sushi

Today's supper menu is something new for me. It is "oshi-sushi" which is sushi pushed into a mould. As a Japanese, I love sushi and make it myself. But it was the first time that I have made a "oshi-sushi."

Traditionally thin rectangular mould is used for this, and cut it into smaller pieces that are just nigiri-sushi size. Instead of using a proper mould, a rectangular shaped container can be alternative, but I used a round cake mould. I thought this can be more attractive for Westerners.

Here is the sushi!




There are very limited choices of fish for sushi in England. Although England is in a small island surrounded by an ocean, it is almost impossible to buy fresh fish that is fresh enough to eat it raw. So I use only a few different kind of fish for sushi, such as smoked sermon, smoked mackerel, and prawns...nothing fresh.

Today, I used herrings. I got this idea on a website for people living in abroad who wants to cook Japanese food with the local ingredients.

The herrings I used for this is marinated and sold in a jar.



This is with dill, so this tastes European.
This sushi was great but I felt it too much Western...

But it is all right, since my husband liked it. :D


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WMF pot

When we moved from California to England, we brought as little as we can carry in suit cases. Some boxes were sent by surface mail. But we brought minimum amount of stuff to start our new life in England.

So we bought all the essential things that are needed for our basic life. At that time, we had only 4-month-old baby. So we bought smaller pans that are big enough for three of us.

Four years have passed after that, and our family has grown. Now we have two toddlers who are eating more and more. And one teenage girl has joined to our family this month.

It is amazing how much she eats every day. she is rather skinny girl, but she usually eats twice as much as my husband eats. She always looks for foods in the kitchen whenever she comes home, even if it is at midnight...


ummm.


So ... now I have to serve foods for three adults, which is as much as for four adults, and two children. That means our smaller pots are too small....

I went shopping this afternoon. We stopped at a discount shop in a mall. They sell popular brand goods at reasonable price. What I bought there was WMF vegetable pot with two handles. WMF is a German kitchen tool brand and they make practical and simple/modern design stuff. I didn't know much about WMF, but this brand seems to have high quality and those pots are sold at more than 10000 yen each in Japan. It is only a stainless steel pot though.

Wow. The price for the pot I bought was only ￡16 (about 3000yen). Considering cheaply made non-brand pots can cost as much as ￡16, this good size pot for this price was quite good deal. :D

It was a good buy.


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new work space

I set up my new desk space in my bedroom. Since I have one desk in an office in our house, this is my second desk.

My house is located on the school campus where my husband teaches. I used to teach at the school as well and now I am a parent of two kindergateners at this school. So I know the stuff, pupils and parents well.

It is so wonderful that I don't have to drive/walk to the school to drop off my kids, or pick them up twice a day. Also I don't have to go somebody's house to socialize, because they come to me. How convenient!

On the other hand, we have so little privacy here. People are coming to see me/my husband asking questions or asking for a help. I like to help people, but I am not always available to help them. I really need time for myself and focus on my staff-- study.


Our office is situated near the entrance area, also two big windows in the office are facing to the area where many people go by. I found it quite distracting to see people walking or chatting there, when I study.

So that is the reason for setting up my desk in my bedroom where I can have some more privacy. Our bedroom is the most isolated room which is the furthest from the entrance. It is on the first floor (-- "the first floor" means upstairs of second storey building in British English--), so nobody walks right there outside of the window.

This change actually made big improvement. I can focus on my desk work much better, although the noise from the street is louder in the bedroom than in the office.


Also... there was another factor to improve my study environment. That was my computer. There is my computer on my office desk, and I tend to check e-mails and internet too often when I am at the desk, even when I am not expecting any e-mailsm news, or information from web sites. I know I should have stronger will to avoid the temptation from the computer, but changing situation can make it possible without stress.


So, now I am happy with my new desk area, and actually it is successful.


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grateful

I am now living in England.

Japanese people who has not lived in England often admire people living in England. I admired to live in England before I moved to this country. Those who look at this country from outside believe England is such a beautiful country where gentlemen and noble ladies live. Yes, it is a "Queen's" country, and royalty adds something special to this country, too.

But reality is not always so beautiful. I know quite a few Japanese people who changed their good impressions towards England after they came to England. Many of them don't hesitate complaining about England any more.

English people are generally nice, warm-hearted and gentle, which is wonderful. On the other hand, people are too nice to discuss to make improvement happen. So everything stays as they were 100 years ago...(200 years ago??) Things have never changed. They take long long time to accomplish one task, and after having the customers waited for the work done so long, their work is unbelievably rough as if it was done by amature workers.


So there are pro and cons to live in this country as well as living in other countries.


But believe me, I quite like living here in this country.

This morning, I don't know why, but I was suddenly filled with the feeling of gratitude. This feeling appeared and instantly warmed my heart. This happened when I was looking at a sheet I printed out the other day. This was an information about a Homeopathic dentist that I am aiming to become. I accidentally found this dentist through my job-hunting research on the internet.

If I was in Japan, I would have much less opportunity to see a general homeopath. Furthermore I would never have a chance to see a Homeopathic dentist in Japan. There are not so many homeopathic dentists in England though, I found one relatively close to my town.

Homeopathy is still relatively new to Japan although it is acknowledged by more and more Japanese people nowadays. But if I was in Japan, I would not have any chances to study homeopathic dentistry without going abroad. But I can do it here in England. There are homeopathic colleges for medical doctors, dentists, nurses and other medical specialists. Before that, I could never possibly attend a dentistry course at a university. It is so much difficult to change professions for middle-aged in Japan, and going university costs much more in Japan. Scholarship programs are not as open to people as in European countries. So if I was in Japan, I would not really think about going to a uni to study dentistry, especially after so many years have passed from my uni graduation.


Ahhh,
I am really grateful with my surroundings at the same time I am grateful to my family and friends who support me.

Also I am grateful that I have gotten a courage to follow the path I believe...


Thanks for my frineds and for this beautiful world.
...with love.


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Fantastic Shakespeare play

I saw a Shakespeare play "the tempest" on Friday. It was a play by Schloss Hamborn School Class ten pupils.

Our school has a partnership with Schloss Hamborn Steiner school in Germany. Our class nine goes to Schloss Hamborn to work at their farm for two weeks, and as an exchange, they come to our school to perform a Shakespeare play.

Our retired drama teacher stayed there in Hamborn to work on the play for six weeks, directing the play and working on their English language.

Yes, it is a Shakespeare play, so it is spoken in classic English, of course.


I imagine it would be quite difficult for the actors to play Shakespeare in English. But imagine how much pressure they had to overcome to play it in England in front of English audience.

This year their German accent was stronger and often the speech was hard to understand. The teachers deliberately choose students with lower English ability for the bigger parts in the play. That was one of the pedagogical challenges the teachers set for the pupils.

Except for the language problem, their show itself was brilliant, fantastic and terrific!!! It was very "German" play which has modern + abstract artistic effects, using a projector showing some photos and designs on the screen as a part of their set. Their music was also taking a great part of the play. The music teacher at Schloss Hamborn is a modern composer, and composed whole music for the play. They loaded their whole set of musical instruments, such as big drum, strings, winds, and organ (!) into their coach to travel from Germany to England.

Another great aspect of the play was their dance. They have dance lessons at school, and dance also had a big effect in the play. It was a modern dance by about 7 to 8 female pupils and one male pupil. The male dancer must be a trained and gifted dancer. His body moved so smoothly as if he doesn't have any joints.... All his movements were performed without stretch for him at all, but bringing good tension to the audience... When he was on the stage, his existence just occupied whole theatre.

Wow...... I just sighed with the quality they created. They are just class ten kids. They are only 15, 16 years old normal kids. And I don't think this class was very "good" class normaly, and I could see that the teachers had struggled to bring them to the higher completion on this play. But in the end, they did it. Again I must say the play was brilliant!!!

Thanks for coming, and bringing their achievement to England.
And of course I want to applause to their courage to play Shakespeare in English in England to English audience!!!

Well done!!


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Job interview

I had a job interview today.
It was a teaching position at a Japanese school. But they don't have any job openings currently, so it was an interview just to be registered as their future teacher.

As a fully qualified and experienced teacher, my teaching career is more than they expect. But sometimes one of my career as a Steiner teacher scares main stream people. I think the Steiner education is too different from main stream education and the difference makes people afraid of dropping out from ordinary way that majority of people follow.

When I had an interview at another school a few years ago, I felt strongly that the teachers, including the head teacher, have resistance for the Steiner education. I was accepted at the school but I didn't get a good impression of the school...

But this time, the atmosphere of the school was not the same. The head teacher knew about the Steiner education and he actually has a kind of admiration for it. Of course he is one of the main stream school teachers, so he can't ignore the curriculum that Japanese government set. Still he asked me if I can bring some essence of the Steiner education to the school. It is because he thinks the Steiner education is wonderful, and he wants to improve the education for the children.


So... I will be registered as a supply teacher for now, and when they need a new teacher, probably I will get the teaching position... maybe two to three years later.

A few years of time delay is also a part of my plan. The school is open only on Saturdays. I want the Saturday job when I become a university full time student. So two to three years from now is the best timing for me.



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Swedish - German - English

Our Swedish boarder said
"our class (class eleven = seventeen years old) in England is like class seven."

The class she is in now is an immature group. They don't listen to the teachers seriously, often they are not really engaged in the lessons. They are noisy and she feels that her English classmates behave like a group of thirteen-year-old Swedish kids.

One of her friends from Sweden is now studying in Germany. He said,
"German class eleven pupils behave like class nine."

So...
If Swedish class 11 kids have the quality of 17 years old,
German class 11 kids have the one of 15 years old,
and English class 11 kids are like 13 years old.

ummmmmmmm.

I feel English pupils are quite immature, compare to Japanese, Germans, or Americans. Whenever German pupils are coming to our school as international students, their high standard surprises us. They have the positive attitude towards the work, and really work to achieve 120% of what they are told to do.

I don't think it is because those international students are only selected goody-goodies. Our pupils who went to Germany to study have been inspired by the German pupils' general attitude. Germans have the will to work hard.

But ... do Swedish have higher standard than Germans???



My boarder says,
"teachers here are much better than our school in Sweden."
She says that the teachers in our school are very supportive and the lessons have better quality.


So..., our school seems to be giving better education to our children than her school in Sweden. But the result is class eleven kids with class seven quality...???


ummmmmmm


What is wrong with us???
What is good education????
What is a good teacher?????



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biodynamic radish

My friend brought some vegetables from his farm. He is a biodynamic gardener, and is working in a biodynamic garden near the town. Since his wife is a Japanese, a good friend of mine, he has grown some Japanese vegetables using some seeds from Japan.

Last week the vegetables he brought were daikons(white radish) and gobou. Both are rare in England, and it is almost impossible to get ORGANIC daikon or gobou from market. And they are not just organic, but BIODYNAMIC.

Unfortunately, the weather in this summer was terribly bad. Too much rain and no sunshine. That affected the harvest badly. He brought these vegetables with his disappointment, but I was very pleased with his present.



These are the daikons. They have funny shapes and are damaged by pests. So I had to take away a good portion of them, but edible parts were fresh and tasty.

When I was washing and cleaning the daikons, I found some slags and insects on them. I am not very insect-friendly person XD, as I grew up in a city, but still I feel much secured to see those creatures on the vegetables. They are on the vegetables because the veggies are tasty and safe without harmful pesticides.

For the same reason, I can not trust vegetables from supermarket. Even if they have a fancy labels of "ORGANIC", they don't look natural to me. They are amazingly same shape, straight and symmetry, and they are too clean without any insects bite or dirt. Even if they are grown organically, they must have been washed in a strong detergent. I am always surprised to see how troublesome to wash all the dirt off from vegetables when I wash the uncleaned vegetables which directly came from a local farm.


Another treasure of his daikons was its leaves! It is definitely impossible to get daikon leaves. Getting them from your garden or your friend's garden is the only possibility to get organic daikons in England. Those leaves are so tasty. I cooked them in boiled water for a few minutes, and froze them, so that I can use them all year round.

They are really treasures from the earth!!
Thanks my friend and beautiful nature!!


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Fasting

I have been trying a semi-fasting cure recently. It's been one week or so since I started it.

It is a SEMI-fasting, and I eat lunch and supper as usual. I just skip my breakfast. I spend eighteen hours without food from a supper around 18:00 to a lunch at 12:00. I drink some tea, water or sometimes soup without solid ingredients any time, because the liquid doesn't stimulate the digestion system.

I am doing this not for losing weight but for my health. Mainly for the digestion system of course, but it is also for improving my body's efficiency.

I just feel we normally eat more than we need. I think our foods in this modern lifestyle are rather rich and we are generally taking more energy than our bodys actually need. We are wasting the excess energy, and often people gain fat. On the other hand, there are millions people are suffering from starvation in the world, though...

What concerns me about overeating is that the overeating habit ruins our body systems. Once our bodys learn to eat too much, they adjust the system themselves not to absorb the nutrition efficiently. So the bodys don't work as much as they can, and they get lazy.

It is important to eat after the stomach completes the digestion. So I eat less lunch to make sure that my stomach is empty at supper time.


For a few days after I started the fasting, I felt dizzy in the morning a bit. But now I got used to the habit, I don't feel any dizziness at all. Now I feel my body has more energy and brain works more clearly. Now I am more sensitive about my body and feel what my body needs.


I feel really good overall.


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free morning

One week has passed since my sons started nursery/kindergarten.
They really enjoy the school, although they are still very quiet at school. They often don't want to go home, and want to stay at school longer. I wish they could stay there longer but the school accepts only older children for their afternoon classes.

So my free time is only morning, but I have gotten three hours for myself without being disturbed by noisy children. It is amazingly quiet without boys and I can focus on my staff.

So you might wonder what I am doing in the morning for three hours.

Without boys, it doesn't take so much time for house work. So I quickly finish cleaning, laundry, doing dishes and other errands. Then plenty of time is still left for myself, which seems to be incredibly luxurious for me. So I sit at my desk, and start studying as soon as I am available for it.

I have registered myself for the physics exams that will be in November and December. That would be my first stepping stone for entering a university.

The exam itself is not really difficult. This is a basic high school level. I just need to memorize the scientific terms and learn the exam techniques. The problem is that an exam is an exam. It is not something fun. It brings me some kind of anxiety, and I feel a big pressure for the exam. I am going to take the exams at a school where I used to teach, so that makes me more nervous. Can you imagine my situation? I am going to take the exams with MY pupils, and of course the teachers, which were my colleagues, would see my exam results. It would be embarrassing if I get bad results. I know it is a silly pride, since nobody would really care about my results.

So..., that is how I am spending my free morning.

Wish me luck for my exams, please....... :D



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Waldorf Schools in Germany 2

So, the report of Waldorf School tour is here again.

This school is called Schloss Hamborn. In the town where the school is, there are school from kindergarten to class 13, an elderly home, a biodynamic farm and residential houses for the people involved in the anthloposophical community in the town.


This is a glass ceiling of Class 1+2 building. When you come into the building, a hall with this ceiling welcomes you.

This is a kindergarten building.
With a large front garden in front of the building, this whole kindergarten space has very warm atmosphere.

Next school is in Dusseldorf.

Class 1 classroom.
Nice large space is good for a morning circle and exercises with physical movement. Although the windows are not very large, the sunlight through the window is natural and bright enough for the class activities.

The hall in the school.
Unfortunately, I couldn't see this hall, but from this photo, this hall looks great with its contemporary design. My husband admires this hall.

Teachers' room.
Looks nice and comfortable to be and to work. The pink wall would calm down the teachers argument. :D


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Waldorf Schools in Germany

Let me upload some photos from our trip to Germany.
As a part of my husband's building project, we had a tour to visit Waldorf Steiner Schools in Germany with our architects. We visited 6 Steiner schools and one Anthloposophy centre in Kassel.

The schools' purpose-built buildings were all built with Rudolf Steiner's philosophy "anthloposophy." They all have certain features of Steiner architectures, such as non-right angle windows, or some sculptural structures.

But when you visit several schools and see their buildings, you see the differences. Each school has its own ideas and concepts to make their ideal education happen in the school building that made significant variety of the space for children. The buildings show their vision.

We can not label them just "Waldorf schools" or "Steiner architecture." The freedom of the Waldorf education allowed them and inspired them to create their own education. That created their individual buildings.



The first Waldorf School "Waldorfschule Uhlandshohe" in Stuttgart that Rudolf Steiner started his "Steiner Education." This is its newest building and is for after school care.

This is a hall in the school in Stuttgart. This building was built in 1970', though this design looks even more modern than the newest building. The power and energy that this hall has is tremendous.

This is inside of the hall.

This is a ceiling of the building at "Widar Schule, Waldorfschule in Bochum-Wattenscheid." Great sculptural design.

This is an exterior of the main building at Widar schule.

I have visited more schools, so the report from our tour will be continued....

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time for myself

School began today. Now pupils are back to the school and the school is filled with a fresh and active atmosphere.



This is the first official day for my sons to go to the kindergarten. They have visited the kindergarten before, but they will spend all morning five days a week from today on.

... What a relief!




Now it is quiet in the house without boys. I hear only the sound of washing machine. And I have some time for myself. The time without children is such a precious time for a mother, since "mother" is 24-7 work...



So, I decided not to do house work much this morning, so I can use the first free morning just for myself. I read some books as I have a cup of tea. Some peace and quiet time.

It is a reward for me.

I think I am worth to be rewarded. :D


Don't you think so???


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positive words

When I started my blog, I made one rule, which is...,
"I don't write anything negative in my blog."
Any complaints, anger, madness and depressing feeling should not be in my blog.

Because negative things attract negative people, negative thoughts, negative words, and negative effects.

That is the "law of attraction." And I really think it is true.

My rule has been kept well most of the time especially in my Japanese blog "Kayo in England." But I sometimes can't help complaining about something... Whenever I expressed my negative feeling in my journal, I got replies filled with negative energy from the readers. My negative thoughts have spread to anonymous people and come back to me with much more powerful negative energy.

If I want to be positive, I have to be careful with what I say. My positive words attract positive things. And that is what I want.




Just recently, one idea came up to me, and the idea changed my "rule" from

"I don't write anything negative in my blog."

to

"I will write only positive things."


Do you see the difference?
First one is a negative sentence. It shows "NOT to do" which is exactly my negative feeling. But the other sentence is opposite. I have a positive feeling that came up as a positive sentence.

So I am pleased that the new rule naturally came up from myself, because I noticed the change of my feeling turned to positive.


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international student

Our new boarding student will arrive on Wednesday.
She is a 17-year-old German-Swedish, and will stay with us for this school year.

We often have a foreign guest in our house. Although we live in England, we have had an English guest only once. Surprisingly, our guests are often from abroad; Hungary, Korea, Japan, and Sweden this time.

Our family itself is quite international family. I am a Japanese, my husband is a German, the first son is an American-German-Japanese and the second son is a German-Japanese. So when we have a foreign guest, the guest often adds one more nationality in our house.

Isn't it interesting?
Five people with four different passports under one roof. :D

The Swedish girl seems to be very independent. She left her parents' house to live by herself when she turned to sixteen which she can live by herself legally. Since then she lives in an apartment by herself, and she handles the independent situation very well. This summer she traveled around for one month all by herself. Her mother told us that she insisted that she would not need us to pick her up at the air port when she arrives, but it would be better for her to have a car since she comes with two big suitcases...


Anyway, it is exciting to have a new family!
Somebody we have never met would join us for several months.

We have had a boarder last year as well. But having this Swedish girl would be different experience for us because everybody is different. I will learn a lot from this experience as well as she will.

I hope she loves little children, so my sons can play with her.


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