Homemade Birthday cake

February 11 is National Foundation Day, one of the national holidays in Japan.

And it's also my father's birthday.

Since my children's school is closed on that day, we can go to my parents' house and celebrate with him every year.

My 7-year-old daughter said,

"I want to make cookies for grandpa!"

I suggested to her,

"Why don't we make a birthday cake for him? I used to make it when I was younger. Do you want to try it?"

"Yeah! I want to try!"

She was so excited to hear that because she loves cooking very much.

We went to the supermarket near my parents' house and bought some ingredients like flour, fresh cream, butter, strawberries, and so on.

My children and I started making his birthday cake at my parents' house.

My daughter said to her grandpa,

"Don't come to the kitchen, it's a secret. Look forward to it!"

Actually, he really wanted to see what we were doing, but he had to wait for us.

My 9-year-old son also tried to beat eggs.

It was rare for to help with the cooking, but it seemed to be fun for him.

The cake was baked well.

My children came to the oven and said:

"What a good smell!"

I sliced the sponge cake into two pieces, cut some strawberries, and put them with whipped cream between them.

My daughter enjoyed applying whipped cream on the cake.

She and I decorated the side of the cake with whipped cream, too.

I didn't agree with the idea at first, but my daughter insisted on sprinkling colored chocolate sprinkles on the cake.

"Grandpa! Happy birthday to you!"

My daughter said to him and I brought the birthday cake which we made to him.

He was so glad to see that and said,

"Wow! What a wonderful cake! Thank you so much, I am really happy."

I lit the candles, turned off the room light, and we sang a happy birthday song for him.

The taste was good, but I thought we could have improve upon it.

Of course, a birthday cake which is made by a pastry chef is better than our homemade cake.

But I thought it was really good to make a birthday cake because my father seemed to be really happy.

Thank you(^o^) for reading this article!

Chocolate for Valentine's day

I went to the supermarket to do some shopping with my children yesterday.

I bought chocolate for my kids and husband while there, even though it was a little early for Valentine's day, because all of us had a day off yesterday and we were having a relaxing time.

In Japan, it is common that women give chocolate to men on Valentine's day.

I gave a box of chocolate to my husband.

He said with a grin:

"Thank you! But... I know. You only want to eat them by yourself, don't you?"

"Oh, busted!"

I grinned at him and said:

"All right, let's eat them together. Would you like a cup of coffee? Hey, Dad said you can eat the chocolate!"

"Yeah!"

Our children were glad and came to the table.

We enjoyed our time together eating the chocolate.

Thank you(^o^) for reading this article!

Handmade Hina Dolls

My 8-year-old son made Hina Dolls at the children's house yesterday.

I was surprised that he drew such cute faces on them!

"How cute they are!"

I told him.

He smiled happily.

Actually, he is good at drawing dinosaurs, but isn't very good at drawing people's faces.

I think he did a good job!

I like it very much.

 

 

Thank you(^o^) for reading this article!

 

 

My 6-year-old daughter's wishes for Tanabata

Since the Tanabata festival will be held on July 7th at my 6-year-old daughter's nursery school, she wrote her wishes on the strips of paper last night.

Tanabata (Star festival) is on July 7th.

It is the festival based on a story from legend.

A beautiful weaver princess named Orihime (Vega) and a young cattle herder named Hikoboshi(Altair) fell in love with each other at first sight.

They had been absorbed in each others love, and they did not perform their duties well.

Then God got angry and decided to separate them by The Milky Way.

And they were able to meet once a year on July 7th.

We decorate branches of bamboo grass with strips of paper, celebrating reunitign of Hikoboshi and Orihime.

When we write a wish on the strip of paper and hang it on the branch of bamboo, it is said that the wish will come true.


Her first wish is "I want to be a pastry chef (ぱてぃしえになりたい) ".

The second one is "I want to be more punctual (じかんをちゃんとまもれますように)."

Since she can't wake up in the morning even though I wake her up so many times and she takes too long for breakfast and dinner, I often scold her.

I was glad to know she also wants to improve her own habit.

The third one is "I want to live in peace getting along with everyone (へいわなじだいでみんなとなかよくくらせますように)".

I was surprised with her third wish, but I knew why she wrote it.

Because when we watched the TV drama before, it was a story during World War 2.

She learned the fear of war from it.
She said:

"War is scary. I want to get along with everyone. I love everyone! I love mom, dad, my brother, friends, teachers...."

I really hope no more war and no more tears from losing their families.

(Her wishes written on the stips of paper which includes some mistakes.)

Thank you(^o^) for reading this article!
If you enjoy it, please click the button below and vote me!
I will be encouraged by you.
↓

My tooth finally fell out!

My 6-year-old son suddenly told me when he was having dinner yesterday evening,

 

"My tooth finally fell out!"

 

His upper front tooth was loose for 2 or 3 weeks.

 

"That's good! Did it hurt?"

 

"Not at all."

 

"So let's bury it in the ground later. We can't throw it under the floor."

 

We have a custom that if upper baby tooth falls out, we throw it on a roof and if lower baby tooth falls out, we throw it under a floor.

 

The custom seems to be a little different by each regions.

 

But it is like a charm to come in a good permanent tooth.

 

Japanese houses have space under the floor because the humidity is high here.

 

My parents house has lattice-like small windows on the house foundation, so I could throw my tooth from them when I was a child.

 

But recent Japanese houses don't have such kind of windows, so my son and I buried it in the ground.

 

Our dinner was "Yakisoba".

My son tried to eat it from his teeth gap.

He said,

"I don't have to open my mouse when I eat it!"

It was very fuuny for me.

 



 

 

Thank you(^o^) for reading this article!
If you enjoy it, please click these buttons and vote me!
I will be encouraged by you.
↓

テキストまたはウェブサイトのアドレスを入力するか、ドキュメントを翻訳します。

テキストまたはウェブサイトのアドレスを入力するか、ドキュメントを翻訳します。

 

The Midsummer Day of the Ox

Yesterday was the midsummer day of the ox.

We have a traditional custom to eat eel to get stamina to survive the summer heat on the day.

Recently, eels are very expensive because of the poor catch of the young eels.

But I want to eat some though it is expensive.

I bought it at the surpermarket.

My children didn't want to eat eel until last year, but thanks to school lunch, they can eat various foods and they told me that they wanted to eat it this year.

This is dinner for children last night.

*Grilled eel and rice
*Steamed clam and broccoli with sake

It was very yummy!

I felt that I got energy from it.



Thank you(^o^) for reading this article!
If you enjoy it, please click these buttons and vote me!
I will be encouraged by you.
↓

The summer gift which I am glad to get

We recieved a summer gift from my brother-in-law 2 days ago.

It was an assortment of peaches!

They are packed carefully because they are easy to be damaged.

I like fruits very much but I rarely buy a peach because it is expensive.

I was very glad to get them.

Since we live near a grape-producing area, we send them to him and other relatives every summer.

If they are glad, we will be also glad.


Thank you(^o^) for reading this article!
If you enjoy it, please click these buttons and vote me!
I will be encouraged by you.
↓

Devils out! Fortunes in!

Yesterday was the day of  "Setsubun".

We have a custom to eat "Ehoumaki"(rolled sushi) at the day of Setsubun.

As far as I remember, this is quite a new custom about 18 years ago.

When I was a college student, I worked at sushi shop for a part time job.

A sushi chef heard about the custom from his friend, so he decided to make and sell them.

(According to the Wikipedia, it is said that "Ehoumaki" was spreaded by Seven Eleven Japan in 1998.)

When we eat "Ehoumaki", we face to the side of which we believe to be lucky this year (it was west south-west) and remain silent while eating and hopes for the good things to come for the whole year.

We usually eat rolled sushi on ordinary days and only eat the whole ehoumaki in celebration of setsubun.


My children kept talking to me so I couldn't keep silence.

My 4-year-old daughter didn't want to eat "Ehoumaki" because she didn't like raw tuna, so I cut a cucumber lengthwise and gave them to her.

Since she likes cucumber, she had it like eating "Ehoumaki".


After we finished dinner, we did the soybeans throwing ceremony.

We acted devil and fortune in turns, especially my 6-year-old son acted as the devil very well!

It turned out that the devil in him would not get out from the room soon, so we had to throw beans for more than 5 minutes.

If we finished throwing beans, we had to gather and throw them to his devil again.

It was not easy to get out the devil from our home.

We enjoyed Setsubun but I got very tired.

Thank you(^o^) for reading this article!
If you enjoy it, please click these buttons and vote me!
I will be encouraged by you.
↓

人気ブログランキングへ 

This is the hospitality spirit! No.2 ~ heartwarming customer survice~

I went shopping to the supermarket yesterday.

When I was going to take a carton of milk, my hand slipped and dropped it by mistake.

Then the milk pack got a hole and milk leaked little by little.

I thought that I needed to pay for it.

Then I brought it to the register with other foods which I would buy.

I told the cashier, " I'm sorry. I dropped it by mistake and the milk pack got a hole. Please be careful when you scan its bar code."

She told me, "Oh, it's OK! We will change it to the new one. Could you wait a minute while the another staff brings it? Are you OK? Didn't you get wet with milk?"

Since I had thought that I should pay for it obviously, I was so surprised at her response and impressed with her kind word.

Her heartwarming customer service surely caught a regular customer.

Thank you(^o^) for reading this article!
If you enjoy it, please click these buttons and vote me!
I will be encouraged by you.
↓

人気ブログランキングへ 

This is the Japanese hospitality spirit!

When I was driving on my way home yesterday evening, I saw a man who was bowing very low to his customer's car which was coming out from the shop in front of the automobile dealer.

Since he was bowing for a long time, I was interested in how long he would keep bowing.

So I kept staring at him while I was driving.


Wow!  He was bowing more than 10 seconds!

It meant that he was bowing until he couldn't see his customer.

I was impressed with his hospitality spirit though maybe he was being trained by his company.

I guessed his customer would be able to go home with feeling good.


The way of Japanese bowing have three types.

First, it is so called "esyaku (bowing)", it is used when people pass someone at the hallway and so on.

 "Esyaku" is the act of lowering the torso and head at an angle of about 15°.

Second one is called "Keirei (salute)" which is the act of lowering the torso and head at an angle of about 30° .

It is used the situation like greeting someone, meeting someone for the first time, introduction of myself, entering the room and exiting from the room and so on.

It is a very common way of bowing especially in business situation.

Third one is called "Sai-keirei (the most polite salute)" which is the act of lowering the torso and head at an angle of about 45°.

It is used in more polite situations like greeting to the very important person, and apologizing to someone.

The man I saw did "Sai-keirei".

Since I am doing a job in customer service, so I would like to follow his example.

 

 

Thank you(^o^) for reading this article!
If you enjoy it, please click these buttons and vote me!
I will be encouraged by you.
↓

人気ブログランキングへ 



Eat all you can Japanese food!

We did our office year end cleaning yesterday morning.

I worked so hard though I have not finished cleaning our house yet.

After we finished, we had a "Bounenkai"(the year-end party. We enjoy lunch or dinner together to share and shake off the hardships we experienced during the past year, and to prepare for the coming year with renewed resolve.).

Fortunately, it's on our boss every year.


The lunch was eat all you can Japanese food!!!

We could eat Sushi, Tenpura, and Syabusyabu!!!

(These are mere images, not something we ate yesterday.)

Syabusyabu

 

Sushi

Tenpura

It was yummy for eat all you can.

We ate a lot!

It was funny that all of my colleagues tried not to leave anything on our plate because we are all housewives and have children!

We enjoyed talking and having lunch very much.


Thank you(^o^) for reading this article!
If you enjoy it, please click these buttons and vote me!
I will be encouraged by you.
↓

人気ブログランキングへ 

 

 

Preparation for welcoming the New Year

I went to my son's music school with him, and we had a Christamas party yesterday morning.

The students played their favorite song one by one.

My 5-year-old son played "Youkai watch" using Electone in front of other students and mothers.

He made mistakes a few times but he played very well.


We cleaned our room in the evening.

I cleaned a goldfish aquarium with my 4-year-old daughter.

She likes helping me, but she always wants to do the same thing with me.

So I did what I wanted her to do, then she imitated what I was doing.

It needs a knack to make her do something.


Since it was sunny yesterday, I cleaned the entrance and the shoerack.

I displayed a New Year's holiday decoration on the door handle.

 

We also need to clean living room, kitchen, bathroom, toilet, and Japanese tatami room.

I mean, we have not finished cleaning whole house yet!


Thank you(^o^) for reading this article!
If you enjoy it, please click these buttons and vote me!
I will be encouraged by you.
↓

人気ブログランキングへ 

 

I made New Year's Cards!

I made new year's cards using computer yesterday.

According to oriental zodiac, next year is the year of the sheep.

When we make a draft of the New Year's card, we usually use the illustrations of the zodiac of the year or lucky items like Mt.Fuji, pine, bamboo, plum, seven deities of good luck, and so on.

I will write comments to my relatives, friends, and people to whom I am indebted.

Nowadays, we usually contact our friends through email, but I think that the greetings with the New Year's card are indispensable.

Japanese new year's postcards have lottery numbers at bottom of them, and the lottery is held during January every year.

Prizes for the next year are 10,000 yen for the first prize, local specialties packages for the second prize, stamp sheets for the third prize.

I look forward to it every year!

 

Thank you(^o^) for reading this article!
If you enjoy it, please click these buttons and vote me!
I will be encouraged by you.
↓

人気ブログランキングへ 
 
 

I found a 2000-yen bill!

I had a day off yesterday, I cleaned the second floor's room of our house yesterday.

My son will enter the elementary school next April, so we need to prepare his room to put his desk.

But the rooms are occupied by my husband's luggage because he has not cleaned his luggage yet since we moved here.

He is too busy to have enough time to put them away.

Above all, it is troublesome to classify the garbage, so he wasn't willing to do it.

Reluctantly I started putting them away instead of him last month.

His luggage were very messy!

 

I sometimes found empty bottles, canned which already lost the expiration date, a lot of screws and cords which I didn't know what to use, and so on.

 

And I also found a 2000-yen and a 5000-yen bill!

 

 

 

5000-yen bill is used commonly, but 2000-yen bill is very rare now.

 

A 2000-yen bill was issued in 2000, but isn't issued now.

 

I think I want to use it as soon as possible because 2000-yen bill was sometimes not available(for example vending machines, automatic ticket vending machines, and so on).

 

 

Thank you(^o^) for reading this article!
If you enjoy it, please click these buttons and vote me!
I will be encouraged by you.
↓

人気ブログランキングへ 

A wedding invitation

I received a wedding invitation recently.

A friend of mine who was my classmate in high school will be getting married January next year.

I met her once during our college reunion after 16 years last October.

I attended together with my two friends and she was there too with her friends.

Since all of us went to the same high school and it had been so long since we've met, we got excited over talking about the old days.

She mentioned about her getting married next year, so all of us were invited to attend her wedding ceremony.

It was such a long time since I attended a wedding ceremony, so I am looking forward this event after she invited me.

These are stamps for the auspicious event which will be used in sending the　wedding invitation to all attendees.

92 yen stamp is for the envelope of invitation, and 52 yen stamp is for reply confirm the attendance.

It is one of our customs to use these stamps for a wedding invitation.

It has been said that it is unlucky to paste two stamps on one envelope because it connotes separation of the couple.

We have various manners to follow when it comes to ceremonial occasions in our country.



Thank you(^o^) for reading this article!
If you enjoy it, please click these buttons and vote me!
I will be encouraged by you.
↓

人気ブログランキングへ 

Unintentional sleep deprivation caused by my children

When we sleep, we spread bedding on "tatami"( It is a mat on the floor in a Japanese -style room) and we lie down side by side.

Our sleeping position resembles to that of the kanji character which word is "river" (" 川" in Kanji).

Recently we lie down in this order.

(My 5-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter sometimes start quarreling about who lies next to me or my husband.)

But it was like this at 12:30am.

I was surprised because she usually sleeps without changing her sleeping position.

I turned her into a straight position and slept again.

Two hours later, I woke up again because my son put his legs under my legs.

He does this every night.

I turned him into a straight position and covered him with a futon (quilt) again and slept again.


One and a half hours later, I happened to wake up again seeing my son's head-butting.

 Early this morning (4:00am), I cannot go back to sleep and end up writing this article.

Were you able to think why we don't sleep in a separate room for us to get a good sleep?

I should say, it's because this is our family's ordinary customs!



Thank you(^o^) for reading this article!
If you enjoy it, please click these buttons and vote me!
I will be encouraged by you.
↓

人気ブログランキングへ