tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-257136482024-03-08T09:28:48.862+09:00Life in Rural JapanJo lives in a small town in southern Japan. She lives with her two children and Japanese husband and is learning more everyday about the world of Japanese agriculture and culture.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03671659320538901131noreply@blogger.comBlogger993125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25713648.post-43349002633371882762015-11-04T21:02:00.001+09:002015-11-04T21:03:24.800+09:00Kitchen reform
Many, many months ago I listened in on a free webinar by Jacqui and Joanna at Build and Thrive Academy. I can't remember the exact wording, but one of the concepts discussed was related to how you can make your workspace a more pleasurable space to work in. There was also a lot of talk about decluttering. Of course I lay there nodding (it was late at night Japan time!) and Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03671659320538901131noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25713648.post-18914504882305702342015-10-30T15:35:00.001+09:002015-10-30T15:35:54.813+09:00Cookie basket playing
For those of you who don't know, I have a small cookie business. I currently supply 3 different shops with small amounts of cookies each week on commission - if they don't sell I bring them home and don't get paid. The business has been building over the last year or so and I now have many regulars who will ask for certain kinds etc. and will buy a pack or two every weekAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03671659320538901131noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25713648.post-7874556313561805222015-10-29T15:11:00.002+09:002015-10-29T15:11:43.045+09:00Garden wanderI'll write a proper post about it later, but the moment I am in the middle of helping to organise a new market in our town. It is called the "Apple Crate Market"and will hopefully be held 4 times a year. It is a lot of fun to see your dream start to become a reality, but also a lot of hard work and lots of headaches! Fortunately all involved are very realistic about the whole Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03671659320538901131noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25713648.post-80951617183901641242015-10-09T17:52:00.000+09:002015-10-09T17:52:46.603+09:00One year on... This time last year we had a junior high school group come to stay. The day after they left it was my birthday and I treated myself to a trip to the hospital to check out a very sore neck that had been bothering me for a few days. This was the start of a downward spiral which ended up with me in hospital for close to 2 months dealing with an autoimmune disease. It took six Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03671659320538901131noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25713648.post-37398093354830928482015-03-08T15:13:00.000+09:002015-03-08T15:13:01.156+09:00Extending the Kingdom
The chicken kingdom has finally been extended and bets can currently be placed as to how many minutes/hours/days it will take for the chickens to find a way out of it! The other question is whether they will dig under or fly over the fence first. And if they don't do either of those, whether it will be a ferret or a cat which has a snack first.....
The fence is all a bit Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03671659320538901131noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25713648.post-41626321354663641192015-02-23T16:42:00.001+09:002015-02-23T16:42:24.305+09:00Holy Cow!
Today on the way home from picking up my son I thought there was a fire in the mountains... and then we looked a little closer and realised that it was actually the cedar trees letting off a bit of steam... or pollen in huge quantities. I have been sneezing a bit lately and thought that the pollen season must be almost upon us... today's spectacle confirmed it. The tissue companies Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03671659320538901131noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25713648.post-20387479016853367092015-02-14T10:28:00.000+09:002015-02-14T10:28:05.661+09:00The chickens are back!
After far too long without chickens they are now back! We picked up 20 80-day old chickens this morning and they are quickly settling into their new abode. The punk rocker at the bottom has already established herself as the Queen of the brood and enjoys taking pride of place on the warm concrete steps up to the chicken house. Hopefully they will grow fast and we will Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03671659320538901131noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25713648.post-62491909046745631412015-02-05T16:35:00.000+09:002015-02-05T16:35:13.000+09:00Back garden day 1
Before
The thing I am looking forward to most about my son starting junior high school in April is not having to go and get him from school at 3:30 every day. Because we chose to take the kids to a school that is not within walking distance of our house I have spent the last 8 years getting frustrated every afternoon when I start to do something in the garden, but realise I have Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03671659320538901131noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25713648.post-33825085488827751162015-02-03T20:14:00.001+09:002015-02-03T20:14:59.886+09:00Front garden update
As the 5 o'clock siren went off tonight the last of the rocks for the front garden were smashed and a little birdie moved in to look after the area in case some moles decide to come tunneling in. Not perfect, but an improvement on what was there before.
Hopefully the carpet and the rocks will keep the weeds away long enough for me to start concentrating on the next Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03671659320538901131noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25713648.post-17107982868345585922015-01-27T17:20:00.003+09:002015-01-27T17:20:57.841+09:00House within a house
This year the garden is lacking any winter vegetables.... because just as the autumn planting season arrived I was hospitalised and therefore didn't have a chance to plant anything. The neighbours are very kind and often bring armloads of spring onions or Chinese cabbage, but it is always nice to be able to go into your own garden and harvest your own vegetables.
Last Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03671659320538901131noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25713648.post-2970264928323642742015-01-24T17:10:00.000+09:002015-01-24T17:10:42.476+09:00Lack of planning
I'm back... actually I've been back home for well over a month now, but I am finally back in this blog spot. The hospital experience is hopefully all behind me and although I am still struggling a bit with the medication I have to take I am slowly getting back to "normal" life. I have bi-weekly visits to the hospital where they drain a bit more blood and check that all is okay beforeAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03671659320538901131noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25713648.post-40152749906008538272014-12-04T13:08:00.000+09:002014-12-04T13:08:38.330+09:00Questionnaire... Katy tagged me for questionnaire thingy and usually I just ignore such requests, but as she said... I have a little time on my hands, so just this once, I'll answer for you Katy! Sorry, but I'm not going to bother nominating anyone else....
As a background for anyone who happens to stumble on this blog... 7 weeks ago tomorrow I was admitted to a Japanese hospital with some form of Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03671659320538901131noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25713648.post-30481836635159494952014-11-04T07:26:00.001+09:002014-11-04T07:26:56.718+09:00Taking a forced breakI apologize to those of you who have been checking this blog in the hope of a little glimpse into our lives here in rural Japan.... the lives are going on, just with a slightly different twist to them!
Unfortunately life has dealt me a few hard blows over the last month and I have been in hospital for the last few weeks. Don't worry, nothing life threatening, but the need to slowly reduce Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03671659320538901131noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25713648.post-76462698210867426572014-09-10T09:26:00.001+09:002014-09-10T09:26:16.396+09:00Adults English Conversation
My adult conversation classes basically consist of one and a half hours of free talk in English accompanied by good coffee and even better homemade cakes. There are always some words or phrases that people have trouble with so I use a small white board to explain and confirm things. During the lessons I only wipe out only sections of the white board to make room for new wordsAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03671659320538901131noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25713648.post-37200638577825626652014-09-08T20:47:00.003+09:002014-09-08T20:47:48.602+09:00Trading up
No, I haven't dropped off the end of the world...... things just always seem to get a bit out of control over the long Japanese school summer holidays. Hopefully I'll get some mojo back soon and at least attempt to keep up with happenings here and maybe even get around to catching up on some of the things that have happened in the last month or more. Maybe!
If you have been Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03671659320538901131noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25713648.post-36795934196327235582014-07-25T19:41:00.000+09:002014-07-25T19:44:32.826+09:00Off on a big boat
This morning I left home at 5am to take my son to board a rather large boat with 600 other children. The boat is bound for Okinawa and in total he will be away for 5 days and 4 nights. Having a son who is literally head and shoulders above all the other participants (including the staff) proved to be very useful when trying to find him among all the other white and blue Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03671659320538901131noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25713648.post-49149182323928863902014-07-19T18:15:00.002+09:002014-07-19T18:15:44.947+09:00What to do when you've done everything
My sister and brother-in-law have just been for a 10 day visit. They lived in this area for a year about 4 years ago so they have seen most of the general things as well as some of the not so general things. In an attempt to find a few new experiences we decided to go on a tour of a toilet factory - something that is not usually on the tourist itinerary!
Japan produces Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03671659320538901131noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25713648.post-55272004230391718782014-07-06T22:20:00.002+09:002014-07-06T22:21:54.397+09:00More athletics videosA couple more videos of the latest athletics competition. It was a competition to determine who will get to go to the All Japan Championships..... .Yokohama here we come again! Finals time (100m) 12.61 another personal best. Sorry - I haven't had a chance to edit them....
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03671659320538901131noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25713648.post-26368036597883221422014-07-04T20:51:00.000+09:002014-07-04T20:51:04.702+09:00Cookies
This post is really for a record for myself about how things are progressing with my baking business, but if anyone is interested.....
A while ago I wrote about "Starting small" with regards to a new baking business that I eventually hope to get off the ground properly. I have continued to provide the new local produce shop with cookies and on days like today I think that perhaps Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03671659320538901131noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25713648.post-75201245464746552512014-07-02T16:09:00.003+09:002014-07-02T16:09:57.384+09:00Flowers of the day
We are due for heavy rain tonight, so chances are my 2 current favourite flowers may end up being a little worse for wear by tomorrow morning. The first are bon bon cosmos which I grew from seed and that I'm hoping will self seed each year from now. The second are sunflowers which self seed every year and seem to grow taller every year! It's a bit hard to tell from the photo, Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03671659320538901131noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25713648.post-52932095675132220502014-06-30T21:11:00.000+09:002014-06-30T21:23:33.513+09:00First time in many years
Every year around this time the amount of food on the dinner table that is homegrown increases to the point that it is faster to count the food that has been bought than the homegrown food. My children tend to get a little sick of me pointing out all the vegetables that I have produced - that is until today when I pointed out that the corn was from the garden, something that hasn't Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03671659320538901131noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25713648.post-32748291017059208602014-06-28T11:03:00.002+09:002014-06-28T11:03:52.650+09:00Gherkins
We eat quite a lot of gherkins (aka pickles) - in sandwiches, salads etc. so every year I plant a few seeds and hope to get enough pickling cucumbers to make a decent batch of gherkins. In general I get a reasonable number and the rainy season hits and the vines all shrivel up and die. Usually I am grateful for this as there are only so many gherkins that can be used in one yearAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03671659320538901131noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25713648.post-54729821191981398122014-06-19T22:48:00.000+09:002014-06-19T22:48:03.327+09:00Rice planting 2014
The yearly rice planting is over. The men finished all the machine planting the other day and I finished the last of the hand planting today. Unfortunately (?) I had to work over the weekend so I wasn't able to help out with the main planting, but was given responsibility for filling in the gaps in the last field today.
For those who are not familiar with rice Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03671659320538901131noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25713648.post-8022615107216570492014-06-17T18:22:00.004+09:002014-06-17T18:22:52.966+09:00Don't look up!
I usually have the policy that I put on blinkers when I am in the garden. I look straight ahead at the area that needs the most attention and try to avoid looking even slightly sideways to prevent me being sidetracked by one of the other million areas that need weeding etc. Sometimes I stray a little though and yesterday I was silly enough to look up - and discovered a hairy Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03671659320538901131noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25713648.post-15428059181972499042014-06-16T20:33:00.000+09:002014-06-16T20:33:00.691+09:00The planets aligned....
Every year I plant potatoes in spring and autumn and every year I have mixed results. However no matter how bad the harvest is I still usually get more than enough to last until they start sprouting . This is because I have the bad habit of looking at the bags of seed potatoes in the shop and thinking that there are not really so many in a bag and therefore buying far too many.... andAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03671659320538901131noreply@blogger.com2