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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