Day Three - Motsuji

In the pouring rain we went to Motsuji (lovely website in English, please have a look!) to see where Jiichan spent two years as a fifth and sixth grader in the 1930's. His father had been a priest at the temple but was adopted as an adult by his wife's father, who had no son of his own. (They are MAD about preserving the family name in this area, even now all the family relationships are full of adoptions to keep the line going.) So Jiichan was sent back to the temple for two years - partly because they were poor and there wasn't enough food to go around.This is looking into the main temple. I found when I got back that I had taken a lot of tight shots and close ups but was sorely lacking in wide views of anything. Ooops...

The "Hagi Matsuri" (Japanese bush clover festival) was in full swing despite the rain, and as we arrived there was a koto concert taking place. They had set up a shelter for viewers so we sat underneath it for a while, and listened to the music.

These ladies were singing as well as playing.We couldn't go very far from the main building because Jiichan had said at the gate that we were family and wanted to say hello to the head priest. He was busy conducting a ceremony but would probably be able to pop out to see us in between events, so we were asked to stick around so he could catch us.

This man was in charge of the koto concert. The flowers are the bush clover!

Yoshi was waiting by the main meeting hall.

Harry was enjoying the rain pouring off the main temple roof!

"Is the priest ever going to come? Is the rain ever going to stop?"
While the others were waiting in sight of the meeting hall, I went off for a little amble. This was just the first bit of autumn beginning. The rain actually made everything more beautiful.
Looking across the lake to the site of more temples. This was originally a huge temple complex, more like a city than anything else (in the 1100's).
Another temple building, and lots of very wet staff, weeding in the rain!

One of the temple staff.

The poet Basho came here (he seems to have gone everywhere!) and composed a haiku inspired by the battles that took place here. The haiku was inscribed on this rock but the words have nearly disappeared by now.
It was translated into English by Nitobe Inazo (Who incidentally had a foreign wife!) and inscribed on this rock:

"The summer grass
'Tis all that's left
Of Ancient warriors' dreams"

At last the priest came out to greet us, and offered to take us into the main temple hall. Jiichan was very happy to see the place after sixty years. The current priest is.... wait for it... I had to have this repeated to me several times... deep breath: Jiichan's father's younger sister's daughter's son, adopted from her younger sister as she didn't have a son of her own to carry on the family name.

I switched the flash off in the hondo (temple hall) so the picture is a bit blurry, but the priest was happy for me to take photos as he showed us the main altar. Jiichan said it was exactly the same as when he lived there, except that being a poor era the gold leaf, paint and tatami was chipped and scruffy. Jiichan said he had to clean all that as a kid, and he hated it!

Another view of the Hondo.

It is unusual to get a chance to take a photo from the Hondo looking out.

Before we left, Yoshi took a picture of the priest and Jiichan together. In case you didn't follow that complicated relationship earlier, basically the priest's grandfather was Jiichan's father.

Day Three - Hiraizumi Aunt's House

By the time we had picked up Seiju's mum and dad and driven to Hiraizumi, it was pouring with rain. First of all we went to say hello to Seiju's aunt, his dad's sister.Hiraizumi is a very ancient village with two famous temples, a lot of other fascinating places to see, and gorgeous scenery. It used to be the capital of Japan in the 1100's and is an important historical place.
This is a little path right at the back of Seiju's aunt's house. It leads to the graves of Yoshitsune's wife and daughter. He was a famous warrior who was killed unjustly by his elder brother.
Almost noone goes up that path, nor even knows that it is there, and it was flanked by higanbana (nerines) in full bloom. Absolutely lovely with the raindrops on them.
This year Hiraizumi and its temples, including the land that Seiju's family own, were set to become a world heritage site, and Seiju's dad had to sign a paper giving up any claim he had to the land of the temples (his family are priests there - more in the next post! - but actually laying claim to the land in a personal manner would be impossible, but he did have some ancient rights.) The application failed but they were invited to reapply in three years time and the plan is to do so.
This is inside the aunt's house. There are three houses on this bit of land, all owned by various family members, all very old now. This old lady is Seiju's Dad's cousin. She and the other old lady gather at Seiju's aunt's house every day to drink tea and talk about the same things over and over again! They have done this all their lives. This old lady is now so deaf that she has to have stuff written down for her to read. Seiju's dad was telling her why we'd come.
Seiju's mum is sitting in the chair and the other old lady from the other house is sitting on the floor! She's also a cousin of some sort.
Harry was a bit hit with Seiju's aunt, who is trying to chat him up here. Unfortunately she speaks a dialect almost entirely different to what my kids speak and he barely understood her!
Seiju really likes this aunt, and I have to say I like her too, (if I understand what she is saying!) She is very direct and she makes a lot of jokes. Seiju's mother can't stand her because her house is so dirty. (Seiju got bitten three times in the 15 minutes we were there by some bug or other - ewww!)
Ginseng in alcohol in a milk bottle on the coffee table! Actually I was amazed because when I went to visit with Seiju 11 years ago, the house was FULL to about neck level with only little rabbit runs to walk through and one-bottom's worth of space to sit here and there in the heaps of stuff. The aunt's husband died last year and their son was embarassed, so after the funeral he came and cleared it all away. One year later, and the stuff is creeping back! This is the front hall - in the baskets she is drying yomogi (Artemisia indica; it's a herb with medicinal properties) for making tea with.

Yoshi was fascinated and charmed by all these mad old ladies sitting there in their merry, messy house!
　

Day Three - Shinkansen!

When we'd put Seiju's mum and dad onto the Shinkansen the day before, it had dawned on me that the kids could ride on it too. Not having the Shinkansen in Hokkaido, this would be pretty exciting for them.Seiju thought it was a good idea too, and arranged to set off a bit earlier than us for Ichinoseki so that he could meet us at the station roughly when the train arrived. Yasu and Kathryn kindly offered to take us to the station in Morioka so that he could set off in good time.
Well, it was and it wasn't a good idea... The kids did enjoy it, and it was a good experience - very smooth ride and very much faster than the regular train, but it was VERY expensive! (¥7000/ $70 40GBP for the three of us for about 35 minutes...) And seeing as Seiju was driving in the same direction, a total waste of money! Next time I'll keep my big mouth shut before suggesting something to the kids without checking it out first. Having told them about it, I couldn't very well un-say it.
On the other hand, it was great fun, and it was an experience we won't get up here, and so it was worth it! We got in the middle of the train and walked up to the very front carriage so we could take this picture when we got out. The shinkansen literally only stops for about 45 seconds so you have to be on your toes to hop in and out!

Day Two - Kathryn & Yasu's House.

After we'd taken Seiju's mum and dad to the station and put them onto a train for Ichinoseki, where they'd spend the night with relatives, we drove to Morioka to visit Kathryn and Yasu. Kathryn is a fellow member of AFWJ, the Association of Foreign Wives of Japanese.
This is the first time we have stayed with them, though they stayed with us twice when they came to Sapporo to get US passports for their girls. Their house is new, only two years old, and it is lovely. Very airy and bright and very welcoming.
Maya likes to help her mum in their big kitchen. I'm envious of the space and their big oven!Baby Emma looooves her shoes, and spent a lot of the time fetching them for me to put on her. Then she'd take them off and carry them around for a bit.... Then I'd get them presented again! She's at that cute "gibberish" age so I got a lot of chat only 1% of which I got, but we made friends anyway! Yoshi was charmed by her and spent quite a lot of time obeying her shoves and points and grunts to do what she wanted!Miss Maya is nearly five, and is chatty and lively, and completely bilingual. She joined in happily with everything we did and wasn't a bit bothered by this invasion of big strangers into her house, though she was a bit taken aback whenever my boys go into a wrestling match - obviously that doesn't happen in their girly household and I had to keep telling the boys to reign it in a bit.

Kathryn and I talked on into the night when everyone had gone to bed. It was so nice to chat about mutual aquaintances and the club, and our families and lives at full speed and without wondering if the other person actually fully understood what we were trying to say.

Day Two - Miyazawa Kenji Museum

After visiting the family grave, we went to the Miyazawa Kenji museum which Seiju's mum has been wanting to go to for ages. It turned out to be quite a way out of the town so I'm not surprised that they'd never been able to find it.

Yoshi has studied Miyazawa at school, and Harry has read some of his fairy tales, so it made an impact on them both, but particularly Yoshi who was impressed by Miyazawa's life . Harry bought two books of children's tales which he is reading with enjoyment, and they both decided to memorise his famous poem, Ame Ni Mo Makezu: (This translation taken from Wikipedia)

Japanese	Transliteration	Translation
雨ニモマケズ 風ニモマケズ 雪ニモ夏ノ暑サニモマケヌ 丈夫ナカラダヲモチ 慾ハナク 決シテ瞋ラズ イツモシヅカニワラツテヰル 一日ニ玄米四合ト 味噌ト少シノ野菜ヲタベ アラユルコトヲ ジブンヲカンジヨウニ入レズニ ヨクミキキシワカリ ソシテワスレズ 野原ノ松ノ林ノ蔭ノ 小サナ萱ブキノ小屋ニヰテ 東ニ病気ノ子供アレバ 行ツテ看病シテヤリ 西ニ疲レタ母アレバ 行ツテソノ稲ノ束ヲ負ヒ 南ニ死ニサウナ人アレバ 行ツテコハガラナクテモイヽトイヒ 北ニケンクワヤソシヨウガアレバ ツマラナイカラヤメロトイヒ ヒドリノトキハナミダヲナガシ サムサノナツハオロオロアルキ ミンナニデクノボートヨバレ ホメラレモセズ クニモサレズ サウイフモノニ ワタシハナリタイ	ame ni mo makezu kaze ni mo makezu yuki ni mo natsu no atsusa ni mo makenu jōbu na karada wo mochi yoku wa naku kesshite ikarazu itsu mo shizuka ni waratte iru ichi nichi ni genmai yon gō to miso to sukoshi no yasai wo tabe arayuru koto wo jibun wo kanjō ni irezu ni yoku mikiki shi wakari soshite wasurezu nohara no matsu no hayashi no kage no chiisa na kayabuki no koya ni ite higashi ni byōki no kodomo areba itte kanbyō shite yari nishi ni tsukareta haha areba itte sono ine no taba wo oi minami ni shinisō na hito areba itte kowagaranakute mo ii to ii kita ni kenka ya soshō ga areba tsumaranai kara yamero to ii hidori no toki wa namida wo nagashi samusa no natsu wa oro-oro aruki minna ni deku-no-bō to yobare homerare mo sezu ku ni mo sarezu sō iu mono ni watashi wa naritai	not losing to the rain not losing to the wind not losing to the snow or to the heat of the summer with a strong body unfettered by desire never losing temper cultivating a quiet joy every day four bowls of brown rice miso and some vegetables to eat in everything count yourself last and put others before you watching and listening, and understanding and never forgetting in the shade of the woods of the pines of the fields being in a little thatched hut if there is a sick child to the east going and nursing over them if there is a tired mother to the west going and shouldering her sheaf of rice if there is someone near death to the south going and saying there's no need to be afraid if there is a quarrel or a suit to the north telling them to leave off with such waste when there's drought, shedding tears of sympathy when the summer's cold, walk in concern and empathy called a blockhead by everyone without being praised without being blamed such a person I want to become

This was Miyazawa's personal statement, and it is written in extremely simple Japanese, but it is very beautiful and very moving. To hear the boys reciting it is lovely, and it is obviously speaking to Yoshi in particular.

Day Two - Hanamaki - Visiting the family grave.

We woke up early and got onto the expressway for a couple of hours drive to Hanamaki, which is the centre of Seiju's Dad's family. There are various members scattered around the area but this is where the grave is.

This is the temple that the grave is situated in. I can't remember its name... What was nice was that the hall was full of signs for UNICEF, stating that it was the Hanamaki branch. There was also a large portrait of Mother Teresa in the hallway! An interesting mix, but it made me like the place. It also has a kindergarten next door that is owned by the temple.

Walking into the main graveyard. As soon as we got there, Seiju and his Dad began to read the names inscribed on the grave and his Dad explained who they were. In Japan there is only one grave per family. Up till about 90 years ago, people were buried but then the law changed to cremation. There are 13 family members in this grave, but only 7 inscriptions on the stone. That needs to be rectified, and we are planning on putting another stone along the side to accommodate those names and any future ones.

Seiju's mum was weeding the grave and the kids were pouring water onto the stones to ritually purify it, and into the flower holders.

The people in this grave are Seiju's grandmother, her husband and three of their children who died in infancy. Then there's Seiju's Dad's two older half brothers who died when he was a small boy, and his father's first wife (who had the same name as his second wife - Seiju's grandmother, ick.) Then there is Seiju's Great-grandfather, his great grandmother, and three of the first wife's brothers.

Baachan lighting candles and incense before everyone paid their respects.

Walking back to the main temple to go and talk to the priest and tell him that we'd been.

This grave has caused a lot of controversy in the family because Seiju's grandmother had asked not to be sent back there - she didn't like her husband and had been very happy for many years in Hokkaido. Unfortunately a priest visiting the house saw her ashes still in the family altar and told Seiju's dad that she must be interred right away. Seiju's Dad, not wanting to disobey the priest but knowing that the family would be cross, sneaked off to Honshu and the deed was done before any of us knew anything about it.

Having seen the place for myself, I feel a bit better now. The priest's wife was very friendly and the grounds were well looked after with the kindergarten right next to it, and lots of other branch family graves around our grave too.

Still, we are thinking that we don't really want to be put in there ourselves, so once there's noone left to object (not thinking about his sister who is likely to be vocal in her objection...) we'll think about something for ourselves in Hokkaido. I'd like to be dug into my garden but its illegal here....

Day One - Yuze Onsen

After the pagoda, we looked at the map and decided to go and have a look at Lake Towada. Unfortunately, though it was only a few cms on the map, we utterly failed to take into account the HUGE, ENORMOUS mountain in between! So by the time we got there it was dusk, and we faced a similar drive to the hotel. Oops. It would have been a lovely drive except that Harry slept the entire time (a good three hours) and Yoshi was sick with all the bends in the road! Never mind.We got to the hot springs hotel, changed into yukata and went to have a bath. This is the bath - have a look! It was lovely; stinky water again but with nice clean water to shower off with, and good quality soaps and shampoos to use.
Having got clean we had our meal in a private tatami room. It was nice - lots of little tiny dishes to try with plenty of variety. Yoshi had the same as us minus the alcohol and Harry had a kid's set which he rejected most of. We all had grilled flounder and both kids loved them, ending up eating two and a half each!
We had two rooms, one for the PILs and one for us. While we were eating the futons were laid out for us, and as soon as we got back to the room - CLONK! zzzzzzzzz

Day One - Hirosaki 5 Story Pagoda

After a late lunch we went to look for a pagoda that Harry had seen a sign to earlier in the day. In the summer holidays he made a model pagoda and was very excited to see a real one. There is nothing like this in Hokkaido!First view of the pagoda once we entered the temple. I don't think the actual building was so old but the temple grounds certainly were.

Harry and Yoshi going into the temple.

Rejected fortunes. You buy a fortune and read it. If it's a future that you would like then you keep it. If it's a bad one or contains something that you don't want to happen, then you fold it into a little strip and tie it to these racks or a tree branch in the temple grounds, and the fortune won't "stick" to you. (I am NOT commenting on what I think about all this....)
A nerine or higanbana in Japanese. These don't flower in Hokkaido as it's too cold a climate, so these were exciting for me and Baachan!
A monster holding up the gatehouse roof. The paper garlands are Shinto but the temple is Buddhist - both religions exist side by side here.
The big bell. The bell itself and the painting of the dragons on the ceiling of the bell house are old.
Harry couldn't resist giving the bell a good "Dong" with the log. The sound goes right through your body.
Bells on the corners of the pagoda made nice patterns in the sky.
Before praying at the temple, people ritually purify themselves at this water basin. Harry ended up playing with the water but it made a nice photo opportunity!

More Junior High School students. They had some free time to choose where to walk, and this bunch of boys were enjoying themselves. (Nowhere near as loud as the girls at the castle!!)
Wishes, or prayers. People buy these wooden plates and write their desires on the back of them. Some of the wishes are trite but some are heartbreaking. The one behind the pagoda picture is wishing to pass the entrance exam to get into Hirosaki University. I hope they got in!
There was just the barest hint of autumn red on the tips of the leaves.
The shapes of the leaves and the light through them was really pleasing.
Jizo - guardian statues. There were rows and rows of these and every single one had had its nose smashed off, and some had been knocked off their bases. The white is where they were repaired. Recent vandalism or old, I don't know.
A very old stone lantern near the bell.
More of the Jizo - you can see that every one has some sign of damage.A mushroom growing in the temple grounds!

Day One - Hirosaki Castle Part Three!

There was a moat around the inner part of the castle grounds, with a traditional red bridge over lots of water lilies.Crossing the bridge to the main gate.
Lovely bright skies that day - didn't happen every day of our trip...
Water lilies in the moat.
Detail of a hinge on one of the huge gatehouse doors.
Crests on the roofs of the gatehouse.

Trip Day One - Hirosaki Castle Part Two!

Continuing on with Hirosaki Castle! (There's another bunch of pictures, too...)Copper-covered roof.

A suit of armour inside the castle.

A shutter and its latch.

A man's suit of clothing from the era in which the castle was built.

Harry (budding photographer - a lot of the pictures he took were very well framed) outside the main castle.

There were hints of autumn around, such as this pine cone, but it was still about 30C, despite it being mid-September.

Lookind down into another area of the castle grounds. In it's heyday it would have been more like a fortified village with many smaller buildings, rather than one enormous structure.

Copper shutters.

Keeping the front doors open.

Just near the front door, some of the plaster had flaked off the building revealing the material inside - packed straw! No wonder so many castles burned.

Nice slow Saturday morning.

Seiju came home last night and has to go again this evening, but it's still very nice to see him. We were all very tired last night so it was pretty much "Hello, goodnight" and this morning Seiju didn't wake up till nine o'clock which is waaaay later than his normal 5am habit.

I made muffins for breakfast and we all sat around watching Saturday morning TV, before Seiju and I headed into the garden. He was halfway through cutting the grass, and I was pruning and tying back roses ready for the winter when it poured down and we had to run back inside. Now half an hour later it's fine again... But the grass is soaked so that's the end of cutting it for the day. Sigh... The piebald look again!

Next up a cup of coffee and a trip out to the local electronics store for a mouse and yet another new CD player. I should NOT buy cheap ones.... (But can't afford a better one right now.)

Day One - Hirosaki Castle Part One!

There was so much to see at Hirosaki castle that I shall have to break this bit into two posts. We hadn't even had lunch yet at this point! (See what happens when the ferry spits you out at 6am?!)A lot of the castle burned down so there's a big park area with three or so buildings dating to about 1810 left. Not old by English standards, really.
The flowers on the paper screen are to fix minor holes without having to redo the entire lot. This was in the stables of the guard room.
It's school trip season. These are junior high school girls who were giggling and squealing their way towards us, so they got photographed. Yoshi asked me why they have to make so much noise about everything. No answer bud, sorry.
This is Hagi, Japanese bush clover. It's in season now and this lot was absolutely spectacular.
This is just some of what was flowering in the castle grounds.
Hinges on the door of the keep.
A dragonfly, who was on this branch when we came into the castle, and was still there a couple of hours later.
The big fish biting the corners of the castle roof are known as shachihoko and are supposed to protect it from fire. Hmmmm. Didn't work too well....
Harry with his carefully selected candies for his classmates.
The main castle building that is left (not originally the main bit.)
A boss on one of the huge doors of the keep.
Seiju (with the red backpack) Jiichan and Baachan collecting pine cones.

Yoshi.

There are two or three pictures of me on this trip, if that. As usual I was behind the camera. This is to prove that I was there!

Day One - Aomori Apples

We drove down the mountain from Sukayu on our way to Hirosaki. We hear often that Hokkaido is wild and empty of people but Aomori, which means "Green Forest" is also very sparsely populated and very, very rural.The rice was nearly ready to harvest. In a few places there were one or two shocks cut and hung to dry - maybe testing to see if it was ripe enough.
The yellow is the rice. I wanted to take a lot more rice pictures but was never able to stop in a safe place to do so. This was taken from the car.
Aomori is famous for its apple production and in some areas we drove through nearly every little bit of land had an orchard squeezed onto it.
The harvest is in full swing now, and some of the trees in this orchard had already been stripped.
These are the hard, crisp, sweet type of apples that are really delicious. I was sooo tempted, but I didn't touch any of them!

The yellow spots are typical of Aomori apples.

There was a bee very busy on this thistle flower in the orchard and next to the rice that I took close-ups of, so I took a picture of him, too! He didn't take any notice of me at all, he was far too busy gathering nectar.

Day One - Sukayu

The ferry arrived in Aomori at about 6am, so we had a really long day ahead of us. First of all we headed up into the mountains to Sukayu Onsen This onsen is 300 years old, and the current building is about 80 years old. It's a mixed bath, but there's a women only hour in the morning from 8am, so Baachan and I waited till then. The water is sulphuric and acidic - a milky blue-green and very stinky! There was nowhere to wash off the water as the bathing house was so old that there was no mains water piped into that area.
After our bath, I wandered around taking pictures. We were about 1000m up in the mountains, and autumn changes to the leaves were just beginning.Yoshi decided not to go in the baths as his skin will not take such acidic water, particularly with no way of rinsing off. He was hungry, so bought a bowl of soba noodles for breakfast!
This is "Tachi-gui soba" - "Standing to eat Soba". So that is what he was doing!

The "kitchen" of the soba stall! Rather basic....
A stack of wooden saucepan lids in the soba stall kitchen.

Jiichan and Harry came out of the bath stinking of sulphur and feeling very hungry, so they had rice balls from a little stand selling food to the hikers who were beginning their treks up the mountains.

Baachan was in a good mood after her bath.

By nine o'clock we were all bathed and breakfasted, so headed off down the mountain to Hirosaki and its castle....

We're Back!

Well, we are back after a really, really good trip! I am exhausted and the house is full of dirty laundry but it was a great time and we did so much in a few days. I am going to spread the trip out over a few posts, otherwise it would be overwhelming.We got the night ferry from Muroran to Aomori. Seiju literally rushed into the house having driven two and a half hours from work, changed out of his uniform and shoved us all into the car! Another two hours later we arrived at Muroran ferry terminal.

The boys were VERY, VERY excited!

Harry found a good place to put his polar bear for the night! The crossing can be rough because it cuts across the current running between Hokkaido and Honshu, but we didn't feel a thing. (Despite a typhoon happening in the south as we set sail.) Phew.
I got some chocolate for the ferry. Seiju asked me, "Why do they always give chocolate rude names here??" I can't answer that, but they do...
The ferry arrived in Aomori at 6am and by 6.30 we were on the docks and heading off for our adventure!

We're Off!

We are going for a five day trip (two nights on the ferry, three in hotels/at a friend's house) to Honshu leaving tomorrow night. I am supposed to be packing, not typing, but my feet are killing me from a full day of teaching and then running around like a mad thing ever since. It's 9pm and I have done most of the ironing and sorting I need to do, the kids are in the bath and I'm taking a break.

We are taking Seiju's parents (wish me patience!!) along with us to Iwate, the area where Seiju's dad was brought up. The plan is that he will tell us and Yoshi a lot about what his life was like there, and so that we can have some mental images of the landscapes he lived in. We are also going to visit the family graves as Seiju and I have never been and he's supposed to have responsibilities as the eldest son. To be honest we probably will never go again but at least we will know where they are.

I am packing the computer and will check in if possible, I am not sure how internet friendly hotels in that area are (if anything like Honshu, read - NOT.) The camera batteries are charging and I am planning on taking a LOT of pictures so prepare to be deluged on our return!!

This is the first time we have been to Honshu since coming back to Hokkaido nearly eight years ago, when Harry was still a small baby. Neither boy has ever been to this area of Japan, unless you can count Yoshi as an eight-month fetus eleven years ago!

Mori Koen

Yesterday a friend came to visit, bringing her youngest son with her. (The other two were busy this weekend.) Harry wasn't that well still but we did go out to the park for a little while in the afternoon and I practiced with the new camera again.

Here are three SERIOUSLY handsome boys!..... (Yes, I'm biased.)

Aggressive little beastie!

Harry's Asthma Continued

We got to the clinic and were seen very quickly which was great. Harry is like me and doesn't wheeze or rattle much when he has an attack so we had to go through the "Well, he doesn't sound too bad" game with the doctor. Then he checked his oxygen sats which came back at 90% (not good) so I had to listen to him say that the machine probably wasn't working well.....

Harry had one nebulizer treatment which did nothing, so the doctor asked us to rest for twenty minutes or so, then do another one. The whole time he was just lying down with his thumb in, but the second treatment worked and he began to cough and then wheeze. His sats had come up a bit too which was a relief, and his colour had come back. The sick feeling had been because of his lack of oxygen so that began to abate.

One of the side effects of Theodur is a sick feeling so the dr took him off that (good!) and increased the size of the patch, told me to go on using my rescue puffer on him if necessary, and gave us a two day dose of oral steroids. If Harry can just shake off his cold then the asthma will go too, so hopefully this will happen.

This morning he's a lot brighter but he's still very coughy and keeps lying down to rest.

Ladies' Day at Ecorin Mura and Harry's Asthma Attack

The last week has been a bit fraught, as Harry has been ill. He doesn't really have asthma but if he catches a cold it can go to his chest and then he has trouble breathing. He began to show cold symptoms on Monday night...

12 of my adult students and some mums came with me to listen to a talk given in English by this brave young man leading the gaggle here at the start of the tour! His English was excellent and he was very enthusiastic about the garden.

By Thursday night Harry was having trouble breathing and his chest felt very tight and rattly. I was worried about him and also about the ladies' day the next day that I really could not miss.

I called Sachiko my office lady to ask her to take over from me in the morning at the Ladies' Day if I had to take Harry in to see a doctor, and she suggested that we go to the local all-night clinic that is in our city health centre. I thought it was a good idea and Harry said he wanted to go. (Must have been bad!!)

Stop tickling me! In the Boat Race garden.

The doctor there gave Harry a nebulizer treatment there and then which helped a lot, and a prescription for Theodur - a really old fashioned and outdated drug that is hardly used in the west any more but is still very popular here. He also got stick on patches with medication to keep his airways open. We were home by about 10pm so I got the kids into bed quickly and hoped for a recovered kid in the morning.
Unfortunately, he wasn't. Sigh. And he couldn't really come with me as he was unable to do anything much. I called Baachan and she said he could come to her for the morning. I was very grateful, but I did feel a bit bad as he was so wheezy that just getting his backpack of toys and books together for the day made him go and lie down and say "I'm tired."

It rained very briefly as we were on our way to the garden, and this is what happened to the rose leaves...

I gave him his cellphone and told him to text me if he wanted me to come back, and I'd go right away, and left for the gardens. Everyone assembled, and off we went.
The guide was very knowlegeable and had a prepared speech about all the gardens that make up the park. It was interesting because he was able to give us more details than were in the brochure, and to ask questions along the way (mostly in Japanese but that was OK.)
Most of my lady students are extremely keen gardeners, and they had many questions about the flowers themselves, plus they took the opportunity to grill our guide about their own gardening problems!
We had three little children with us, two mums from my toddler class came along with their kids, plus Sachiko brought her Chikashi along, who has just turned one - unbelievable!
There's one part of the garden that is very high and terraced, so the mums opted to go to the play area while the others did that bit, then we met up again at the bottom of the hill.

Abutilon.

After we'd all got back together again, we went to look at the small farm for a few minutes to see the animals, then walked across the garden to the restaurant which is also extremely beautifully designed.

In the Salvage garden, as much as possible is made from recycled goods. This bird has a shovel for a breast and his tail feathers are windscreen wipers!

During lunch the three kids behaved themselves so well; Chikashi actually fell asleep so he was easy, but the other two three year olds sat nicely, joined in the conversations, ate well and were just generally charming. Don't think my kids at three would have held up that well....

Did you know there's a dragon behind you? And he's about to eat you up!

After lunch I was free to go back and check on Harry. At first glance he seemed fine and even fairly perky, but as he stood up to go down the stairs to the car, he suddenly went all grey and clammy, and said "I feel sick." We grabbed a bag just in case and went home. By the time we got there, only a couple of minutes at most, he was sweating and under his rib cage was retracting badly and his heart rate was up. I gave him a puff of my medicine to be going on with (doctor said it was OK!) and began to call my students to cancel my afternoon classes. I couldn't get through to all of them so I left a note on the door and went to pick Yoshi up from the school bus.

To Be Continued... (He's OK, just this is long and I'm tired!)

A Frog in A Banana Tree

I went to my favourite garden again on Friday, this time with my ladies' class English students and some of my kids' mothers. We had a guided tour in English which was very interesting. (More on that later.)

There was a banana tree in a pot in one of the gardens that has just come into flower. I've never seen a banana flower before.On looking closely there was a little frog in the leaves!

So cute, like a little jewel.

Tiny, compared to the huge leaves. He was only about half an inch across.He didn't like the camera and kept hopping away. Eventually he hopped off the banana plant and onto this red-veined leaf for a perfect photo op!

Garden, Garden, Garden!!

I have had a busy day, and have half done a lot of things!

First of all I took the kids to school, taking in my computer and the bunch of photos I'd printed and CDs I'd burned for them. The slide show went down very well and I think they liked the pictures. Then I came back home, changed into scruffs and went into the neglected garden.
This is the standard mukuge/tree mallow. Still pretty but not as spectacular as the white one. The season is just beginning so the flowers are not all out yet.
This tree was given to me by a student, as it had grown from seed or a sucker in her garden. They do seem to propagate very easily.
Now some photos of the true state of the garden. Shoulder high weeds beyond the trees at the bottom of the garden!
Looking down the back of the house to the side garden. Weedy mess is conveniently hidden by clever positioning of the conifer!
Osteospermum. I bought four plants back in July. All the flowers promptly rotted off in a downpour that came that night. Just today they are finally beginning to flower again.
This had not fully unfurled yet but I have waited a long time for this! The plants have grown nice and big though and there are a lot of buds now.
Seiju cut the lawn with the mower on Saturday but ran out of time, so it stood raggy like this for the rest of the weekend!I went along with the edgers and got it looking like this. There are still heaps of cut grass to deal with.
The flowerbed by the front door - a weedy mess and still a weedy mess. Time is my enemy!
This doesn't look too bad but the grass is about four inches high and consists mostly of big juicy weeds! I half cut this this evening before it got too dark.
The last yellow rose of the summer...
This is the lovely double pink tree mallow that I posted close ups of yesterday, in its weedy flowerbed, sigh....
Lace cap hydrangea - it really is that strong blue!

After an hour in the garden this morning I had to give up as it was too hot. I came in and tackled the horrible downstairs. I got the living rooms and the kitchen completely clean and tidy, did a tiny bit of ironing, hung two loads of washing and got a third in, and had a bit of lunch. Then I went out to get my hair cut (it really needed it) and did a couple of days worth of shopping. Jiichan had picked the kids up, taken Harry to his piano lesson, and brought them home for me.

I arrived to see that the living room is once more trashed, with sweet wrappers and most of the toys I carted upstairs this morning right back down again. GRRRRR. Still, can't yell in front of Jiichan or he'll think I'm a shrew, so I rushed back into the garden to cut the front grass in the last hour of light. In the meantime the boys's tutor arrived so they have been doing a practice kanji test. I've sat down for half an hour to get my breath back but I have to make dinner now.

After dinner, getting my little darlings to hike all that stuff back up to their room and return the living room to the state they found it, chivvying them into and out of the bath and sending them back to actually wash this time, chivvying them into bed, and collapsing myself. Urggggh.

September Garden

While I am waiting for photos of yesterday's barbecue to print (I'm going to give some to the kids), I thought I'd post some pictures of the garden I took last night when we got home. Dusk was just falling, so they aren't very good, and I hope I'll get better pictures in a day or two.Tora no O, in Japanese, "Tiger's Tail." I have no idea what it is in English.
Here's a close-up. It's very pretty and it's a good plant for the autumn, when there's not so much flowering. It will go on for another month.
This is shumegiku in Japanese, an anemone in English. This one is HUGE, it stands about three feet tall!
My yellow climbing rose is coming into its second flush. I don't think there will be many flowers this time round, but that's OK, this is a bonus!
This is a lovely mukuge - tree mallow in English. This is a double where the most common ones are a purplish lavender single flower.
The previous owner of this house planted this tree mallow, and it's about five feet tall now, and about the same across.

The flowers are so beautiful!

This is one of the roses I bought in June, Bingo Meidiland. It has more than doubled in size and is really healthy. The leaves are tiny and the flowers are only an inch and a half or so across, but so pretty. This one is coming into its second flush and it is covered with buds, so I'm looking forward to seeing it in full bloom.

6th Grade Recreation

Every year, each class organises a day out with parents (well, usually just Mums) , teacher and kids, and today it was the 6th graders' last recreation day. The class reps had decided to go to our local forest park to play and have a barbecue, and it turned out to be a great choice, as it was a really good fun day. I took 250 pictures! Eight of the nine kids in his class were there and I was trying to get at least a couple of really nice shots of each one.First we climbed through the trees to the top of the hill, where the trees suddenly give way to this massive great park with a wonderful assault course type area that I had NO IDEA was there! It is sized for adults and older kids, so Harry was struggling but he managed most of what he wanted to do.

Just a small part of the play area.

There were loads of lizards! This one we found early on in the day but every one of the kids had caught (and let go) several each by the end of the day.
This was REALLY hard - you had to climb up the wobbly logs and ropes to ring the bell. Only this girl out of everyone managed it.
Seven out of nine of the kids in Yoshi's class, a younger sister, ad their class teacher.
At the top of the huge climbing frame. I tried to step back to take this photo and nearly fell down the hill!

In the swinging ropes!

Having a sit-up competition. The teacher won! Yeay!

After a good hour of playing, we all hiked up the hill to where the other mothers had been setting up the barbecue.
Yakisoba - noodles fried with cabbage, meat, onions and a spicy sauce. Note the sleeves on this mum's arms to protect her from sunburn. I would have thought a long sleeved T-shirt would be cooler and simpler....
Two mums larking about for the camera - it was a really nice atmosphere today and everyone had a good time.
Settling down to serious eating! To grill there was beef, lamb, pork belly on sticks, chicken wings, chicken steaks, sausages on sticks, pork intestines (just as delicious as they sound...) foil-wrapped cabbage (yum! Really sweet!) and foil-wrapped buttered pumpkin. (Yum again!)

The kids sat round their own grill.

Yoshi and one of the other two boys in his class.

While we were clearing up, the teacher did "sumo" with the kids. Harry wanted a go, and it was hilarious because the teacher just held him off with one hand while Harry scrabbled!
Yelling for the very tiny kid behind the teacher to push him over!

A tiny lizard.

Watermelon, yum! This is Yoshi's best friend's mum, and she posts comments on my blog occasionally. I like this photo of her!

Back To The Busy!

Well, the summer is well and truly over and I'm back to trying to fit everything in. I feel quite energised at the moment. We have had a week of really horrible rainy and muggy weather but it lifted today and though it's still fairly hot I feel like getting stuff done.

Yesterday was my "doing things day", as I don't teach Mondays. I went to two banks and the post office, paid a load of bills, made a load of transfers and worked out what we have left to live on this month (not much due to upcoming England trip and also trip to Honshu with Seiju's mum and dad in September - whee!)

I went to two community centres and booked the rooms for the school Halloween party and the adult Christmas cooking session, went shopping for food (managed about four meals worth of stuff before I got fed up/ran out of cash) picked Harry up from school and took him to his piano lesson.

We then went to pick Yoshi up - he finishes later - and off we went to the doctors for allergy meds for me and Yoshi, then stopped off quick to buy snacks for the boys (I ended the day with ¥5 in my wallet. Ouch!) then home for a little rest before the tutor came.

While he was teaching the boys I made a really unhealthy dinner but it was YUM! I had three potatoes and one sweet potato, so I did chunky chips and then seeing as the oil was hot I made a batch of corn and tuna fritters. We all hogged ourselves (Yoshi said "Ooooh, agemono heaven" Agemono is fried food and we rarely have it because I hate the clean up.) and then kids went in the bath, I cleaned up a bit and we all collapsed into bed.

The kids are back to busy busy busy, too. They are all running every day to practice for the school time trials next month, plus they are getting in the last swimming of the year, plus they are tidying up the fields, harvesting the last of their veg and getting ready for the school harvest festival, which is huge as it's a farming village school. AND they are actually back at the grind of work too, as this is the term that a lot of stuff gets taught. It's going to be a long haul from here until Christmas....

Dinners I have thought of (trying to eat out of our cupboards, but there wasn't a lot in them to begin with!)
Tonight - squid and vegetable curry and brown rice.
Tomorrow - pumpkin rice, gingered minced pork and veggies
Thursday - cream stew with ham, broccoli, potatoes and carrots
Friday - dunno, will have run out of everything by then, including inspiration, and it's my long day so I bet I will end up sending the kids to the convenience store!

Right, got to get ready for the first class of the day. I have already done and hour and a half of gardening (went mad and began slashing branches back, very satisfying but the trees don't know what hit them!!) had a shower and done a load of laundry. Oh my, I am on a roll!

New Glasses!

Before

After!So, what do you think???
Style aside, I can see MUCH better than with the old ones; colours in particular are so much sharper than before and I can read more easily too. Overall I am satisfied. I may have to go back and get the fit changed as they pinch above my ears a bit, but not too badly. I'm really pleased with them!