I've been blogging here for almost 2.5 years now.
For a change I've decided to move my blog to another.
The new one is " Konnichiwa! ~Japanese Mom's Diary~ ".
In the new one I'll try to blog with more pictures of my daily life (and more often!).
7/28/2008
7/27/2008
A boys' typical day of Japanese summer
Typical scene of summer vacation……
My son and my nephew are hunting cicadas.
Cicadas come out from the soil after spending for 5-6 years
and live outside the soil only for 1-2 weeks until they die.
The kids captured 8 cicadas only in 40 minutes and let them go later.
It’s OK for the kids enjoy cicada hunting,
but for me it’s not easy to go out with them on such a hot day……
7/25/2008
My daughter's piano concert
Here's my recent news.
My daughter's first piano concert was on last Saturaday.
She wasn't nervous even when her turn was coming next.
She's been learning the piano only for 5 months but did a good job(^^)
I was happy to play with her. (The pic below)
This was my first piano concert after some decades since I'd quit learning.
My daughter's first piano concert was on last Saturaday.
She wasn't nervous even when her turn was coming next.
She's been learning the piano only for 5 months but did a good job(^^)
I was happy to play with her. (The pic below)
This was my first piano concert after some decades since I'd quit learning.
6/13/2008
Real Talk with my Blogmate!
Today I hosted a skypecast for houswives to have English chatting.
I put the notice on my Japanese blog since I have many visitors who are interested in learning English.
The notice was all too sudden like "I've just started this chat and now it's on, so please come if you are interested," so I wondered if anyone would visit... But one woman who has been my good blogmate came!
I was very happy to actually talk with her for the first time. I even felt a little strange to talk with someone I know only by nickname and blog... But it was like a "real" friend.
(Beside her, I don't know why but there came two MEN in spite of the title saying housewives, and one girl who was not a housewife... She seemed a little panicked when she heard me saying How are you... and gone.)
I'll host the next English chat for moms(and/or housewives) on Monday, 16th starting at 10am in Japanese time. I will be happy if we can share some parenting experience and others.
If you are interested, please come and join me here. (^o^)/
I put the notice on my Japanese blog since I have many visitors who are interested in learning English.
The notice was all too sudden like "I've just started this chat and now it's on, so please come if you are interested," so I wondered if anyone would visit... But one woman who has been my good blogmate came!
I was very happy to actually talk with her for the first time. I even felt a little strange to talk with someone I know only by nickname and blog... But it was like a "real" friend.
(Beside her, I don't know why but there came two MEN in spite of the title saying housewives, and one girl who was not a housewife... She seemed a little panicked when she heard me saying How are you... and gone.)
I'll host the next English chat for moms(and/or housewives) on Monday, 16th starting at 10am in Japanese time. I will be happy if we can share some parenting experience and others.
If you are interested, please come and join me here. (^o^)/
6/08/2008
Report on Skype! Doki Doki ( Heart pounding )
I've started Skype and am astounded at just how easy to talk with people even on the other side of the globe.
I am interested in talking with mothers and housewives from different cultures so I was looking for such kind of Skypecasts, but there were none.
So I looked into other Skypcasts, those for practicing English and those for just chatting in English.
Some were silent and others were scary to hear. (Sometimes yelling and swearing)
Some were OK so I decided to get in (I was VERY, VERY nervous) but the conversation was not so interesting.
I thought it was hard to keep talking if you know only the other's Skypename, location and language.
But last night I found a good one in Japanese Skypcast (but actually spoken in English) and that was for music and English conversation. The host was American and he played guitar. He played Simon&Garfunkel and that was good especially before going to bed.
Until he finished playing I was in the listening area but then I "asked to talk" with a click. When I went into the talking section, I said "Great music!" but somehow the man couldn't hear me probably due to Skype's problem. Oh well. What a shame I finally found out my possibly favorite skypcast and I couldn't make myself heard.
Skype can be downloaded here if you are interested.
So I looked into other Skypcasts, those for practicing English and those for just chatting in English.
Some were silent and others were scary to hear. (Sometimes yelling and swearing)
Some were OK so I decided to get in (I was VERY, VERY nervous) but the conversation was not so interesting.
I thought it was hard to keep talking if you know only the other's Skypename, location and language.
But last night I found a good one in Japanese Skypcast (but actually spoken in English) and that was for music and English conversation. The host was American and he played guitar. He played Simon&Garfunkel and that was good especially before going to bed.
Until he finished playing I was in the listening area but then I "asked to talk" with a click. When I went into the talking section, I said "Great music!" but somehow the man couldn't hear me probably due to Skype's problem. Oh well. What a shame I finally found out my possibly favorite skypcast and I couldn't make myself heard.
Skype can be downloaded here if you are interested.
6/07/2008
Bitter memory of Living in the States
I read Illahee’s blog and it reminded me of my college days in the States. That was over 15 years ago and I stayed there for about 2.5 years.
At first I had thought that maybe in 6 months or so I would have lots of American friends and enjoy my college life. But the reality was much too far away from that and I felt still lonely even after 1 year had passed. That was basically the same until I graduated and came back to Japan.
During the stay I was so frustrated because I had been a very active and talkative person in my country but here in the States I always had a fear that my idea might be misplaced and silly due to misunderstanding the content of the discussion or even just a conversation. So it took enormous energy and effort for me just to say what I think.
When I did say something, after listening carefully to others and mobilizing all my energy and power, the others usually became less talkative for the moment and said “yeah” and moved on to a different subject (or back to what they had been talking). This made me more passive and miserable more than anything else. Maybe I was too sensitive? But this kind of experience happened so often that there’s no wonder if I became this much sensitive.
Well, come to think of friendship with American people, I mostly had a hard time although I strongly hoped to make good friends with them. It was a sad frustration since I knew I functioned much better in my country, and yes, I felt like a small girl in America like Illahee feeling in Japan.
What if I had a chance to live in America again? I know that my English is much better now, and I’m more mature too, but even now I can’t deny feeling small among English-speaking people.
Being able to use English(and Japanese) is a big advantage as long as I live in Japan. But once I get into an English-speaking society, I lose it and become just a person who has nothing special. NO, I don’t want to be like that. I want to be a person who has something to be proud of about myself and become confident whatever the circumstance is. Sounds ridiculous? But it’s OK. That is one of the reasons why I started this English blog.
At first I had thought that maybe in 6 months or so I would have lots of American friends and enjoy my college life. But the reality was much too far away from that and I felt still lonely even after 1 year had passed. That was basically the same until I graduated and came back to Japan.
During the stay I was so frustrated because I had been a very active and talkative person in my country but here in the States I always had a fear that my idea might be misplaced and silly due to misunderstanding the content of the discussion or even just a conversation. So it took enormous energy and effort for me just to say what I think.
When I did say something, after listening carefully to others and mobilizing all my energy and power, the others usually became less talkative for the moment and said “yeah” and moved on to a different subject (or back to what they had been talking). This made me more passive and miserable more than anything else. Maybe I was too sensitive? But this kind of experience happened so often that there’s no wonder if I became this much sensitive.
Well, come to think of friendship with American people, I mostly had a hard time although I strongly hoped to make good friends with them. It was a sad frustration since I knew I functioned much better in my country, and yes, I felt like a small girl in America like Illahee feeling in Japan.
What if I had a chance to live in America again? I know that my English is much better now, and I’m more mature too, but even now I can’t deny feeling small among English-speaking people.
Being able to use English(and Japanese) is a big advantage as long as I live in Japan. But once I get into an English-speaking society, I lose it and become just a person who has nothing special. NO, I don’t want to be like that. I want to be a person who has something to be proud of about myself and become confident whatever the circumstance is. Sounds ridiculous? But it’s OK. That is one of the reasons why I started this English blog.
5/31/2008
“Kindergartener Gathering Day”
“Kindergartener Gathering” is a very big city event where 5&6 year old kindergarteners of all the public kindergartens in our city get together in a city gymnasium.
The number of kindergarteners was about 1300.
Imagine how crowded the place will be when families of 1300 kids also come in!
(The pic is only a small part of the crowd).
We were lucky to find our seats.
Kids showed their pretty dance that they had practiced for 1.5 months and played with other kids from different kindergartens.
The number of kindergarteners was about 1300.
Imagine how crowded the place will be when families of 1300 kids also come in!
(The pic is only a small part of the crowd).
We were lucky to find our seats.
Kids showed their pretty dance that they had practiced for 1.5 months and played with other kids from different kindergartens.
Well, it’s nice to see this many kids perform pretty dance, but it is very tiring for moms to get up early on Saturday(!) , make lunch, send kids to kindergarten (they go to the gym by bus), get family ready to go to the gym (Using public transportation is a must)…
I didn’t like doing all this on Saturday morning, but the good thing was my 8 year old son was very happy to be with me, not his sister around.
We went there to see my daughter’s performance, but actually it was like dating with my son and I did enjoy it, too. (^^)
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