I'm in the mood to eat simple dinner*

When my husband comes home late, dinner for me is really simple.
I sometimes eat out. But there is hardly delicious meal in the restaurants.
So I think I have dinner at home and whip up something.
Putting that aside, I’ve been reading a book named “ 1Q84” written by Haruki Murakami.
These days I only read books on the train. So I read books slowly.
When I’m really into the book, I read the book at home.
This time I haven’t soaked in his world yet but I look forward to time for reading the story.
While reading it, my five senses are simulated and there are some things that I wanted
to do.
For instance I’m wondering what kind of music is sinfonietta by Janacek.
And I wanna listen to it very much. And one of main people makes simple good dishes in it.
Reading it, I wanna cook very much.
I don’t need sophisticated dishes.
I’m not a gourmet. So I’m not interested in fancy food and restaurants not much.
If you don’t know delicious food, you can’t make delicious dishes. So I wanna eat delicious
food. But it doesn’t mean they must be fancy and expensive.
I think it seems delish and I wanna eat it when I read something about simple Japanese
dishes in books.
Probably it’s familiar for me and those dishes are dishes that I wanna eat the best.
By the way this picture is my dinner last night, it’s a Japanese pot-au-feu.
I cooked it for the first time. It was very goood!
I made it with Japanese radish called Daikon, carrot, burdock, Japanese mushroom called
Shitake and chicken and put salt, pepper and Japanese liquor called Sake and soy sauce.
It ‘s very simple and easy to cook.
I found the recipe in a free paper that I took in the hospital when I caught a cold.
It’s very good for dinner in winter.
I wanna make it from now on, too.

my first Cartonnage*

Yesterday I took a half day off in the afternoon and learned Cartonnage.
I’ve interested in it and often stood reading the books about it at book shops.
You’ve glued the wrapping papers on the boxes, right?
Can I do this even I don’t have good hand with it?
Then as I imagined I was the last person to finish making it even though other
people already finished it.
I couldn’t make it fast but I was able to make such a cute box!
The work of the blackboard-picture in the left picture is mine and the work in the back of
the picture is made by an architect.
The works in the right picture are the works of the teacher.
When you use the same wrapping paper as other people, they’re totally different works
which part of the wrapping paper you use.
It’s very fun more than I imagined.
Probably I’m into it!

good medicine for asthma

　

On the second day of three-day-holiday I was in the bed after my husband going to work.
I sometimes got up and watched American dramas. Then the phone rang.
It was from my sister’s husband. He said “ Are you fine? If you want me to get something,
I’ll bring it to you. “ to me.
I heard his voice after few weeks and talked to him various things automatically.
I had a terrible cough still. So I said “ These days it’s been tough days because of terrible coughs and I didin’t know anyone at the wedding party of my associate at work yesterday and I was lonely there. “ to him while coughing terribly.
He was listening to my stories while nodding and sometimes laughing and he asked me to eat out for dinner.
At night he picked me at my house also picked my husband at his work and he took us to a famous restaurant called “ Kimukatsu “ in Ebisu of Tokyo.
I watched fried pork called “ Tonkatsu “ at the restaurant and broth comes out from several-tiered sliced pork on TV. So I wanted to go there once at least.
There were many people who waited in line outside. But we were able to go into the restaurant earlier than we imagined.
Eating a piece of the pork, we took one look at each other.
And eating second piece of it, we tilted our head.
They were good but we didn’t see the difference between it and inexpensive familiar pork.
We were full and only thing that we could eat was some sweets.
But there weren’t café that still opened at 10 at night. So we got back to my house.
Our night was over after eating ice creams that we got at the grocery store with coffee.
By the way where’s the terrible coughing gone?
I couldn’t believe it but I almost didn’t have a cough.
A friend of mine said “ Asthma comes from stress and mentality sometimes. “ to me.
Probably it’s true.
I couldn’t seem to get well but one great night soothed my body and fixed it.
I hear it a lot but it’s true the body connects to mentality.
By the way the left side of this picture is a strage that was used for a Japanese drama.

gateau chocolat

Today it's the last day of three-day-holiday in Japan.
My husband is working today even though it's a holiday.
So I baked gateau chocolat for him and his colleagues.
I don't have a taste when I cook.
but I'm a little bit worried I can't have a taste of it.
Because he brought a whole cake.
I hope they enjoy eating it!

Ｆｉｎａｌｌｙ

Last night I had a terrible cough all night. So I went to doctors before going to a wedding.
Actually last night the doctor recommended me to use an inhalator for asthma.
But I didn’t wanna take various medicines and I had a confidence in my strong body.
So I didn’t say yes to him.
But last night it was tough and finally I decided to take it.
This hasn’t worked yet and I can’t stop coughing when I talk, laugh and so on.
Speaking of “ finally”, finally I started to read a book written by Haruki Murakami
nameed 1Q84.
But I didn't buy it and I borrowed it from an associate at work.
Before reading it, my heart is kind of pounding.
It's been a while since I felt this feeling.
I like him very much and I really love his some books but there're some books that I couldn't
understand how good it is.
I hope I like it.
When I'm absorbed in his stories, I go into his world and I kind of can't get out of it. It could influence real life.
I haven't felt this feeling when I read other author's novels.
His stories just began.
Tomorrow I’ll take a rest and enjoy reading it after getting well.
By the way I took this picture at the establishment for a wedding today.

Chiffon cake for breakfast

I baked chiffon cake for my husband's breakfast.
This chiffon cake made with lemmon peels and marmalade.

My Mother wins yet

Last Saturday it was a beautiful day.
Waking up in the morning, I was in the bed while thinking is my mother gonna jog on the side
of the river today, too?!.
Around 11 the phone rang.　
I knew who called me.
Of course it was mother.
She said “ It’s brilliant sunny day. Wanna jog? “
I got dressed quickly and left home.
I should’ve wore a T-shirt not sportswear because it was kind of hot also it was windy
as spring.
There is a lot of dust in the air when it’s windy. That’s why it’s the worst condition
for me because of wearing contact lenses.
So at first I jogged while tears running because of a lot dust and I didn’t enjoy jogging.
My mother changed the course where there isn’t much dust and I was able to jog easily.
And she took me to places where you can see beautiful Japanese plum blossoms.
Then my complain, “ I should’n’ve jogged when it’s windy.” was gone.
We saw a egret like a smugly woman on the pond and it looked cute.
It’s much fun to jog with somebody more than to jog by myself.
After around an hour and a half hour suddenly my engine started and much power came out
from the inside of my body.
My mother beat me even though I speeded up.
Oh, mother wins yet.
This is my mother with plum blossoms.

Linda made me delightful

　

Linda who I met last Tuesday is definitely blood O type.
I heard she gets a lot.
She often laughs, smiles also the way she talks and listens to stories are very good.
She only sees positive sides and she doesn’t mind negative sides.
She isn’t worried about small things and forgets everything easily.
I said “ I’m jealous of you. “ to her. Then she said “ Why? You don’t have any worries, do you?
You have husband, energetic mother and you can enjoy jogging, snowboarding also you like
cooking and baking sweets.” to me.
So I said “ but… brabrabra….” to her.
She said “ Oh, you can’t chose it. So you don’t need to think about it. Nature decides the best
thing for you. Don’t worry. You can’t chose it like chose drinking tea or coffee. “
As Linda said that, I was able to understand it and agreed with her. And I laughed myself.
Oh, why have I thought about it? I don’t have to do it. I thought and my feelings became
delightful.
And she said “ Your English is very cute, girlish and natural. Many Japanese speak English
like text books. “ to me.
I was more than delighted of course. Also she said “ Your teacher is very good. “
There were many things that we talked about and we really enjoyed spending time
like seeing friends from college.
It was over 10 without knowing even though we met up at 6:30 pm.
Going outside, it was very windy and there were a lot of snow on the road.
The weather became terribly bad.
Every door of every building wasn’t open and we couldn’t go into the road in the basement.
So we looked for entrance and stood many doors one after another.
Our coats and shoes were soaking wet because of terribly strong winds and snowy rain.
But we cracked.
Even though we met in person for the first time but I wanted to be with her much more.
When we said good-bye at the station, Linda hugged me tight.
Linda is gift from God and I thought she was an angel. I really thought so.
She was attractive and I wanna be like her and learn something from her.
Thanks to God to meet Linda.
Needless to say, after getting home I said “ Linda is really attractive, I was really lucky to meet
her. “ to my husband.
Of course I texted my teacher and said “ I always think so. Thank you. “ to him.
Because he teaches us real English not text books. That’s why I can communicate
people from other countries.
I wanna value friends who I can meet by coincidence and get along with them.

I met Linda whom I met on the blog:)

Last night I met Linda who is female British in person for the first time.
I met her on the blog. She wrote a comment on my blog about special dishes for new year in the beginning of this year. She said “ It’s yammy. “ or something on it.
And after that I often visit her blog and she often comes to my blog.
We met on the blog last January and we met in person on 9th of March.
So it didn’t take much time since we met on the blog.
But I should’ve met her.
Coz she is leaving Japan on 21th of March.
I had been thinking what I wanted to talk with her. I have many things that I wanted to talk with her but I didn’t come up with something special.
Before I met her I was kind of nervous.
It’s not that she is a foreigner. I’m kind of nervous when I meet someone for the first time.
But at a glance we hit it off.
She has a really delightful aura from all over the body.
She is very western and it’s different from Japanese atmosphere.
Plus she has a power to make people be relaxed.
At the moment when I met her, I thought I’m really happy to meet her.
We met up at a restaurant called Sizzler.
I used to go there often when I worked in Shinjuku.
I used to eat too much vegetable that is my favorite and icecream for dessert.
I ate too much and sometimes I had a stomachache.
Linda is vegetarian. That’s why I chose this restaurant.
We went and picked vegetables many times and enjoyed drinking various tea and dessert.
I picked too much lychee. So she laughed her head off a lot!
When she remember me, definitely she remember the much lychee on my plate and terrible bad whether.
Anyway there are a lot of things that I wanna write about Linda but it’s a long story.
So I’ll write it tomorrow, too!

Tokyo marathon 2009*2

Well, my story about Tokyo marathon hasn’t finished.
I was working on cheering on my mother.
I went to Ginza after it and my body got cold because I waited for mother in the rain for an hour. I wanted to have something hot for my cold body.
Establishments didn’t open yet and nobody was on the back road in Ginza.
I didn’t have time. So I went to McDonald and ate a set of hamburger.
Hot coffee made my body warm.
But I didn’t take time to eat and watched the stop-watch.
I know my mother gets to the 20km-point after two hours since she started.
I wanted to go there earlier and waited for her. So I couldn’t be relaxed there.
I walked fast and went to the main street in Ginza.
When I went there, I saw a uncomfortable thing….
Some male runners peed in front of the shops.
On the day it was really cold and I understand they must’ve wanted to pee.
But nobody pees in front of the entrance of own house. I want them to watch their manners.
I lost feelings to cheer them on and stood on the side of road while seeing runners.
Then I found mother! She ran on time.
I ran aside her and followed her while taking two pictures of hers to Nihonbashi.
And then I stopped to follow her and went to work to go to the bathroom.
And I got back to the side of the road again.
Even though I waited for mother to take pictures but she might run through there when I saw other places for a while and I couldn’t find her at all.
I kept running on the side of the road to the goal but after all I couldn’t catch up her.
When she called me after the goal, I was on my way to the goal.
When the marathon was started, it was raining but it stopped raining and let up in the afternoon. The sun came out and it was sunny.
Is it like life, isn’t it?
When I saw runners, I really wanted to run.
It was not easy to go to cheer mother on coz I had to get up early.
But it gave me a good influence and I was pleased to be able to cheer mother on in the race.
I enjoyed Tokyo marathon as a supporter this year, too.

Tokyo marathon 2009* 1

I have to get up in the early morning when Tokyo marathon is held.
It’s like when I go snowboarding and I got up at 5:30 in the morning.
I thought it’s a hassle to go a little bit when I was walking to the station in the rain.
I tweeted “ come join Tokyo marathon! “ on Twitter and left home.
Even though it was in the early morning when I got on the train, I found a boy who read a mystery book in the seat. He wore uniform of elementary school.
He must’ve borrowed the book at the library and the tanned book reminded me.
being a student in elementary school.
I used to read the same mystery books also Lupin and Sherlock Holmes that I borrowed at the library.
Of course the hard cover books turned brown already.
I met up with mother in Shinjuku and we went to the basement of a familiar building as usual.
People were excited and nervous just before the marathon and when I’m there, I think I really want to run the marathon with them!
Mother got ready and I split her and went to Shinbashi.
Till last year my sister was there, too. So we had hot coffee and something light while being relaxed. But this year I was alone and I wasn’t in the mood to have coffee alone.
So I stood on the side of the road around Uchisaiwaicho for hour.
I was able to get a spot because there were only few people.
Shoes for running has mesh fabric on the upper surface of them.
That’s why water got in shoes easily and my feet got really cold when I waited for mother.
After a while a police car went through and a police bike went through slowly.
Then wheelchair runners ran through really fast.
They were not much runners as Honolulu marathon but it was very impressive and
They were really cool.And then the first runners group appeared and general runners appeared.
The spot where I waited for my mother was 10km-point. So many runners ran the road.
So I couldn’t seem to find her. I was disappointed coz I waited for her for an hour.
And I took a picture of my face. Then my mother found me and said “ Aya “
Oh, I gotta take pictures of her! And I was able to good pictures of her:)