. Isn't it something? Heat does count. This special ink supposedly loses its color over a heat of 60 degree Celsius. Then even a hair dryer can be an instant eraser for this ball-point pen. I use it for my schedule book I carry with me in my bag everyday. It's so useful when my schedule needs to be rewritten then I don't have to make a mess any more in a small space with lot of strike-through.
But there is one thing that you've got to be careful using this pen. Don't use it in writing an address on an envelope or a postcard. An automatic postal code reading machine might erase your friend's address on a post card with its own heat on the process. Mr. postman will be at a loss.

Look here. It's fun.

More than prayers

Happy New Year.

May the whole world be desperately filled with peace.

Kabuki

If I don't have a friend whose career is so much related to Kabuki, I wouldn't have had a chance to enjoy one of the sophisticated culture of my country.

Let me talk about Kabuki for those who don't know what is all about.

Kabuki is a form of classical theater that started in the early seventeenth century. It is characterized by the rhythm of the lines spoken by the actors, extravagant costumes, flamboyant makeup, and the use of mechanical devices to achieve special effects on stage. Most of the plays based on medieval or warriors period or Edo period (just about between 7 to17 centuries)themes, and all the actors, even those playing female roles, are men.

The world of Kabuki fascinates many people from abroad as well as the Japanese.

Well, a friend of mine who commits his life to the Kabuki world is not a Kabuki actor. He is so-called "a chanter" who plays an important role telling a story during the play.

On one of the days during the run, I make it a rule to see the Kabuki with one of my good friends and really have a good time to enjoy the Kabuki world. I'm really proud of him to devote himself for the traditional Japanese culture.

One of my favorites of these days

For these months, precisely since April, I've been just absorbed with this English learning application on the web called "iKnow!" run by a group of young IT professionals consisted of various nationalities.
They have many different learning applications of all kinds and levels.
What I like best about "iKnow" is that I can read, listen and typing many phrases and sentences and I only finish one application by marking 100%for each vocabulary.
In other words, a certain vocabulary is showing up over and over until I am supposed to tell that I've made myself understood a new vocabulary.
What's more I can make friends beyond sexes and ages with the same concern of learning English by requesting as "Friends" so that we exchange comments, sending some greetings and writing diary.
For those being interested in learning Japanese, they have a Japanese learning application as well. Would you like to try just to know what Japanese language is like.