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.

It's October.

(image from the previous year)
(things we need for putting new screen paper)

Well, it's kind of threatening for a housewife to know that we have only three months to go before the new year. There are more or less household chores for a typical Japanese housewife to meet the first day of the new year.
Here are my top three annual chores to do:
1) changing the old paper screens to the new ones
2) wiping out all the windows
3) cleaning up shelves and closets in the house.

Chore 1) is quite a task for me. Since there are quite a number of shouji( paper sliding doors) in our house, I can't finish all in one day nor I'm not going to change all every year. I take two years to finish all paper screens to new ones. When every October arrives, I start to make a plan how I start with this job, making plan on how many sliding doors I should work on this year, getting rolls of screen paper,special glue for door frames and a good small blade.
I also check the weather report to know the days must be fine and warm. This is true for Chore 2) as well. Chore 3) is, I believe,just easy for a good housewife who is good at putting things in the house in order, but this is not for me and I prone to leave this chore undone at the end of the year making a excuse to myself saying "Well, let's try to get things in order in my daily life next year. With every day efforts, I don't have to struggle at the end of the year like this."
I've been saying this for these years. what an experienced housewife!

Funniest story about sushi

I just burst into a big laughter to see it. If you are Japanese or anyone familiar with our culture, you will be just surprise to watch this film and wonder who on the earth made this story and what's for?The story is partly true and partly wrong but you can't blame it. It is just a harmless and funny story I have ever seen before.

It has a useful aspect of learning English vocabularies, though.I learn fish names and some other vocabularies often used at the Japanese sushi restaurant.In fact the last time I had sushi at the sushi restaurant with the guests from abroad, they wanted to identify each slice of fish on a sushi rice cake on their plate before they put them into their mouth. If I should have known each name in English, they could have enjoyed the meal without being skeptical.

Guests from South Africa

I guided two women from South Africa accompanied their husbands visiting Nagoya on business while they had business daytime. South Africa is somehow very familiar with me since my husband has been visiting there once a year for over 15 years on business. I've heard a lot and seen many pictures for years. I've finally had a chance to enjoy conversations with two women from the fascinating country.

My collegue from a volunteer guide group and me showed them around to Nagoya Castle, the Tokugawa Museum and the shopping archades at the basement floors downtown, and the one-coin shop where you can pick up almost anything at 100 yen. Starting from 9:00 in the morning, time went up so fast before we came back to the hotel.

It was a good chance for me to learn how to explain our history and culture in English.

Nagoya Sightseeing Route Bus

Nagoya is quite a big city in Japan. In fact, it is the fifth largest city and has many historical spots of the anceint ara. I visited some spots using a shuttle bus.
I parked my car at the Toyota commemorative museum where I took a shuttle bus bound for the Tokugawa Museum. A shuttle bus runs every one hour and that gives me enough time to visit the spot. I joined the guided tour by a volunteer guide. I leared some of the knowledge about the history and ancient culture of the Tokugawa period. That was really worth of it. Then, I strolled around the Japanese garden next to the museum. After I spent 2hours, I took a shuttle bus dropped at the center of the commercial area of the city. I went up to the TV tower where you can take a view around the city from 100meter high. Then finally I went back to the Toyota museum.
Though I've lived in Nagoya just about 25 years, there are so many things I don't know about this city in all aspects including history. It was really fun and I'm sure I'll be taking this shuttle bus again some time soon to see some other spots I've missed this time.