what if I was in Japan?

Sometimes I wonder what if I was in Japan.


Now I have a difficulty finding a job because of my qualification. In Japan, I had a good education, and had a degree from a university. When I apply for a job in Japan, they would have no doubt on my ability that is estimated from my education history.

But I have no qualification at all here.


Many English people know that the education in Japan is more advanced than that in England, though they don't take the Japanese diploma as a useful qualification.

Probably it is too much trouble to compare the Japanese qualification to English ones. I can easily guess that it is easier for them to hire English person with equivalent qualification.


When I faced this difficulty in England, the idea of getting a job in Japan popped up in my mind.


What if I was in Japan?
Could I get a job more easily?



Of course ... the answer is "NO."


The society in Japanese local area is closed to aged woman. I am in the late thirties. People would not give me much interesting job even though I am a well educated person.


The age verier is not so hard here in European countries. So if I study something and get a qualification, I will have more opportunities to get a better job at my middle ages.


Also quitting teaching position and starting something completely new must be very very difficult in Japan. Of course it is not easy in England as well. But the path for the new career is not closed. People support the idea of doing something new positively and they even encourage it.


So I think I have more opportunities here than in Japan.


It is not very easy living in a foreign country.
Surely I have to have more difficulties here that I wouldn't need to have in Japan.
On the other hand, I can see more interesting things and have different experiences that I could never have in Japan.

I appreciate the various chances I get by living outside of my country Japan.
I am enjoying both difficulties and joyable events very much.



My life must be quite intense.
But I like my life having such troubles that can make my life even more interesting and fun!



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job hunting

I have been looking for a job these days.

I used to be a teacher, teaching mathematics to English kids at a Steiner School. I am a trained Steiner School teacher, also I am qualified as a high school / middle school mathematics teacher.

Early this year, I have decided to stop teaching to change my career path. For the change, I need to study seriously for many years, and I realized the teaching job is too interesting to play two roles at the same time. When I teach main lessons, all my time and energy are spent for thinking/planning and preparation. It is actually 24-hour job that needs full power commitment. Studying needs constant work, and the energy consuming job as a teacher doesn't fit to my life.

Ideal scenario is getting easy-going part time job. Something I can work ONLY the core time, and I don't have to think about the job at home at all.

I have two little sons who go to the school, nursery and kindergarten, every day. The school is only for morning and they are still too little to stay at school all day. That limits me finding a suitable job ....


Also problem is on myself as well. Since I was educated in Japan, and I have not gotten a degree in England. I am not really qualified person in this country.

Qualification and experience are the first information that makes the candidates to proceed to the job interview.

Thinking about my past career, I devoted most of my career for education. So almost no experience for other jobs. ...Only two years ICT engineer experience can be a bit strength, though.


The current situation is making my job hunting process so hard....


I got one weekend job starting next April, but I want to have something else for weekdays.


So...job hunting will not end anytime soon............I guess.




But this is a part of my life experience.
It is also something enjoyable......let's think positively. :D


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lunch for school kids

Our school doesn't have neither school lunch nor cafeteria. So school kids need to bring their packed lunch + snacks every day.

My children are not old enough to stay at school after lunch, so I don't need to pack lunch for them. But my boarding girl, a German girl from Sweden, needs it.

So my days start from cooking and packing lunch for her every day.

The ordinary English kids lunch are awfully simple, such as bread with jam and potato crisps. If they have some raw vegetables, it is quite NICE and healthy lunch for them.

My boarding girl told me the fact that many kids eat "crisp sandwiches." Can you imagine what they are? Crisps are deep fried potato crisps, in American English they are called "potato chips." The junk food from bags. They put the crisps on a piece of bread, then crush them and place another piece of bread on top of it. That is so-called "crisp sandwiches."

Sounds awful, doesn't it?



As a healthy, and organic food conscious mother, I can not offer such a junky food for my boarding girl.

I don't think the packed lunch for her has such a variety as typical Japanese lunch. But I cook everything from scratch using healthy ingredients.

This is today's lunch.



I was very happy this morning, because I received the vegetable cutter from my mother in Japan. I asked her to send some of hers, since things like vegetable cutter are impossible to find in this country.

Cutting vegetables into flowery shape is only simple decoration. But this little thing is a kind of warm consideration which is typical Japanese manner.

Also it is not just for her.
I myself enjoyed making the flowers. :D


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Exhibition

We had an open house exhibiting my father-in-law's, mother-in-law's and my husband's arts. It started on Friday evening, and ended on Sunday. Saturday was the busiest day when many people were in the house all day. We had several guests on Monday even after the exhibition was over, and sold some jewellery, sculptures, and Christmas tree ornaments. Thanks a lot. We appreciate your visits and interests to the art works. :D

It was a celebration for my husband's 40th birthday and at the same time, the 40th anniversary for my in-laws' career as goldsmiths.

Let me show you some pictures of their works. These are only a few out of many, but you would see their taste, at least.









Today both left for Germany, went back home.

They had a good time in England, and decided to come back next year to have another show here.


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burn out

These days are again crazy.
I knew this November would be very busy. But now I am in the middle of the craziness.

Soon after finishing the exam, My mother-in-law came from Germany. Two days later my father-in-law arrived. They have been divorced for thirty five years, and have not seen each other for many years. I guess all of us involved in this situation have something uncomfortable feeling..... But it is going all right so far. They chat together, and are preparing for the exhibition together without arguing.

Celebrating their forty-year career as jewelry artists and my husband's fortieth birthday, we will have an exhibition to show their works on this weekend, starting from Friday evening. My father-in-law, mother-in-law and my husband's arts are now gathered here at my house, getting ready to be shown to people.


So I have loads of things to do, helping preparation, cooking nice foods for seven people three times a day, and of course keeping the house tidy so that our guests can be happy and comfortable...


On top of it, our school will have an Advent Fayre on the same day when we have the exhibition. As stuff of the school, of course we need to help running the fayre. But this year we need to play a role as school parents as well, since our sons started going to the school from this September.

I didn't know being a parent is such a demanding job.
I need to donate vegetables, homemade cookies, handmade little toys and decorations for the stall. It is ok to donate veggies. But I have been too busy to bake cookies and making toys myself these days......

But I made an attempt today, at least.
Driving around and finishing errands in hurry in the morning, then I came home just before my sons' school ends. I quickly prepared the lunch for six people, and ran to the school to fetch my boys. Finishing the lunch and clearing up the dishes, then I made the cookie dough. These cookies are for the fayre, and the recipe was given and I had to follow the recipe. The cookies on the recipe was British cookie recipe that the ingredients contain "LYE golden syrup", which is typical BRITISH syrup. I am not very interested in English food, so this was the first time to make the cookies.

I measured all the ingredients and followed the instruction PERFECTLY. But the dough was too soft to spread, so I put the dough into the freezer.

I had to do this between lunch and my doctor appointment.
It was such a hurry.

After two hours set in the freezer, the dough was still too soft. Then I just gave up. I had to cook again for the supper by then, and after supper I attended jewelry making workshop. Just no time for baking...

I phoned one of my friends, and asked her to bake twice as much as she needs to make. So she will make cookies for me too. She is a great cook, and she has made same cookies before, so she would not have any problems at all. She was very happy to help me, since she knows I am super busy this week.



So, I guess the frozen dough will be cut into small pieces and will be icebox cookies. That would be tasty, but it would not be what I was asked to bake. They want something decorative with pretty shapes... So I will eat them at home with my family. hahaha. :D


Ok, I should stop writing this.
My study time disappeared, and I am frustrated for not being able to study....

But it is ok.
Life is not always calm and stable.

.......I must say my life is frequently crazy....




Hopefully I can have some more time for my study next week....


Now I shutdown the computer, and read at least a few pages of my textbook before I go to bed.












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jumble sale

I went to a jumble sale at the school today. It was a fund raising event for class 11 trip.

I rarely go to second hand shops or charity shops, but I went there for our pupils.

The school hall was filled with all kinds of used stuff, used clothes, shoes, books, and bric-a-bracs. There were crowds of people in front of the piles of clothes.

That reminded me the bargain sales or wagon sales in Japan. So many ladies fighting for their targets. I could have never joined there. I didn't think it's worth to fight for just MATERIALS. Today I felt just same as before, and I couldn't go closer to the clothes.

But there is one thing I can enjoy looking at.

That is "books".


Often I discover quite interesting books at this kind of stalls. I feel it is a kind of destiny to come across these books. There are not so many books in the stall as much as proper book shops, and I don't look around the stall so carefully. But still I find the books that I just need at that time.

The books I got today are as follows;


Old magazines about Steiner education.




English novels. The book called "Just so Stories" by Rudyard Kipling is my friend recommendation.




One is a book about acupressure, the other is about Ayurveda.
Just recently "Ayurveda" came up as a topic in the conversation with my friends. One of my friends asked me what it was. I knew very little about it, so I could not explain about it much. I had some interests in Ayurveda before, but I have never taken it seriously to read or study it. And today, what I found in the stall was this book. This little book gives me very basic idea and concepts of Ayurveda, without much deep philosophy explained. But it is good enough as a starter, I guess. Maybe this book is an invitation for me to the world of Ayurveda.




And ... this is a cookery book of vegetarian food. I am not a vegetarian but I want to eat more vegetables. So I am trying to learn more and more vege dish recipes. When I search or learn from Japanese vege cook, I found many of the dishes are called "like" meat, such as "deep fried soy meat dumplings like fried chicken." They often make vege dishes to make fake meat or fish. I don't like this idea. I prefer to call it, for example "deep fried soy dumpling" , simple and straightforward naming. They are not FAKE meat, they are vegetables. Calling them in their real names is the way to respect them. ...Maybe I am too critical about it. :D

Anyway, this book is not about the fake meat dishes. This book contains 200 European recipes that are simply vegetarian dishes. Many of them are traditional, not too creative. But they look simply delicious.


Those books above and one more for my sons cost 1.40 pounds, which is about 200 yen total. It was a great buy!



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crazy man

I tell you..., my husband is crazy and workaholic.

He is a Steiner school teacher. Generally steiner school teachers are low pay and much busier than general school teachers. He has full time table which is the most busiest timetable at the school, that means he is busier than other busy steiner teachers. On top of it, he leads a building project, leading the school to build new buildings and make radical change to the school. This work came to him because he is not just a teacher but a trained architect.

As a project manager, his work can be a full time work... Remember..? Full time project manager's work on top of full time super busy teaching.

He loves the school. He is into the project. He spend all his time to the project. He is definitely overworked, and often he fell ill from the overwork.

...He is not paid for the project work at all, though.


This week he has just decided to fly to Germany to visit Schloss Hamborn Waldorf School which is our partner school. And there, the winter fair will be held on Saturday. It is a great opportunity for the project to present our master plan that was completed just this month.

So...he asked the arrangement to the teacher at Schloss Hamborn and flew this evening after school.

He will stay in Germany for two days, and will come back just before midnight on Sunday.

Spend his all weekend for the trip..., it is usual for him to work through weekends, but trip causes me quite trouble too....... I had to run and run and run all day today for him.



He was ill last week having kidney stones. Now he is flying to Germany...

I am really worried about him.

It is wonderful that he has such an interesting work that he can put his soul so much into it. If his work is not that interesting for him, he wouldn't work so hard but on the other hand, he would be bored. The interesting work is exciting and gives him energy. But he forgets how much he is tired as he put all his energy into it. When he gets ill, he finally realize he worked more than he can handle.

I want him to do interesting thing that he can beam and shine in his work.
I believe that is the way he can be happy.
And his happiness is my happiness as well.
But I don't want to see him exhausted all the time.
I want him to be healthy. I want him to smile and beam with his exciting work.
Now the exciting work exhausts him and sucks his energy, falls him into ill.

It is not right.

But it is very difficult for him to change his way of working. It is big part of his personality.....


ummmmmm.




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After physics...

I have been studying for the university entry. I have to go through all the exams that other young students do. If I make an entry as an international student, I would not need this exam preparations. But the fee would be 20000 pounds (4000000 yen)a year as an international student whereas UK students pay only 3000 pounds (600000 yen). Who can afford 20000 pounds a year...?? At least, not me...

So I can not be too lazy even though I am finished with physics exam....

Look at the following list. This is what I am planning to do in the next half year..

1. Chemistry GCSE
2. Biology GCSE
3. Mathematics GCSE
4. Additional Mathematics GCSE (Advanced mathematics)
5. Information and Communication Technology GCSE
6. First language Japanese GCSE
7. English as a second language GCSE

These exams will come all in May/June 2009.
The GCSE requirements are only five subjects (physics, biology, chemistry, mathematics and English), but I decided to take as many as other UK students normally take. The course is very competitive, so the better grades I get, the more possibility to be a successful candidate. So I picked the subjects No.4 - 7 so that I can easily get good grades without much study. :D Mathematics is my special, it is a piece of cake. And Japanese exam would be much easier than studying other subjects. ICT won't be a problem, either. For I used to be a computer programmer, I know the computer systems as much as they expect me to know for the exam.

English is the most difficult one. I need English exam for native speakers, but I decided to take this easier one first to gain confident before I take "first language English."

This is the plan up to May/June 2009.



Sounds crazy?

Not too bad. I can do this because I have a goal to achieve.
I actually enjoy studying a lot.

I think studying something else in English is the best way to improve English, too.


By the way, isn't it funny that I can take "first language Japanese" (KOKUGO) exam in England to get into a university in England?? The exam subjects variety is amazingly wide in this country.


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Exam is over

I am done with the GCSE physics exams.
The physics exam contains three tests, and I am finished with the last one this morning!

Done! Yeah!!

I like physics, but I am not going to study A-level physics, so I am done with physics now. Now I can move on to other subjects.

I am taking GCSEs at our school where I taught before.
Now the pupils I used to teach know that I am taking the exams just like they are.
When I went to the exam room this morning, several pupils saw me and smiled at me saying "good luck!". Even some teenage boys, who usually don't say even "hello" to me, cheered me up!

Before I took exams, I felt a bit embarrassment of taking GCSEs. GCSEs are for 15, 16-year-old pupils normally, and the academic levels are basic. Being a teacher of that age group myself, I was embarrassed to take the same exams which my pupils are working for. I know it is nonsense, but I felt like that because of my silly pride.

But obviously, our school kids are impressed with the fact I am studying and making an effort towards the exams.

One of the most important ways to educate children is to reveal myself in front of children as an individual, who is developing, and making an effort towards goals as I struggle and overcome difficulties. Because children learn not from what they are told to do but from the real human doing, acting, willing, and putting souls into something.


I stopped teaching, so I am not a teacher here any longer. But I hope I can encourage them as a human who is trying to achieve something.



Anyway....., I am done for now!
cheers!!!


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smile

I had been badly frustrated for the last seven months. My son's toilet training, my workaholic husband's health issue, financial issue and my study were the main causes.

I am usually a positive person who can easily turn my negative thoughts to positive ones using the Rudolf Steiner's positivity exercise or other meditative exercises. They are good methods that work for many people.

But I have gotten a feeling that changing the negativity to the positivity by thinking process does not solve the problem fundamentally. Once the negative thought appears in my mind, it affects me and people around me. As long as I have negative thoughts coming up even just for a moment, that brings negative feeling to me. It is a spontaneous response. I think the best solution is to avoid the negative thought coming up to my mind at all.

It is very difficult to control our thoughts by our THINKING.

But it is not too difficult to control it by changing our feeling life.

When you are happy, many things appear as happiness, happier than usual. You can accept more stress with broader mind and deal with them without being stressed-out.

When you are frustrated already, you have less tolerance for the stress. You tend to think more negatively at the under-stressed situation.

So it is important not having any negative thought if you want to be happy from the bottom of your heart. Happy feeling can avoid negative thoughts coming up to us.




I discovered one easy and effective method to be happy.

It is fairly simple.


Just smile.

I smile to myself in front of a mirror, looking at myself, imagining the most beautiful myself, beaming at something exciting, filled with satisfaction and feel the love for others and myself.
Just for a few minutes.

When I smile, even when I don't really feel like smiling, something warm spread in my chest. I feel the warmth and the warmth brings me joyous feeling. I am sure that the smiling has some physical effects that can be proved scientifically.

Feel the joy and happiness brought by my smiling. It has already changed my feeling. The smiling I made before the mirror might have been fake, but the positive feeling popped up inside is REAL. Feel it, and try to keep it. If you had to overcome stress, remind yourself to smile.

With the feeling of happiness, I can deal with stressful situation better because I carry the happy feeling inside of myself.

You don't need to think WHY so seriously.
Just smile. Just do it.
I am sure it will help to bring you happiness.



That is how I have been very happy recently.





......Have you noticed with my change...., my dear?



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Text books

I have been studying sciences to take exams.
Biology, Chemistry, Physics...

Recently I ordered A-level Biology and Chemistry textbooks. A-level in England is equivalent to upper level of Japanese high school standard, I think.

Since I can rarely see actual text books in normal bookshops around, the only way to get them is just ordering online. I choose the books after reading the descriptions and book reviews. I found one science series of popular textbooks and I bought older edition of them intentionally. They were published in 1990's. Of course they are used ones. But there are no marks or notes in the books, good enough for studying.

The latest edition cost about 30 pounds, whereas the older edition costs 1 pence.
Of course that was one reason I choose the older ones.

But it is not just about the price.

I found the older textbooks are often better than newer ones. Since exam standards lowered significantly, older books cover more academic contents, which are more interesting for learners. On top of it, older textbooks were written in more formal, nicer, better language. Newer textbooks or revision books use quite casual language. Often they use speaking language, I found even slangs in the revision books.

I see the author's intension. The authors aimed to provide more FRIENDLY books for students so that the students get interested in the materials.

But the students are not studying only the subjects but language through the subject. If these textbooks don't offer the good language for students to read, they would lose the best opportunities to learn good language.

When I was teaching in Japan, I often found students making mistakes because they don't have good language skill. They just couldn't understand sciences/mathematics because they couldn't use the language as a communication tool very well.

What teachers do to deal with those students is to lower the teachers language standard, using everyday speaking language so that the students can understand more.
By doing so, the students lose the chance to listen/read proper vocabularies/terminologies. That affects their academic development so badly whatever they study....

So...what I wanted to say was "good language is important."
And... If you want to get textbooks or reference books, older ones are often worth to buy more than newer ones... generally speaking. That proposition would apply for finding English study materials as well, I believe.


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miss it!

I rarely miss Japan. It has been over six years since I left from Japan. I visited Japan only once since then. It was five-day stay, which is extremely short visit for a long Journey between England and Japan. I had some business needed to be done, so I didn't have much time to enjoy my country Japan.

But I don't mind being away from my country. I miss family and friends, but we can freely communicate whenever we want to, thanks for the Internet. So it is not so problem.

Thing I miss about Japan is this. Please click this link and see the photos.
You would understand what + why I miss about Japan.


November is the best season to see this in mainland Japan.
If you have never seen this beautiful red leaves, book an air ticket now(!) and fly to Japan and experience the extraordinary beauty of our nature!!

Now I am proud of Japan and myself being a Japanese.


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