Study time!

It's study time! I've go to read a lot on the Japanese lay judge system which has been newly introduced the previous year. Now a judgment in a criminal trial is not necessarily a matter of law professionals but of ordinal citizens like me, if they are eligible to vote over 20 years old. The Justice Ministry expects more common senses by six citizen judges should be brought in on the process before the final judgment is determined with three professional judges. Whewwwwwwww, it's a tough topic especially when it comes to English but it's a good opportunity to study the system itself. I learn a lot by reading lots of Japanese materials before studying it in English.
I might one day have a notice from the Supreme Court that I am one of these six citizen judges who are picked out from the voters list. Maybe not----honestly I hope not as a matter of fact. I hesitate to play a role to determine one's destiny.

Chinese Tea Set

Tonight I'm in a mood to have tea with my Chinese tea set. I got them when my husband and I visited the China Town in Yokohama near Tokyo.
There are one small tea pot and five small cups(as small as egg stands) on a drainer tray with holes. You serve hot water into the pot and then after you put a lid on, you pour hot water onto the pot itself! Isn't it amazing? There is a good reason for this-----to make it easier tea leaves open inside and get them enough steamed not to mention keep teapot hot enough. That way you'll get your tea so tasty. When you serve tea, you are supposed to empty the pot so that there should be no excessively strong tea left inside. You just add hot water whenever you want another cups. What a lovely way to enjoy tea! Since I have any one else around me tonight at home yet, I enjoy it all for myself! Five cups one after another!

Taking a break

If I had time to take a picture in the evening like tonight, I should have cleaned the dinner table first. But sometimes I just need it before I get started with my house chore routine. Some people may think it's only a waste of time but I feel I need it so that I won't kill my mind out of being busy.

My laptop was dead

It was like the end of the world! My laptop was dead all of a sudden due to some hard drive fatal trouble. I back up my data regularly but still I lost some. Awwwww! Now for the time being until I get a new one, I use this small net book which my son lent it for me. Glad he had this one but you know it is quite smaaaaall! And as long as it's his, I'd better not customize it the way I like. It's a little bit exhausting. Now my friends, beware of your PC. It's a machine after all. Don't forget to back up your important files.

Inspiring hint from Dionne

Dionne is such a talented woman in many ways. She owns "City of Dionne". She is a graphic designer, a writer, a photographer, a cook and an organizer-----and maybe a bit more talents.
Well, more than anything else, she has a generosity to accept friends from different backgrounds and shows her understanding toward differences. Her blog is filled with deep insights and warmness not to mention her artistic talents.
She also writes some articles in different sites besides her own blog and I'm a fan of her articles.

In her recent post in Meylah, she introduced the importance of making a blog button and I found it very interesting in a sense that I can use this button not only for linking to my blog but also for directing readers to a particular site or post.
A button is not only for advertising a blog. I haven't ever thought of that. Then, why not try a button for my own post! Thank you Dionne for inspiring me.

I've just followed her step-by-step instruction and I think I did it all right.

If you want to read her post, just click on the green button above.

I myself made a button to lead you my tulip album in a side menu. Would you like to click on that button? Thank you!

The origin of cell phone straps

(picture from http://hanakagesho.blog17.fc2.com/page-1.html)

I believe there are lots of people here regardless of ages who collect straps as well as enjoy putting them on their cell phones. Young ones love cute and pretty items or anime(cartoon) characters and grown-ups may prefer more crafty and artistic ones.

I have posted about a cell phone straps before but still there are a little more I want to tell you why we adore straps.

Although our dressing style was changed drastically after the western culture was introduced more than 200 years ago, it doesn't necessarily mean we have abandoned our traditional clothing "kimono". Kimono still remains in our daily life along with its accompanying accessories like sashes,sash bands, fans, hair ornaments and the like. Among them there are "netsuke" (miniature carvings), which we believe, the origin of today's cell phone straps. We just take it for granted that straps are not only for fun but also for its function.

Here is a video on this topic. You may also like to read this site.

Good excuse for sweets

Here are one of my favorite Japanese sweets called "Ohagi" , sweet rice balls.

Ohagi are rice balls similar to sticky rice cake and are covered with sweet red beans paste(right rear), sesame, sweet soybeans powder(front) or so on. My grand mom and my mother used to make these sweet balls as some offerings on the family Buddhist altar on several special commemorative days during the year. They are popular Japanese sweets which we have daily throughout the year as well.

So today I just needed something sweet so badly after I walked quite long to enjoy cherry blossoms at Nagoya Castle. On the way home, I stopped by at one confectionery store and found these Ohagi. Such a treat after I went through a comfortable fatigue. Good excuse to have some sweets!

When I got home, I had them with coffee not green tea but it was a good combination.

Well, just forget about calories. Happy tea time!

a stray kitty on an underground walkway

It's about 200meter long underground walkway which leads to one of the newest office buildings from the Nagoya station. Underway paths can be just bleak occasinally with dirty graffiti on the walls but this walk through is named "Lucent Avenue" and an art gallery with illuminations of different colors. You'll never get bored while walking. In fact it's fun to realize that this walk way has a story that stray kitty on the walls guides you from the one end to the other. We will see this black kitty on several points on the way as if she enjoys following us.

move in and out

We own three cars. Strangely enough, none of them is Toyota. Two Mazda and one Subaru. Anyhow it's about our parking space. We have only one garage for Mazda MPV(my car) and two others(theirs!)are sitting outside in tandem along on the approach way to our house.
Now this brings me an annoying chore especially when my husband and my son are not home. Our carpenters or gardeners come to work for a whole day so I have to give parking space for their trucks. See, they are not my cars but theirs! As a result I drive two cars one after another and park them along the road just in front of our gate one by one.
Then at the end of the day, after all the men drive home in their trucks, I back two cars into the space in tandem again. Don't you think it's annoying. My neighbors always gives me a smile when I am right at this work. I think I can drive any types of cars if you ask me.

a skilled and experienced gardener

So this is one of the stories about the trip to Kyoto this past Monday.
There we saw one old man at "Ken-nin-ji" temple in Kyoto.
There are some gardens of different sizes inside the huge temple grounds and this man was working in its main garden covered with mosses sitting while picking tiny maple buds in mosses one by one with his tiny tweezers. Since he was working right beside the walkway we're on, I just can't help stopping and start talking with him about how to take care of mosses.
He looked surprised when I started talking to him. I'm pretty sure visitors likely refrain from talking to the gardeners at work.
This old man, however, was nice enough to stop for a while and talk about his job and he answered some questions I made. I was so happy that he enjoyed talking with me about the topic.
I learned some new knowledge from him.
A ground condition is so important to grow mosses and once soil gets so hard as years pass by, mosses likely get damages because drain empties very slowly. According to him, at Kenninji temple, they use very well-drained soil best suited for mosses. Guess what? One of the best is very fine crashed used-roof tiles. It is amazing and already shows an eco-life, isn't it?
This is almost impossible to change garden soil completely in an ordinary house like ours. But what he recommended to me is if some part of mosses run dry, I should groom them and repeatedly cover them with good dry soil and water them. Wow, it sounds very difficult and naturally need lots of tries and errors.
There are some other tips he told me. Such as to use a rake made of good and dried bamboo. It's so impressive he thinks bamboo cut down in October makes the best results. He said so proudly "That is the best! And you know the difference." He added "Groom the surface every day with a bamboo rake and don't forget to water them twice a day in the morning and in the evening. Good luck!"
My daughter smiled at me saying "Mom, you can start it from tomorrow." "Well, well, well-----" (the reason is here)
Oh we had a wonderful talk with a nice and kind master of gardening.

Kenninji temple was founded about 700 year ago and is reagarded one of the important Zen sect temples in Japan. Official site is here.