First time to change tire 初めてのタイヤ交換

67 years old, and first time in my life to change a flat tire by myself. Oh, the joy of learning new things... 67歳、人生で初めて自分でパンクしたタイヤを交換しました。あぁ～、新しいことを学ぶ喜び…

Metal-frame car shed re-assembled 鉄パイプ車庫の再組立て

 

Strong gales dislocated the metal-frame car shed the other day.

Lucky to have some good friends helping me to re-assemble it.

Thank you so much!! 鉄パイプで作られた車庫は先日の暴風に倒されました。

再組立ては、良き友人たちに手伝ってもらいました。

サンキューベリーマッチ

Tai chi is fun!

 Hello everyone, Happy New Year! Here’s to new challenges in the new year.

Last year, I shared about my morning walks. This year, I’d like to talk about starting Tai Chi. I’ve actually wanted to try it for a long time, but never quite had the opportunity until recently. Last summer, I heard there was a Tai Chi club at the Aji Community Center and decided to go check it out. I was deeply moved by the warm welcome from the instructor and the members.

The Aji Tai Chi group has about 15 members. At 67 years old, I was told—surprisingly—that I’m actually the youngest! The instructor teaches us with great care. As a beginner, I’m currently learning "Introductory Tai Chi" and "Ten-Form Tai Chi." The movements may look simple at first glance, but they’re surprisingly challenging to master. Each movement has a poetic name inspired by animals or nature, like "Parting the Wild Horse’s Mane," "Golden Rooster Stands on One Leg," "Cloud Hands," and "Playing the Lute," which makes it even more interesting.

We practice once a week, and every session leaves me feeling energized and looking forward to the next one. I also try to practice at home (almost) every day. In early December, I participated for the first time in a performance of "Ten-Form Tai Chi" at a health and wellness festival held at Hottopiano.

Tai Chi itself is incredibly enjoyable, but what makes it even more special is the camaraderie among the members. Everyone is cheerful, and the atmosphere during practice is so relaxed that jokes are often exchanged. Members also actively engage in a kind of "barter system," swapping items like fish, sudachi (citrus), snacks, cucumbers, bell peppers, winter melon, basil, persimmons, and more.

Tai Chi at the community center is truly a joy. I hope to continue with it for a long time to come.

Back to Blogger!

Looks like I have come a full circle with regards to blogging. 

Put it simply, I started blogging with Blogger in 2004, migrated to Wordpress and fooled around with Weebly. 

On this day, after pondering a while, I decided to return to Blogger. 

After all, I am still a proud Kedahan-Malaysian, and my adventures in Japan continues... 

Nudibranches, Lankayan Island Resort, Happy 2013...

Returned to Japan from Malaysia on the last day of 2012...

Back to freezing temperatures, compared to those of Malaysia's... 

Spent some time diving the seas of Sulu... 

Nudibranches are one of my favorite photo subjects...

From the guide books, the above specie is classified under 'Chromodoris sp.'... 

But frankly, these scientific names are quite difficult to comprehend for a layman like me... 

Why? For there are apparently many, many different types of nudibranches that look so different and are yet classified under the same names... .
My dive buddy (aka my missus) found this one for me to photograph...

This one appears to fall under the 'Chromodoris bullocki' classification...
Again, my dive buddy found this one for me to shoot...

We thought they were mating... 

Apparently, 'each nudibranch has both male and female producing sperm and eggs. To mate, two nudibranchs come together side by side and pass sperm sacs through a tube in their 'neck' to each other. Both then go their own way and lay egg masses that may contain millions of eggs.' (Source)

Could not believe this was a nudibranch at first... 

Its scientific name? Yes, try 'Phyllodesmium briareus'...

All nudibranches are carnivorous, meaning that they prey on other marine animals like corals and sponges.  

This guy seemed to be feeding on the mat-forming soft corals...

Have seen this nudibranch somewhere before... 

'Chromodoris willani' is the name... weee...

Would have loved to have an external flash on my camera for this shot....

Lankayan Island is a good 90-minute speed boat ride from Sandakan... 

Despite the fair weather, the ride there was bumpy...

It is quite a nice island on the seas of Sulu... 

It takes about 10 to 15 minutes to walk around the island...

All the bungalows were single standing... 

Very well built with good materials and nicely furnished...

The main building of the resort... 

Imagine this, right in the middle of nowhere, in the Sulu Sea...

This building houses the restaurant, and offers plenty of spaces to relax in between dives...

Of course, today is the second day of the year 2013...

We took our first walk in the nearby hills...

And stopped by the neighborhood shrine to offer our thanks to the heavens for the past year... plus, our wishes and hopes for the new year...

Happy new year to all who comes by this post...

Fall colors in the hills...

Was out of Japan for about 10 days...

Returned home to see the temperatures dipping to the mid-teens... 

And the trees in the hills taking on hues of red and orange...

 This Japanese maple tree radiates as it takes in light from the morning sun...

Large tracts of the hills here are inhibited by this 'wax' tree... 

The Japanese name is 'haze' and the tree is apparently very useful albeit having toxic substances that can cause irritation to certain people... 

The sap is used to make lacquer, and wax can be tapped from their seeds to make candles... 

My 'sweeto haato' taking in the sights, as we paced through the paths...

Wooh, autumn in Japan... lovely it is...

Garden lunch party with neighbors...

Did a check on the history of this blog and found out that today is actually the 8th anniversary of my blog...

Hosted a garden lunch party for fifteen of our neighbors last Saturday...

That was the fourth straight year that we had been hosting this event...

Hamburgers are not really in my normal 'to-eat' list of stuff...

But this one was pretty good, I must admit...

One of our neighbors made it for the party and hmmm, my missus was surprised upon seeing my munching on that plate...

Bologna sausage, and smoked salmon... specially ordered from Kobe by another neighbor...

Good stuff...

We were very happy to welcome the presence of the parents of one of our neighbors...

They stay in another city and came all the way to join us...

Last year, only the mother came, but this year, the father came along too...

And the maze-gohan onigiri (mixed rice ball?) made by the mother... wooh, full of ingredients and goodies...

Meanwhile, the daughter herself, who is our neighbor, made this walnut-banana cake...

Urmmm, very good texture and taste...

Yet another neighbor, for the last three years or so, presented us with this made-from-scratch soba noodles...

It was just 'straight' soba... unpretentious, and to the point... very wholesome stuff...

With all these good stuff to enjoy, am sure looking forward to hosting our neighbors again next autumn...

Autumn cleaning at Aji Hamlet...

Every autumn, the residents of Aji hamlet get together for a clean-up of the neighborhood...
Precisely, it means cutting the grass and clearing up the roadways...

Took time out to snap a shot of two neighbors walking down the path after cutting the grass....

Most of the grass is hauled away to another location for disposal... 

But the original residents of the hamlet prefer to burn the grass right there...

There is a law against open fire burning, but... oh well, I always thought to myself... 

And today was such a lovely day spent...
Autumn days in Japan is really, urmmm, pure delight....

More gifts from a neighbor in midsummer Japan...

Had not been walking the hills recently...

Reason is, there are tons of chores to do in the potager during the weekends, and like all things, it is a matter of priority...

Anyway, thought I would take a break from the potager and accompany my sweeto haato in her regular walk last Saturday morning...

Before long, we met a neighbor (different from the one in the previous post) who was visiting another neighbor in the adjacent hamlet...

After some brief niceties, we resumed our walk...

And oops, bumped into each other again a few minutes later as she was returning home on her bicycle...

Why not take home some tomatoes? She offered...

It was not for us to decline a good offer...

Pretty soon, we were standing at her vegetable garden, watching her harvesting the tomatoes...

Would you like some green peppers too? My husband dislikes eating them and told me not to cook any dish with peppers... she said...

And how about some pumpkins? They are a bit small but they taste very sweet...

Oh, there's okra too... here, take some...

Hmm... what can I say except that it is so nice to reside in this hamlet amongst such generous neighbors...

And my, their vegetables are of a different class compared to the 'mini-mini' ones that I could only grow at my potager...

Hiking boots...

I am really poor at throwing away old stuff...
Especially stuff that I have grown to love... to cherish...

And this pair of hiking boots is certainly one of those 'difficult-to-throw-away' stuff, even thought it is worn out...

These boots had accompanied me to Mt. Fuji, twice...
I walked many a hill, most often than not, solo, at Nagano, Gifu, and Aichi Prefectures when I was a graduate student at Nagoya University in the 1990s...

My sweeto haato says, 'you cannot bring them to your grave when you kick the bucket... better to off-load one's belongings as we age... go light-weight...'
Good advice, no doubt... but still...
Perhaps I can try to be imaginative and convert them into 'flower pots' for my garden later on...

A 'gift' for our 26th wedding anniversary...

Got back from Calgary a week ago...

Calgary was time well spent... the meetings went very well, and our counterparts were such excellent hosts... 

On the drive back home from Takamatsu Airport, the 'Grasshopper' swayed at a corner... 

And woah, discovered the following day that the left rear tire was punctured by a nail...

Which gave me the first opportunity ever, to change a flat tire that afternoon...

But I digress...

The main story of this post revolves around our 26th wedding anniversary on 3rd April...
Years ago, I had totally forgotten to wish 'happy wedding anniversary' to my suweeto haato... wooh, that experience was frightening...
It led me to engage electronic calendars to send me reminders...
And shortly thereafter, I started to draw illustrative cards for my suweeto haato...
What do you folks think of the above illustration? :-)

And yes, the 'gift' from the heavens on our 26th anniversary...
Strong, strong, strong winds came by and swooshed across the Japanese archipelago...
Winds, stronger than that of typhoons... 
The last time this weather phenomenon happened was 58 years ago...

Our poor 'symbol' tree, (Mominoki or Japanese cypress) could not withstand the winds any longer... 
I was at the university, and my missus could only helplessly watch as the tall tree fell over, taking with it our bamboo fence...

Now, just a day before, she was commenting to me on how the tree was slanting...
I could only managed a 'hmmm'...

And for months years, she had reminded me more than once to chop the tree...
It might fall over and hit our house... she said...
(Luckily when it did, it missed our house and our car too.)

But husbands being husbands, the only logical answer from yours truly was: 'hmmm, perhaps later'...
(Lesson learned, again... listen to the wife!)

That tree was ten meters tall...
It took me two hours just to chop off the branches and free the plants (roses, rosemary, jasmine, etc...) that were trapped below...

Well, on a bright side, my missus was telling me that she wanted a Daidai 橙 sour orange (Citrus aurantium) plant in our garden...

I had said ok, and I was looking for a suitable place to plant it... a place with full sun, and a place that is nearby so that we can enjoy smelling the flagrance of the flowers...

Looks like we have found the perfect spot in the space vacated by the fallen tree... 

Thankfully, the 'unfortunate' event is not totally that 'unfortunate' after all...

Daffodils from the hills...

Yesterday was what the Japanese call 春一番 Haru ichiban...

Shall I say, the first strong wind to mark the start of the spring season?

The winds were, well, howling the whole day and night...

At the individual level, it means the start of the running nose season for yours truly...

In other words, yes, the pollens from the Japanese ceder trees are starting to burst and fly...

Anyway, took today off from work...

It's been a while since I walked the hills with my sweeto haato...

And woah... the daffodils by the hillsides...

Their fragrance... their simplicity... their beauty...

Meanwhile, the nose, oooh... the eyes, itchy...

And... aaaacccchuuunnggg!!

The joys of singing... err, I mean, croaking, again...

For the better part of this winter season, been driving my grasshopper to work...

My excuses?

1. Workload is getting big, so I need to utilize as much time as I can get to do the work

2. The cold is getting to me

3. On the return trip home, I need to pick up some reusable wood from the stone masons' factories...

Yours truly, on the left side...

With so much driving, and nothing much else to do while driving, I said to myself one day, why not do some 'yelling'?

And so, I found myself 're-discovering' an old past-time...
Soon, I was croaking and croaking away...
And it feels good... very good, I must say...

And here, on the right side...

Actually, I love singing... I do...
This is not to say that I am good at it... ;)
I just love to sing... to myself, that is...

And if you are in Japan, chances are, you will probably go karaoke-ing...
As I did when I was younger...
The highlight of my 'singing' was when two of my best friends (both Japanese guys) paired up with me to sing a number called 長崎は今日も雨だった literally, 'It rained again in Nagasaki today'...

Never mind the date in the two photos above... I remain indebted to the individual who bothered to take those pictures and handed them to me...

The performance was actually in December of 1994, in Nagoya, in an event called 留学生の夕べ or 'Foreign Students' Evening'...

The following March (of 1995), my dad passed away suddenly while I was skiing (more like, falling down the slopes) at the mountains in Gifu Prefecture...

The shock from his passing lingered on for an extended period of time... I found myself talking more softly while the thought of karaoke-ing simply disappeared...

Now, almost two decades after the passing of my dad, and also the demise of my mum two years ago, I am  're-discovering' the urge to croak again...

So, if you hear someone near you, humming out of tune, please say hello... :)

Meantime, I derive pleasure to share the two images above, images that remind me of my two minutes of fame on stage...

Sumiyoshi Shrine on the first day of 2012...

 

As custom would have it, we went for our 'hatsu mode' (literally, the first prayer of the year) on 1st January...

Sumiyoshi Jinja is a charming little shrine, located in a nearby hamlet...

A pool of water to cleanse the hands before praying...

I have always marveled at this piece of 'decoration'... 

Someone must have put this together as I have never seen such a combination (of 'daidai' orange, charcoal, dried persimmon, fern leaf) being sold at the stores...

The 'guardian lion' of the shrine, in full regalia...

And, up at the highest point of our walk, is this scene...
On 1st January 2012, the Japan Inland Sea was so very calm and peaceful...

Hopefully, this would be a good sign for things to come in the new year...