Today was my birthday. When I woke up in the morning, the first voice I heard was my daughter’s voice. She said “Happy birthday mom. I love you so much” and gave me a nice hug. My husband followed my daughter’s lead and gave me the same thing.

After the breakfast, my daughter made me a homemade birthday cake. She put some marshmallows as a cake base and put some chocolate chips on top of the base. She baked the cake base in the oven. She decorated the top part with fresh fruits. It was very pretty and delicious.

My husband and daughter went to the movie theater to watch “Alita: Battle Angel (2019)”. I enjoyed my alone time on my special day with chatting with my mom and my Japanese friend on Skype. It was very relaxing time for me.

I am happy to have 49th birthday with my dear family.

This year is my last year of my 40s. I am going to cherish every day as I have already entered my latter part of my life.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

My family wanted to celebrate my birthday with something special such as eating out at a restaurant. I seldom eat out at restaurants because of many unpleasant experiences at restaurants in this area.

I wanted to spend my birthday, which is tomorrow, without going anywhere. So, we made a compromised deal. We decided to celebrate it today as a pre-birthday celebration.

We went to a local buffer restaurant.

Before we left, I said a quick prayer to my family spirits and angels for our good time. I just wanted to enjoy my celebration.

Unfortunately though, I encountered a very rude worker at the grill in the restaurant. This worker seemed to be exhausted and stressed out. He served me food in an unbelievably rude way.

After he served some more customers in the same rude manner, he quickly left the grill. I was happy that he left the grill. I started eating the grilled beef quickly, so that I could go back to the grill to get some more from other worker except for him.

We were sitting at the corner of the restaurant. Our table was right beside the glass window. I was sitting at the chair facing to the outside. I saw the rude worker coming outside He stood right in front of my view through the window.

He hurried to take out his lighter and a cigarette. He rushed to start smoking. He quickly huffed and puffed, as if he was trying to calm him down. I kind of felt sorry for him to have gotten that much stressful. But at the same time, I thought he should quit the job if he hates the job that much. No one wants to be served food from a rude worker like him.

Here is the punch line of this story.

By the time I went back to the grill to get some more beef, the rude worker was back to the grill. I could not escape from this rude worker.

***

I regretted going to the restaurant. To be honest, it is hard to find a real good restaurant in this area.

The great thing for me was my husband and daughter stayed in their high vibration for me. They didn’t get influenced by the rude worker at all. Maybe this rude worker had some message to me? Then maybe, I should avoid going to restaurants in this area at all.

***

After we went back home, I found an envelope delivered to me. It was from my in-laws. It included a birthday card and a gift money. The card had their kind messages to me.

The message says;

We love you and appreciate you. Many birthday wishes to you. We miss your smile.

I appreciate my in-laws to remember my birthday and send their love to me. Their love brightened up my day.

***

In the night when I looked at the receipt of the restaurant, my eyes were drawn to our entrance time. It showed 4:44 pm. I was happy to see the number 444, because it is described as an angel number. It means many angels are with me.

***

Even though I encountered one rude worker today, I was still protected and loved by my family, my family spirits and guardian angels.

I had a good day all in all thanks to them.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

It has been very warm this week. I spotted many cherry trees with cute pink flowers here and there.

People have their cherry tree in their front yard or back yard, but they usually have only one. As far as I remember, in Japan they usually have their cherry trees as a group, not as only one. So, the cherry blossoms look different in each country.

It interestingly matches to its people’s culture and traditions. Japanese work as a group while Americans work as an individual.   

My last residence in Japan was located in the mountain. The area was surrounded by many cheery trees. I used to enjoy walking in the pink world in every spring.

It just only 10 years ago, but it feels to me as if my life in Japan was one of my past lives.

I cherish my experience in Japan as my sweet memories, and enjoy every experience here in my new country.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

Today almost all the day time, our Internet service was out.

We used to use the different provider, but their Internet service frequently became unavailable. In those days my husband dealt with the online university classes. Everything was done online. The frequent Internet disconnection was stressful for him. Due to the disconnection, he sometimes could not keep the deadlines of submitting some assignments.

Those days our neighbor family strongly recommended us to a local small business who offers a WIFI Internet service. The new company’s cost was almost similar to the previous one, so we switched to them.

Since then, we have used this local small company for these past five years. Our neighbor family was wrong. This company was far from “an excellent one” as they described. From my experience, this company’s WIFI becomes unavailable very, very often.

This is a small company; a family business. I have talked with the business owner and some workers. All of them are unbelievably arrogant and rude. They never apologize for the inconvenience of Internet disconnection.

You might think why we don’t already switch to a different Internet provider, right?

Here is the reason.

We live in a small town. We have only two Internet providers available; the previous one and the current one.

Both of them set almost similar price ranges. They both charge the installation fee of $300. This installation fee will be waived if you have a contract with them for three years. They will charge a penalty fee in case of the early termination.

I already know the Internet connection of the both companies is frequently cut off. So, unfortunately, we don’t have any option but to survive with either one of them.  

I am hoping a new Internet provider company will start their business in our area. Hopefully it will happen very soon.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

It’s been very hot since the 1st of this month. Although the temperature drops in morning and night, the temperature rises all the way up to 26 centigrade in daytime.

During the last weekend I asked my realtor to send the maintenance guy to switch from heater to cooler. The guy has not yet contacted me for scheduling the date and time as of today.

This maintenance guy has an opposite preference from me for some reasons.

When it comes to switching from cooler to heater in autumn, he wants to do so as soon as possible, which I am reluctant to do so. He would come to our house even before we requested the service. He wanted to switch it earlier than I wanted. I needed to negotiate with him to postpone the switching date to some weeks later than he wanted.

On the other hand, when it comes to switching from heater to cooler in spring, for some reasons, he is reluctant to do so quickly, which I am eager to do so as soon as possible.

With that reason, I need to contact him several times and ask him to come as soon as possible. It always happens in March. I hope this time I won’t need to do the same procedure as previous years.

It is hot. I need to use the cooler as soon as possible.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

My departure day to Japan is just around the corner.

I don’t want to travel with lots of cash in my pocket. I am planning to use a credit card whenever I can. I want to withdraw cash on an as-needed basis. Thus, I’ve been researching the best way to withdraw cash in Japan.

I asked this question to my bank through an online chat. A female agent answered my chat.

I learned from her that in case of withdrawing cash through a debit card from an ATM in Japan, the bank charges 1% transaction fee. She recommended me to use a credit card instead of a debit card. She said the bank waives the 1% transaction fee in case of withdrawing cash through a credit card.

I never thought of using a credit card at an ATM. In fact, I didn’t know we can use a credit card to withdraw cash from an ATM. 

After I ended the chat with her, for some reasons, my gut feeling suggested me to ask another agent to make sure about using a credit card. I could not fully believe what the female agent recommended.

***

I asked the same question through an online chat again. This time the male agent received my question.

This male agent wrote his chatting with a whole bunch of typos. He used lots of abbreviations and omitted words. Maybe it was normal for him, but it was hard for me to quickly understand what he wrote.  

Anyways, he told me totally opposite from the first agent.

He said, if he were in my position, he would bring US dollar cash and exchange it to Japanese yen at the airport. He recommended me not to use a credit card to withdraw cash from an ATM. It will cost much more than I can expect. We chatted for a while, but he never explained the clear reasons for his recommendations.  

For some reasons though, my gut feeling urged me to take his advice, rather than the first female’s advice.

***

I mentioned about my chatting experience to my husband. He suggested me to try one more person.

So, I did. My husband was right. The third person did a great job to clear my questions.

***

On my third chat conversation, a male agent picked up my question.

He recommended me not to use a credit card to withdraw cash from an ATM machine in Japan.

When withdrawing cash from an ATM in Japan;

– It is considered as “advanced cash.”

– Although the bank waves 1% transaction fee, it charges 3% advance fee instead.   

– APY (the interest rate) of 15.50% will be imposed to my credit card account daily until it is paid off.    

– I will need to pay for the service fee charged by the ATM owner. The service fee amount varies to the ATM owner. Some people posted they were charged $5 for the service fee.

***

I am so glad to know this in advance. I will follow the third agent’s advice.

I will not use a credit card to withdraw cash from an ATM. If needed, I will use a debit card instead.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

Last night we came back from the airport around midnight. After we took a bath, we finally could go to bed around 1 am. We were so exhausted because of the airplane delay.

My husband had a very long day yesterday.

On the departure morning, after he had only one hour sleep in the hotel, he checked out the hotel and left for the airport. He arrived at the airport by 4 am. He finally went to bed last night at 1 am. That means he had been awake for 24 hours yesterday.

This morning he could not get out from bed until 9 am. He still looked exhausted after the rough day.

We enjoyed our family get together time all day today. Nothing particular. We watched two DVDs and took a walk in the neighbor area. That kind of regular routines relaxed my husband a lot.

My husband was so happy to eat my homemade food. I can easily imagine how tough his three weeks were. Eating the restaurant food every day for three weeks should be really tough.

We all are glad his return to our house.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

My daughter and I were excited about this evening. Because my husband would be coming back from his business trip this evening. He had been in Hawaii for the past three weeks. We missed him a lot.

His flight was scheduled to arrive at our local airport before 7 pm. I was planning to leave the house at 5:20 pm to pick him up at the airport.

Around 4 pm, I received a text message from my husband. He said his plane would be delayed because the pilot got sick. The airplane company was searching for the replacement the pilot.

First, it was announced to be delayed for 45 minutes. Then, the information page was updated to be delayed for 1.5 hours. Every time I refreshed the page, it kept on updating to a two-hour delay, a three-hour delay, and finally, it reached to a four-hour delay. The airplane company could not find the replacement pilot for the flight.

I felt sorry for my husband. He should be already exhausted after the long flight from Hawaii, then he would have to wait for another extra four hours.

I told him to eat something nice to get ready for the long waiting time.

Then I got another text message from him. He said he just got a replacement flight that would arrive at the local airport at 10:18 pm. It was better than arriving after 11 pm.

He finally got on the airplane and came back to us. My daughter and I were so happy to have him back at our house. Not to mention, my husband was so happy to be able to sleep on his bed at his house. Our own house is the best place to relax.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

Spring has come. I felt the spring’s arrival with my spring allergic reaction. It was terrible to have runny nose and sneeze.

I took out my Vicks’ Personal Steam Inhaler from the closet. I need this equipment once a year, around this time of the year. I like this equipment. I like to put two drops of peppermint essential oil in the attached vapor pad. After several minutes of vapor therapy, my allergic reaction usually calms down.

Other than my spring allergic reaction, it is nice to have spring. The temperature was raised up to 23 Centigrade. It was nice and warm.

***

In the night my daughter and I went to the movie night at school. The school PTA offered a free movie at the cafeteria. They sell some snacks such as popcorn, hot-dog, chips, candies and drinks. The snack sales money is used to support the school activities.

Tonight’s movie was Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018).

We bring our own blankets and pillows. We freely put our blanket on the cafeteria floor, just like a picnic. Kids gathered up with their friends on the blanket. They enjoyed the movie with their friends.

It was cute to see kids enjoying their social time with their classmates.

Since I forgot to bring a pillow to sit on for myself, I needed to sit on the cafeteria chair. Sitting on the hard chair for two hours made my butt hurt. Next time I should prepare better.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

Today I had my twelfth acupuncture treatment.

This time my acupuncturist added something new. I had needles in my both ears and in my both ankles of the pressure points for kidney. With the needles on, I had a tuina massage. I love her tuina massage. It was so relaxing and comfortable.

I have some dull pain in my right upper jar. My acupuncturist put one needle in my right cheek.

We discussed about the possibility of the cause of the pain. She thinks it might be arthritis.

I was shocked when I heard the word arthritis. I thought it was for old people. On my second thought though, I admit I am reaching at the old age. I am closer to 50s. I should accept the reality and do the appropriate actions to maintain my body.

She advised to put warm pad on my right far before going to bed. If it is arthritis, the pain should calm down.

I asked her some advice for a long flight. My trip to japan is coming closer.

She showed me the way to massage both ears.

She also mentioned wearing a pair of compression pants or compression socks might be help to prevent legs from swelling up.   

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪