Sad Reality.....

It seemed like a good idea at the time......
家の最近の悲しい現実。。。

Nabe - A Good Thing!

It's always easy to come up with things to moan about when you live in a foreign country, but despite the fact that having stayed here for so long indicates that it is not such a bad place to be, when asked to get concrete about the good points, my mind often goes blank, and I can't come up with anything intelligent. Well here is one good quintessentially Japanese thing: nabe hotpots!
Nothing is quite so convivial as sharing food from the same piping hot casserole, cooking as you go, on a bitter cold day. I can't believe it, but this is the first time we have had nabe this winter. We'll have to make up for that before Spring comes.

信じられないけど、昨日今年の冬初めてのお鍋を食べた！皆大好きだから、春になる前にいっぱい食べないといけない！

Have to be careful of the hot tofu though!
お豆腐が熱くなるね！

How NOT to eat udon noodles!
うどんの食べ方が悪い！

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Yesterday was Daddy's birthday. We decided to try and make his favourite, sushi, for his birthday dinner. Mummy bought the stuff and made some sushi rice, and we tried our best. Sushi rolls are harder to make than it looks! I think the major problem was that we couldn't find any large sheets of nori in the supermarkets we went to, so we tried to do it by lining up the sushi strips Ba-chan gave me the other day. What a disaster! But Daddy loved that we tried.
昨日はDaddyの誕生日でした。Mummyと二人でDaddyの好きな巻き寿司を初めて作ってみることにした。具を買ってきて、お母さんがすし飯を作った。とても頑張ったけど、寿司を巻くのが思ったより難しい！一番の問題はのりだったト思う。大きなのりを近くのスーパーで見つからなかったから、おばあちゃんがくれた細いのりを重ねてやってみた。バラバラになるのが決まっている！！でもDaddyは頑張って作ってみたその気持ちが大事だと言ってくれた。うれしかった。

Thankfully Mummy bought some delicious sushi from a shop for him too!
お店で買ったお寿司もあってよかった！

And of course there was birthday cake! Perfect!
そしてもちろんバースデーケーキもあった。完璧！

Hatsumode First Shrine Visit

We finally managed to get to Miyajima for our first shrine visit on Sunday. The I family always go to Miyajima if possible after the New Year, to pray for health and happiness in the coming year. You know I am not a proponent of organised religion in general, but this ritual start to the year is somehow comforting. We got our fortunes, all of which were good enough to bring home, and Mairi got a good luck charm, so I'm sure we're all now sufficiently protected for the year!


日曜日にやっと初詣に行けました。宮島の初詣は主人の家族の昔からの習慣です。私はどの宗教のファンでもないけど、なんとくなく初詣に行くと一年間が正しく始まるってかんじですね。皆おみくじを引いたら、家にもって帰ってもいいぐらいよかったし、Weechanはかわいいお守りを買ったから、きっと３人とも一年間十分守られているでしょうね！


There was a truly beautiful sunset for a nice end to a good weekend.


とてもきれいな夕空はいい週末の終わりにふさわしかった！

Goodbye Friends and Good Luck

We went for a farewell lunch with the K family on Sunday. They are off on an adventure to the US for a year. We wish them luck, and look forward to seeing them again in no time, with lots of great experiences to share, and maybe even in English!

日曜日にK家と「いってらっしゃい」ランチをしました。５人家族のアメリカの１年間の冒険が明日から始まる。しばらく会えないのが寂しいけど、あっという間に帰ってきて、面白しい話を聞かせてくれるのを楽しみにしています。出来れば英語で！

A last play in the park on a beautiful last Sunday in Hiroshima.

日本の最後の一日は最高の天気だったから、皆で公園で遊んでからお別れをしました。




Wild monkeys one and all!
チューリップのワイルドキッズ！


They should be arriving in America right about now! Good luck and have fun!
ちょうど今頃アメリカに着陸しているでしょう。頑張って、楽しんで帰ってきてね！

Pillow Talk Talk Talk

Just came down from putting M to bed. I might add it is 11:02pm, and we've been in bed since 9. Daddy's attempt failed, and Mummy took quite some time. Mummy's approach is to refuse to engage any attempt at chat. Answer anything concisely that really needs an answer and then counter with: "Ssssshh. Stop talking"

Tonight, after about 5 minutes of enforced silence:

"Mummy. I can't stop talking.......I love talking"

Can't think who she takes it from.... (You're all thinking me, but there really is competition you know!)

Weechanがようやく寝てくれました。現在１１時２分ですけど、９時にベッドに入っても、なかなか寝てくれなかった。Daddyの最初の作戦は失敗に終わった。Mummyも結構時間がかかった。いつもの寝かせ方：話をかけられても必要以上返事をしない。どうしても返事が必要な時短く答えて、そして「シッ！おしゃべりをやめよう。」で断る。

今晩、無理して５分間ぐらい黙ったあと：

「お母さん。茉利ね、おしゃべりがやめられないよ。しゃべるの大好き！」

誰に似ているのかな？（皆さんはきっと私に似ていると思っているけど、他にいろんなおしゃべりの親戚もいるよ！）

Lucky Bag 福袋

Lucky Bags are a New Year's Tradition here in Japan. Most shops make them up ready for the first day of business of the New Year. The bags aways contain things which are worth much more than the ticket price, so you are definitely guaranteed a bargain, but the bind is that you are not allowed to look inside, so there's a 50 -50 chance that you might not love what is in there. People line up hours in advance of the department stores opening on the first day of the sales, for a chance to grab a bag from their favourite designer, or jewellery maker.

私って絶対に中身が見えない福袋を買うタイプじゃないけど、何年か前、調子にのって、好きな雑貨屋の「私の部屋」の福袋をなぜか買ってみた。ビックリしたけど、その中に入っていたものは全部いいもので、あれからずっと使っている。だから、何でも疑う傾向がある私にとって、「時々気まぐれでいいよ」と言うメッセージとして受け取った。DrYも実は福袋が大好きだから、毎年「私の部屋」の福袋を買うのが家の習慣になってしまった。

だから今日も行ってみた。

Now, Wii Consoles aside, I have never been one for queueing for anything, far less buying anything without seeing it at least 3 times and obsessing about it for weeks first. However, a few years ago I decided on an impulse to get into the spirit, and bought a lucky bag from one of my favourite shops. The shop sells home and kitchen goods, and I have to say everything the bag contained has been used in our house ever since. I took it as a message not to be so mistrusting and obsessive, and sometimes to throw caution to the wind.

Dr Y secretly loves the idea of lucky bags, almost as much as he love me admitting I may have been wrong, so, it has become family tradition to buy a lucky bag at Watashi no Heya every year. I have to say I haven't got much I didn't like.

さて、今年の袋の中身：
So, to this year's haul:

For ¥5000 I got this lot. Not too keen on the wee acorn leaf plates, but all in all quite a usuable lot!
They helpfully leave the prices still on most of the stuff, and the total value was in the region of ¥13,000! Appeals to the Scot in me! Can't quite bring myself to go for the clothes lucky bags yet though!
￥５０００の｢洋」の袋でした。葉っぱの小皿はちょっと。。。ってかんじだけど、他は皆結構使えそう！元の値段が着いているから、およそ￥１３，０００の品を￥５０００で手に入れたから、ケチと言われるスコットランド人の私にとって大満足！
きっといい年になるわ！
Looks like it might be a good year!

What animal were you?

Happy Year of the Rat!

日本語版は下！

Conversation in the car a couple of weeks ago. Out of the blue:

Weechan: "Mummy, what animal did Nia used to be?"

Mummy: " ???????? What do you mean?"

Weechan: " Now she's a baby but she used to be an animal right? Which one?"

Mummy: "?????? No, I think she's always been human. "

Weechan: " Yes, now she is a human, but when she came out she was an animal right, and then she changed into a baby right?"

Mummy: "????????"

Weechan:(getting irritated): " Well you said I was a sheep when I came out. That's why Uncle Yoshihiko gave me the toy sheep. And you were a monkey right?"

Mummy: (trying not to laugh raucously) " Oh right! No we didn't used to BE those animals, that was just the name of the year we were born in. It's like your lucky animal! I think Nia was born in the year of the dog"

How do you explain this to a 4 year old??? I love her logic though!

You may know that Japan, while celebrating New Year on January 1st, follows the Chinese Zodiac system, assigning one of 12 Animals to each year. If you want the Wikipedia Explanation, check it out here. I particularly like the list of characteristics given to each people born in each year. You can check which year you were born in on the linked page, then scroll down to see if you are typical or not! Seems to be about right for my family. Many superstitions abound, and you'll find people trying to get their labour induced to avoid their child being born in an unlucky year. Apparently being born in the year of the sheep is bad karma for girls in China, so there was a rush of December births the year before Weechan was born.
日本語版

この間の車に乗っているときの会話です　（いきなり）：

Weechan: Mummy,　Nちゃんは昔何の動物だったの？

Mummy: ???????どういう意味？

Weechan: 今は赤ちゃんだけど、前は動物だったでしょう？どれ？

Mummy: えええっ？いや、生まれてから人間でしょうね。

Weechan: うん、今は人間だけど、生まれたときは動物だったでしょうね、そして出てきてから、赤ちゃんに変わったよね。

Mummy: ？？？？？？

Weechan (いらいらし出した）: だから。。。。私が出てきた時羊だったでしょう？そして赤ちゃんに変わったよね。だからYおじちゃんが羊さんのぬいぐるみをくれたでしょう？そしてお母さんはサルだったでしょう？言ったよ！！！

（すごく笑いたかったけど我慢した)Mummy: ああ、そうか！その動物たちから人間に変身したわけじゃないよ！毎年その年の動物が決まっているよ。だからそれがあなたのラッキーな動物かもしれない。茉利は未年にうまれたけど、羊だったわけじゃないよ。Nちゃんは多分戌年にうまれたけど犬だったと言うことじゃないよ。

Weechan: そっか？！

（多分まだ分かっていないでしょう）。

どうやって４歳さんに説明するのかね？Mummyが困っています。。。

2o Years On and Still Mad! ２０年経っても変！

Today we went to Daddy's old high school for his reunion. It's been 20 years since he and his friends graduated, and they still get together!

今日はDaddyの高校の同窓会のために昔の学校に行ってきました。卒業してから今年２０年だって！


One of them even turned up in his school uniform. He was just boasting he could still get into it.
一人は実際に着ていた制服を着てきたんだ！まだ着れるからすごいですね！

First we had a barbecue.
最初はバーベキューでした。

They put the barbecued fins of blowfish into their sake, apparently!
このふぐのひれを焼いて、お酒に入れるんだって。


I played with Daddy's friends' kids. At New Year kids traditionally fly kites and do a kind of badminton, so we did that!
Daddyの友達の子供と一緒に遊んだ。凧上げ、ハゴイタなどで遊んだ。


And other things.
そして他の遊びもあった。


Then we all went into the school to take a class by one of Daddy's old teachers. Maths!
そして教室に入って、昔の先生の数学の授業を受けた。


I didn't have a clue what he was on about, but they seemed to enjoy it.
何の話かさっぱり分からなかったけど、お父さんたちは面白そうだった。



Then they started playing this weird music, and they all started taking their clothes off!
そして音楽がなり出して、皆がいきなり服を脱ぎ始めた！

Daddy said they had to do these exercises every day when they were at school, with no tops on!
中学校から毎日どんな天気でも、上半身裸になって、お外に出てこの体操をしなければならなかったって！



What fine figures of men!?
皆いい体をしているね！？


Thank goodness I'm a girl so I don't have to go to such a weird school!
女の子で生まれてよかった！こんな変わった学校に行くのが大変そう！

Hello 2008

Happy New Year!!!　あけましておめでとうございます！


２００７年の最後の日はいろいろしてすごしました。じいちゃんとばあちゃんと一緒においしい食事をして、道が凍る前にうちに帰れました。

So New Year's Eve was spent out in a lovely restaurant with Ji-chan and Ba-chan, and we managed to get back home just before the roads froze over.

This left plenty time to enjoy a hot bath, a cuddle with the cat.....
早めに帰って、お風呂に入ったり、猫をだっこしたりする暇が十分ありました。

And watch the traditional Red and White Song Contest before midnight, and "Happy New Year!"　(I didn't quite last that long this year though....)

そしてもちろん紅白を見ながら、１２時の「あけましておめでとうございます」をまっていました。ちょっと１２時まで持たなかったけど。。。。


The next morning Ba-chan prepared a traditional New Year breakfast.
おばあちゃんがお正月の朝食を用意してくれました。

Complete with Osechi dishes.
おせちももちろん。

We all had our names on our special New Year chopsticks - I wrote my own!
それぞれのお箸にお名前が書かれました。私は自分のを自分で書きました！


My favourite bit is the lovely gooooooooey mochi in the ozoni soup!
一番おいしいのはお餅！

Then we braved the frozen mountainside and headed back to Hiroshima.
Happy New Year everyone!

そして昼頃そとの雪と寒さに出て、頑張って広島に帰りました。２００８年はすばらしい一年になりますように！今年もよろしくね！