On my way to the children's house where my 7-year-old son stays after school, I was thinking about how to manage the time after we came home.
Since it was the Girl's Festival yesterday, I had a lot of things to do.
First, I made Chirashizushi and clam (Asari) soup for dinner.
These are my standard recipes for dinner on the Girl's Festival.
Next, I wrote about how my children were in this year on the notebooks.
I prepared each of notebooks 4 years ago.
My children draw a picture of the Hina Dolls on the notebooks on Girl's Festival day every year, and I write about the status of my children like their current characters, what they like, what they don't like,who their best friends are, in the notebooks.
In addition, my husband and I write a letter to our children in the notebooks.
My mother used to do this for me and my sister and we enjoyed looking at our old drawings and letters very much every year.
I hope my children will enjoy these notebook after they grow up.
Last, I put the Hina Doll's away.
This was hard task for me.
I needed to treat them carefully, so I wore gloves to prevent making the dolls dirty.
And I covered every part of the dolls with thin papers.
"Shall I help you?"
My 5-year-old daughter said, but I answered:
"Oh, no thank you. I am glad to hear your offer, but this task is a little difficult for you. I have to handle them carefully. Look, this is a hat for the male doll. It is very small. I have to wrap it with this thin paper. I should be careful not to lose such small parts. Please go ahead and take a bath. It's already 8:20pm!"
My son and daughter went to the bathroom.
I finished putting Hina Dolls away at 8:35pm.
It was a very busy day.
There was a reason why I had to put them away by the end of March 3rd.
Because it is said that daughters will let marriage pass them by if their parents leave them displayed after March 3rd!
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Hello Kumi-san,
ReplyDeleteSounds like you had a fun (and very busy) 雛祭. I think from everything I have seen on all the Japanese posts I have read that Girls Festival is a lot more fun than Christmas (as far as Christmas goes in England), I am not sure how Christmas is treated in Japan. But if I had the choice I would choose Girls Festival over Christmas, seems like a much nicer celebration. Plus I also like looking at all the dolls and pretty cakes :) .
Here is a list of some of the issues found with the post:
This line:
"Oh my goodness! I forgot to set a timer of a rice cooker! I have to go home in hurry, or our dinner time will be later than usual."
Should be:
"Oh my goodness! I forgot to set the timer on the rice cooker! I had to go home in hurry, or our dinner time will be later than usual."
This line:
I prepared the notebooks each of them 4 years ago.
Should be:
I prepared each of the notebooks 4 years ago.
This line:
My children draw a picture of the Hina Dolls on the notebooks on Girl's Festival day every year, and I write about their status of my children like their current characters, what they like, what they don't like,who the best friends are, on the notebooks.
Should be:
My children draw a picture of the Hina Dolls in the notebooks on Girl's Festival day every year, and I write about the status of my children like their current characters, what they like, what they don't like, who their best friends are, in the notebooks.
Note: In above line one of the things I changed was on to in because when you write in a book you are writing on the pages which are in(side) the book. If you were writing on the book cover than you could use on then, because that is not inside the book. Also note that a lot of people also use on, but it sounds odd in certain situations where in will almost always work when referencing pages inside a book.
This line:
In addition, my husband and I write a letter to our children on the notebooks.
Should be:
In addition, my husband and I write a letter to our children in the notebooks.
This line:
My mother used to do like this for me and my sister and we enjoyed looking at our old drawings and letters very much every year.
Should be:
My mother used to do this for me and my sister and we enjoyed looking at our old drawings and letters very much every year.
This line:
Last, I put Hina Doll's away.
Should be:
Last, I put the Hina Doll's away.
This line:
This was a most hard task for me.
Should be:
This was a hard task for me.
This line:
I needed to treat them carefully, so I wore the gloves to prevent making the dolls dirty.
Should be:
I needed to treat them carefully, so I wore gloves to prevent making the dolls dirty.
This line:
And I covered every part of dolls with thin papers.
Should be:
And I covered every part of the dolls with thin papers.
This line:
"Oh, no thank you. I am glad to hear your offer, but this task is a little difficult for you. I have to handle them carefully. Look, this is a hat for the male doll. It is very small. I have to wrap it with this thin paper. I should be careful not to lose such small parts. Please take a bath ahead. It's already 8:20pm!"
Should be:
"Oh, no thank you. I am glad to hear your offer, but this task is a little difficult for you. I have to handle them carefully. Look, this is a hat for the male doll. It is very small. I have to wrap it with this thin paper. I should be careful not to lose such small parts. Please go ahead and take a bath. It's already 8:20pm!"
This line:
There was a reason why I had to put them away by yesterday.
Should be:
There was a reason why I had to put them away by the end of March 3rd.
Thank you always Terry!
DeleteI think Chrismas is bigger event than Girl's Festival in Japan because it is not so important if families don't have any girls.
I have a question about the correction:
This line:
"Oh my goodness! I forgot to set a timer of a rice cooker! I have to go home in hurry, or our dinner time will be later than usual."
Should be:
"Oh my goodness! I forgot to set the timer on the rice cooker! I had to go home in hurry, or our dinner time will be later than usual."
Why should "have" change "had"?
This sentence was what I was thinking in my head at that time, so I wrote "have".
But if you think it sounds strange, I will correct it.
Hello Kumi-san,
DeleteI reread the sentence again and you are right have is the correct word to use.
I initially read the sentence as you telling us that in the past day you had forgotten to set the timer on your rice cooker.
But if you were writing that what you were thinking at a certain point in time, or as you were actually writing this article you were thinking that, then have would be correct.
I would rewrite the sentence slightly to make it more explicit:
"Oh my goodness! I forgot to set the timer on the rice cooker! I have to go home in hurry, or our dinner time will be later than usual.", I thought.
By adding I thought at the end you let readers know that what is written was what was being thought at a certain time in the past. Normally this would not be required because context of the sentence would make it clear. The problem here was that it was the first sentence in the article and there was not enough information for me to notice. This is I think somewhat subjective other readers may not have had problems interpreting the sentence.
Either way the issue is a very small one and not worth worrying about.
Sorry for the confusion.
On the issues of the Girls Festival being less important than Christmas; Yes I had not thought about people who do not have any girls in their family.
Do boys have a similar festival?
Thank you again Terry!
DeleteI am afraid I would like to ask you about it again,
I wrote the sentence :
I was thinking about how to manage the time after we came home.
So I have not add "I thought", I thought it might be redundant.
If my sentence is still not clear for you, I am going to add "I thought" so that it would be clear.
Yes, May 5th is the day of Children's day.
Parents who have boys display "Koinobori (carp streamers)” and “kabuto(samurai warrior helmet)”.
Maybe I will write about it in May!
Hello Kumi-san,
DeleteWith your sentence:
I was thinking about how to manage the time after we came home.
You do not need to add I thought because you say that you were thinking that at the beginning of the sentence.
You only need to add I thought or some similar set of words when it is not clear from context that you were thinking something.
For example:
I am eating cake which is not good for me.
And:
I am eating cake which is not good for me, I remember thinking.
The first version of the sentence because I didn't tell you beforehand sounds as if I am currently eating cake and that I know it is not good for me. There is no way to know that it was a thought I have about something I did previously.
The second version alters the meaning entirely because with that you know that it is something that happened previously that I was thinking about.
You could use the first version of the sentence but in that case you must have previously made clear through context that you are currently thinking about past events.
Example:
I had an interesting day, let me tell you what I remember...
I am eating cake which is not good for me.
The example above is very contrived. To be honest it's probably better to just add I was thinking or I remember or some similar words.
You can also change the tense of the words to make it clear without specifically having to say I remember or I was thinking.
Example:
I enjoyed eating cake.
Here you don't have to say I was thinking or remember because you used enjoyed which is past tense.
Had you said:
I enjoy eating cake
That sentence is present tense so you would need to add I thought or I remembered:
I enjoy eating cake (I was thinking/I remembered).
All the above I will admit is not very clear and confusing as I am not very good at explaining these sort of topics.
If something is still unclear please let me know.
With regard to Children's day, I look forward to your write up on it when it arrives :)