January
Happy New Year!
Go and find out about the last year January 2023
This is us! Celebrated my husband's big 50! last month.
Entry#208. 1/31/2024.
Have you heard about Japanese strawberry shortcake (sponge cake) or Japanese fluffy giggly cheesecake before? Or Japanese soufflé pancake? Sometimes I feel proud to be a Japanese because of these deliciousness. You should try some real these stuffs. You would LOVE them, I mean it.
Also you might notice that Japanese people have interesting “traditions” about “which cake should be a birthday cake (and Christmas cake)”.
Most of Japanese people would answer “it has to be a strawberry shortcake (strawberry white sponge cake with whipped cream frosting).” Everyone in Japan would agree. Funny though.
It’s called “shortcake”, but it’s totally different from American shortcake. One website says “this Japanese strawberry shortcake was originally invented in Japan and the name was stolen from American strawberry shortcake because of the looks (not inside, not ingredients, not texture)”
You might try to taste similar cakes from TOUS les JOURS in Oxford. (Yes, that NEW French-Korean bakery!).
My parents do babysitting often for their granddaughters (age 7 and 5). They have birthday parties at my parents’ house often (not having friends though, it’s a family party). They pretty much follow “Japanese tradition” for birthday celebrations. They always have a strawberry shortcake (white sponge cake). ALWAYS. Are you smiling? Yes, I’m smiling.
The great part of this story is that “always my father goes to a cake shop to get a strawberry shortcake with message-chocolate-plate.”
When my father gets inside a cake shop, he needs to ask a shop lady to write a signature-message on a chocolate-plate. It’s like this (in a photo below).
This January, it was combined celebration for my younger brother and my father. Yes, it was for my father, too! Then he asked a cake shop lady without any hesitation “Please write ‘Happy birthday, Grandpa’!!”
These chocolate-message-plate is made of chocolate (of course), their granddaughters always want one to eat. They would fight over when there is only one on a cake. They love it that much. So my father keeps going to a cake shop to get these specific Japanese cakes by himself for his granddaughters, no matter what. He is such a wonderful grandpa indeed!!
Photo1: this year, January 2024.
Photo2: 3years ago. My father, age 80.
Photo3: 3years ago. My mother, age 77.
See cakes??? And edible messages!!!
Entry#207. 1/30/2024.
Since my mother’s big 80th birthday is coming up on 2/22, I had a good idea of the gift for her. I am going to give her a translated magazine article (translated by myself in Japanese). How does it sound? https://www.miamialum.org/s/916/22/Interior.aspx?sid=916&gid=1&pgid=21213
As I mentioned yesterday, there were several news articles published about my husband. We are so grateful and thankful for these writers/editors and photographers. Each stories are different media; online news articles, paper newspaper, and a printed magazine article.
I sent my mother the link of one of article. I even sent her the link of “Google translated in Japanese” version as well. At least she can understand the summary, I thought. Can you imagine how much 80 years old mother can handle digital articles? How much she has a computer time during a day? (Wait, she uses only her iPhone, not a computer.)
I am not sure how much she read it, how much she enjoyed it and how she felt.
So I decided to make “translation version of an article” in print (not digital format).
I finished it!! I feel so proud of myself. Now my hope is the gift package could arrive on time before 2/22 at my mother’s house. Hope both my parents enjoy reading it in Japanese. The good part is they can take their times as much as they need. Oh the funny part is “it’s 14 pages LONG!” 14 pages!!! (Whoa, I picked font size 11. Well, hope my mom and dad don’t mind the length.)
Entry#206. 1/29/2024.
Sometimes I feel so bad for my parents who live in Japan. This feeling has gotten bigger and bigger recently since my parents are getting older. They are doing well with their own medications. However I am often lost tracking their real life-pace, physical health issues and their daily feelings since it’s so far away between our houses. I feel bad. Especially after our new-normal life style started since July 2021, there is a big high hurdle in front of me about flying to meet them right away. (Just I haven’t figure out how I leave my husband behind alone in town, not yet. I am still an “on-call helper” “just in case”.
I feel relieved when I talked on the phone with them really. They keep busy doing babysitting for their granddaughters (age 7 and 5). I often ask my mother “Do you have photos of them in your phone?” “Did you take some?” “How about selfie?” Her answer is always “I see them almost everyday, every weekend. Why do I need to take photos?” Well, it made me smile anyway.
My parents don’t speak English. My mother sometimes tries to translate some using a dictionary. That’s it. I shared several articles about my husband with them. Of course it’s an English article. To our generation or younger generations, we could use “Google translate” “ChatGPT” or other translation system to read it in Japanese. I introduced the way to read in Japanese to my parents. However, it’s not so useful nor practical to them in their real life. I figured. (And often Google translate doesn’t work perfectly, unfortunately.)
They are doing well anyway surrounded by their cute sweet granddaughters. They sound happy, that’s the point.
My father turned 83 years old. My mother will turn 80(!) years old in February. I put a photo here from 17 years ago in Japan. 17 years ago! My son, age 5. My father, age 66. My mother, age 63. You like it?
Let's hope they can keep good health until our reunion.
1/28/2024.
All Miami U professors, staffs and students! Have a joyful first week of the spring semester starting from tomorrow!!! Best of luck to you all. Whoa, it's almost February, a pink month!
Here are two displays from my past memories at the local middle school library. My old creations.
Funny. The second one. See? It was the pandemic time! It says "Go with a mask!" Surely I loved "Heart hot air balloons."
Entry#205. 1/27/2024.
Our son will start his LAST semester in whole college life this Monday. Sometimes his "pace" makes me nervous + wonder because it's so different than mine. Well, the only thing I can tell certainly is he has some art-related skills and he could use them in some ways in future for something good. I have no idea what kind of job he will get for his life. But he will survive anyway with his skills. I do hope so. He shared several photos and videos of his Mongolia trip in June 2023 (10 days trip). Guess what? He showed off his juggling skills, rock climbing skills, "a chair challenge" (do you know about it?) and more, to local people and travel mates. That facts made me so happy and smile. And here in his hometown, he still keeps creating something with clay. I'm grateful that he shares these stuffs with us step by step. See?
1/25/2024.
I'm sending cheers to THS Mock Trial team crews and Coaches (plus Mock-parents) on Tomorrow's Big Day! Keep listening to this song all day long.
https://youtu.be/YLQ7Rc2OUS4?feature=shared
Can you imagine how you go outside in a wheelchair when it's raining?? Do you use an umbrella if it's pouring rain, when you wheel with both arms/hands? No matter how fast you wheel, your "lap" is going to be soaking wet. It is so different than walking-person situation. So my husband looks like these photos below in the rain. See the lap-cover? It is made for a wheelchair user. It is so useful! I love it very much.
1/24/2024.
Wait, where did all snow go? My husband is supposed to "enjoy mono-skiing" at least one more time, at least one more, hopefully two more. Please snow-god, snow-storm-god, make it happen?
There were snow on 1/19/2024.
Today, no snow.
Entry#204. 1/23/2024.
Once snow covers roads and sidewalks, my husband and I need a moment to think about “going out with a wheelchair”. Is it too slick? Is it too wet? Is the snow too thick? Even if our street is cleared of snow by a snowplow, we need to think about the parking lot of the place we are heading to. To able-bodied people, it’s not so “hard” to go outside in the snow as long as you bundle up with the right gear/boots and clothes. I grew up in Sapporo, Japan, which is called “snow place in the winter". I biked often when I was young, but I didn't bike in the winter. I never biked on the snow covered roads. However I did see some "brave" college students from the southern area of Japan biked in the snowy winter with normal tires. Most of the time, they fell while I was looking at them. So I feel uneasy about "wheeling" in the snow. But as you might think, thick big tires would work better and safely in the snow. That might be true. (I am not sure that Mountain bike would be ok to bike on snowy roads?) My husband has an off-road type wheelchair. It is different from his daily wheelchair. He could use it in the snow, but this one is not for all-day-long use. He has an extra attachment gear (Front-wheel) which is very helpful for bumpy surfaces. However it is still tricky to wheel in the snow. (I believe there are many wheelchair users who wheel in the snow with braveness and big confidence out there in the world. I admire them.)
When I figured out that you can change wheelchair wheels with a “quick release” function, (when my husband ordered his own wheelchair), I was so surprised and excited.
FYI. Here is “what is quick-release”.
Most modern day wheelchairs have a 'quick-release' function for the rear wheels on the chair. This means that you simply need to press a button in the centre of the wheel, pull, and the wheel should just pop straight off accordingly.
At that moment I discovered “Oh, you can replace wheels from regular tire width to thicker width!?”, of course, my eyes were twinkling and wide open with excitement. Because that sounded so useful and helpful for any circumstances. However my “WOW” moment didn’t last long. It was not so simple at all. You would be surprised.
Switching regular size to thick width wheel makes the whole balance OFF, gravity center OFF and your body would tilt forward. Plus the brake system won’t work because of the tire width. Only if you don’t mind and you are okay without brakes, that would work. I don't like the idea though. So theoretically when you change the rear wheels to thick-width-tire wheels, you need to adjust the brakes or replace them with the right size brakes. It's always a time consuming job. At least knowing the fact that we can switch wheels by ourselves is good, just in case.
Here are interesting videos for you. Changing wheels in a wheelchair is not so practical (and not required skill at all) but I think you would like to see it.
Photos of wheels, quick-release, brakes.
1/22/2024.
Two videos taken by his instructor. If you have good eyes, you might find me skiing around him. As you can see, he is on his own without any support from his instructor at the end. He started doing "turns" also. How do you think?
1/20/2024.
Coming up: Mono-ski session #2 at Mad River Mountain. At first, I need a-whole-day-sleep. Oh, I skied along with him this time. It was a super awesome fun time, more than I expected.
1/19/2024.
It's SNOW DAY!!
1/18/2024.
Your favorite barista made your day with her awesome drawing. It's hard to show whole picture all at once because it's on a cup surface. But I really wanted to show off this awesomeness!!! Wooo hooo!
1/17/2024.
Your day would be shining bright when your wonderful friend surprised you with a fresh vivid flower. I'm so grateful that I have that kind of friends near me.
Also you got happy when you found familiar faces in some magazines.
1/16/2024.
I have one younger brother. My husband has two younger sisters. Our son has three younger girl-cousins. All lives in Japan. Because we live in the States since 2001, I am kind of lost tracking about the latest version of “what Japanese school life looks like”. I can tell you about my era which is a long long time ago. I need to ask my nieces about it that would be accurate for sure. Then one topic came up when I talked to my husband. There is a sports day or sports festival (運動会 or 体育祭). They compete at several sports events and it’s a competition in-school (on campus). (For colleges, it’s different.)
In high schools, they form “cheerleaders groups” for each “teams”. It’s totally different from the States. In 80’s or 90’s, most of them were male cheerleaders in school uniforms. You might say that they look like military troopers, maybe. It was very common and popular. Especially being the leader of cheerleading group was the most honorable and coolest thing in school life for young people. My husband did it! He was one of the leaders of this kind of cheer group in his high school time. Can you imagine easily? Of course, it was one of his favorite memories from high school years, I can tell that. I attached some videos so that you can at least imagine how it looks like and sounds like. Our son was so curious and wondering “what’s going on there?” with his one eye brow raised when he watched some. How about you?
1/14/2024.
Do you play chess? I don’t. When our son was small, he taught me how to play chess. I liked it, but I didn't win much. In Japan, there is a similar board game called Sho-gi 将棋(しょうぎ). Our son knows how to play Sho-gi, too. When he did a solo trip to Mongolia in June 2023, he stopped by Japan to visit his grandparents. He played Sho-gi with his grandfather. However he never won. He keeps saying he needs more practice after his trip, for the rematch with his grandpa in future.
I don’t know much about chess world and chess tournaments system of the world level (the world ranking). I learned a term “grandmaster” = GM from YouTube channel. Also I learned there are several parks outside where people play chess casually(?!).
https://www.chess.com/blog/Rodgy/i-flew-to-new-york-to-play-hustlers
This link site is very interesting. Try to push the “play” button under chessboards. You can “watch” the actual matches there.
Those public parks for chess got my attention very much. What a great idea for chess lovers. It’s so interesting to me that a stranger meets a stranger just to play chess and they have fun together. That chess-connection looks so universal and friendly.
However I never imagined that we encountered such places unless we aimed to be there on purpose. Guess what?
Our son told us a story after his ski trip to Colorado. (By the way he had a blast indeed in Breckenridge, CO!) He was sitting at a table at the local coffee shop, was about to do a computer work a bit for a break time. Several people came in and surrounded him. One guy sat in front of our son and offered him “Wanna play chess?” spreading chess board set. He saw 3-4 chess boards on tables around him. All at once, chess games were on! Sounds just like that Washington square park in NYC!! Of course, my eyes were wide open listening to his story, my eyes were even twinkling. Now you wonder if he played?
Yes!! He did. He didn’t win but he enjoyed the game with “a stranger”. (Well, this guy must be a great chess player.) This is so awesome. I’m impressed about our son’s ability of “play-along-with anyone” no matter where he is. Don’t you think? I think he was lucky that he got this experience. Photo below: our son’s view after his game at the coffee shop.
I attached videos of Chess famous player: Anna Cramling. (I like watching her chess games.)
Entry#203. 1/13/2024.
When you find a familiar face on magazines or newspapers, you get excited and want to shout out to people around you “I know him/her!” That happened to me, two faces all at once. What a surprise! I want to share with you here. The world should know about them. These articles brighten my days, everyday!!
https://miamiredhawks.com/news/2024/1/11/hockey-thank-you-andy-geshan.aspx
I know his wife and his two sons very much because of our son’s hockey time in elementary school era. (They used to play hockey together. It’s a long long time ago.) Later on, I’ve learned about his job at Goggin Ice center/ Miami hockey team. This article is wonderful. I love his story very much. It says “It adds up to an important milestone, as Geshan worked the 1,000th game of his Miami career on Dec. 30, 2023 when the RedHawks visited Niagara.”
1000th game of his Miami career!! Huge huge congratulations to Mr. Geshan!
This wonderful lady is my best friend and one of my closest friends since 2001 when I started the United States life. She was my very first mail carrier lady back then. My husband and I started living in the State with one bedroom apartment. She was so wonderful to care for us, our packages from Japan with extra care. I was so grateful. I figured out later more about her. She is a great bow hunter so as her husband and son. She is a wonderful gardener, a quilter and a baker. Then she became a Barn Quilt painter!! Please read the article, it’s all about Barn Quilt she started in 2012-2013! I have mine in my house which she sent me from Kansas to Ohio. I attached several pictures from the summer of 2021 (right before my husband’s accident). We drove to Colorado and stopped by her house to see her and her husband. You can see her creations, her barn quilts in pictures. Vegetables one, cardinal/blue jay one and garden gnome one! Her creations are evolving recently very much. I need to write more about it later sometime. I cannot stop talking about it. I can keep talking on and on. I’m so glad that she is featured on this article. I keep cheering on her project of “The Barn Quilt Trail”!
1/11/2024.
I LOVE Musical shows, Broadway musicals, High school musical shows, Local productions Musicals, any type of musical shows. My wonderful friend gave me an info about “Footloose the Musical” coming up in March. Possibly I could attend and watch it with my friend! My brain’s switch is on. I started googling about this show. I’d enjoyed it more and more if I learned about it beforehand. Just because I am Japanese (it sounds odd though). If I don’t know about the settings, story, synopsis and so on, I might need to focus on “getting the idea of story” using my full-brain. It’s a hard work to me (for my brain) so that I cannot enjoy the show itself enough. So I have my own strategy for attending Musical shows. Here is a page I am reading.
https://stageagent.com/shows/musical/1588/footloose
Then a funny thing happened. I haven’t heard about this story. However several songs are really familiar with me. It surprised me. Especially one song hit my brain so hard. I was mumbling “I know this song. I know this song!” It took me several minutes to remember why I knew it. It was a Japanese version of this song in 1985!! It was a theme song (opening song) for the TV drama show which was very popular and a big hit at that time. I attach both videos. Which version do you like better? I bet you all chuckle hard seeing this 80's Japanese version.
1/10/2024.
Do you go bowling with your family? We like playing bowling, we used to go to bowling alleys and my husband had a lab bowling party with his crews before his injury. So can you imagine how paraplegic people play bowling? I was thinking about that. I still get nervous thinking about how my husband throws a heavy ball. Here are videos for you.
I need to go to a local bowling alley and will find out whether he can be there to bowl.
You know? Slope is better than steps/stairs.
Entry#202. 1/10/2024. (For today’s entry, you might need some patience, maybe.).
I’ve been thinking “I want to take a lesson to be a good public speaker” for a long time. It’s always in my mind. However I haven’t looked for an actual lesson or someone. It’s always on my wishlist that won’t happen. Who knows? Whenever I get more my own time, I could take an action for that, in the future when I get older and older. I am 50 now. It’d be just for fun, not for an actual event of my speech. You would laugh at me when you heard a conversation of me and my son. I keep telling him “you need a good skill of public speech no matter what kind of job you would get.” But I’ve not done any public speech at all, in English in the States. See? I have no “right” to tell my son “you should do it!” Funny. Maybe this is one of “Japanese mother” things. I also know that he will know and feel the necessity if he really needs to do a speech. I just want to show off MY desire which remains unaccomplished in my life.
This “my desire” affects my reaction when I get an offer of any interview. Especially for an article of me or my family. There wouldn’t be not much opportunities of getting interviewed for magazines in my life, not much. So I’d rather be happy and excited, I’d better be. I was and am grateful and thankful for the opportunity really.
I don’t mind to get interviewed, not at all. No problem to chat with writers. Even though my answers to their questions would be “off” from the contents or pointless, quite often. You know me. I couldn’t catch a whole sentence in English sometimes. Well, that’s still me.
So once I tried to ask a writer something different. I asked her “Can you write an article without direct quotations, using only indirect quotations?” Weird? Maybe. She was a wonderful editor in chief of high school magazine at that time. She accepted my offer pleasantly. I wanted her to correct my English to put it into her writing. I prefer not to see my words from my mouth in articles. Her writing piece was wonderful and I loved it very much. (I cannot share it with you here because it was an online format. I cannot find a link of archives unfortunately. Wish I could have asked a PDF file of it.) She used her magic to put it all together beautifully.
Here is a different and a bit funny story. A long long time ago, when my son was in kindergarten in Manhattan, KS in 2007. He was born in KS in 2002, as a son of Japanese parents who speak Japanese that is their native tongue. He was in ESL (English as a Second Language) program and he got interviewed from a magazine, even though he didn’t speak fluently in English yet. Luckily I got an opportunity to be present there in his interview. I was happy, excited and thankful. It was a great beautiful piece about ESL students in Manhattan, KS. Then I realized something about direct quotations of my talk. I felt “I should have told her better. I wanted to tell her better.”
I didn't speak in English well and even I didn't know how to ask about indirect quotations at all. I didn't catch English sentences more than 20% at that time. Can you imagine? It was my very first experience with less-English skills at that time. Still it is a nice wonderful memory back then. I attached photos of magazine pages.
Once I get a skill of a public speech, I’d feel free to “be quoted” by anyone. However until then, I would keep asking for “Indirect quotations”.
(P.S. I forgot to ask this for the latest interview from a Miami U student writer. Oops.).
P.P.S. Look at our son! A tiny tiny boy!
Entry#201. 1/08/2024.
My husband started adaptive skiing last season. (February 2023). He uses mono-ski and two hand outriggers. He attended the adaptive ski program at the Perfect North Slopes and the Mad River Mountain (3 times total) last year. We are hoping that he can ski more in this season. It always depends on the amount of snow. Praying for the snow-gods.
These two organizations are super helpful all year long. We cannot live without them, I can say that.
https://www.thebridgeadaptive.org/programs/adaptive-skiing
https://adaptivesportsconnection.org/events-at-a-glance/
If you are curious about mono-skiing, here are 2 sites.
Since the last season was our very first experience of “activity in the snow” with disability, I remember I was way too nervous to be ready. Many questions and concerns in my head. Many “what if” questions, as well. Compared to that, we are “much better” this season. We leaned the idea of mono-skiing, felt comfortable in the snow, and built up enthusiasm for “mastering” mono-skiing, from last year's experience.
But the first time of the season always makes us a bit nervous even to my husband. He needed to retrieve his memories and feelings from last season. I was amazed and pleased that he quickly got back to the movement. He looked more speedy and getting a constant flow. It was a great first session.
He used an off-road wheelchair instead of his daily wheelchair because he had to transfer himself to mono-ski on snow ground. His daily wheelchair is a bit unstable on the snow. The big thick tires of an off road wheelchair give him (and me as well) more confidence of not-falling or not-slipping. It was great. See the off road wheelchair below?
My husband got safer feeling when he brought his own “seating pad” from home and put it between his bottom and mono-ski seat. He needs to be careful all the time which type of surface he needs to sit on. This is his forever endless concern and his life now. The hard surface with woods/plastic/steel/concrete are bad for his skin. Especially having 3 hours long ski sessions would be very critical to him if he is careless. Are you getting the idea of being paraplegic? Maybe.
Despite all of these thinking processes, I was very satisfied watching his mono-skiing yesterday. Made me smile a lot. We both were exhausted end of the day. Wait. You might say “Why were you exhausted? You didn’t ski, did you?” I didn’t ski this time, instead I walked around ski-slopes to spot my husband and take photos. I walked lots of area in the snow. Good exercise. So I did have a good sleep indeed.
I still need to think hard about "how to manage for all preparation without any extra helpers when we ski only ourselves". There are still many many things I need to learn.
Without anyone's support, he manages to stay still by himself on his mono-ski with two hand-outriggers. This is a very important step to mono-skiers. You know? It's harder than you think.
P.S. The bonus news! Our son is skiing in Breckenridge, Colorado RIGHT NOW!!!
1/06/2024.
We are a family of three always. I love taking photos to document moments of our lives. My camera doesn’t have photos of me much because I’m the one who takes pictures. So as my husband’s camera. It doesn’t have photos of him much. Sometimes he captures “mother and son” moments that look fondly funny (!?) just because of the distance of them (=myself and my son).
Well, most of the time, it was taken at coffee shops or restaurants. But these collections are nice and I love them. Our son, at age 21, will need to decide what he does after his college graduation, pretty soon. Then, I’m pretty sure that I will cherish these photos more in future. It always brings back a sense of laughter. That’s great.
Entry#200!! 1/04/2024.
I started this my personal blog (my English creative writing) on March 2022. This coming March, it will be “2 years”. And today’s entry hit #200!!! Wow. Yes, 200! I guess I have many things to chat with people deep down inside my mind. Funny though. Once I face my friends and we are ready to talk, I’d prefer to be a good listener instead of being a talker. That’s me. Are you smiling?
Today, I’d love to re-post my most favorite + exciting story again here in 200 entries. So that you can re-read it and be excited again just like me. Here Handcycle Marathon in Dayton
New year, new activity. That sounds nice and fun. In fact, my husband and I have several things on our wishlist (could be our to-do list) which is related with SCI (spinal cord injury). Since our daily routine gets moving forward, I feel a bit lazy and want to keep it just like this “tempo”. Not so challenging and crazy rhythms. But sometimes we need more challenges and excitement for better feeling and better life.
Well, so my husband did a new thing. “Workout at the Rec Center”! You might say “Oh, that’s not so special at all.” However it has been a bit “high hurdle” to get over to us because of the idea of accessibility. Our thinking process goes this way;
How do we enter the building? (There are stairs at the both side of the entrance.)
How do we switch floor levels?
How does he use gym equipment and machines? (Which types of machines he is capable of?)
I was simply pleased that we managed to go inside the gym, go around and check as much as possible.
There is an elevator to get to the south side entrance.
You might laugh. Every time my husband tries to transfer his seating position from his wheelchair to gym machine’s seat, I need to focus on his movement and be ready for any caution. I might look odd/awkward. But that’s me. I was happy to see him seating on these machines. It was a highlight of the visit to me. I can say my husband got some confidence this time to use these machines at the Rec Center. Obviously there are several machines he never be able to use. That is also good to know. It might be tricky to him if there are many students during the semester. Just because of space in the gym, difficulties between crowds and wheelchair.
It was a good tryout and great visit to him after all. At least it was “New Year, New Activity”! Yay.
See photos below? Eventually my husband can transfer himself to each seats easily and casually. I know, I am the one who gets nervous each time, oh well, yes, I know. I also want to add this. Our son was super helpful to my husband whole time. I was so grateful. I might need to do his role after he leaves our house pretty near future (once he finds a job.)
1/04/2024.
Did you check that 2024 is of which animal? It is Year of Dragon!
https://eightify.app/summary/chinese-politics-no-date-needed-as-it-is-a-general-category/2024-dragon-year-predictions-luck-wealth-power-challenges
Our son once draw a dragon in 2012 (at age 10). Photo below. The drawing indicates the shape of Chinese character 龍 which means dragon. See?
Entry#199. 1/03/2024.
In Japanese, “Happy New Year” is あけまして おめでとう. It’s pronounced “A ke ma shi te O me de to u”. One letter(Japanese-alphabet) has one sound, basically. (I’m a little bit exaggerated though. You know, it’s more complicated for a real.).
Here in the States, we greet people saying “Happy New Year!” during holiday season, from end of December through beginning of January. (It’d be the same for Thanksgiving holiday. Saying “Happy Thanksgiving” before and after Thanksgiving day.) I love these greetings very much.
So if you learned Japanese phrase あけまして (A ke ma shi te) おめでとう (O me de to u) which is “Happy New Year”, you would love to use it (and say it) as much as you can. Yes? I’d do that.
However you cannot use it before New Year’s Day (1/1). Your eyebrow might be raising now? You can say it, it would be a bit awkward, that’s it. あけまして(A ke ma shi te) has a meaning of “New year came here”, therefore it’d fit to use it after January 1st. Make sense?
If you want to greet people in Japanese end of December, you can say よい (Yo i) おとしを (O to shi o). This is “Have a happy new year!”
Here is a summary.
At the end of December, you say
よい おとしを (Yo i. O to shi o)
On and after New Year’s Day, you say
あけまして おめでとう (A ke ma shi te. O me de to u)
Now, you are a Japanese expert!! Wooo hooo. (This made me wonder. I need to ask our son about this whether he remembers these phrases right.)
Entry#198. 1/02/2024.
Happy happy new year! It's cold and gray in my town. We managed to go "hiking" in the woods in University campus. Our son has been offering to my husband "let's try to go playing disc golf" for a while since he plays disc golf with his wonderful friends often. My husband rode on the different type of handcycle (it's totally different setting for turning with pedal-handles).This one could be easier to move forward on grass/lawn surfaces. So he was able to try some parts of disc golf which was good. Throwing a disc from a steep/angled ground is really tricky to my husband, though. You know? Most of disc golf areas are hilly-bumpy in order to add more fun plus challenging games. We will see how he plays more in future.
I have 3 birdfeeders in my backyard. Several birds come and entertain us very much in the winter as well. I love it. One particular bird caught our attention very much on the other day. It was my very first notice of him and I got so excited because of his looks. It was blue and orange! It was an eastern bluebird, it was a male!!!
https://indianaaudubon.org/portfolio/eastern-bluebird/
I couldn't take a photo of him. But I found a similar looks from internet.
I hope he visits us again soon. Do you have Eastern bluebirds in your yard, too? Photo below. Seems the left is female and the right is male.
Go back to the last month.December 2023
P.S. It was a success! 12 grapes!
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