vegetable cutter

Recently one of the most popular goods among my boys is vegetable cutters. If you are a Japanese, I am sure you have seen a piece of carrot cut into flower shape. The cutters are smaller version of cookie cutters. I remember my mother used them when I was little, but she stopped using them at some point when I got too old to be pleased with that kind of decoration.

Now it is a time for me to use those cutters for my little sons.

I was sure that my mother still has those cutters somewhere in her kitchen. She is a person who can never throw things away even though she would never use them again.

So I asked my mother to send them to England so I can please my sons!



It was actually great idea. First, they were simply pleased to see the flowery shaped carrots. Then, of course, they tried to cut vegetables themselves. It took no time for them to learn the technique.

One morning, they made many flower carrots out of two whole carrots before breakfast, packed them in ziplocs and took them to the school.

The second son shared the flower carrots with his classmates. Both the class teacher and the classmates got one flower each and admired the pretty carrot.

The first son's flower carrots were cooked in the soup. Each child got one flower in his/her soup for snack.

They all pleased, and of course the admiration made my sons happy.


What an easy and successful project, it was!!



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Goodbye Tsugumi

I read a novel "Goodbye Tsugumi" by a Japanese author Banana Yoshimoto.
I have read the original Japanese "Tsugumi" soon after the book was first published in Japan.

I had a lot of fun by reading Banana Yoshimoto's novels at that time, but soon I got tired of her writing. I felt her writings were bit too girly, and they gave me an impression of "girl's comics." I was also not fond of her being bestseller author. I often don't like things that are too popular. I know ... I am a perverse person.


Why did I read her book again after twenty years of its publication? The answer is quite simple. I just wanted to read some Japanese novels in English. I guess it is one of my homesick phenomenons. I just wanted to feel something Japanese-like.

As I expected, the scene and its description were very familiar to me. Japanese society and its culture are big part of myself, and simply the pictures appear mentally one after another as I proceeded reading. The novel perfectly achieved its purpose and made me feel "Japanese".

I have not compared the English translation to Japanese original, but I guess the translation is quite faithful to the original. I can imagine Banana Yoshimoto's original writing from the English sentences at many parts of the story.

The fact this translation was done by a male translator amused me. For me, Banana Yoshimoto's novels were typical girlish stories based on female feelings. How could a male writer interpret its feeling??? Did the English language make it possible, because English doesn't express the genders by its language as much as Japanese language?

However it was well translated and it made me want to read each word carefully.
I think I enjoyed it more than Japanese original.



Let me introduce you a part of the book review;

"beautiful water-colour writing."

I have never seen a description as good as this. Her writing is exactly "water-colour"-like. The descritions beautifully float along a stream and are purely transparent.



I want to read other translations of Banana Yoshimoto's.


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transparent stars and...

Our annual event (?), one of the preparations for Christmas is making the transparent stars.

Using rectangular translucent papers, fold them to shape stars.

Like this ↓


The different number of layers make subtle shades over the stars.
Of course the two or three colours mix to make another colour.




And I went to the entrance to take another picture..., and what I found there is....




A rainbow!!



It was a huge rainbow!

We, myself and my sons, ran out of the house to look at the rainbow.



It was not just a huge rainbow, but double rainbows! Wow!!

Do you see the second rainbow over the first one?
It was already shading, so it may be hard to see it on the photo.


But it was a nice gift from nature!


I guess I have a great luck today!!


I wish you a luck, too♪


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gloves

It is cold recently.
But amazingly my body has gotten used to the cold weather quickly.

This morning I felt warm, so I went out without a coat. Just one jumper over a cotton top.

As I predicted, it was not cold at all unlike ordinary December.






The thermometer said the temperature was 3.5 ℃.

3.5℃ is not cold for me...
My sense of warmth must have gone bad..., thanks for English climate.




Anyway, it is just the beginning of real winter.
So I knitted two pair of gloves for my sons so that they wouldn't be cold outside.




While I was knitting, a Japanese song was repeatedly in my mind...

母さんが夜なべをして手袋編んでくれた♪
My mother stayed up nights knitting gloves♪


Also these gloves go with their matching hat and scarf.
Like this ↓




Aren't they cute??
The gloves are suspended from his neck, but they are not worn on the photo.
I put buttons for the scarf, so the boy wouldn't lose it so easily. People including the kindergarten teacher love this idea as well as myself.

hehehe...


By the way, when my sons say "gloves," the word sounds like "love" without "g" and "s." It is not correct, but hearing the word "love" for hand-knitted "gloves" is heart-warming as well. Actually the gloves are knitted with my LOVE for my beloved sons♪





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Main lesson book

In Steiner schools, pupils don't use textbooks. They create their own textbooks as a part of learning. It is a time consuming work, but it is worth to spend a lot of energy and time for making the books themselves.

The books contain not only academic contents but also artistic presentation. They use colours to decorate the pages, and illustrate the diagrams and pictures beautifully.

The more effort they put into the work, the more precious the book becomes.

As a Steiner school teacher, I loved creating my main lesson book. I am good at art, especially I loved to colour with Lyra colour pencils.

When I was in a school, I loved making my notebook, summarizing the contents from the textbooks, and making the book beautiful, although I was not in a Steiner school.

It is wonderful work to create a book like this. It helps to understand the contents better. On the other hand, I found that creating a book could not be enough study. After understanding the contents, and then students need to MEMORIZE/EXERCISE the contents. Memorizing is very important for exam preparations.


Now I quit the teaching job, and I myself is a learner now, preparing for the exams.

So... I have been trying not to spend too much time for creating a notebook, to study more effectively. If I spend too much time for it, I would not have enough energy for memorizing.





But recently I found myself not enjoying the study. Just reading the textbook, understanding the contents and memorizing the terms are not very fun. I felt my understanding becomes shallower when I just read it.

So I started making my main lesson book... of course I am trying not to make too perfect book, so I can still have enough energy/time for memorizing.


Yeah..., it is actually FUN to make a book!


The exams in England has more questions that require written explanations. So it is a key to be able to describe and explain the scientific matter in ENGLISH in a short period of time.

For that reason, making my own book is helping me to improve my English writing.



I think it is a great way of learning English.
Reading something you like, take a note and summarize it in English.
You would need better understanding than just reading English to express it in English.

We learnt our native language like that when we were at school, didn't we?



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throat infection

I've got an throat infection for over two weeks.
I think this is just a cold, but it has already been ten days since I lost my voice.

I don't like taking antibiotics, and I normally take only natural remedies, herbs, and homeopathic remedies for the ailments.

This time, the symptom is worse than usual. One of my friends sent a cough remedy recipe to me. That was given to her by her INDIAN friend. It seems to be an Indian traditional remedy.

This remedy is made from a whole onion, sugar, and hot water. The essence of the onion is extracted to make the cough syrup. Very easy to make, and simple, good syrup.

Since I have had this symptom already for ten days, I didn't expect too much. A quick treatment in the beginning is the best remedy for a cold. But still this remedy reliefs me quite well.

My sons also got infected. Yesterday my first son was coughing hard, and I gave him a teaspoon of the syrup. Only one spoonful of syrup stopped him coughing for several hours, and he didn't suffer from cough much. Amazing effect.


Another thing that relieved me was "amazake." Japanese sweet drink made from sake lees. It is not very tasty drink, but is nice to drink when I miss my country.

The sake lees is not the item I can buy anywhere in England. Only Japanese grocery shops deal with it. And the Japanese grocery shops are only in London, not in where I live. So I asked my friend to buy one for me, when she goes to one of the shops.

I received this sake lees from her, exactly when I was so much suffering from the infection.

I think the "amazake" warmed both my physical body and my soul.





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Advent garden

We had an Advent garden at our school yesterday.
This is a festival for little children at Steiner School, and it was the first Advent garden for my sons.

A spiral shaped with branches and leaves was in the centre of the school hall. In the centre of the spiral was a light of a candle.

Each child was lead by a teacher to enter the spiral, and then the child walks along the spiral towards the light without the teacher. He/she lights his/her candle in the centre of the spiral, and walks and brings back the light to the world..


Older children are more aware of people watching them and the events, but for little children, the spiral was a magical world. As soon as the child enters the spiral, it is like in the middle of woods. He/she has to walk alone in the darkness. This is an adventure for little ones. After the child reaches at the candle in the centre and lights his/her candle, the child has a task to bring the light back to the world. The child walks back the path they just came as he/she carefully holds the candle in his/her hands. He/she places the candle by the pathway of the spiral.

The spiral was dark, but the spiral path was lit with candle lights after the children walked through the path. In the spiral, there are the caldles left as many as the number of the children walked in the spiral. There, it is not dark any more...

In this dark season, the children bring the light to the world.

It is amazingly magical. Little children are truly absorbed into the world with their pure souls.......They were not playing the roles. They were actually bringing the light to the world to light up this darkness.

And of course, it is wonderful to see our own sons purely absorbed in the world...


Children are beautiful.
Our world is beautiful.

I appreciate that we and our children can experience the beauty of this world.





This is the candle brought back from the festival. The candle is set on a handmade candle holder, which is made of an apple, a toothpick, and a golden star.



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