Human's instinct

Now I just put my daughter down.

I was wondering what I should write about today.
Maybe, I can talk about the today's weather.

It has very cold like a fall since this morning.
I've hated summer since last year because the crazy heat made the morning sickness much worse when I was pregnant.

Anyway,
we sometimes hear about the news that some people are killed by the flooded river because of the heavy rain etc.

I always think why they risk their life to get close to such a dangerous place.
According to the pｓychologist , it is connected to our instinct that human wants to see what is going on and what the fear is with their eyes.
By knowing the fear,  it seems to make us relieved.

I can understand the analysis.
I also am the person who wants to analyze and know why all the issues happens.
(Although I'm not interested in the flooded river)

When I had a first baby, I was really devastated because I was not able to find the reason why
he cried and didn't sleep at all.

But now, I understand I'll never find the appropriate answer for raising child.

 put my daughter down:娘を寝かしつける

immunization shot

I took my son to the hospital today because he needed to take a immunization shot.
More than two years has already passed since he took a shot last.
Of course, he forgot how painful it was and how it was like.
When we left the house, he asked me " What kind of shape is a injection needle?"
I changed the subject since I knew I should say it is a sharp needle.

The immunization shot consists of two times.
More than one weeks later, he needs to do that again.
It is easy to imagine that he would refuse to take a shot once he fails to do it today.
So, I really wanted him to succeed it whatever it takes!!

To avoid having a bad image for a shot,
I told him how painful it would be again and again.
You would be a hero if you succeed it without crying, I said.

As a result, he did it without any problems. He looked proud of himself after that.

I hope he can handle it easily again one week later.

 immunization shot:予防接種

Parents' responsibility

As you may know, two junior high school students were stabbed and killed by a man.
Their head and face were bound with adhesive tape.
It is a horrible murder.

Of course, the man should be punished accordingly,
but  I can't help but　wonder why the girl and the boy was hanging around the city in the middle of the night and
what their parents were doing and how they were thinking about it.

I would never allow my child to go out at the night unless there is a special reason.
（but I can't come up with any special reason which allows them to go out at night)

Supervising a child is one of the parents' responsibility.
Parents should always know where their child is and who he or she is with.



were stabbed: 刺される
were bound with adhesive tape:　粘着テープで縛られる

Good way to study

I haven't studied seriously since I got pregnant. 

I need to make up for loss time...!

Today, I was waiting for my baby to fall asleep because I wanted to study after that. 

However, she didn't seem sleepy at all.

So I decided to start studying beside her.

She was lying on the mattress on the floor and I also lied down. 

Then I spread the book.

I thought she would cry soon as soon as she got bored. 

But, she was very very patient. It looked like she was also enjoying reading a book. 

I succeeded in reading a book for a few hours!!

I found a good way to study today.

make up for loss time: 無駄になった時間の穴埋めをする

I had a fever.

I was not well for a few days because of a slight fever. 

It took longer than usual to recover this time.

I know why.  Even when I had a fever, I had to nurse my baby at 3 a.m. 

and my son woke me up early in the morning.

Of course, it took long to get well!!!

Besides, I can't take medicines while I nurse a baby.

I couldn't help but leaving my son  with my parents one night. 

What I need to do was to take care of only my baby.

What a easy day it was! 

However, I felt sad a bit when I saw my son's toys left in the room. 

Share the responsiblity

There are a lot of things to do for a mam.
I have to nurse my baby every three or four hours,  calm my son down when he acts out,
and tuck my kids into bed and my son at night.

However, fortunately, I have a husband who can cook.
As soon as my family got home, I started feeding my baby.
At the same time, he started cooking.

It means that I can share the responsibility with him.
You wouldn't know how much it means to a mam if you were a guy or a single.

nurse:授乳する
act up:勝手にふるまう
tuck in: 寝かしつける

Be patient when you face a trouble

Recently I'm getting into sawing.
While my husband is good with his hands, unfortunately, I'm not.
He sometimes makes fun of me because I can't do the things he can easily do.

One day, I stayed up late to make bibs for my baby with sawing machine.
I was struggling with tangled threads for a while. I almost lost my mind...

But now I've been teaching my son how patience he should be when he faces a trouble.
So, I didn't give up and I should practice until I can reach to my goal.

One day trip

My son got up early in the morning...! At 5 o'clock!!
I know why... because he was really excited about going to one-day trip today.

The one-day trip contains a lot of activities such as catching fish and barbecue.
There is no wonder that he is excited.

But, taking him to the tour is not my job. I have to take care of a small baby at home.
My parents took the job willingly.

I'm really looking forward to hearing about the trip from my son.

My decision to keep English skills

I know I've not spared time to study English recently.
I don't mean to make excuses but it is true that taking care of two kids is not easy.

However,
I realized that I would lose interest in studying and forget how to write and read English.
In fact, when I listened to English conversation through my MP3 during my son's swimming lesson,
I couldn't understand some parts of it... I was really really shocked.

For me, it is a matter of life and death because my job is to teach English!
I decided to read or write even a little English everyday.

I think I wrote enough already today...

So, see you tomorrow :)

15 Toys must be for kids!

I teach a one on one lesson every Saturday. My student is in his forties and has three kids. For a couple of days from the first lesson, he seemed nervous and was reluctant to talk about himself. Although I knew he was married from his wedding ring, I didn’t even know if he had a child or not at first. 

However, a few lessons later, after the lesson finished, he talked about himself. It was clear that he relaxed, compared with the first couple of lessons. He said that he waited in line for toys in the morning. There seems to be very popular toys for kids. Unfortunately, I know I don’t keep up with current toys at all. So he explained how popular they were.

About 1200 toys were expected to be sold at the shop at 9 am and they were first come first served. When he visited the shop before 9, numerous people had already been there and the numbered ticked he received was already about 900. Therefore, about 900 people were waiting in front of him. He was relieved to secure the toys and surprised how popular the toys were. 

He added that the parents seemed more enthusiastic than their kids. According to him, now that the toys are too popular and it is difficult to obtain them, the price of the toys are going up and sold at high price online. To sell them at high price, some of adults are apparently crazy about obtaining them. 

Toys must be just toys for kids. However, now it seems one of the tools for adult to earn money . Nowadays, the disparity between people’s lives has been getting wider. If the toys are too expensive and some children can’t afford to buy them, it is a pity. The toys used to be the things children can pay from their pocket money and buy and it must have been the way to make children learn how to use money. 

one on one lesson : 1対1のレッスン

first come first served： 早い者勝ち

disparity:　格差

pocket money：お小遣い

14 Can you cultivate a new habit?

It seems that now many companies have introduced flextime to encourage employees to work more effectively and to give them more choices for work.

Actually, my husband’s company is one of them. Beginning in April, the flextime was adopted. My husband is not a morning person at all. He usually stays up late and has difficulty getting up even at 6 o’clock. I thought he wouldn’t change even after the flextime started. It seemed next to impossible for him to get up earlier. 

However, he said “It is worth a try. The ideal life style is to get to work early and get back home early.” It sounded like a joke, but I realized that he meant it. From the beginning of April, he got up one hour earlier than usual. He got on the first train and came back home around 6 o’clock. Not only on the day, but the following days, so his challenge paid off. 

Now, he keeps this life style, going to the office early and coming back early. He successfully cultivated a new habit. He must be happy to have more free time after he gets back home. However, I know his previous life style will still continue but only on Saturday and Sunday. Since April first, I’ve never seen him getting up early on Sunday. Anyway, it can’t be helped. He needs to wind down on weekends. I will let him sleep as long as he wants. Oh, what a good wife I am!

 introduced flextime: フレックスを導入した
morning person 朝型の人
 It seemed next to impossible　殆ど不可能に思われる
It is worth a try 試す価値はある
he meant it 彼は本気だった
cultivated a new habit.　新しい習慣を身につけた　
 it can’t be helped 仕方がない

13 His well-regulated life

A few weeks have already passed since my son entered kindergarten. 
Actually, his lifestyle dramatically changed when it came to taking a nap. Before he entered kindergarten, he took a nap for one to two hours in the afternoon. 

However, now he comes back around 3:30 and  it seems too late to put him in a bed if Ii want him to go to bed at night. Therefore, he continues to play with me until dinner and toward dinner time, he gradually gets cranky. When he doesn’t like something or can’t stand something, he easily gets angry or starts crying. Still, he tries to stay awake and keep playing.

He has skipped dinner a few times. He usually knows that I will be in a bad mood if he doesn’t sit down and eat dinner. However, when he is sleepy, he just doesn’t know what is happening around him and concentrates on what he wants to do as if he tries to forget that he is sleepy. 

Thanks to him staying up all day, he can easily fall asleep in a few minutes, that is much earlier than when he took a nap. It sounds like “well-regulated life”, but instead of that, he skips dinner. I’m just wondering if I can say his life style is truly “well-regulated life”・・・

when it came to :~の事となると
he gradually gets cranky:彼はだんだん不機嫌になる
 I will be in a bad mood：私は不機嫌になる
Thanks to him staying up all day:彼が一日起きていたお蔭で

12 What is in my son's lunch box?

About a week has already passed since my son entered kindergarten.
Although he sometimes refused to put on his uniform and go to the kindergarten, I didn’t have any difficulty dealing with it.

One of my friends has her son the same age as my son. She seems to be in trouble because he bitterly cries every day and refuses to go to his kindergarten. It might sound like she babies her son, but she reluctantly decided to go to the kindergarten with him, and wait and see how the things go. If I were her, I would encourage him to be on his own whatever it takes. Once he notices he can manage by himself, he will cope with everything on his own. 

Anyway, today was the first day for my son to bring his lunch box. Actually, this is what I have been worried about. Although he is not picky, he is basically not interested in food. 

When I was preparing his lunch, I was thinking a lot of things. For example, I was wondering how I can encourage him to eat, what he might be happy to see in the lunch box, and I put some fruit to make the lunch colorful and favorably compare with other’s lunches. (Maybe he might be too busy with handling his lunch on his own to compare his lunch with others, though)
I couldn't put many items in his small lunch box, but I put my LOVE in his box. 

I realized how much I cut corners when I make my husband’s lunch box. Whenever I prepare it, I have nothing in my mind…. 

her son the same age as my son:私の息子と同じ年齢の息子
he bitterly cries:彼は激しく泣く
wait and see how the things go：成り行きを見守る
favorably compare with:引けを取らない

11 Special moment on a train

On the way home from a station, which is located more than 6 station from my nearest staion, I got an opportunity to get on a luxurious car called “green car”  on the train for some reason. The green cars are connected to ordinary cars. As long as you pay an additional fee for riding the car, you can get on it. 

I haven’t taken it for a long time even though  I was often exhausted after work. Actually, I totally forgot the existence of the cars because I was feeling I was far from those who are qualified to use them like busy people and rich people. That is to say, it seemed that only specific people were allowed to use them.(It may sound exaggerated though...)

The “green car” has two floors. I went up to the second floor and sat down on the comfortable chair without worrying how crowded the train was. 

I looked down the scenery throughout the window from the second floor and felt as if I was flying to somewhere because I almost forgot I was riding a train, which used to be just “transportation” for me. 

Looking at the price of the car, it costs the same as the price of a cup of coffee. I thought paying for the ticket was more worthwhile than drinking a cup of coffee. 

Usually, I 'm checking time when I can arrive at my station because I want to go back home early.
But at that time, I wish I could enjoy the comfortable moment little longer. 
I’ve never thought my station was very close to the station where I departed and how fast the time was. 

those who are qualified to use them ：それらを使う権利のある人
it costs the same as the price of a cup of coffee. ：いっぱいのコーヒーと同じ値段がかかる。
I thought paying for the ticket was more worthwhile than drinking a cup of coffee. 
チケットにお金を払う方が、コーヒーを飲むよりもずっと価値があると思った。

10 Transparent toilet!?

I don’t know if it is good idea or not to construct a transparent toilet in Japan. Apparently, it was built after one in Europe. Actually, in Europe, I guess that it was made to prevent the dangerous situations such as violent assault and drug consumption. When I was staying in Australia, I saw public toilets with green lights. According to the residents, it was aimed at avoiding drug injection. Apparently, you can’t see your blood vessels in green lights. Maybe, this transparent toilet has the same purpose.

We will have a hard time getting used to the workings of the toilet. The way it works is that a sensor will detect you every 35 seconds if you move. Otherwise, the wall will turn transparent if there is no motion. Soon after the toilet became available, it was reported that a woman was humiliated because of this system. I can’t imagine how  ashamed she was…!! The TV program that reported this incident tested how much you have to move to be detected by the sensor. It reported that inclining your head was not enough. 

While I’m in a toilet, I tend to think about something I have in mind because the small compartment is very suitable to make me relax. However, if I’m forced to move every 35 seconds, it will be nothing less than disturbing my peaceful moment in a toilet.

9 Cashier is greater than me...!

When I was a high school student, I worked part-time job in a ramen shop. Actually, I was fed up with a tennis club in the high school because of extremely harsh training, so I quit and started working there. The ramen shop was always busy and crowded. The ordering machine was broken, so I had to take a memo by hand, taking orders from customers. Sometimes, customers ordered so quickly that I couldn’t follow what the customers had said. It forced me to just remember the orders without taking any memos. That caused me to make a lot of mistakes on orders. As a result, I quit a few weeks later. 

At that time, I was really disappointed at my ability. I thought why I didn’t remember even the orders from customers…and why I couldn’t follow through on what I had decided to do.

That’s to say, I am the type of the person who can’t deal with a job in fast-paced environment. However, looking back now, I realized that there are jobs that don't suit your personality and your preference. I can say that because I continued working in a cram school for 4 years when I was a college student. I could keep own my pace in job and nobody prompted me to do something. I could take time to prepare for my lesson as long as I could. I feel comfortable in such an environment. So,  I’m still teaching. 

Sometimes people say that I’m great because I have an ability to teach in front of students. However, looking at the person who is processing products at a register, I think the person is much greater than me. I know I would have a long long waiting line at my cashier. 

Today, when I was waiting in long line at a register to buy some bread and saw a cashier proceeding very quickly, I was sure that I couldn't do that. 

8 The doctor's words scared me very much!

A few months ago, I found a lump around my shoulder while I was soaking in a bath tub. I searched what kind of lump it was and I knew that most of this kind of lump around the shoulder could be benign and wouldn’t progress to malignant state.

Still, if there is a tiny possibility to be malignant, I’m sure that it would be the best way to remove itt. I’m not the type of the person who wants to take an action right away. I'm more of the type of person who wants to procrastinate things as much as possible. However, I found the essay from someone’s blog, which said her lump was getting bigger and it left a big scar when removed. That story prompted me to make a decision quickly.

When I went to see a doctor, the doctor suggested me have an operation on the same day. I agreed with him and I was asked to lie down on the examination table. The doctor said “I will inject a painkiller.” before he cut into my shoulder. I thought “What is painkiller?? Isn’t it an anesthesia? Does it just ease the pain!?” Maybe he just avoided saying a kind of jargon like an anesthesia. However, it made me more nervous!!

In addition, he said “if you feel pain on your shoulder, please let me know.” when he was about to cut into my shoulder…. I couldn’t imagine how painful it would be if the anesthesia didn’t work well. 

Fortunately, it worked and I didn’t feel anything.
Actually, I was very scared of not the operation but of what the doctor said. Doctors should take extra care of  their words…


 I was soaking in a bath tub・・・湯船につかる
benign・・・良性の
malignant state・・・悪性
wants to procrastinate things as much as possible・・・出来るだけ物事を先延ばししたい
examination table・・・診察台
ease the pain・・・痛みを和らげる
jargon・・・専門用語

7 A woman doesn't have a good sense of direction.

Do you have a good sense of direction? I have none… The other day, I was asked to take participants of a seminar to a restaurant the event organizer booked in advance. Of course she gave me a map that said a detailed way to the restaurant. However, I totally misread the map and ended up taking them to the wrong place. I really envy a person who has a good sense of direction. 

Last Sunday, we finally held my son’s birthday party that had been put off because it had been snowing a lot and I couldn’t buy any groceries. I ordered a pizza delivery for that party, but the time I told the staff on the phone has been already passed. I went out to look around my house and found a biker wandering. I raised and waved my hand so that the biker could notice me. Although I thought the biker was a man, I realized it was a young girl who looked a high school student after taking off her helmet. Umm,,, it seems true that a woman tends to have a poor sense of direction. She murmured “Maybe it's only me who has been lost among the bikers who made a delivery.” I sympathized with her as if I was looking at myself. Anyway I was relieved that it didn't look like I was a backseat driver. However, I don’t know if this attitude came from the sympathy that I felt with a person who didn’t have a good of direction or if I was just hungry.



sense of direction・・・方向感覚
ordered a pizza delivery・・・宅配ピザを注文した
murmured・・・つぶやいた
backseat driver・・・おせっかい

6 How can you stick to your resolution?

Are you the type of person who always makes resolutions on New Year’s Day? If so, do you have the confidence to stick to it until the end of the year?

Around the end of last year, the doctor diagnosed my father with metabolic syndrome. He doesn’t look fat from outside, so he seemed very shocked. Since then, he has been on a diet. Reducing his weight is one of his resolutions. 

Actually, it is said that metabolic syndrome can be a sign of a future disease, so people diagnosed with metabolic syndrome should take a measure to lead well-regulated life with healthy food and moderate exercise To avoid increasing the budged for health care, the city office is sincerely addressing the issue to reduce the number of people with metabolic syndrome by holding some consulting events. 

My father went to this event and got some advice from a consultant in many aspects including food and exercise. From the following day, he decided to record his weight every morning. It seems that visualizing the number itself 
becomes a source of motivation. In fact, he said he could resist himself all day after he saw an unexpectedly heavy weight in the morning. As a result, he succeeded in reducing his weight by 3 kilograms. This has been a great success! 

I wanted to try this “recording diet” as soon as I heard of his success, but I already had difficulty making a habit of taking off my clothes and measuring my weight in the morning in the first place. Do you think it is because the scale is in a cold place or am I just lazy? 

 stick to it・・・やり遂げる
 he has been on a diet・・・彼はダイエットしている
well-regulated life・・・規則正しい生活
moderate exercise・・・適度な運動
 in many aspects・・・さまざまな面で
make a habit of・・・～の習慣を身につける
measure my weigh・・・体重を測る
in the first place・・・最初の段階で

5 Is it true that non-working mothers...?

I met my friends from my high school and held a farewell party for one of them who will be leaving here for Osaka in March. Actually,she was too busy to meet me. Then the time when we finally met was the last day before she leaves…!

Anyway, I really felt comfortable with people who have the same mind-set and the fundamental values of life.

We talked a lot about a wide range of topics like our lives, husbands, kids, educations and the problems our communities have. What I got interested in and  also scared about was non-working mothers I might meet in a kindergarten. Although we have a kind of prejudice again st non-working mothers because most of us are working mothers, one of my friends had difficulty having a healthy communication with them in her son’s kindergarten. 

According to her, (of course, I can’t judge whether it is true or not, though)it appears that non-working mothers tend to have self-confidence without any substantial reasons, which may come    from a small world where they are staying and which makes them narrow-minded. Furthermore, she said that they sometimes tended to go to the extreme of seeking personal advantages for their own sake with narrow and inflexible ideas. She said that they were the type of person who has a lack of consideration.

It may sound exaggerating, but part of me think this is one of the reasons why I stay busy working outside and want to be a person of good sense.

held a farewell party・・・お別れ会を開く

mind-set・・・考え方

fundamental values of life・・・人生の基本的な価値観

self-confidence・・・うぬぼれ

substantial reasons・・・根拠のある理由

narrow minded・・・狭い心

go to the extreme of seeking personal advantages for their own sake

・・・自分自身の利益のために極端に走る

part of me・・・心の片隅では