http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/rss yuka-p's latest journal entries Lang-8 Inc. Mon May 28 23:12:34 UTC 2012 Mon May 28 23:12:34 UTC 2012 Lang-8 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Lang-8
The distance between my house and the pasture is about 50km. Since we didn’t know how to get there, we relied so much on the navigation system of our car. But that was only I who thought so.

As my plan, I was going to ride the newly build freeway which starts from next town of us and from the exit we would have only follow the direction navigation system indicated. The route supposed to have no problems.

But,

First problem: The freeway was still under construction and its exit was not where I had imagined. Our navigation system showed the old one and even worse it vanished along the way.

Second problem: Although the road wasn’t showed, the point where we exited was popped up on the screen and connected to the road which probably leaded us to the pasture. But the driver, my husband, mumbled that that indication might not be correct and he turned steering wheel to another way. He didn’t follow the navigation twice.
(I thought we would be in much more trouble, and shouted “No way!” and “You dummy! I hate you!”)

Third problem: After being called twisted person, he changed his mind and honestly followed the navigation. But this time, it turned out badly. The route was narrow, non-asphaltic, bushy road. We can easily imagine that we would be lost. But it was impossible to go back because the road was so narrow and at the edge of a cliff. We had to drive along the road. For about 15 minutes, our hearts were in our mouth.

But finally we got out of the bush and find other cars on a main road and reached the pasture.

Our daughters really enjoyed there, but my husband and I already exhausted.

I learned that navigation system and my husband can’t be reliable sometimes.


Posted at Mon Apr 30 09:26:16 UTC 2012
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/1451905 http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/1451905 yuka-p Mon Apr 30 09:26:16 UTC 2012
But starting something by myself needs a trigger. Luckily I found information of a yoga lesson at the city community hall where is a 10-minute drive away by car from my house. The lesson is one-year course. I wondered that I could keep taking it through a year without any trial lessons.

This is because once I had a painful experience in doing yoga at home. A couple of years ago I bought a yoga book with DVD and followed the DVD. After just one day of doing it, I felt chest ache. I needed to hold tight around my chest when I coughed. That lasted about 2 or 3 weeks, so I went to clinic to know what was happening in my body. But the doctor didn’t say anything specific after examining X-ray. I guessed it was a muscle ache around chest or maybe cracks in ribs. It took 3 or 4 months until I felt nothing around chest when I coughed, although cough itself is not intact. That was happened in winter. I usually catch cold once or twice in winter.

You might think why do I try yoga again after that experience?
The reason is that the lesson fee is really reasonable mainly because it is held at public hall, and I wanted to try it again to find the fact that that painful experience was happened just by accident, not because my frailty.

Last Friday, I took the first lesson. There were many aged ladies and gentlemen, as far as I could see I was one of the youngest generation there. The lady who positioned next to me and might be in her late 70’s told me “Your muscle is stiff! Do you ever work out?” and “I’ve been doing yoga for 20 years. You should do exercise, or your body supposed to become stiff year after year. I mean it! ” As she said so, my posing is far from the instructor’s figure. But I did not feel any muscle pains!

I believe I can keep taking the lessons thanks to the lady’s encouragement.


Posted at Wed Apr 11 08:45:58 UTC 2012
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/1417337 http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/1417337 yuka-p Wed Apr 11 08:45:58 UTC 2012 I never imagined that the day is time-consuming and thoughtful event for 10-year-old kids.
Untraditionally “TOMO-choco”, “giving chocolates to friends” is in now among young people. I knew that phenomenon but I never thought that my 10-year-old daughter and her friends exchange home-made chocolate sweets each other at this age.

My daughter begged me to make some sweets, so I searched some recipes on line and prepared the ingredients by 12rd February.

But to my surprise she suffered flu on the 13rd! In addition to that my second daughter also suffered it the next day.
Valentine’s Day was completely forgotten in my house accordingly.

But one of her friends came and gave my daughter a package of home-made chocolate all the way to my house, and the next day another friend came with her mother and gave her some at night.
Another friend gave her some when she went to school after recovery from flu.
Totally she got 5 home-made “TOMO-choco” wrapped with fancy packages which might be bought at “100 yen shop”.

I wanted to prepare some to give her friends back, but I caught flu in turn.
I braced myself to bake chocolate bars for her friends soon after I recovered.
I did it, not my daughter.

After all 9 days later from Valentine’s Day, she finished giving back “TOMO-choco” to her 5 friends, thanks to MY effort.

As I did, 5 friends’ mother did the same for their darlings.



Posted at Thu Feb 23 10:08:11 UTC 2012
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/1329775 http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/1329775 yuka-p Thu Feb 23 10:08:11 UTC 2012 This month, they learn how to order foods in a restaurant by saying “What would you like?” ”I’d like ….”.
Before introducing the phrases, they learn what are like other countries’ cuisine?

For my preparation, I focused on “school lunches in the world”. It took me a lot of time to search and choose them. But it was worthy time for me to get to know the several situations of several countries.

First of all, I searched the photos of American school lunches. There are a lot of lunches seemingly oily and high-calorie without vegetables. The more I read the articles about American school lunches the more I felt how Japanese children are happy eating lunches under solid nutrition management. But I learned that American school lunch is now changing under the new rules reducing pre-cooked frozen foods, like pizza and French fries and adding more vegetables and fruits. I think this move is really great. I thought I want to introduce the differences. And another differences between Japan and U.S I want to show is where the students eat in and how the meals be served. You may not know that Japanese students eat lunch in their classroom and serve it by themselves, some students who are in charge wearing white gowns go get the lunch buckets and trays to the school kitchen and serve the classmates including the teacher, and start eating all together by greetings “Itadaki-masu”, or “Let’s eat!”. There is no cafeteria and no one serve meals for students.
http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/video/cafeteria-boot-camp-saves-school-lunch-15436161?tab=9482930§ion=1206872&playlist=1887643
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qvq5e320dE


Other countries I searched were India, France, Korea.

Korean school lunch looks like has so much similarity to Japanese except Kimchi and silver tableware.

According to a video I watched, French school lunch is under more strict and thoughtful nutrition management.
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6902333n

As to Indian school lunch, I was ashamed that I didn’t know the narrow circumstances for children in the country. I thought I have to tell this to my students.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2029625,00.html

After I showed and explained what I prepared to the students, they seemed they got shocked about it in some ways.
Some were surprised that there are soft drink vending machines and cafeteria at schools in the U.S. and said “I envy them.”
Some lost for words about the Indian situation.
Some were astonished at the plenitude of vegetable in France.

Their homeroom teachers said to me that that kind of things about other countries is rarely taught, so it was worthy time for them.

Although it took awful lot of time to prepare, I re-realized that not only teaching English but letting them look toward world are my responsibility.



Posted at Fri Feb 10 09:37:34 UTC 2012
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/1308491 http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/1308491 yuka-p Fri Feb 10 09:37:34 UTC 2012 For several weeks, she had asked me for the birthday present that she had longed for.
That is an e-toy which you can grow an e-imaginary beastie in it.

She wanted it because her best friend has same one and she always dangles it from her neck when they play together. Her best friend wants to communicate with my daughter through the e-toys. So she urged my daughter to ask me to buy one. My daughter gradually became eager to have one.

Every time we went to supermarket, she rushed to the toy department and asked me to buy one with pulling my hand.

At first, I had reluctance for those kinds of small e-toys because I believe that staring the small screens for long time is not good or even harm for little children. I myself have been troubled with my poor eyesight since I was 7 years old. So my daughter may inherit the gene from me. That alone makes me worry about eyesight, and I didn’t want to add more causes for her eyesight.
But when I tried to convince her that the toy was not good for her eyesight, she cried as if it was the end of the world. “I really want it! And I promised with my friend that I definitely buy it.”
I yield to her adamancy with a promise that she can’t use the e-toy one-hour stretch.

When she opened the present, she was overjoyed and danced and even said “Is this real life? Is this real life?” over and over.

But now I regret.
The e-toy automatically and irregularly “chirms” when she is studying.
That lapse her concentration.
Sigh.


Posted at Wed Oct 19 06:21:56 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/1146729 http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/1146729 yuka-p Wed Oct 19 06:21:56 UTC 2011 But I am not really sure whether the way I study would lead to where I want to get to.

I had been looking for someone or group that I could study with near where I live. I searched the web and some public bulletin but never found one.

A few days ago, I happened to find one on the web which held a study meeting once a week at city’s international community house and their study material is TIME magazine. I knew that that was it!

I went there right off. What I was surprised at was all the members were looked in their 50’s and they translated the article so smoothly. I was barely able to follow the lines. I was stunned that their English ability is way beyond mine.
After the meeting, they asked me to have lunch saying they are always doing so. They are really enjoying studying English and eager learners and really nice people.

I decided to join the group.
That means I have to create extra hours for the meeting, even more for preparations to translate as smoothly as I can at the meeting and for reviews every week. That must be tough for me, but I need to push myself into a situation where I can’t make excuse for not having time to study.
That’s only because I want to boost up my English-language ability.


Posted at Sat Oct 08 16:09:33 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/1130880 http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/1130880 yuka-p Sat Oct 08 16:09:33 UTC 2011
That would be the case with school children who are learning their mother language.

My daughter had diary homework on weekends through last year.
Earlier in the year, she had a hard time constructing the sentences. But gradually she had made progress and became accustomed to write productive sentences and really enjoyed writing diaries.
I expected that her homeroom teacher would give her positive or encouraging comments on her diaries. But astonishingly, she said that her teacher told her “Don’t write doodling diaries. Write within only one page!” I couldn’t understand what he meant. She used a notebook for it which has 120 cells a page that was designated for all the students. One cell is for one letter. 120-cell is too short for 3rd grade students. I would ask, “Is there any reason to limit letters to students who are progressing their language skills? ”

After being told so, she lost her enthusiasm to writing. “What do I write in only 120-cell? ” she muttered.

I wondered that he might bother reading long diaries of many students and he reads their diaries honestly? If so, I could say that he isn’t qualified as an elementary school teacher. Teachers supposed to give students circumstances that they can extend their potential.

She wrote short diaries against her will until the end of 3rd grade year, saying that if she writes long ones, her teacher will call and admonish her. How deplorable!

Now, she is in the 4th grade and fortunately her homeroom teacher is changed to a nice teacher.

Today he came to my house, and said clearly “Write your diary as much as you like.”
I’m so relieved that he said so.

*For your information, in Japan, we have “Katei-houmon” or visiting every student’s home by homeroom teacher at the beginning of school year at elementary school. We, parents can talk with the homeroom teacher in person about private things that parents want the teacher to know about their children.

I believe that the sky is the limit for children.


Posted at Mon Apr 18 09:49:31 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/893050 http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/893050 yuka-p Mon Apr 18 09:49:31 UTC 2011 Luckily, almost all my students come to like English gradually.

But it is said that there are some problems with public English education in Japan.
This coming school year starting from April, Education Ministry guidelines are to change dramatically.

Elementary school English education starts from next school year officially though almost all regions kicked it off a couple years ago.
That aims smooth transition for new form in junior high and high school English which is also going to change the guidelines. I understand that current principles for junior and junior high are focusing on understanding texts, grammars and audio materials of native speakers. New principle seems to aim to develop students’ ability to express themselves in English by speaking.
For this aim, in elementary school English, the principle contains that students are to be exposed to much English sound but should be taught without written letters and grammars. (I strongly believe that we need to teach them spelling and grammars together.) And interactive activities using conversation phrases are focused, too.

Therefore students start writing from junior high school for the first time.
Those who enjoyed English in elementary school are having problem in spelling including remembering according to a survey.
In fact, some of my students said to me “I may have difficulties in remembering spelling and grammars.”

I think other countries start English education much earlier of course with writing, grammar, speaking and listening.

It is hard to believe for you that before this renewed education guideline, public English education starts from junior high school which means 13 years old, and outcome of this renewed guideline is after many controversies for years which argued whether we need to have English education from as young as age of elementary school student.

Finally they settled new guideline, but no grammar! no spelling!
For me, that is ridiculous! That’s why people say that we Japanese can’t speak English even though we study it for years.

How do you think about this?
Please give me your countries English education.


Posted at Sun Mar 20 16:52:14 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/854965 http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/854965 yuka-p Sun Mar 20 16:52:14 UTC 2011 I have finished my teaching English to elementary school children this school year.
For your information, public English education in Japan starts from 5th grader, 11 years old, which is way behind from other countries. I started teaching from last school year, so two years have passed. Graduating (this March) 6th graders is my first students whom I thought English for two years.

The very last lesson, I took a quick poll on about 100 students.

Question no. 1: Did you enjoy our English lessons?

(A: Enjoyed very much 57% B:Enjoyed 42% C:Not enjoyed 1%)


Question no.2: Were the lessons difficult for you? How much did you understand the lessons?

(A: Easy and understood well 27% B: A little difficult but understood 62% C: Difficult and not understood 10% D: Completely not understood 1%)


Question no.3: Are you looking forward to English lessons in junior high school?

(A: Yes, very much 20% B:Yes 68% C:Not so much 9% D:Have no idea 3%)

I was so touched that almost all of them enjoyed the lessons and I am hoping that they are looking forward to studying English in junior high.

And each class gave me a booklet titled “Messages to XX(my name)-sensei(teacher) ”.
Each and every one of about 100 students wrote to me very heartwarming message.
For example,

*At the beginning, I didn’t like English, but thanks to you, I began to understand it little by little.

*When I become a junior high school student, if I meet you, I will greet you in English.

*Thanks to this two-year lessons, I came to like English, I want to learn English more and more when I become a junior high student.

*I wasn’t satisfied with just once a week lesson. I wanted to take much more lessons.


I hope I served my turn on their kick of for long-English-studying-journey.



Posted at Sun Mar 20 16:12:11 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/854921 http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/854921 yuka-p Sun Mar 20 16:12:11 UTC 2011
An e-mail from my daughter’s kindergarten broke the day. It said that water supply has disrupted in this district due to the explosion of water pipe so please pick your child up if you could.

But at that moment, we had tap water in my house. Therefore I was relieved that we weren’t involved in the problem. But one hour later, the water running stopped suddenly. I realized “my house has water tank! We used up the water now!” I rushed to the nearest supermarket with my daughters to get bottles of water, the shelves were almost gone. Some bottles left there were really expensive. Those bottles were first-class water. I coughed up for 4 bottles. Then I rushed to another store to get water tanks. People were coming one after another for them. I grasped two 20-litter tanks.
I went home and settled in the meantime.

But second fight starts with a ring from my mother-in-law.
I had forgotten that her family doesn’t have a car right now, so they weren’t able to do anything with the water problem. She didn’t tell me to help her family. But I rushed to her house.
The traffic was hell. Many people were fighting for water. It took 40 minutes to get her house though usually it takes 10 minutes. After getting my father-in-law to my car, we bounced back to the heavy traffic road to go to the nearest school where is designated for emergent water supply. There were already unbelievable long queue waiting for water supply vehicle which would be van according to a volunteer person. If so, we thought that it might be nearly midnight until we get some water.

I decided to go to my parents’ house for help. I came back to my house and pushed my daughters in the car and headed to my parents’ house.
The traffic was much heavier! People were moving to the area which is in normal water condition. I don’t remember how long it took to get there.
After all, I got 2 tanks of water for us and 2 tanks for my parents-in-law. Meanwhile my children took a bath happily without realizing this unusual situation.

That was past 9 p.m. when all the tasks had completed.
I was almost killed.
That was all about the exhausting day.


Posted at Mon Feb 07 09:04:26 UTC 2011
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/798745 http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/798745 yuka-p Mon Feb 07 09:04:26 UTC 2011
My father urged me to make the space for vegetable at the corner in my garden. He had felt that my purchasing vegetables is much waste of money. He said that vegetables that can be grown easily at home even if I have a brown thumb save our money. He knows how to grow them thoroughly because he has been taking care of his small farm and growing several kinds of vegetables like spinach, potato, tomato, eggplant, cucumber and etc. for years.

My father and I went shopping for some bricks to block the vegetable planting space though I remained reluctant to grow them. I followed his seeding instruction, yet I didn’t want to do that. But when the first sprouts appeared after watering several days, I was filled with delight.

Yesterday I gathered first spinaches and ate them. Those are comparatively small, but I felt that those are much tastier than those sold in supermarkets. I thanked the power of nature and my father.

Growing vegetables are not so bothering if those are needed only watering and fertilizing sometimes. It saves you little money.


Posted at Tue Dec 14 10:04:32 UTC 2010
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/728345 http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/728345 yuka-p Tue Dec 14 10:04:32 UTC 2010
My children’s holiday is only one day left.

This summer, the temperature in Japan was really unusual.
Almost all day, news reported eye-opening highest temperatures at some points across the country and surprising number of people had been rushed to hospitals with heat stroke.

In my case, during daylight, we can’t stay or keep my sane in my house without air conditioning, although last summer we barely able to live without it.

Yesterday we went to a public swimming pool to enjoy last swim for this year. When we arrived there at 10 in the morning, the parking lot was already packed. We tried to find another free parking area and finally found room by the skin of my teeth in the public ball park parking area where is next to the pool.

As expected, the pool looked like a bowl with potatoes. (It is difficult to describe the scene in English, but in Japanese there is a proverb 「芋を洗うよう」which means that a certain place was crowed and packed with people.)
My children and their friends enjoyed swimming and playing together until the very last moment that the pool closed. They were there from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. I watched them while chatting with my friend at the poolside where was in the shade. Even so, 7 hours made me so exhausted and I got a suntan.

When I went back to the parking, the gate was closed with chain. I was paled out! The stadium gate already shuttered. Other cars were all gone! I asked to myself do I have to go home on foot with these heavy stuffs and do I have to come here again for our car?
After a few minutes, I found a way out which leads to the parking lot of the pool. I finally got out.

Anyway, it was very enjoyable day for us.


Posted at Mon Aug 30 07:17:18 UTC 2010
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/604452 http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/604452 yuka-p Mon Aug 30 07:17:18 UTC 2010
A TV program motivated me to do that.
The measure is quite simple.
Just weight yourself on a scale which weight in the 100-gram twice a day, when you wake up and after dinner. And just record the weight graphically.
Surprisingly the simple measure works very well. When I lost even 100 grams, it keeps me giving up snacks or candies. And then usually I lose another 100 grams or 200 grams the next day.
In 10-day period, I lost 1.6 kg in total.

I’ll recommend you this method if you want to lose weight.

Check this site to start your dieting.
http://www9.nhk.or.jp/gatten/qa/archive/diet.html
(Sorry, Japanese only)


Posted at Fri Jun 18 04:39:36 UTC 2010
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/524982 http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/524982 yuka-p Fri Jun 18 04:39:36 UTC 2010
One of my favorite things is growing flowers. From winter to spring, various colors of pansies were pleasure to the eye. Buds appear every day and those bloom day by day and it lasts only a few days. You have to cut off the after-bloomed flowers everyday so that the next bubs come out earlier. Every time I do so, I can concentrate on it without thinking something causing stress.

Now the season for pansy was over and I am enjoying some kinds of petunia. I think that petunia grows very fast and the bloom lasts longer than pansy. I purchased some clusters those are growing rapidly. In addition, I am cultivating some from the seeds which were produced last year. The seeds are really tiny, the size is smaller than a tithe of sesame. So I was worried that if those come out or not. After enduring for about one month, they came out! Now those seem to grow slowly.
I am looking forward to see them bloom.


Posted at Fri May 21 08:38:42 UTC 2010
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/490141 http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/490141 yuka-p Fri May 21 08:38:42 UTC 2010 I can see quite a difference between my two daughters in this respect.

In April, school children have to cope with the new classmates.
For those who are good at making friends, the class member shuffling would be exciting event. Like my youngest daughter, they quickly make new friends.
On the contrary, for those who are not good at making friends, the event will be hateful thing. Now my oldest daughter has been spend hard time especially recesses finding and talking to someone who would-be her friend.

When she came home I read her face and recognize how she spent at school.
Someday she smiles happily that means she played with some friends.
Someday she had a glum face that means she couldn’t find anyone to play with.

I think I could go to any length for her for anything, but making friends is the matter that she herself has to overcome.

I hope that she find some good friends as soon as possible.


Posted at Tue Apr 20 11:47:39 UTC 2010
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/450703 http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/450703 yuka-p Tue Apr 20 11:47:39 UTC 2010
We went there for Ohanami, cherry blossom viewing though there is little hope that we can view full bloomed blossoms because almost all cherry blossoms near my house are half-dropped. But we were able to had lunch under full bloomed cherry blossom tree. That satisfied my daughters who had regretted missing it.

My friend and I talked a lot about our husbands, family, job while the kids were playing.
If time could permit, we wanted to talk more.

I exercised physically and activated my brain fully for our English conversation.


Posted at Tue Apr 20 07:55:15 UTC 2010
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/450509 http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/450509 yuka-p Tue Apr 20 07:55:15 UTC 2010 Yesterday we talked in a park while our kids were playing together.
Of course she can speak Japanese but she speaks in English when we are together. That is what I feel I am blessed as an English learner. But please don’t get me wrong, that doesn’t necessarily mean I became her friend.
I always feel disappointed how little I can explain what I want to say in English.
I am studying English everyday, remembering words and phrases and listening to the news from CNN and shadowing it over and over.
But I don’t feel my English-language ability has been improving.
I know there is no shortcut to success. But there must be a road that last forever.


Posted at Sat Apr 03 06:56:46 UTC 2010
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/431216 http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/431216 yuka-p Sat Apr 03 06:56:46 UTC 2010 Student yearbook is usually priceless commemorative for students although I open it few times when I grew up.

Yesterday, I got a call from the school that I worked for last academic year. The teacher who got the 6th graders graduated a couple days ago asked me to send a message for the graduates to put on the graduation writings and to send my photo to the photo shop which is editing the yearbook photographs now.

I felt flattered to be on the memorable book, but I though that I would be so brazen person because I had been with the students just for less than a year.

But the teacher said “Oh, you are an impregnable English teacher for them! So please send your message and photo. ”
That was quite a compliment which made me weep for joy.

Today I posted the message after some hours of reflection.
I am going to go to the photo shop tomorrow.


Posted at Wed Mar 24 09:40:27 UTC 2010
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/419608 http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/419608 yuka-p Wed Mar 24 09:40:27 UTC 2010
Now I am getting into trouble with a neighbor who keeps 3 dogs.
I think that pubic park is a public space where children can play freely without any fears or people can stay for relaxing and so on.

But what the neighbor does in the park is taking his 3 dogs to the park and ties the leashes to the chain-link fence which surrounds the park every day from 8 am to 6 pm except rainy days. The dogs are living in the park which means they sleep there, they eat feed there, they do number one and number two which emit pungent smell there and they think where they are is their home so they bark at anyone who pass through there. Even worth sometimes the leashes loose from the fence. The dog owner doesn’t care about it. Those are not puppies! Those are grown-ups! Therefore no child is able to play there.

I live next to the park. So my family suffered the stink and endless upsetting barking for almost 2 years.

The park is a stop site of kindergarten’s bus which my kid is using and other 15 kids are using the site every morning and evening. Can you imagine what is happing every time there? The dogs bark at the children. They have to take roundabout route to enter the park from the other entrance.

I had endured this situation for a long time.
But now I am fed up to this ridiculous circumstance!

We, the mothers of the kids who are using the park as the bus stop took action against it today. We made staggered calls to the official in charge claiming the dumb neighbor. They promised that they are going to come to the park and visit the owner’s house and deal with it soon.

I am an optimist usually but this situation is too cruel to ignore.

I hope that the official have the owner stop it soon.


Posted at Mon Mar 15 09:23:24 UTC 2010
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/407948 http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/407948 yuka-p Mon Mar 15 09:23:24 UTC 2010
I worked at an elementary school as a part-time English teacher and went to school only on Tuesday. So every Monday which is the day before the working day, it was really hectic with the preparation for the classes.

I found that preparation makes up 90 percent of my class. So I devoted half of my time for it, not only facing textbooks and computer but debating in my head when I cooking dinner and simulating when I am taking a bath.

Therefore I could not take care of my kids as much as they wanted though I thought it was a must as a mother. Even worth sometimes dinner was so simple that my husband wasn’t satisfied with it.

I always felt guilty about this situation and had had thought about quitting the job many times. But I continued to excuse myself “This is the very first year for this job so it can not be helped. Next year it will be better. This is a longed-for job. If I lost now, I never get the same job again.”
But at the same time I knew that every single day for my kids is also important and precious. Rather this is the most precious for my life and my job is nothing but a job.

Anyway, I gradually got used to my job and spent much of my time for kids.

Being a mother and having a job at the same time is really tough.

This domestic year’s contract was over last week so this is the first relaxed Monday.


Posted at Mon Mar 08 08:19:19 UTC 2010
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/398908 http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/398908 yuka-p Mon Mar 08 08:19:19 UTC 2010
I wish I could store the doll set away right now because it is already March 6th.
This is because it has been raining here these days.
Hina-dolls are made of some delicate stuff, therefore humidity cause mold. We chose sunny day to do it and even more we put some fungicide in the boxes where the dolls are in. I have to wait for clear day.

But I found another choice in case you aren’t able to clear the dolls away right after the day. It is said that taking the dolls a 180-degree turn means storing up according to a doll manufacturer’s site.

If my mother knew it, my marriage might have been a little earlier.


Posted at Sat Mar 06 11:28:37 UTC 2010
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/396367 http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/396367 yuka-p Sat Mar 06 11:28:37 UTC 2010 It can be recognized on line about a week earlier than the arrival by mail.
I knew it and usually I can’t stop logging in the site and see my score.

But this time I felt fear to do so. I think that is because I had a goal to get the score over 800 strongly. Although I had a good feeling that I might get my desired score, I couldn’t help but thinking about failing. So I decided not to log in the score site before the arrival of the mail.

When I found the letter in the mailbox, my heart went pit-a-pat.

The score was 815!

I am so relieved.

But this is just an interim goal.
I believe that I can get much higher score with efforts.


Posted at Sat Feb 27 14:25:54 UTC 2010
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/387223 http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/387223 yuka-p Sat Feb 27 14:25:54 UTC 2010
That was my first experience teaching English in an elementary school though I worked for a private clam school as a teacher when I was a student.

That was amazing experience though I went through small difficult things both in classes and at home.

The first couple of months, I had butterflies in my stomach when I was in front of the class rooms and sometimes I lost my way in conducting classes even though I prepared for it thoroughly. At home, I was taken up my time for preparations and couldn’t care about my children which is I regret of the most.

But gradually I became to feel fun to be in front of the class rooms. The more I enjoyed the lessons the more the students looked enjoyed my classes. I can clearly say that the teachers have an effect on the students in classrooms. As to the preparations at home, now I can handle it and children at the same time.

I really hope that the education commission gives me the same job at same school next term. I will do my utmost to develop my class quality.


Posted at Wed Feb 24 08:36:42 UTC 2010
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/383499 http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/383499 yuka-p Wed Feb 24 08:36:42 UTC 2010
I think many people are busy preparing for Christmas.

Last Sunday, I took my daughters to a toy store to get to know what they want for Christmas.
The store was full of the families who seemed that they came there for the same purpose as mine.

There were so many piles of toys which apparently nearly bend the shelves. My daughters weren’t able to decide which toys they want to ask to Santa Clause to be given.

The popular toys for girls now are “dolls and their houses”, “cooking toys” and kits for self-made accessories.

Last year, my oldest daughter got a doll’s house which was made for the doll, “Lica-chan” which is one of the most famous dolls in Japan. She got the doll itself on her birthday last year. So she finally decided to ask Santa Clause “Lica-chan’s clothes for Christmas version” and one more; a self-made artificial nail kit.
For my youngest daughter, she wanted a dolls house which comes with dolls.

The next day, I googled the toys and found all of them except the “Christmas version dress”. I searched many sites thoroughly, but I couldn’t. I found that the popularity is on the rise now! There were 4 or 5 stocks at the store on the other day. I knew I have to rush to get it! The next morning, I went back to the store and I found only one dress on the shelf. Whew!!

They never know my fight.

If you are interested in Lica-chan, check this site.
http://licca.takaratomy.co.jp/products/


Posted at Thu Dec 17 09:31:58 UTC 2009
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/314735 http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/314735 yuka-p Thu Dec 17 09:31:58 UTC 2009 Recently I had been so busy with my work, taking care of my children who suffered H1N1 flu and so on.

The number of flu patient is increasing day by day in our region.
My youngest daughter’s class closed twice so far and another period of closing is to start from tomorrow again for one week due to the outbreak. She suffered the flu between the down periods. The pediatric clinic that we usually go to was packed with the patients. So we had to go another clinic. The symptom was not so serious than what the media have been saying.

I think that it is necessary to be absent from school when you come down with the flu, but closing the class is really needed? The city’s fiat is that when we have 2 patients of the H1N1 in our class, we have to close though it was changed to 4 patients as its outbreaks dramatically spread few days ago. Much more second time around or third time around?

For kindergarten kids, they can’t stay alone at home while their parents working daytime. How do full-time working mothers handle this situation? Even for me, part-time teacher working once a week, I had to ask my mother to take care of her or bring her to nursery specialized for sick children. I can imagine that it is so much stressful for full time working mothers.

With this spreading speed, I think it seems most human have to come down with the flu.
Take care of yourself.


Posted at Wed Dec 09 09:41:30 UTC 2009
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/307392 http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/307392 yuka-p Wed Dec 09 09:41:30 UTC 2009 I wished I could have traveled somewhere, but unfortunately my husband had only one day off during the Silver Week.

We, two daughters and I, went to the park which is relatively large and have distinctive feature compared to other small parks, though it took me 30 minutes to drive. The park was used to be only one amusement park in our city and now the management was taken over by the city. No attraction remained now, but there are a lot of enjoyable things. Various kinds of rental bicycles are available, a tour boat, and some huge play equipments there. What not only our children but many little children like most is “Bouncing White Mountain”.

After having “bouncing”, we had lunch at a long bench. A family came and sat on the same bench. When we were locked in each other’s gaze, we shouted at the same time. They were my oldest daughter’s close friend’s family. Before our move, we, including both entire families were really close. But recently we haven’t seen for a long time. Both children were bashful each other at first, but after “bouncing” together, they talked freely as if they have been together without distance. We spend about 4 hours together there and said goodbye hoping for seeing each other sometime, somewhere.

When we got on the car, my daughters fell asleep in a second.
We had very good time aside from missing my working husband.


Posted at Tue Sep 22 07:22:20 UTC 2009
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/241851 http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/241851 yuka-p Tue Sep 22 07:22:20 UTC 2009
After they watched the program, they repeatedly said to me “We want to go to the supermarket by ourselves!”

At first I was reluctant to let them go by themselves even though it was a short-distance. The nearest shop is 5-minute walk from my house, but there is an intersection which I most worry about to pass for them. So I decided to follow them to the intersection.

Before leaving home, I made the eldest daughter write a memo of the items to buy, those were “an insecticide at A store / two pastries and two cups of ice cream at B store”. I told them repeatedly what they have to be care about and gave them a 1000yen bill.

After I saw them off at the intersection, I came home.
Ten minutes later, they came home not buying anything.
“Mom, we are home.”
“What? What happened?”
“What if I hand a bill over at A store? I could not buy anything at B store.”
“You will get the change! Then you can buy the items with the charge. I thought that you already know it.”
“Oh, yes! I will go there again. ”
They left home again.

Thirty minutes later, they came home with big smile!

Mission was completed!
I was so relieved.
They had confidence in going on errand.
The eldest daughter says that she wants to go the store without her little sister.
That day became one of the memorable days in my life.


「はじめてのおつかい」
http://www.dai2ntv.jp/variety/otsukai/?top=12


Posted at Fri Aug 14 09:46:32 UTC 2009
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/213227 http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/213227 yuka-p Fri Aug 14 09:46:32 UTC 2009 It means that I spend all day with my kids. Sometimes I’m at my wit’s end to control them.
My eldest daughter is 7 and my youngest daughter is 4. The eldest have a certain amount of homework but the youngest doesn’t have any of it because she is in a kindergarten. While the eldest is facing to her homework, the youngest wants to play with her sister. At first, the eldest says to her sister “Don’t bother me! Go away!”. Every time she said that, the youngest gave it up. But three or four times later, they are playing together before I know. They are supposed to be yelled. I always say “Why do you have no concentration?” to the eldest and “Why do you disturb your sister while she is studying? ” to the youngest.

After the eldest managed to finish day’s work, the rest of the day is for playing with nothing to worry about.

They chase each other with shouting, sprawl their toys in the living room a short time later I cleaned up. Ask me to bring down the toys which are stored where they can’t reach in addition to the scattered toys.
And more,
They say that they don’t like the dish for lunch I prepared. (Of course I have them eat it.) While I am lying down because of the reasons above, the youngest jumps on me.

“Summer vacation” means a kind of war for me as a mother.
The real summer vacation for me starts when their summer vacation ends.


Posted at Thu Aug 06 09:36:57 UTC 2009
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/207924 http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/207924 yuka-p Thu Aug 06 09:36:57 UTC 2009
I am no good in the morning because of my low blood pressure. On weekdays, I barely make it to prepare breakfast for my daughter who leaves home first. On weekends, I am the last person to get up among my family. Therefore our breakfast starts 10 or 10:30 a.m. on weekends that cause sometimes argument how spend holidays uselessly.

Surprisingly, I am getting up at 5 a.m. these days.

Why?

About 10 days ago, I was forced to get up early to drive my husband to the nearest train station in order to go out of town on business. After I came home from the station, it was 4:50 a.m. Oddly enough, I didn’t want to go to bed again and wanted to study English. When I started it, I felt that my brain works briskly that I had never experienced before.
So I decided to wake up at 5 a.m. from the next morning. I set my alarm clock at the time. Miraculously I could make it the next morning.

Since then, I am getting up at 5 a.m. successfully although a couple of days I failed. Studying early in the morning is keeps my body in good health although I am not sure how many English words I tried to remember are able to stick in my head.

Anyway, I will continue to get up early and of course go to bed early 10p.m.
Now I know that low blood pressure is excuse for not getting up early.
You can get up early if you have can-do spirit.


Posted at Mon Aug 03 12:28:35 UTC 2009
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/205785 http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/205785 yuka-p Mon Aug 03 12:28:35 UTC 2009
Since then, my job, teaching English at a public elementary school to the 5th graders (11 years old) and the 6th graders (12 years old) has started and finished for this semester last week.

That was really tough because it was the first experience for me working at a school in my life though I had a qualification for it.
The first lesson was terrible. But I gradually learned how to conduct them smoothly and interestingly. Initially, I felt that working with homeroom teachers and ALT (Assistant Language Teacher= Native English speaker) in the classes was something uneasy. Three teachers in one class! But I found that I could learn a lot of things from each teacher. I began to grasp the techniques of it.

Kids are really powerful and innocent.
Their smile saved me from depressions in the classes.

Kids tend to have mind-boggling questions.
One day, one student asked me “Do you have a boyfriend?”
I was astonished!!
“I have a husband and two daughters!”
He was surprised.

The summer vacation has just started. I will save my energy for the next semester.


Posted at Tue Jul 21 06:24:48 UTC 2009
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/196874 http://www.lang-8.com/26668/journals/196874 yuka-p Tue Jul 21 06:24:48 UTC 2009