Mar. 29 - Cherry Blossoms in Tatsuno Park, Hyogo Prefecture

My husband and I visited the Tatsuno Park, Tatsuno City to see the cherry blossoms last Mar. 29.

The cherries were just starting to bloom at the moment

but there were already some visitors even it was on a Tuesday.

The local officials are planning to hold a cherry blossom festival around the Tatsuno Castle for the weekend, April 2 to 3.

The main event of the festival is the parade where soldiers, monks, kimono ladies, and others wearing their traditional costumes would march around the castle. 

The parade is held on the first Sunday of April every year.

My husband and I have been there to see the parade for the past years.

However, we did go there last year beause of the bad weather.

This year, since we will expect another bad weather on the date of the parade, we visited the park last Mar. 29 instead.

I also visited the Japanese garden called Shuentei, which is just a 10-minute walk from the park's parking lot.  I like the sceneries there.   

I left my husband at the parking lot for about 30-minute.  He was wondering where I went.

  

One Brown-eared Bulbul was looking for food on the tree.   

Local officials usually charge a parking fee on the weekend during the festival but since we visited there on a weekday, we didn't have to pay any fee.

Mar. 24

I found my 8-year-old female cockatiel lifeless last Feb. 22.  I am still not able to move on after losing the lovely pet bird whom I considered as my real daughter.

I felt warm a few days ago, but the cold temperature recurred today.  The coldness is my worst enemy - it threatens my health. 

I don't feel like doing outdoor activities these days.  I stay at home with my husband.  I thought that I needed some distractions to indulge in to forget about what I lost.  I tried coloring the drawing of owls a few weeks ago, but I didn't feel satisfied because of the first owl on the left side of the picture.  Instead of using green, I should have used dark pink or purple for the pink owl.  

I don't enjoy conversations with my husband who graduated from a prestigious national university in Kobe.  He always says that he is better than me, which makes me depressed many times.  His parents always considered their eldest son smart, so they only let him study all the time.  His mother told me that he always feels like a crown prince whom people should serve him everything.  For him, a simple task such as preparing coffee should be done by someone else.      

I taught my 63-year-old husband how to use our microwave just in case he gets hungry.  He majored in Agriculture in the university, and he used to teach Science in high school for 40 years.   He sometimes visits my blog but he cannot understand what I have been writing about in English.  He depends on the pictures I have uploaded and guess what is written about. 

Tanu chan, my husband, is 13 years older than me.
He quit smoking three years ago.

He used to be a heavy smoker.  Because of his 40-year smoking habit, his lungs only function half its best.  Since we got married 10 years ago, he has been wearing a mask for six months from November to May.

Nowadays, I have been enjoying an online game named "Big Farm."  Farmers in the game grow various vegetables, fruits and livestocks.  We can choose to join a group of farmers in the game.  Once we join one of the clubs, we can enjoy chatting with its members on the screen.

I use imitation / fake money in the game, so my finanical situation in the house isn't affected at all.

A few days ago, I lost too much money in the game and I felt depressed.  I chatted about it in the group.  Taro chan, the founder of our group responded very quickly, "Don't get depressed with such a trivial thing.  You could make money if you worked harder tomorrow."  My husband has been treating me like a loser, so what Taro chan said has cheered me up.

Please continue below.  Thank you!

He also said that I am trustworty, so he told me that I should be the leader of the group which has 9 farmers.  He said, "You can make it!"   In this way, he is always cheering me up in the game.  The more I chatted with him, the more I felt delightful then. 

It was the good thing that he lives in the Eastern part of Japan while I live in the Western part.  We don't have any chances to see in person.

We chatted about how should proceed our club projects in the game.  Other 7 members didn't say anything, so only Taro-chan and I chatted.

It was two weeks after I joined Taro chan's club, he asked me about the merit of belonging to the club.  He had donated his club more than $1,000,000 and I had donated more than $300,000.  When Yo chan donated $500, Taro chan said Yo chan that it was nothing to donate money on the club.  (All of them are fake money so please don't worry.)

By then I have reached the idea that if we donate a certain amount of money (of course it is fake) to the club, the price of pork can be sold 20% higher and eggs can be sold 33% higher.  I thought these are beneficial to each member of our club.  So, when I heard that Taro chan's idea to Yo chan for no need of donating money on our club, I felt bad to Taro chan.

If we face a problem or a question, it is important to find out the reason why it happens.  Then, it is also important to how to solve it. 

Taro chan is the game player who has been logging on even he was working.  His brain should work and play games at the same time.  I felt that he was not very attractive anymore, so I wrote the club members that I don't enjoy this club because Taro chan doesn't want its members to donate his or her money on the club.  Thank you for supporting me during the two weeks and it is time for me to say good bye.

I was very tired when I belonged to the club.  I took a rest and I still enjoy the online game, but I don't belong to any club.  I felt that it is very important to keep my own pace. 

Mar. 17 - Eurasian Magpie

My husband and I regularly check the blogs of local bird watchers.  Recently, we noticed that Kasasagi or Eurasian magpies are spotted in one of the local parks.  We have been curious about the rare birds so we drove to east to the park for about 30 minutes this afternoon.

The birds were easily to find because there were already some photographers in the area, with long lens attached to their camera. 

Eurasian magpies belong to the family of crow so they are big.  Eurasian magpies are commonly seen in Kyushu or South part of Japan, however the birds are not very usual for us who live in the western part of Japan.  Anyway, we had a great time to take photos there.

Mar. 17 - the coloring activities

I bought four coloring books these days. 

Among them, my favorite is the one entitled "flower mandalas."

This is my first coloring work on this book.

At the bottom of the page, I wrote down the date "Mar. 2, 2016" in pencil

so that I could remember when I finished coloring. 

I went to the Seria, the 100-yen shop, and bought a frame for this work.

I used the Tombow's 36-color pencils.

My second work

I colored it on Mar. 6.

My third work

 I colored it on Mar. 16. 

* * * * * * * * * *

My cockatiel whom I considered as my daughter passed away on Feb. 22.  I have already cleaned her cage and put it aside.  The emptiness of the room makes me feel lonely.   It is still cold in winter to get another cockatiel from a pet shop, so I came up with the idea of buying a coloring book, something related to birds, and color them.   I was thinking that putting some decoration of framed, colored birds on the empty space would make me feel comfortable.

When I found this book on Amazon, it seemed very attractive, so I ordered the book.

For a start, I colored the drawing above. 

However, I find that the green color on the chest looks too strong.  I asked my husband for his opinion.  He said, "It looks like it was colored by a kindergarten kid."

I should change the green color on the pink owl. 

I should use darker colors instead.   Maybe purple or violet.

Luckily, I didn't use the original page on the book.  I still keep the original as it is. 

I would like to try it again. 

 For the coloring, I used the 24-color set of Sakura Coupy-pencil.

The Sakura has more vivid colors than Tombow's.

Mar. 14 - My self-introduction for new RJ tutors

How can I shorten my self-introduction to new RareJob tutors?? 

I'm a 50-year-old housewife living in the countryside. I don't use English daily because we don't have foreign neighbors. I am not good at speaking English but having one RJ lesson everyday means that I have someone to talk to.

I like doing photography on sunny days and coloring books on rainy days.

I used to be a city girl and I worked as an office clerk for trading companies in Tokyo for more than 20 years. I used to prepare business documents in English and that's what I enjoyed the most.

I currently live in the countryside where most of my neighbors are either farmers or blue collars. The subjects we talk about are different to each other, that's why I don't talk to them very often. This led me to take Rarejob lessons since Aug. 2013. 

I get moody because of my menopausal stage. My doctor suggested that I should not work as hard like when I was in my 20's. I feel sensitive to lesson reports I receive. If I get some reports asking me to study harder, I don't feel very well because I am trying to relax. I would highly appriciate if RareJob tutors refrain from asking me too much in the lesson report.

I make many mistakes so I would be happy if tutors would be patient in correcting my mistakes. Thanks!

Mar. 8 - The Ni-Ji-I-Ro Farming shop

Inami-no-Mizube-no-Sato park of Hyogo Prefecture held a photo display event from Dec. 1, 2015 to Feb. 29, 2016.  The park staff members asked visitors to hand in their original photos which had been taken in the park.   We have been visiting that place for many times, so my husband brought in one of his best shots last November. 

This picture of two birds, "Enaga" or "Long-tailed Tit" was

displayed at the lobby in the park.

As the event ended on Feb. 29, my husband and I went there to pick up his photo yesterday.   After that, we drove a few minutes away to the farmers' shop which was opened last November.

We have been very curious about the new store every time we passed it before.  Unfortunately, the spacious parking lot was always filled with many cars, and we could not find a space for our car, so we had to pass by.   We didn't think that many people live in the area, so we wondered where the people are coming from.  

Six months have been passed since its opening, we were finally able to find some space to park our car yesterday.  We got out of the car and we walked to the shopping area. 

The store name is "Ni Ji I Ro Farmin"

Ni Ji I Ro means "rainbow colors"

and

"Farmin" may mean an abbreviation of "farming."

The restaurant  

Opens at 11:00 a.m. and closes at 3:30 p.m.

Last order is at 2:30 p.m.

You can enjoy buffet style within 90 minutes.

Price :

1,620 yen or $16.20 / Adult

1,404 yen or $14.04 / Over 65 years old

810 yen or $8.10 / 4 years old to Elementary school students

Free / below 4 years old

The cafe

Opens at 3:00 p.m. and Closes at 5:00 p.m.

Last Order: 4:30 p.m.

Dessert including drink is 918 yen or $9.18

Drink only 378 yen or $3.78

* * * * * * * * * *

My husband said, "The restaurant seems too expensive for us as we are retirees.   Let's go to the grocery store to find packed lunches." 

The original lunch was filled with various dishes.

The price is 450 yen ($4.50).

Along with the lunch, we bought some snacks. 
The left, Uirou, or sweet rice jelly, was priced at 150 yen or $1.50 while
the right, sponge cake, was priced at 80 yen / $0.80.

I was also happy to buy one fresh radish priced at only 60 yen or $0.60.

We also bought three pots of petunia at the shop.  We were attracted to the lower price of 60 yen or $0.60 each.  I planted them to our bigger pots after we came back late in the afternoon.

We enjoyed shopping at the new farmers' shop.

We brought the packed lunch at Hiokayama Park and ate there.  What a wonderful day to have lunch while watching wildbirds!!

Mar. 7 - Komatsuna pot

It was warm today.  The temperature got more than 20 degrees Celsius outside.  I felt comfortable with the sunshine so I decided to stay outside and plant Komatsuna, also called Japanese mustard spinach, this morning.  

I would like to write about my Komatsuna planting today.

It looks similar to spinach but it tastes bitter.

It contains more vitamin A, Iron, and Calcium than spinach.

  

I bought some komatsuna in a local grocery store about 10 days ago.   They had roots so I kept their bottoms in a jam container for planting them later.  It was cold until yesterday so I couldn't find any chances to plant them outside.  As you can see them in the picture, the leaves have already growing for 5 centimeters long. 

  

* * * * * * * * * *

Today, I planted them with two kinds of soil; one is leaf mold and the other is the compost which was made from our kitchen wastes.  

I would like to explain about the leaf mold at first.  

We have two maple trees and one Japanese apricot tree in our garden.   I collected some of the fallen leaves last autumn.

I also collected packages of rice bran that some of the local restaurants offer us for free.

It was just before Christmas when I put the rice bran, fallen leaves and some water in a plastic bag.  I mixed them well.  After that I put the mixture into a sand bag and placed them outside. 

Twist the top.

I placed them outside under the roof so that the bags do not get soaked in the rain.

It was warm today so I went outside and opened the package.

I thought that our leaf mold was ready for use. 

I put some leaf mold at the bottom of a small pot.

 Then, I added some soil which I had sieved earlier.

The other soil was made from my compost, which is a mixture of rice bran, soil, water and our kitchen wastes such as peels of vegetables, fruits, coffee, etc.

  

I put the Komatsuna on top.

I am happy that I used the fallen leaves in our garden, and the free package of rice bran to grow organic vegetables from the roots of Komatsuna.