a new year's card

I made the new year's card with computer in the office but it is just put the picture of next year's Chinese astrology to the format. I used to make the cards with handwriting when I was younger but nowadays almost every Japanese make it with computer so it is not full of warmth.

They just exchange the cards as a common practice. It is kind of silly, I think...

Although I could make the format only for 3mitunes, the 25 pcs of cards was printed upside down by mistake because I made it chatting with the ownner...omg !! She was in bad mood when she was got known my mistake. We can exchange the newyear's card spoiled in writing to the new ones at the post office. But seems she will use them for private. Anyway it's none of my business.:p

I was asked to fill out the profile card by my student. She wanted to get known my address and send newyear's card to me . But I had to write up about myself in great detail.

It requires describing kind of everything about myself; address, phone-number, birth-date, blood type, favorite foods, TV program, the best thing I would like to get, song I usually sing at Karaoke, favorite color, movie, words...even Love Talk.

Somehow I made it seriously and was thought about myself carefully again. But I spent all of the time of my class to do it. Phew...I feel I fell right into the trap of her.

I went to the office after 4days holidays and then found only one coworker have left the office. Although I knew she seemed be dissatisfied with the owner, she quit the job in a quite short time, maybe only one month? Now four people already left the office since I started the job at that company. I am sure the owner is quite strict about entire jobs but they should do nothing but just follow her. That is the job, I think. They took care about too much about what the owner said. Actually I am not affordable to take care of what she got mad at me one by one. I am very busy my second job. :p And I can work hard as long as I have plan travelling overseas.

When it comes to travelling it's almost the time I have to prepare for trip to Vietnam and Cambodia for new years holidays. I have already asked the agent to arrange the entry visa for Cambodia and will apply for travel insurance on weekend...and what's else? Ah, about others I can make it just before the departure...

busy these days...

I had been very busy this weekend so couldn't write up this diary. Maybe I am not good at make time for myself.

Anyway I got a lot of thing to have to do on this weekend. But I could finallygoto the beauty shop after a long time. Shamelessly, I asked hair stylist to make my hair like Japanese popular actress Erika Toda. :p

After beauty shop I went to my student's house. My student noticed my new hair style at a glance and then said, "Did you have your hair cut? Cute!" Wow...She is very good girl. hahaha.

I taught her how to learn Japanese ancient writings like Genji Monogatari, Tsurezuregusa, Makurano Soushi.

She doesn't know ancients words even it's very simple ones. So I made words cards it should be learned a thing by heart for her. And advised she can learn those stories with Manga. Actually I always read manga and could understand all of stories when I was students.Especially Genji Monogatari was very popular among girls then. Am I not good teacher?

I am looking forward to ...

I talked about our job with my friend at lunch. How should we do to be rich? We talk nothing but being rich recently. We used to study hard to get the license related to trading before but it seems we will not able to take advantage of that license due to global recession. My friend is looking for the license which can bring much profit. She is dreaming of getting luxurious car Lexus of Toyota when she would be rich.Why Lexus? I have no idea.:p

After lunch I went to the bonesetter to strengthen my bandy legs. Seems it will take a long time to be strengthened completely. But I will try to keep straightening there.
It is a trustworthy office. The doctor's fee is just one-third of the one when I have it in Tokyo.
I was learned about how to stretch myself which has good effective to strengthen bandy legs. I have to do it as much as I can a day. But it pretty hard to keep that posture even 1 minute.
Anyway I should work on it. I am looking forward to getting well-shaped my legs after sevral months. hehe

thinking about my job

I went back to home late last night because my students asked me to extend the time for tutoring since they will have the semester exam today. I arrived at home around 10:30pm and noticed the mail from another student. He asked some questions of math. The questions are very easy besides I taught him how to solve over again and again. Seem he still can't understand them.:-(
Anyway, I am getting very busy these days with tutoring compared to the importing company at the daytime. Maybe I'd better have job only as a tutor on concentrate. I tried to calculate the amount of my benefits when I have 2 times of students I have currently. Oh, I can expect gain pretty much.

I wasn't busy in the office because the owner wasn't there.:p Even though she gave us some chores so that we couldn't spend freely we could get through them immediately. We picked some herbs in the afternoon. Actually there are many kinds of self-cultivation herbs in the garden of the company. They are very useful to release my stress.

According to my today's student, her school is almost be closed due to swine flu. She says some of her friends got flu now. Now I feel the flu issue is closing to just around me. It is my first time in ever all of my life the flu is such as serious problem. I should be careful but I don't know what to do aside from frequent washing my hands and gargling. I doubt the vaccination is the most effective.

quick lunch box

I usually take my lunch box when I have work in the office on weekdays and have make it by myself. Sometimes I feel it very troublesome so get it at the convenience store. But the best way is using frozen foods. I can make it only for 3min. And it looks very colorful and delicious. Actually the taste is worse than what it is homemade, though...

Since I was spaced out I left my bag which has all of my belongings like wallet, cosmetic poach, cell-phone, digital dictionary, handkerchief, eye-drops,etc. in my house. I noticed that on the way to the office and then I retrieved it from my house. I had bought only lunch bag. I am very clumsy. Fortunately I was not late on the time for the office.

Ah, I just have to note. The lottery which is annual the end of the year started to be sold from yesterday. I should get it later.

my labor thanks giving day

I started gardening about three months ago. I planted young tomato, lettuce, basil and so on.

Now I am waiting ripen petit tomato but it still have not been enough. Maybe that's because it got colder suddenly last week. I picked two kinds of lettuses and Italian basil as today's harvest. Actually I had forgotten to pick them so they were grown too much.

Although today was the national holiday as the labor thanks giving-day, I had work of tutoring at night. I really wanted to skip it but I couldn't. Because my student will have the semester exam in 3days so if I would skip I would be disgusted by him.
Today's subject was how to prove congruence of two triangles. I was in trouble to explain about vertical angles.
I tried to ask him which high school he would like to go. He wants to enter the high school with recommendation from succor and be a professional. I just have known he is belong to the succor team but I didn't know about that. He was speaking enthusiastically with sparkling eyes.I want him to be active as a J-leaguer in the future. I wonder I should get his autograph before it is too late? haha

Spa & etc.

I went to the Spa again. But it's not the one I always go. It is 'Ganban-Yoku'(Ganban means bedrock and Yoku means bath) which is one kinds of the sauna style bath and you can sweat lying on the warmed natural stones or rocks, they call it the bath needless bath.

It causes good effect for the poor blood circulation. But just about me I broke into a sweat and lost my weight in a short time. Actually I don't need to be on a diet because I am thin so seems someone takes care of their weight would better use it. I prefer ordinal Spa which has hot spring.

Around at 6:30pm I was heading to the my student's house and passed by UNIQLO crowded with many people.Seemed the shop was holding sale. I think the reasonable shops like UNIQLO are getting popular around the world. So far I still have not found nice item there,though. I am excited getting something luxurious which has big reductions in the prices.

My students will have the semester examination in a week so he asked me to tell the measures of math. I gave him some questions and found he is poor at the application of equation. If it would be composed by the fraction he always takes a long time to solve it. He also doesn't like the question requires reading comprehension. I explained about how to make the formula carefully. I hope he can get the high score of math.

Atelier of Japanese paper

I visited the workman of Japanese paper to ask her to make the trial product made of Japanese paper. It was very cold just today. Besides that place is located in the mountains so it was cooler than city area. But the Atelier was great. We could see many kind of Japanese paper crafts and some famous people in this field.

We had lunch at the popular Soba restaurant around that area after meeting.

We went to back to the office in good mood ,though we got the announcement from the customs brokers and then was upset terribly. Because it says that we will not able to use the certification of foods inspection needed when we import the goods related to foods from overseas. That expire date is the end of this year which means we have to get the certification again next year. According to the owner the inspection fee is very expensive so we can't expect the profits at least for a year. So we placed an order mass of products immediately. Anyway I really have grudge the person who decided this system. There is always someone who stand in the way of our business.

I was very sleepy last night.

Since I went to bed before I knew it last night. So I'm writing up this dairy now.
Yesterday, I had labor work in the warehouse of the importing company . I leaned about how to move the pallets and use the PP bands. I can admire the person who invented the PP bands.I guess he must became rich thanks to this patent. Anyway...I'm sure I can be hired by the packing agent when I lose the job next.:p
About tutor, the student was elementary so I could make it easily. I taught how to get the volume of cubic, triangular prism and so on. That student is very talkative and she always change the subject to her favorite Japanese idol,Hey say Jump. Actually I didn't know about them ,though recently I am getting familiar with that idol. But for me they don't quite make the grade. They are too young for me. But I can make a sense because the girls who are 12-15 regard the men more than 25 as old man. haha.

Oh, It's almost the time for leaving home. I have to visit to the workman of Japanese paper with the owner today.

addicted to hotspring

It's getting cold day by day these days. Just yesterday, the temperature was the same as the middle of December. It had been very cold in the office all of day so I was thinking about going to the Spa after work. I don't like taking a bath at home during the winter because there is the coldest place in my house. So I usually go to the Spa near from my house when I have time. Luckily my class was canceled just last night so I went there after dinner. I could warm up my body,release my stress and the swelling of my legs was gone.

Seems I will be a regular customer of that Spa this winter too.

got something new

In the office I was taught how to use the electric screwdriver by the owner. Actually I had never thought about that I have to do such as works in my daily life before. But just in that company requires some handiwork. We have to assemble the carts for luxurious hotels like Birdcage luggage cart, Bellman's Hand Trucks before we ship them our customer when we received the shipments from overseas . I tried to use the electric screwdriver following owner's advice. I could use it by far better than I expected. I can make it very well so I should try do-it-yourself carpentry next time even at home.^^

About tutoring I was in trouble in the difficult question of math like this: required the area of triangle surrounded by the straight line of liner function and the curve quadratic function. Phew...I don't like math.

Now I feel sleepy and have to go to bed soon because I have to get up early tomorrow again...

real Japanese meal

Nowadays I usually eat out with my friends for lunch on weekends. But there was no person who has time to hang out with me today...so I spent alone all of day. I went to the beauty-treatment clinic to have facial massage in the morning and went back to home and then cooked my lunch. But I cooked in a very short time. Just baked fish(a Pacific saury), made instant Japanese pickles and Miso soup, boiled rice,sliced sesame Tohu...that's all. How healthy and simple my lunch is!
Although I love Italian, French, Indian, Korean and other countries foods, I sometimes feel like eating simple Japanese foods like today's lunch. I knew it.

rainbow

I could find the rainbow around 4:30pm today while I was driving my car to get something at the supermarket. When I noticed it I didn't have camera so retrieved it from my house unconsciously. Maybe it has been a long time since I saw the rainbow last time. It can't be come out badly on just the picture but the original was fantastic.

Japanese handmade Paper

I visited to Ogawa-town in Saitama prefecture with my coworkers because we are trying to think up the new products used Washi (Japanse handmade paper) for the guest room at first-class hotels. We thought we have to learn about Washi first as the start. That town is famous for the home town of Washi.

Ogawa-Town
The history of Ogawa-town can date back to far the Jyoumon-Era. It was known as the important point of the Kamakura Highway which connected Kamakura and Jyosyu in the Medieval Period and interesting town for the touring Japanese old history because there are the place of Umegaoka remains the legend of Miya Shogun Morikuni Imperial Prince who escaped safely to there after the fall of the Kamakura government, the ruins of Sengaku-Risshi (priest) who achieved research on Manyou-syu, Daishou-Ji(temple) which has Rokkaku-Touba(stone Monument) of the important cultural property designated by the government.

We could see many kind of the paper crafts. That made me realized again the beauty of Japanese traditional culture

Hiraizumi

Chusonji

It is designated as a special historical site, the head temple in the Tohoku Tendai Sect and the mountain number is Sekigou. Constructed by Kiyohira Taira, had about 40 of temple tower and 300 of Zen Buddhist seminary when it was in the heyday. Only Konjiki-dou was remained as the constructure at that time due to repeated fires. Konjiki-dou is called Hikari-dou as Matsuo Basyou composed 'Samidareno Kounokoshiteya Hikari-dou ' has floor, ceiling and walls gilded with gold. It keeps the corpses of Kiyohira, Motohira,Hideuhira and also the head of Yasuhira under the alter.

I have started my blog again.

I'm writing my blog after a long time. I had been really hectic over a couple of months. Actually I'm very busy even now. One of reasons is that I have two jobs now. One is the clerical work at the sole import agency and another one is home tutor. I have to work at both of them on every weekdays. Another reason is that I've got new my hobbies which is gardening and aromatherapy. I get many kinds of young plants of herbs, flowers and vegetables and then plant them to my small garden. Maybe I'll be able to get some tomatoes, blueberries and strawberries soon. About aromatherapy just I get some essential oils like lavender, lemon and so on and I light candle to evaporate oils and enjoy the smell of them. It makes me very comfortable and release my stress, feel refreshment.

When I feel like having something sweets I can eat my fill healthy.










I cooked very healthy pudding because it must be quite low calorie. I sometimes get the pudding at the market but I always feel the store-brought one is too sweet for me even though it says it's not too sweet on the package. I used lowfat milk, butter and zero calorie sugars. It must be less than half of calories of the store-brought one. I skimped some process like strainer but it is enough because it doesn't that I have to serve it for someone. Though looks is not good but...I can sing my own praises. It is very pleasant to taste.

Have I got hey fever?

Over a couple of week I have sneezed a lot of times and my eyes itches. These symptoms are just hey fever. I know you sometimes get an allergy suddenly. So have I got hey fever or something like that now? I have never had those kind of allergy until now so I didn't know how they who has a allergy feel but now I really know. I sneeze over again and agian and then have to blow my nose. My eyes itches so I can't put on contact lenz for a long time. It's really irritated me...

I hope my allergy is not just cat allergy.

草木万里野 ~dishes~

First we ordered ethnic Pizza(upper left) its taste is spicy with tacos source and it was pretty larger than I expected. Next (upper right)is 'Chinese rice baked in hot pebbles' which is Chinese boiled rice mixed with sea foods and vegetables and it was sizzling in the baked pebble pot when it was put our table first. The last (lower left)is Vietnamese Pho ga. (I don't know exact English name though) I always order it when I eat out there. The taste is quite light so we could eat it easily even we had felt full. I still have not eat the authentic Pho yet though I think this Pho is quite similar to Authentic one.






There are plenty of drink menu there.

We ordered Iced Vietnamese coffee(left) and Topical fruits shake(right).

Actually...I forgot the name of the fruit. The menu says it good for anti-aging with vitamin C and citric acid.





We ordered dessert too. Did we eat too much??

The below is Affogato which is Italian dessert refers to the act of topping a drink or dessert with espresso. The sweet vanilla beans gelato is an ideal match to espresso.:-)

草木万里野

I sometimes eat out with my friend for lunch or dinner at this restaurant and went there for lunch today.

The name of the restaurant is '草木万里野(Kusakimarino)' I heard they opened the restaurant on the premise 'The owner Sheff Marino opened the Asian restaurant after she remodeled'

The building is like half in Japanese style and half in European style. We can open the small sliding door with stooping down for entering the inside. Ah, in my case I don't have to stoop down because I am very short...:p

The foods menu is also semi-western style and you can find many kinds of dishes like Italian, chinese, Japanes foods.

Kusakimarino is kind of chain store so you can find it in Kita kanto area (located in more than about 50miles northeast from Tokyo like Gumma,Saitama, Tochigi prefecture) There still aren't in Tokyo. Personally, I don't want to them to open in Tokyo but only in Kita kanto area.

stupid public servant

I went to the public office to pay government pension tax reluctantly. And then I witnessed by chance the two men were looking at the some pictures (I guess they were taken at some one's wedding ceremony.) despite they were on duty. How stupid and rude they are! They must be not busy in the office. I can't forgive them. It doesn't that I am willing to pay tax in my recent severe situation due to economy crisis. And the public office can be paid by our taxes. In spite of that why they are fooling around during office hours without consciousness? If they held surplus people they should cut their staff like private companies. Anyway I can't help raising an object about it to the public office.

job interview part2

I went to the job interview today. That company is that they imports foods,oils,soaps and so on from France and sell to the nationwide shops. I am interested in that company it is different from the company I applied for it three weeks ago. I really thought I would like to work for that company while I was having job interview. I am interested in the goods they are handling. The goods are the things most of women taking care of their health or beauty must like and buy. And the owner said to me my job background and license are enough for handling their business because I was working for the customs brokers at the job before last. But there are some problem. First,the location is in very far from my house and it takes 1.5hours even I use highway by my car. I can sleep or read just on a train or a bus even if it takes such a long time. But I have no choice because there are no suitable train or bus line to get there from my place. Second, they are look for the person instead of the female staff who became pregnant. According to the owner, their business will going well over next near but if it would be poor and that woman went back to the office after maternity leave I should leave the office one year later. The most difficulty is that now they are accepting more than 40 applicants and it seems they have excellent job backgrounds. For example; worked for famous Japanese trading company, resided at Italy for 6 years with job, speaking English as like native and so on...

Anyway, all I have do just now is waiting the result of the job interview as well as looking for other jobs.

She is in a good mood.

How cute expression she is!

I am acting like a doing parent...I took a picture of her without meaning to.

Japanese style Pasta?

I cooked very low calorie pasta for lunch. actually just I didn't have pasta sauce and it was hassle going out to get it. The ingredients are pasta(absolutely!), basil, hone-wort, olive oil, a little of salt and consomme powder...that's all. I wonder I am on a diet? The taste was pretty simple but not bad. But I can't serve it for guests.

incense-burning

Today was very hot as if it was early summer. The temperature rose to 25 ℃and still 21℃ even in the evening. I always feel like going somewhere on such a good day. but I stayed at home all of day. Because I'm really into incense-burning nowadays. I have interested in the incense before but almost of them are made in India or Thailand. Absolutely I like those taste but now I like Japanse taste. My favorite smell is Sakura. When I burn Sakura incense I feel as if I am in full cherry blossoms. I burn incense almost every day and my cat always sleeps next to it So the smell of her hair is also Sakura. Maybe she is also enjoyed that smell. ^^

Sakura

Now it is the season for the Sakura tree or better known in English as Cherry Blossoms to bloom in Japan. However of recent, cold weather still persists here in Japan.
In addition, I went to a local liquor shop and something caught my eye. I noticed that they are selling some sort of wine made from Cherry Blossoms. Unfortunately, all of the Cherry Blossom wine stocks had earlier been sold. So I asked the shop clerk when the next shipment of the wine would arrive. Unfortunately still, the clerk told me that no more shipment will arrive for that certain wine since the Hanami (Flower Viewing) Season has already ended. I am really curious of how that Sakura wine would taste like.

my cat

My cat sometimes sleeps like a human being. She uses a pillow when sleeping and she even wakes me up to take a pillow and even takes my space in sleeping. I wonder if she even thinks that she’s a cat and not a person.

job interview

Before I begin I still want to mention some experiences I’ve had in the Philippines.
But, considering the reality of my situation here in Japan, being unemployed is really hard. So, I applied for a job. And here I am, preparing for a job interview scheduled today. This job I am talking about is not really the type which makes me excited. However, since it is the job which the unemployment office strongly recommended to me. I decided to apply for it. But, this particular experience for me is not quite good. The job exam was a difficult one. It’s practically a math exam. And math was a thing of the past for me. I really forgot how to solve those problems. I was wondering, why I had been given such difficult problems. Why not give me an exam on kanji or something? In addition, the interviewer gave a hard question for me to answer. I started hating the person in charge of the unemployment office, that old man! I really do not want to work for him any time soon. But I quickly realized that working for these kind of men are not avoidable. I also realized it is going to become harder for me to keep my lifestyle if I keep on going unemployed.

sweets and snacks(in Philippines)

In the Philippines, I can get a lot of sweets, snacks, and instant noodles for reasonable prices. They come in handy, because I skip meals at my dormitory.

The leftmost photos are not sweets. It is a pack of powdered fruit juice. It is prepared by adding 5 parts of water to 1 part of the powdered fruit juice. But the first time I’ve tried it. I did not read the instructions and I end up drinking something too sweet. .I thought that it was suppose to look viscous and pulpy when you pour it to your glass. I felt stupid doing that. But I think that made my sore throat better. Anyways, I like the supermarket in the Philippines. They even recognized my nationality.

Healot (in Philippines)

Hilot means body massage in the Visayan language in the Philippines. I found many good spas in Cebu, Philippines. The offer top of the line services at reasonable prices and fees. I think their prices are a tenth of that of Japanese Spas. Fortunately for me, a spa is located near my dorm. So I go there every other day. I tried every service offered by the spa. But I hear that foreigners go to this spa are not quite common. And I noticed that Philippine students come at the spa a couple of times. I also tried other spas in Cebu, but I found my spa near my dorm to be better than all of them.

The girl shown here is a good therapist. As long as she’s in the spa, I can virtually try any service they offer. However, It looks like the staff do not know how to operate a machine used for facial massage. Anyway, that spa in Cebu was the best. It made me comfortable all the time.

Jeepney (in Philippines)

It is the most common transportation means in Philippines. But I always use taxi because it was a little bit scary getting on the Jeepney when I was alone. I could try it when I was with Philipino. There is no a/c but I really enjoyed with the warm wind and the view on the street from the window. And I felt heartwarming because the passenger seating far from the driver can hand to the their neighbor the pay and then other passengers pass the pay to the their neighbor so that the driver receive it.

I felt that I was in Philippines the most when I was getting on Jeepney...

The meals of the dorm (in Philippines)

The pic is the dinner of one-day. After all, I never could meet good meals there. It seems that they cooked for Koreans because there are many Korean students in that dormitory. But even Korean are saying the tastes is terrible.

I was wondering why they could cook such as terrible meals...I thought they should borrow me their kitchen. But I could not complain about it when I the staff of canteen smile at me.hahaha...