Today was a national holiday. In the morning and evening we worked on yard-work. Due to the Monsoon rain, our front and back yards had a whole bunch of tall grasses. My daughter and I pulled grasses by hands. My husband used a Weed Eater.

After we spend several hours, two hours in the morning and three hours in the evening, our front and back yards now look very nice.

***

In the afternoon, we watched the movie Woman Walks Ahead (2018). It is a Native American movie. It is based on the true story of a female painter who traveled from New York to Dakota to paint a portrait of Sitting Bull. I loved this movie.

Nowadays I don’t shed tears while watching movies with my family. There is one exception. When it comes to a movie where Lakota people are in, I shed tears without my knowing.

While watching this movie, I did my best not to cry. But my effort ended up in vain.

I felt tears rolling down on my cheeks at the scene of Shitting Bull’s speech in front of his people. Even though I know it is in a movie, not happening to me right now at this moment, it is hard for me to observe it as a third party.

I believe I was there with my people. We did everything right. We spoke up the right thing. We treated our new visitors in the right way. In return we received everything wrong from them.

I consider my past life memories as blessings. With these memories, I have a clear vision on what I want to do to the world. I want to contribute on making the world to a better place, so that nobody needs to suffer anything anymore.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

I went to the grocery store to buy some plums. There I saw my friend working at her sushi store. She waved at me from the long distance, with her big smile. When I got closer to her, she gave me a big hug and some nice wordings. She always tells me something nice to me. Always!!

According to her, I always look great. My face skin is clear and healthy. My body looks healthy with just right amount of muscle. I look happy. My energy is radiant glowing.

I am blessed to have such friends who raise my vibration and make my day. I want to be like her for my other friends. I want to say nothing but nice things to my family and friends to make their day.

***

After I came back home, I made my homemade picked plum. Japanese plums are not available here, so I substituted with plums.

This is the simple recipe I took today.

First, I washed each plum one by one by flowing water. Second, I removed stem ends of plums with a toothpick. Then, I wiped off each plum with a kitchen towel. After that, I wiped off each plum with a paper towel soaked with vodka to sanitize. I also did the same procedure on the interior of a big jar.

For my 3-kg plums, I mixed 500g of sea salt with 50g of citric acid. I placed plums with the mixture of salt and citric acid in the big jar.

From here, I will wait for one month. Then, I will let them dry under the Sun for three days.

I hope my first homemade pickled plum will be great. I hope they will be good for my health and my family’s health.

***

By the way, my first homemade miso is doing great. I made it in this February. It has been six months to have been fermented. I am looking forward to tasting it in another one month or so.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

We went to the local orchard and farm. There we can purchase whatever we picked from the orchard and farm.

We enjoyed picking fresh produces and fruits. We picked apples, peaches, and pears at the orchard. And we picked corn, okura, green bean, zucchini, yellow squash, bell pepper, and variety of chilies.

We also bought two bottles of their homemade pickles. One is a bottle of Okura pickles and the other is a bottle of variety of vegetable pickles. Unfortunately, the taste was not what I expected. I felt uncomfortably too strong salt in them. I could taste unnecessary chemicals in the salt.

Probably it is a good sign.

My Macrobiotic instructor recommends us to eat high quality foods so that we can improve the ability of our tongue. When we get used to eating whole foods (high quality foods), our tongue will be able to recognize which foods is good or bad for our body by its sensation.

I use high quality salt for cooking at home. I also use Shio-kouji for cooking. Shio-kouji is the salt malted with fermented rice. It is one of the Japanese traditional condiments.

I am glad I am on the right path to discipline my tongue.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

We are planning our trip to Japan in next spring to visit my parents and friends. The other day when my mom asked me if we wanted to stay at the same hotel as last time, or stay at their house, I instantly answered the first option; staying at the same hotel.

On my second thought however, I felt we should stay at my parents’ house on this trip.

Today I talked with my mom on the phone, and told her my decision to stay at their house. She sounded she was very happy.

After she felt the happiness, she quickly got back to her original old habit. She has a habit to hurt me by her mean wordings.

She said to me…

— That I should wear something nicer than last time. According to her, I looked miserable and shabby in my outfit every day during the trip.

— That I should not buy anything at Hyakkin (Dollar) store. It made me look cheap.

— That I should put make-up on my face. According to her, I looked older than my age due to no-make-up. Aldo, my no-make-up made her feel embarrassed.

— That I should lose my weight before the trip. According to her, I looked overweight miserably on our last visit.

— That I should not stay at my friends’ house. According to her, our staying at their house would be troublesome for my friends and their family. They cannot say NO to me, but I should read their true feeling. 

When I heard these complaints about me, I almost said this words to her.

Okay mom, enough!! I am not going back to Japan to see you. Forget about my visiting forever.

But I didn’t say that to her. Luckily, I could swallow these thoughts.

My mom seems to never change her bad habit. She once told me she owns me because I am her child. Because she owns me, she can say anything she wants to say to me. It does not matter to her whether her mean wording hurts me. 

I know it will be a tough challenge for me to keep my inner peace when it comes to my mom. My mom is my last boss character in this lifetime. In a way, overcoming my mom is one of my life missions in this lifetime.

***

Later on the evening, we had some thunders. When one thunder struck in our neighbor area, I suddenly noticed one important thing. It was as if my family spirits sent me a strong message via the thunder. The important thing is the reason why I am going back to Japan to see my parents.

The reason is simple. I love them. That’s it. I love them and I want to spend more time with them while they are still here. I am not going back to argue with my mom. I am going back to tell them I love them.

With this confirmation, I think I will be fine during my stay in Japan. I should keep this in my mind.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

I make my homemade soy milk yogurt every week.

When I opened the lid of the yogurt maker, normally it gives out nice fragrant of fermented food. This time though, it gave out uncomfortable odor for some reason. Regardless of the weird odor and the weird color, I ate the yogurt anyway.

In the next moment, something very uncomfortable feeling washed over my entire body. I literally felt the uncomfortable energy traveled through from my mouth, through my throat, and reached all the way to my finger tips and toe tips. It was like fire-like hot sensation, accompanied with chills and goosebumps.

I asked my family spirits if I should trash this homemade yogurt right away or not. I instantly heard Yes. I followed their advice.

I thought about the cause.

The soy milk I used was totally fine. The yogurt starter was fine too. The process also was fine. I made it fermented for eight hours with the help of a yogurt maker.

Maybe it was due to the lacking of my normal procedure. I normally sanitize the container and the kitchen tool by boiling hot water before I make it, but this time I skipped the process. My husband used the container to keep half sized spam sausage. I definitely should have sanitized the container beforehand.

It was my first experience that I actually felt the travel of the ingested food through my body. I am glad my body is sensitive enough to tell me the good is good or bad for my body.  

***

I recall one of my nicknames was “Odokumi-chan” in my younger days. “Odokumi” is a Japanese term of a career in old days, Edo-era. There were some people working for their masters to taste their food before them, to check if the food contains any toxin or not. In my childhood days, my classmates and friends naturally talked about our past lives. Since they all knew my body was very sensitive to recognize the food is fine or not, they started calling me “Odokumi-chan.”

So, I guess I was born like that. My body was originally very sensitive to the food energy. I am glad my ability is back again.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

Today I had an opportunity to give a Reiki healing to someone. I appreciate for this opportunity.

Before the treatment, I concerned about the room temperature. Since the cooler was working pretty well, we both felt slightly too cold.

However, once I started giving a Reiki healing, all over my body instantly got pretty warm, to the point I started sweating. Especially my hands got really hot. I believe my client really enjoyed receiving the reiki energy through my hands. Her body got warm so that she didn’t need to put on a blanket on her body.

***

I hope to have more opportunities to give my reiki healing session to people. That being said, I am not intending to help everybody. My hope is to have people whose energy levels match with mine. I want to have only nice and kind people around me. I am willing to help those people.

It might sound selfish, but I need to be selfish in some points. I need to protect my energy for myself and my loved ones.

I believe the Universe works the best for me. The Universe only attracts people whose conditions matches with my desire.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

On august 9th, I purchased an online class of macrobiotics. The instructor is a Japanese woman who is about the same age as I. They needed some days to arrange sending me some textbooks and DVDs for the class. Today their package was delivered to me.

I was surprised at the volume of the textbook. It was a thick book contained lots of information. It has 12 DVDs too. From the materials, I felt the creators’ sincere energy.

These study materials will keep me busy for quite a while on studying macrobiotics.

***

Today I studied a rough history of macrobiotics. It originated with a Japanese doctor, Dr. Sagen Ishizuka. Based on his diet philosophy, Mr. Joichi Sakurazawa founded the macrobiotic diet. He contributed greatly in foreign countries, where he is known as Mr. George Ohsawa.

One of Mr. Ohsawa’s successors is Mr. Michiko Kushi. He contributed greatly in America. My instructor studied under Mr. Kushi. She has contributed greatly in Japan.  

Mr. Kushi believed in order to change Japan and the world, we need to start changing from America. America is a leader of the world. Japan and other countries follow America. America influences other countries a lot.

When I heard this part in the lecture, I thought of Reiki. Interestingly Reiki has a similar history. It originated from a Japanese monk. The teaching and healing method were spread around other countries. My Reiki teacher has been contributing on spreading the originator’s teaching in foreign countries.

Therefore, these two teachings, Macrobiotics and Reiki, have common in being originated by Japanese men, and being spread around the world.

***

Japan has its unique philosophy as well as its traditional ways and thinking. When it comes to studying Japanese ways, one has to deeply understand them, even something underneath the wordings.

I believe these are studying not only techniques and rules, but also deep philosophy and spirituality. That means, in my opinion, nobody can master it. We need to keep studying it for entire of our lives.

I feel blessed to have this opportunity on studying macrobiotics under my instructor. I will devote the rest of my life in studying this philosophy.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

Last time when I renewed my driver’s license, the MVD employee set the expiration date wrongly. I believed it supposed to be the same date with the permanent resident card’s expiration date, but the employee set the different date.

I didn’t agree with the expiration date. I mentioned it to the employee at that time. But the employee strongly insisted it was the correct expiration day.

I was sure the employee downgraded me because I was a foreigner. The employee might have noticed her mistake while listening to my complaints, but she decided to ignore me treating me as a dumb foreigner.

***

When I went back home, I mentioned it to my husband. He was at that time an active duty military personnel. He was dealing with his mean superiors every day and night, and so, he did not have any energy left to help me out for this matter. Those days I didn’t know anybody who could help me out, except for my husband. When my husband said to let it go, I felt bitterly frustrated.

I felt myself powerless in this country. If the same thing had happened to me in my country, I would definitely have been able to deal with it by myself, without anybody’s support. If something else beyond my ability happened in my country, I had my dad as a powerful supporter.

I thought of my dad. When I was in Japan, my dad was my hero. Whenever I needed support or advice, I would always tell him about it. He always had the right answer for me. When something wrong happened, and when it went beyond my ability, he was my only and last resort to solve the issue. Never failed. He was always there for me whenever I needed support from him.

***

Today I went to renew my driver’s license.

The employee right away noticed the expiration date of my current driver’s license was set wrongly. That gave me a confirmation that I was right at that time.

However, the employee of this time was not supportive. She did not apologize for the previous employee’s mistake nor waive the renew fee to compensate their mistake. I was charged the renew fee. I paid the renew fee twice, due to their mistake.

***

After I came back home, I mentioned it to my husband. This time, unlike the last time, he listened to my story thoughtfully. He contacted the MVD office and got the right contact information to officially raise a complaint. At least this time we could get a contact information to raise a complaint to the appropriate personnel. I hope a thoughtful personnel will read my complaint and solve the issue as soon as possible.

***

I didn’t like what happened to me at MVD, but I liked what my husband did to me this time. I appreciate him to have changed into nicer and more thoughtful than those days.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

There was one thing we couldn’t make it during this summer. It’s camping.

My husband and I have many experiences of sleeping in a tent, but my daughter has only one experience. It was when we visited Kauai, Hawaii. My friend’s family and my family pitched a tent at the beach and slept in the tent for one night. The beach was not a camping site, but there were at least ten other local campers at the beach.

It was fun. I remember it clearly. Unfortunately my daughter barely remembers it. She was still two years old at that time.

Before this summer, we often talked about going to a campsite and sleeping in a tent. We often talked about buying a tent. Once the summer had started, however, we were busy with our routines. It didn’t happen during this summer.

Finally today, our small wish came true. We bought a 4-people-tent with a reasonable price.

The store clerk recommended us to pitch a tent at home before going to actual field. There might be some issues in zippers or cover part, she said.

When we came back home, we pitched a tent in the living room. It was much bigger than I thought. I put some blankets on the bottom. My daughter decorated it with Christmas lights. It was so cozy inside the tent.

We look forward to using this tent in actual campsite in next summer.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

I called my mom. The first thing my mom said was “happy birthday” to my husband. I was happy to hear that. I appreciate my mom on remembering his birthday and sending him a birthday wish.

The last time when I talked with my dad on the phone, he said he was looking forward to seeing us again in October. I don’t think I can make it in October, because I have a big plan coming up in the next month.

I had thought about visiting them in December. My daughter has a winter vacation for three weeks.

When I mentioned it to my mom, she was happy about that.

After I hung up the phone, I started thinking about the exact schedule. I wanted to avoid the Christmas and the New Year’s Day, because it will be tough for me to make a hotel reservation on these days. Besides, it will be clouded everywhere. It seems to be impossible to avoid these days though.

I probably should visit my parents in next March during my daughter’s spring break. Thinking this way makes me feel better. During our next visit, we might be able to enjoy Sakura.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪