Need to rest?

My PC performance is so slow for the moment. I've got to see what's the problem. It's so irritating. I feel like I was shut down from any doors to go out from a house. Any windows seem to be a bit small for me to get out! I need the Door to the world wide web! I may not update for a moment. Wait for me.

Lucky Monday!

I went to Kyoto! How lucky! My appointment was canceled and i got a day off on Monday. Hurray! I called up my daughter and asked whether she had any time with me. She did. It was cloudy and started raining in the evening but it didn't ruin our day at all. We walked and walked and enjoyed the beginning of Spring in Kyoto. We had lunch and dinner together. It was such a good time to enjoy girls talk(if you might say)until the last minute I got a train back home. I'll tell more about this visit.
This photo is one of the popular slopes leads to the very famous temple.

Fun to check

Most of the popular morning newspapers in Japan hold files of inserts in the middle almost every day. They are from all kinds of shops like the neighboring department stores, drug stores, grocery stores , car dealers, real-estate companies, gyms, community colledges--- all sorts. It's really fun to check one by one to know what is going on at each store. These newspaper inserts are full-colored and very eye-catching. The one I never miss among them is from the Takashimaya Department stores and another is from Tokyu-hands which deal with daily goods from stationery to DIYstuff. Checking these ads in the morning over a cup of coffee after I finish some chores is one of my favorite past time. What about the newspaper you subscribe? Does it hold paper inserts? Are they good enough to draw your attention?

Until next year "Good bye"

Hinamatsuri(Dolls Festival) was over on March 3. It's time to putting Hina dolls back to each box. Hina dolls are quite special in a way that they are displayed for a short period of time up until the day of Hinamatsuri March 3 and should be kept in boxes until the next year. It's been raining for these days after March 3 and I don't have them back into boxes in a damp weather for fear of getting stained or spots on their silk wear and on their faces. I was waiting for a clear weather and it was today after a long cold rainy weather. It took time to finish carefully but I enjoyed this as much as I did when I displayed them.
It's like a farewell party to say good-bye to your dear friend. I'll see them next year at the same time of the season.
See also the post I wrote last year.

Just want to share this!

Aren't they cute! A friend of mine's dog(pomeranian) gave birth to three babies. I went to see them! They never got me bored any minutes. They are really something! They never stay still. I took this picture with my cell phone camera, which I believe, is hard to get a perfect shot. They are much more adorable in real life.

Does your cell phone have a hole?

Here! Actually it's like a thread hole------one in and one out.

Japanese cell phone models regardless of manufacturer companies have holes at either upper side of bodies.

What about yours? Does it have a hole? What is it for, then?

These are for cell phone straps!

See more below in an album. Some are mine and my friends' and from the web.

Why do we love to put straps on our cell phones so much?
Well, it is probably related pretty much with our
ancient custom of using "netsuke" which is a hanging object we use in kimono.
It might be fun if I talk about it in my next post.

Until then, enjoy a bit more images of cell phone straps from google images.
here!

Time's up!

Today our volunteer group has a monthly study meeting to interpret. We have two topics from the recent news. It's such a nice meeting for me to participate. With a group of friends whom I am always impressed with their enthusiasms for learning the foreign language , this get-together gives me much inspiration to keep up with my own study.

I'm running out of time though. I feel a bit reluctant about joining this meeting today since along with the paper work over the past few days I haven't prepared enough for today.

Just wish me luck!

"Participation is what counts!" Right?

What a mess!

I'm not happy about my desk. It's not wide enough to handle paper works to do.

I'm a member of a volunteer group of about 30 interpreters in English, Spanish and French and we are registered for the Aichi International Association in Aichi prefecture. Since March is the month for every prefectural volunteer group to renew a registration, as a matter of routine, I have a lot of paper works to do. Besides an official registration form, I have to hand out several papers such as a group bylaws, a members list, a newsletter to report our activities, a leaflet and the like. It's really time consuming. I need to ask the rest of our staff members to check all those papers before printing out. I'd been working on this almost for a week. Well we're almost done, anyway.

Then another job is waiting for me. We have a workshop in April and the staffs are busy getting ready for searching enough materials for interpreting lessons on the subject of "COP10" and "the citizen judge system in Japan." Whew---- sounds tough, isn't it?

As a result, my desk is a mess. I need a bigger desk but what comes next after I get one. I believe it will be another mess after all.

Raking mosses

How to keep mosses always healthy requires time and patience.

If you are not in a mood for spending up your time in the garden, it will turn to be such an irritating moment of a day. But once I get involved in it, I quite enjoy this chore of cleaning up the garden.

Today it was warm and less windy in the morning, I decided to spend a couple of hours before lunch to clean mosses.

Mosses grow inches and you can't neglet them grow. If they grow tall, it is natural they stand tittled and finally they pile one another by their own weight. Sometimes this brings excessive moisture inside mosses and let them ret. To prevent them from dying, I rake them to have them sit straight to get enough air as well as clean the surface.

It's really fun to see quite an amount of weeds are raked at the same time.

After raking, it's so pleasant to see and feel a moist carpet of green.

My 200th post!

It took way long for me to hit the 200th post today.
When I started my blog in English, who would have expected to meet a group of nice and sweet women from different countries. In fact I started my blog about 6 years ago but I haven't gotten many comments for years. Eventually I wasn't a good writer for years. I almost gave up writing.
I still remember of my excitement when I found the comments from Dionne from US and Little Tiara from Indonesia. They came in at around the same time and then I've met Anya from Holland and Jeany from Germany. This brought about a change in my blog. I've got some other friends. Lenorenevermore, Pamela, from US and Ellen from Malaysia, you always give me an enthusiasm to keep uploading my posts, as well. Then new meetings still lead me to another new encounters one after another!
Of course I would like to say "Thank you" to all those who come and read my posts often.
Without each one's constant visit to my blog, I would have never made the 200th post today!