The terrible flu

My 7-year-old son had had a fever since midnight Saturday.
His fever fell down to about 37.3 degrees yesterday morning, so our family went to the car dealer for the periodic maintenance check of our cars.

My son and I went to bed at 7:30pm, but he woke me up at 1am.

"Mom, it's too hot! and I have a sore throat."

I touched him and he was very hot.

His fever was 38.8 degrees.

"Do you want something to drink?"

I brought a cup of water to him.

He drank it and tried to sleep, but his fever was getting higher and higher and he seemed not to be able to fall asleep.

I kept patting his back and cooling his forehead with a wet cool towel.

His fever finally reached nearly 40 degrees around 2pm.

He looked so painful.

I suspected that his fever was due to the flu.

But I was surprised as to whether the flu of this year was so strong because my children and I already had got the flu shot last November.

After all this my son and I got hardly any sleep after 1pm.

Since today is a national holiday in Japan, most of hospitals and clinics are closed.

So I decided to take him to the holiday emergency clinic.

He took the flu test and was diagnosed with the flu by the doctor.

He got medicines and came home.

After he had the medicine, he finally could fall asleep and he is still sleeping now.

I am relieved that the cause of his fever could be figured out.

He must not go to school at least for this week, but he will be able to recover the flu by the end of this week.

My job is now in the busiest month of the year, so I couldn't take a day off tomorrow.

So my husband will stay with him tomorrow morning.

I asked my boss to take a half day off tomorrow, and I will take care of him tomorrow afternoon.

I really hope that my 5-year-old daughter will not catch the flu from him.

  

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Tissue-pack marketing

Our company sometimes does the tissue-pack marketing for a sales promotion.

We stand in front of the shopping mall and hand out small portable tissue packages with flyers of our company to passers‐by. 

I did it yesterday.

It is very interesting because I can encounter various kinds of people.

When they pass by in front of me, I say " Hello, we are ~ (the name of our company)", then hold out a small pack of tissue.

Some people receive it saying "Thank you."

Some people receive it, but they don't say anything and try to go through quickly.

Some very polite people stop walking and make a bow and receive it saying "Thank you".

Some people don't receive it and completely ignore me.

Some people show the palm of their hand to me and it means they don't want it.

In a rare case, there was a man who received it and threw our flyer away in front of me.

It is like people- watching.

I can see what kind of person I want to be through this work.

 

 

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Language test 2

My 7-year-old son told me last night when we were taking a bath:

"Mom, can you press your elbow to Tatsumaki?"

"What?? What do you mean? Maybe you are talking about Tsumuji (a hair whorl), right? "

"Oh, I mistook it."

"Why do you think that you misunderstood it? "

"Because both are in a whirl! Don't you think they are similar?"

"Yes, I agree!"

His misunderstandings were really funny.

When we ate snack yesterday evening, my son was eating small chocolates.
s
"I want to eat all of these by myself, but if you want it, I can give you one."

He said.

"OK. Why don't you barter? I have a small chocolate pie."

"But, can I exchange this chocolate? It isn't pimply."

I couldn't stop laughing.

Barter is called Butsubutsu-koukan ( 物々交換／ぶつぶつこうかん) in Japanese.

This Butsubutsu has a lot of meanings in Japanese : mutter / nag somebody / grumble about something / have a rash /cut into small pieces  /make holes in a piece of paper with a pin

Those are wriiten in Hiragana, but Barter is written in Kanji like 物々, and it means thing and thing.

He mistook 物々for a rash.

It is difficult to learn the language, but fun.


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Language test

My seven-year-old son asked me yesterday:

"What does Otome (maiden) mean?"

"Otome? Well, it means young girls, maybe about from10 to 20-year-old girls. Do you find the word in the comic?"

"Yes."

He often asks me the meaning of the words which he doesn't know.

Other than that, he asked me Simei-tehai (fugitive warrant) yesterday.

He can read books by himself if there are Furigana above the Kanji which indicate how the Kanji sound.

 

But he still has a lot of words which he doesn't understand the meanings.

 

He sometimes misunderstands the meaning of Japanese idioms.

 

For example, I told him before:

 

"I want to fly there."

 

It means I want to go there as soon as possible, but he asked me:

 

"Do you really fly to the sky? How?"

 

It was so funny that my husband and I couldn't stop laughing on hearing that.

 

It takes a long time to master a language even if we are native speakers of it.

 

Whenever I answer his question, I feel like taking a test of Japanese language.

 

It is a little difficult to explain so that children can understand, I need to chose the simple and plain words.

 

But I think that it is also a good opportunity to  acquire Japanese language skills.

 

 

 

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I miss those days

Friends of ours came to our house yesterday evening.

They got married about four years ago and she gave birth to a baby boy last month.

But since the baby was born more than 1 month ahead of her due date, the baby was still in the hospital.

I was relieved to hear that he is fine.

They showed us their son's photos.

She said his weight is still under 2,000g.

But from what I could find he is fine though he is very small.



I remembered the days when my children were babies.

When my son was born, I didn't know anything about taking care of a baby.

I was nervous when I washed his body.

He was so small that it was difficult for me to hold him while washing him.

I had a dilemma because I couldn't feed him well.

It was hard he was often still awake after midnight not wanting to sleep.

I was always sleepy and I faced brand new happenings every day.

When my children smiled at me for the first time, I was really glad to see them.

Though they couldn't speak and they just  lay down on the bed,  I talked to them like I was talking alone.

It was the time that I had begun to live for a person except myself.



When my son was three months old, he suffered from Kawasaki disease and he had to be hospitalised for 12 days.

At first, I noticed that he had a high fever.

He kept crying.

We had just moved to Tokyo, so I was not familiar with our neighborhood and roads.

I was not used to driving my husband's big car and I didn't know how to use its car navigation system.

But I had to take him to the hospital.

I was about to be crushed with anxiety when I was driving nervously while listening to him crying bitterly.

I said:

"It's OK. We will soon reach the hospital. I know it is hard. Please wait for a moment!"

I tried to calm down myself.

After we got to the hospital, the doctor took him to the examination room to put him on a drip.

They said I had to wait in the waiting room.

I heard my son crying terribly.

I was worried about him and became more anxious. 

Since it was too hard for me to endure the situation alone, I called my husband and asked him to come to the hospital.

After 5 days, my son was finally diagnosed with Kawasaki disease.

It was a long long 5 days for us because we had been very anxious.


Neither of our children have health problems now.

I still have some worries about my children, but I almost forgot about my worries when they were babies.

I really miss those days.

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My recommended sightseeing spot ~ the latest AEON mall ~

My family went to my parents house to pick up something I forgot to bring yesterday afternoon.

Then we went to AEON mall in Tokoname which was opened last December for the first time.

It is near the Chubu international airport (Centrair) and there is a free shuttle bus from the airport to the AEON mall.

I thought this AEON mall is quite different from other normal AEON malls.

It is completely for foreign tourists.

There are several tax-free shops and souvenir shops where you can find many things made in Japan like snacks, clothes, even cars!

You can see some typical Japanese scenes.

Fortunately, my hometown Tokoname-city is often represented elsewhere in the mall.

This Lucky Cat is the biggest in the world.

Tokoname city is famous for its pottery, and one of the most famous  areas for the production of Lucky Cats in Japan.

You can buy various kinds of Lucky Cat!

The big decorated lantern is at one of the entrances of the mall.

There are not only many shops but also several entertainment spots.

My 5-year-old daughter and I enjoyed ice skating outside the mall!

My 7-year-old son and my husband enjoyed kart racing!

There were a lot of foreign tourists and they were enjoying these entertainment activities.

Besides these, we can enjoy field athletics, cycle rental, Onsen, and so on.

I heard that they would change some attractions depending on the season.

It is located near the sea, so you can walk around the mall and you will see beautiful views all around.

 

The illuminations were very beautiful!

 

Since we went there in the evening, it was not as crowded as I expected.

 

We had a very fun time there.

 

If you come to Chubu international airport and you want to go shopping, I would recommend a visit.

 

You will surely enjoy it!

 

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Journey to our hometown

Happy New Year!

We would like to extend the best wishes from our family to yours.

May the New Year bring only good things to all of you!


Our family visited my husband's parents house in Kagoshima prefecture during the New Year's holiday.

We could see his parents after one year.

They were good and glad to see their grandchildren.

We helped them to get ready for the New Year.

My 5-year-old daughter especially helped them a lot.

They raise about twelve Japanese black cattle in front of their house.

She used to be scared of them because they were bigger than her and the black color of their body made her frightened, so I had to carry her when we went through in front of the cattle barn.

But this year, she swept around the cattle barn with a broom and fed them.

I was surprised to see her do this

She brought her small apron and helped her grandmother.

She was so glad to see that her granddaughter helped her a lot.


We paid a visit to a shrine on New Year's Day.

A lot of people were in a long line to worship toward the main building of the Shinto shrine.

My husband and I explained to our children how to pray.

We threw coins into the offering box in front of the main hall, rang the bell, made a bow twice, clapped twice, put our hands together, closed eyes and prayed for our wishes.

We drew Omikuji (a paper fortune).

I picked the "Kichi" (blessing).

In my case, when the prediction is not so good, I fold up the strip of paper and tie it to the wires where we can attach bad fortunes in the shrine grounds.

We enjoyed the kite-flying at the ground near their house.

Kite-flying is one of the popular New Year's activities for children in Japan.

 

 

We went to the aquarium this year again where we go on New Year's Day every year.

We enjoyed watching the dolphin show.

It was funny that trainer wore Kimono during the show.

This time, we visited Uchinoura Space Center for the first time.

It is a space launch facility established by JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency).

 

 

 

I was impressed that the washrooms inside and outside the facility were well-cleaned and kept comfortable though it is in the countryside.

I could feel residents' effort to welcome tourists.

It was a really nice trip.

We could see our parents and helped them, visit many places and meet relatives.


When we arrived at the Central Japan airport, many Lucky Cats welcomed us at the baggage claim of the domestic arrival.

These Lucky Cats are famous ceramic products of Tokoname city where the airport is located.

My father came to the airport to pick us up, then we went to my parents house to stay one night.

My sister and her husand came to our parents house yesterday morning and had lunch together.

After lunch, we enjoyed playing "Donjyara" together.

It is a picture matching game like mah‐jongg for families.

I wrote about Donjyara my previous post : http://a-o-j-m.blogspot.jp/search?q=donjyara )

We got very involved in the game.

It was really fun!

My son turned seven during the New Year's vacation.

He got presents from his grandparents and aunt.

He also enjoyed painting a dinosaur figure which he bought with his Otoshidama (New Year's money) which I gave him.

The dinosaur was white at first and children can enjoy painting it using acrylic paints which are packed together.

Everyone in our family was surprised at his sense of color!

A long New Year's vacation will end soon.

I will be happy if you visit my blog again this year!


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