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? (^^♪

Today I run into a pack of javelina while I was driving the neighbor area.

The pack was crossing street in line. It was interestingly long line, so I counted them one by one. There were twelve of them. Two big ones and ten little ones.

Luckily I was in the car. Wild javelina can be vicious when they are hungry.

***

Now I am back home, thinking about the pack of javelina. One idea popped into my mind. Oh yeah, they are the animals of this year. This year is the pig year in Chinese horoscope.

My running into a pack of them (precisely twelve of them) was a good luck, I guess. 

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

My daughter and my mother-in-law are besties. They get along with each other very well. They love each other very much.

Now that my daughter can type sentences, I let her use my cell phone. My daughter texts to her grandmother, and her grandmother replies back to her. They continuously communicate through text messages.

Whenever we run into something fun, my daughter asks me to let her use my cell phone. My daughter would take a funny photo and send the photo to her grandma. She always adds “I love you grandma. I miss you” at the end of their conversation.

I wish my daughter could read and write Japanese too, so that she can do the same thing to my mom. My mom would be very happy to hear from her granddaughter saying she loves and misses her grandma. I really wish that will happen.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

I want to share one of my recent uncomfortable experiences. It was uncomfortable, but I gained some lessons through this experience. If you are curious in the lessons, please bear with me in reading this story.

It is about a neighbor mom. The mom accompanies to her children to the school bus stop every morning and evening. She and I exchanged our phone numbers. We would chat on the way back home from the bus stop.

One day we ended up chatting in the middle of the street. You wouldn’t believe the length of our chatting. We stood there and chatted for two hours.

During the two hours of our chatting, she was the main person who kept on talking. Everything I heard from her was complains. She complained about everybody she knows. She complained about the school teachers, faculties, and her children’s classmates. She even complained about her friends and relatives.

Nothing was beneficial for me to hear.

I was exhausted and drained when I was back home.

It was as if she dumped her emotional garbage to me. She sucked up the good energy from me.

Some of you might have experienced the similar situation. Maybe you know exactly how I felt.

I blamed myself for my not being able to end the chatting and go back home earlier. I could have said some excuses to end her chatting, instead of wasting my time for two hours.

Right after I arrived at home, I received a text message from her. She said, she had fun chatting with me and she wants to have a get together with me.

I know my answer clearly. I don’t want to get any closer to this person. I didn’t want to hurt her feeling, though. So, I simply replied back to her, “maybe, one of these days.”

This was one month ago.

Since then, I tried to keep a “sacred distance” from her, gradually and naturally. She still sent me a text message several times, but I always replied back to her in a simpler sentence, so that it wouldn’t bring to a long conversation.

***

Fast-forwarding to last Thursday.

The school sent out an emergency message to parents via phone. The message included two cancellations of the club activity in the afternoon of that day and the school of the following day, due to the upcoming winter storm.

I didn’t receive the call, due to the school’s system error. I got a relayed message from my husband, instead. I thought of the neighbor mom. Since the message was critical, I relayed the message to her by text message. I wanted to make sure she got this message, simply from my kindness.

I didn’t receive any reply from her. I didn’t feel comfortable for her not replying back to me, but I decided to take it positive way. She might have been busy at that time, and forgot to reply back to me later.

***

To be honest, this morning I was reluctant to see her at the bus stop, but I decided to act normal.

When I saw her in the street, I smiled at her and greeted her. She didn’t do the same as I did. She seemed to be mad for something and ignored me. She said something in a strong voice tone to her children and passed by me.

I felt so uncomfortable. I was surrounded by negative feelings.

***

I took a nice long breathing a couple of times and talked to my family spirits in my mind. Then, I got some messages from my family spirits as a block of thoughts. It was like this.

It was a great experience to remind me the important tip to live. Stay positive and stay in a high vibration no matter what. Don’t get affected by others and the environment.

Interestingly, it connects from the message I got yesterday in my backyard. I just received a message from weeds’ thick roots to root securely and firmly.

It followed by an “aha-moment.”

Didn’t I go through the similar uncomfortable situations while I was working for the organization in Japan? It was a real torture, wasn’t it? I needed to deal with the emotional roller-coaster coworkers for eight hours every day. I used to take it to personal. I used to get hurt by them.

Rest assured. They were all in the past. Look at how lucky I am now. She is not my coworker. I don’t need to deal with her in the same workplace every day.

Then, another “aha-moment” came into my mind.

At the recent parent conference, my daughter’s teacher praised my daughter’s stable emotion. My daughter stays happy and calm all the time. She doesn’t get affected by others or the environment. The teacher said it was thanks to us, parents, who stay emotionally stable and happy all the time. The teacher told us “You guys are doing very well on raising your daughter that way.”

According to the teacher, many students have an emotional roller-coaster issue. She believes it is due to their parents. Most likely their parents have terrible mood-swing issues. Children easily absorb their parents’ mood-swing habit.

Maybe, today’s incident happened to me to remind me the important tip. My staying happy and calm all the time is one of the greatest gifts that I can give it to my daughter.      

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

After a couple of cold snowy days, we finally had a nice sunny day. I had a ton of laundry to take care of. While I was hanging clothes in my backyard, I felt nice warm sun light on my back. After I finished hanging all of them, I felt so good. My body received enough vitamin D from the sun light.

In my back yard there were so many tall green weeds growing. A good idea popped into my mind. We just had snow, and the snow melted into the ground. In this soft ground condition, it would be easy for me to pull them out.

I pulled one of them as a trial. It came out much easier than I thought. It was fun to pull it out. I started pulling them one by one. My daughter joined me in. We enjoyed moving around and dealing with the dirt for a while. I didn’t notice we had spent almost two hours in our yardwork.

Every time I pulled weeds in my backyard, I feel like I am pulling a huge Daikon out from the ground. The roots of the weeds in this area are huge and thick. The Daikon-like roots root firmly and securely in the ground.

We found many dandelion’s flowers here and there in our backyard.

While dealing with our backyard, these two plants gave me strong impacts. Maybe these two plants, Daikon and dandelion, will be my best medicines to heal my body at this moment.

After cleaned up the backyard, we felt refreshed and energized.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪