Yesterday my friend introduced me about the book and the card deck that have been popular in Japan. It is called Kusuri-e. It means “healing art.”

The creator and author is 丸山 修寛 (Nobuhiro Maruyama). You can see and read more about him and his works in his official homepage. If you are an English speaker, you can switch the language to English at the bottom right of the top page.

I also watched his video. The video contains about 50 minute’s interview. It was so interesting to know about how he created his art works that I didn’t feel it was almost one hour long.

To be honest I was skeptical about the effect. I asked my friend to pick several cards for me. She sent the pictures through email.

I was surprised to see the cards. Not to mention about its beautiful colors and designs, I was in awe about how accurate my friend sensed my energy and picked up the cards needed for me.

Two cards were for a lower-back pain and a distorted spine. I never mentioned about my lower-back pain to my friend. The pain has started since the end of May. The pain is not severe that does not prevent my daily life such as walking or doing home chores. But the subtle pain always stays and bothers me every time when I pick up something on the floor or laying down on the bed.

The other card was for an allergic reaction to house mite. Indeed my allergy test results showed it, and I do suffer from my allergic reaction to house mite and dust.

Interesting thing happened. When I woke up this morning I didn’t have any pain in my lower-back. It was totally gone. I believe it was the effect from the Kusurie.

I already purchased his two books and one card deck. I look forward to them to be here in my house.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

This weekend my family and I made great progress. My Japanese friends will visit us in next month. We have been busy organizing and cleaning the house so that they will be able to enjoy their stay at our house.

We decided to create a private room for them in my computer room. We moved everything including my computer and printer from the computer to the master bedroom, and moved a bed from the master bedroom to the computer room.

There were lots of processes needed to be done. It took us all the weekend, yesterday and today, for doing them.

Now the room is ready for them. It is nicely done. I hope they will enjoy their stay here. We look forward to their visit. The day is coming closer. We are so excited.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

I read some articles that balsamic vinegar can be great medicine for diabetes. In my case I need to cleanse my blood system. I decided to cook balsamic vinegar onion with balsamic vinegar and eat it every day for a while. Both of the ingredients are helpful to make our blood flow smoothly.

It was my very first time that I bought a bottle of balsamic vinegar. Somebody told me balsamic vinegar is similar to wine. There are so many varieties of price range based on its quality. It was true. At the store I saw a huge variety of sizes and manufactures. They all vary in prices.

My eyes caught one small bottle of balsamic vinegar. I was surprised at the price. It was $15 for the tiny amount of 250 ml. It was the most expensive one in the store. I still had a good feeling about this product, so I bought it regardless of the highest price.

After I came back home I cooked balsamic vinegar onion. I boiled sliced onion with balsamic vinegar. I also added some maple syrup for sweetness. It turned out crispy and tasty. It was easy to eat, so I will be able to eat it every day.

I hope it really will do its excellent work on my health.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

I received a text message from my realtor. It was not pleasant news.

She mentioned the local hardware store messed up her order of the gas stove. She ordered it on June 3rd. It was scheduled to arrive at the store in the next week. So, if everything had gone well, I would have had the gas stove installed at our house someday of the week of June 10th.

Anyways, it was nice of her to update the status with me. She said the store assured it would arrive next week.

I should have the new gas stove someday in next week. It is almost here.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

In the evening I talked with my mom over the phone. I expected to hear her happy voice for coming back home from the hospital stay for previous three weeks.

Contrary to my expectation, her voice did not sound cheerful. She told me what happened to her yesterday.

Yesterday afternoon right before my mom was discharged from the hospital, the doctor asked her to visit him in the office. My dad was with my mom. There, the doctor informed my parents of the bad news.

They found a stomach cancer in my dad’s body. He will need to have a surgery and stay in the hospital for two months.

According to my mom, my dad remained calm while listening to the doctor. Recently he has suffering from the pain in his stomach, so he was aware of it. Or maybe he is determined for whatever happens to him.

They came back around 4 pm in the evening. My mom was shocked with the bad news. She tried to eat a small piece of noodle for dinner, but she felt sick and could not eat anymore.

She could not sleep well from concern and worry about my dad.

***

After I heard these from my mom, I got shocked too. I could not hold my tears back. While I was talking with my mom, I kept on crying.

I didn’t know what I should do. I cannot leave my daughter behind. If I do so, my husband will need to take days off while I am gone. In that case, one week is the maximum duration for me to go. If I take my daughter with me, she will suffer all the toughness with me going back and forth for chores.

My mom told me in her firm and slow voice tone. She said I don’t need to go. She said they will be fine.

According to my mom, both of my parents are satisfied with the maid they hired. They will keep hiring her for the time being. Also my cousin helped my parents on my mom’s discharge day. My cousin is about 20 years older than I, so he should be in his late 60s.

My mom has helped and supported my cousin (my mom’s nephew) all in his life. My mom feels about him as her younger brother. Whenever he had hard time in his life, my mom was always there to support him.

I am glad to know that my cousin is there for my mom this time.

***

After I hung up the phone with my mom, I was confident that they will be fine.

My parents have been very nice and kind to our relatives and other people. They will receive necessary help and support from the people whom they had helped and supported previously. They deserve to receive enough support whenever they need.

My parents should always be fine.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

My mom texted me. She will be discharged from the hospital today. Her body functions normally after the surgery, so the discharged day came earlier than they thought.

I hope my mom will be able to rest well at her own home, instead of doing a whole bunch of choirs while she was out of home.

I just found out my mom’s cancer was not in a bad stage. The surgery was a laparoscopic surgery. The doctor didn’t cut her tummy. Instead, he made two tiny holes in her tummy and put tube through the holes.

I am glad to know it was a senior-friendly surgery.

***

My daughter and I went to the canyon hiking this morning. There were many people walking in the trail, so we felt safe.

During the hike, one male hiker came up to us and started talking to us. He was excited to tell us that he just run into a mountain lion. He opened his both arms horizontally and said the mountain lion was that huge.

He said the mountain lion was pretty calm. It noticed at him because they had an eye contact each other. But it kept on walking on his way instead of attacking him. I am glad to know everything was fine with him.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

I received an email notice from the DNA test company. My test sample arrived at their lab. They expect test results report will be delivered to me around July 30th.

According to other people’s review, this company delivers the test results much sooner than their expected date. I hope it will arrive soon.

***

This afternoon my daughter and I went to the indoor pool.

For the previous three years my daughter attended the summer class. She would leave the house in the morning and come back in the evening. This year she stays with me every day during the summer break.

I like having her with me every day. She seems to be enjoying staying with me too.

Together we have been enjoying our Arizona hot summer.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

It came “all of a sudden”. I was tempted to cut my hair to very short.

The temptation was so strong that I could not resist. I grabbed my pair of scissors for haircut and cut it by 20 cm (8 inch).

I cut it to very short. I am surprised at the short length myself.

After the haircut, I jumped into the shower and washed my hair. It was so comfortable to have such a light amount of hair.

After dried my hair, I looked myself in the mirror. I love my short hair. I think I did very well.

Since I was small, I’d always had bangs. It was pretty common to have bangs in Japan. After I moved to America, I started growing my bangs. My bangs are now long enough to the bottom of my chin.

Now that I had cut my hair to my chin line, this is my very first time to have one-length hairstyle. I like it very much.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

My family and I went to the creek preserve hiking. This place was new to us. We just heard about this place yesterday, at the canyon hiking check-in counter.

It took us a 45-minute drive to get there from our house.

When we arrived at the office, nobody was there. The official homepage says it opens from 6:30 am every day. We purchased an annual pass so we didn’t need to pay for the admission fee.

In the trail, we didn’t encounter any humans, but did encounter a whole bunch of wild animals. We were greeted by a pack of deer and javelina in a different places.

There were many huge and old trees giving the trail nice shades. It reminded me some scenes from the movie “My Neighbor Totoro (1988”).

However, it was a bit freaky that we didn’t not encounter any other hikers. We didn’t take chance to go all the way to the trail and turned back to the office.

***

When we came back to the office and passed it by, the window blinder was now open. When I took a close look of the inside, there was a female worker and her cute small dog in the office.

The worker came out from the office and greeted us. She was friendly and kind. When I mentioned we didn’t go all the way to the trail, she said there was nothing for us to be afraid.

According to her, there should be wild animals such as javelina, deer, mountain lion, and snake. As long as we try not to attack them, they should be calm and pass by us without harming humans. The creek is dried up right now, but in next month which is the monsoon season, it will be filed with water.

So we decided to try again. This time we headed to all the end of the trail.

She was right. We encountered many animals again, but all of them were pretty calm.

It took us about two hours to explore all the trail. It was a nice hiking. We will definitely go back there soon.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

This morning my family and I went to the canyon for hiking. Their parking lot is extremely small. They can accommodate only 23 cars including the workers and volunteers.

We woke up early and left early so that we could park our car. With our effort, we could find the parking lot. If we were late for 30 minutes, we would not have been able to find the parking space.

In the afternoon we went to the outdoor pool. We were lucky enough to be the first and only customers for one hour. After swimming for one hour all by ourselves, I was satisfied. My husband and daughter wanted to stay longer, so I went back home alone.

***

After I left, my daughter’s friends showed up to the pool. They had a good time playing together. My husband and daughter finally came back in the evening. They stayed in the pool for four hours.

We all had a great amount of exercise today. We fell asleep right away at night.

***

In the afternoon I received a text message from my mom. The doctor decided to stop her IV today. My mom feels comfortable walking around without the IV set. The doctor also mentioned about the date of her discharge from the hospital. They are waiting for my mom’s healthy bowel movement. Once it happens, she can get

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪