Momo

Momo died in the late evening of January 1st, the new year day! She went to heaven in peace. She was 17 years old.  lived quite a long life. We had been so happy being with her. thank you, Momo. we love you!

hot water bottle

a hot water bottle 湯たんぽ. my essential good for winter. I actually have three of them all in different sizes. this is the smallest one. I hold this when in a living room watching TV, or in my piano room practicing. I made the cover from a used trousers.  And this black thin glove is my current favorite! I cut the fingertip parts so that I can wear them as I type or play the piano!

busy day!

It's been a hectic day today!
Practiced the piano for three hours in the morning then had a piano lesson with my teacher starting from 12:30 till 2:30.  On my way home, did grocery shopping at a local supermarket "Kotobuki". Had a late lunch at 3 then headed to Uehonmachi station to meet my mother. After having a tea time with her, went to Minamimorimachi. At a cozy cafe, previewed vocab for the evening English class. We had a new member today and he liked our class and said would be coming next week!  Great to have a new member since we were just a small group with two students and a teacher before having him.  Yahoo!! When I finally got home, I felt exhausted!

Now I feel much better after having a relaxing time with my husband, watched my favorite drama "Criminal minds" with him and now watching some concert recording which sounding so beautiful.


Good night from Osaka, Japan!

Good morning!

Yesterday, I got a phone call from Dynah, living at a nursing home in Brooklyn in the US where I once worked as a volunteer worker. She sounded wonderful!

I'm going to my piano lesson today, should be fun!

Have a good day, everyone!

why not wavering?

I used to want to be stable, not changeable or wavering.

Now, I want to be a person who is willing to change their opinion or ideas after listening to others very carefully.

As I am living my life everyday, I learn new things almost every day. I meet people who are far smarter than I am or who are much more experienced than I am.  Then I would realize what I was believing or doing was wrong or slightly different, then I would feel happy to change my previous way, not always, but often I feel this way.

I used to believe a teacher should be consistent.

Then now I teach music sometimes, and I'm not consistent at all! I learn things and I would realize..... the same thing happens for this as well. When I find a new thing, I would think of myself, like how stupid I am, not knowing such a basic thing! or like that..... but why not?

I want to be a teacher who keeps learning new things and gets new ideas all the time, changeable? yes, why not? You will never bored learning with this kind of teacher!

Do you agree with me?

writing

I recently read a book titled "Good bye orange" (written in Japanese, and for a small part in English).

It is about two women moved to Australia each from an Asian country (possibly Japan), and an African country as a refugee.  They met each other at an ESL school and became good friends.

The narrator is the Asian woman.  She tells stories about the African women named Salima who has a great ambition and guts for life. Salima was married to an African man with two sons. They moved all together from their home country but after moving, her husband became a bad guy and left them to go to a big city. She struggles to live her life with her two sons, working as a meat processing worker at a supermarket because the job doesn't require language skill.  She had a very had time to find the job before that.

Meanwhile, the narrator. Sayuri, is having a hard time too.  Her husband has a job in a university as a researcher and keeps himself busy on his research about languages.  So she is always left alone with their baby daughter.

This book is consisted of two parts, one for her narration about Salima's story, another for her letters to her former English teacher, who encouraged her to keep writing anything in English.

Then I remember, that writing used be my favorite thing to do, especially keeping my journal here! Why I stopped doing it? Because I get busy?

I thought, I should restart it any soon, even for a few lines each day.


So.... please accept my apology, my dear journal.  I love you, so much!


I have to go now, for my piano practice.  See you later!

recovery week -after the flu week-

Takao got a flu last week and we both had to cancel all the appointments and work for the whole week.  We just stayed home and rested. So this week is a kind of "recovery week". He started to go to work from Monday, and I started to have lessons with my students also.

I realized how much I enjoy having a musical time with my students because not only I teach them but also I can learn from them, too!

Yesterday I had a wonderful moment with my vocal student.  She is in her late 60's and having lesson with me for the past 5 years, always passionate to learn things, want to improve as possible, and also a very honest and kind woman.  I like her so I want her to improve more and more.  Yesterday, we just reached a the best moment where she suddenly understand how to breathe effectively for singing then her voice improved so beautifully!  She seemed so happy almost jumped around! I was so happy for her, too!

If I learn music just by myself I must not have this kind of moment!  That's why I love not only learning but also teaching.  I'm not so excellent with performing but I think I'm good at understanding what's going on with people's body or mind, that is perhaps my strong point. I want to thank God who make me do this, bring students to me. Thank you!

Momo sleeping like an angel!

Android machine

This is the first post from my android machine.
This photo was taken at the nursing home where my father-in-law lives. He moved there in January last year after getting worse with his Alzheimer disease. For the first few weeks, we struggled to accept the new situation. Especially for my mother-in-law, it was quite difficult because she is a very caring person so she was ready to take care of her husband at home until the last minute of his life then the situation became just above her control. She cried a lot about she couldn't take care of her husband at home and felt guilty about that.  We, family members, just kept encouraging her, saying it was not her fault and she shouldn't blame herself.  She gradually accept got it and started to smile after a while.
On the 2nd of March, Takao and I had the 22nd wedding anniversary.  I've been feeling happy all the time since we got married. I love his family a lot and I believe they love me, too. I cannot believe 22 years already passed away with our marriage life!
As I'm writing this, we are watching the Hanshin Tigers baseball game on TV.  Takao got a flu so cannot go to work for the rest of the week. We had to cancel all of the schedule for the week so we have plenty of time to be together this week, unexpectedly!  Perhaps also I have plenty of time to write on this blog!
Bye for now!
 

Spring!

Which of the four seasons do like most? I love spring most because I feel as if everything looks so beautiful and everything just has started in spring! And spring has come here in Japan and now all of the cherry trees are in full bloom here in Osaka!
I'm planning to visit the US this summer after four years of absence. I'm so excited about this! I'll be staying there for one and a half month. Will be participating two choral workshops one in Massachusetts, another in DC. I'm also hoping to visit the residents of the nursing home I worked as a volunteer in 2008. I want to join the Friday Night Singing Group again, and see my friends there.
Keeping my diary here in English is not easy for me but I want to try it again to improve my writing and also to record what I feel, do, think, see and everything!
Hello, my journal again and just keep in touch with you!
Naoko