Showing posts with label osoji. Show all posts
Showing posts with label osoji. Show all posts

Friday, May 12

Scenes from the week

-The first week back from Golden Week is always a bit vicious but I survived somehow. 

-It was a week without any mishaps (lost paperwork, forgotten homework, teachers calling- well, S's teacher called twice but that is better than everyday).

-This was also the week when we mad cleaned the house since we were due our annual home visits from the teachers. I like the tradition and having a nice clean house at the end of the week is a bonus. Essentially, the teachers drop by for about ten minutes to get an insight into their students' home life and to talk about their progress so far. I am pleased to report that this year's visits went off without a hitch. The kids, it turns out, are indeed alright. (N needs to master long division and C is really slow with her classwork still but she's always the first the raise her hand in class now so that's an improvement).

-That tall gangly kid up there got his head shaved today for kendo (by moi, of course) so this is probably the last picture we will have of him with hair for a long time, since he is really into kendo now. (Did I mention the everyday thing? Everyday he has kendo. E.v.e.r.y.d.a.y..)

-The week saw the start of the 50 day countdown to my Japanese language proficiency exam. It is hard work, my dears. Grammar at one in the morning is not ideal but I need to pass this test. It gets easier the more I study and I actually have gotten to the point where I look forward to my nightly study sessions and have become utterly boring. But July 2 will be here too soon so I must straighten my nerd cap and go forth.

-We had a wild storm hit us today, lightning, flooding, the works. And it is still going. 

-Speaking of storms, oh my, America. Can't you give a gal some rest? Seriously. You know it is bad when American political news gets into the elementary school newspaper. My, oh my.
-I'm going to get some more coffee and return to my studies. Hope you all are well. 
xo






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Thursday, December 29

Hello from the Osoji Trenches

Welcome to Day Three of Osoji.
Day One went like this: washed curtains, took the thousands of books (okay, maybe about a hundred or so) off the bookshelf, dusted bookshelves and moved them to mop under bookshelves. Rearranged bookshelves and replaced books in more orderly system. Beat living room rug, washed many loads of laundry and folded them, washed living room windows. Hand washed living room floor. Put everything Christmasy away. Cleaned sofa and depilled it with little depiller device. Ate some oden. Had a yuzu bath. Finished my first Christmas gift.
Day Two: Washed more curtains and laundry. Went to bank to withdraw fund before they close for New Year's (about four days). Went to Osu branch of bank. Ate mediocre Mexican food. Wandered through a flea market outside the temple. Bought ichigo daifuku mochi (my favorite). Returned home. Pulled all my fabric from the closet. Felt exhausted just looking at the pile of fabric. Finished my second Christmas gift.
osu kannon, nagoya
osechi
Day Three (so far): Last gomi day before the holiday so I had to stuff the dead kiddie pools and the nasty rug into a trash bag along with some gross forgotten pizza boxes and long deceased ajisai and geraniums. All of these vile things had been put out of sight on the balcony for too long. Quickly cleaned out the fridge. Took everything downstairs before the gomishushusha rolled around the neighborhood at 8:30. Took a shower. Ate last omochi. Sat down with some tea to procrastinate by writing a blog post.
waiting

[Sigh] Okay, now my list:
-organize fabric
-finish cleaning out closet
-clean out desk drawers
-wash bedding
-beat and hang futons outside
-beat and hang bedroom rugs
-wash floors
-scrub bathroom
-clean toilet room
-scrub drains, especially washing machine drain
-use magic eraser to get all pencil and marker creations off the doors and walls and floors
-take a short break to buy supplies
-avoid looking at third Christmas gift