In the afternoon I received a Line message from my Japanese friend. She said she already purchased the airplane tickets for her daughter and herself.

Considering that the airplane tickets are nonrefundable and a big amount of money, I respect her to be able to make a big decision such quickly.

My family and I are so excited for their visit.

I will visit them in Japan in March, and they will visit us in America in July. This year will be one of the most memorable years for all of us.

Can’t wait for this summer.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

I am reading a book “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me: A Memoir” written by Sherman Alexie.

The author is famous for the movie Smoke Signals. This movie was a pioneer of the first all-Indian movie, where the entire production team and cast was Native American. The author is also well known for his fiction novel for teens “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,” which I am planning to read next. This novel received many awards such as National Book Award for Young People’s Literature.

Anyways, let me get back to his memoir. This book is a memoir of the author and his late mother. I am still in the first part of the book, but I already like it very much. This book let me think about the relationship between my mother and me. 

Same as the author, I don’t have very good relationship with my mother. We have been not kind to each other for decades.

While the author experienced three years for not talked with his mother at all, mine was for seven years.

After his mother’s death, the author heard many other people thanking to his mother for supporting their lives. My mother was the same way. My mother loves to help others. I often thought it was unfair that my mother devoted her time much more than she did to me. I am sure I will hear the same way; many others thanking to my mother for her dedicating support to their lives.

***

When I was young, I regretted a lot. I regretted about everything. I used to think “I should have done this” “I should not have said this and that”.

Now that I have aged, I decided not to regret anything. From my past experiences, now I know everything has meaning and serves its purpose. There is nothing we should regret. There is only learning lessons provided to us from the certain event and experience.

So now, the middle-aged-I don’t regret for the seven years that I had not talked to my mother. I am still human and so I don’t know the exact meaning and purposes for that, but I will know after I finish this lifetime. All I know at this moment is it happened naturally to serve both of my mother and me with some great purposes and provided us some great lessons.

Last time when I visited my mom in Japan, she apologized a lot to me for not being kind to me, for not devoting her time and energy to me, and for not talking to me for seven years. She said she regretted all of that. I am going to tell her during this trip, that she does not need to regret them at all. Everything happened for reasons. Everything was fine as they were. I want to tell her that, while she is alive and well, so that she won’t carry any heavy burdens in her soul.

***

My trip to visit my parents in Japan is coming closer. I am excited about spending time with them. To be honest, a bit nervous too. But I know everything will be fine.

I will do one thing for sure. For everything what I do, I do my best in order to prevent regretting my actions and wordings.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

In the afternoon I talked with my Japanese friend through Skype. This chat time is relaxing and soothing for me. Chatting with somebody whom I can fully trust makes me feel good. More than anything else, chatting in my mother tongue is a must time for me. I always appreciate my Japanese friends that they provide me this great relaxing time.

At the beginning of our chat, my friend gave me a nice shock.

She mentioned about her thought of visiting us in America in this summer. I knew they would come visit us in America one of these days. I never thought it would be this summer. It was a nice surprise for me.

She thought of her daughter’s age. According to the anthropological perspective, nine years old children will have one of the most significant transitions in their childhood. She wants to spend a special “mother and daughter time” in her special term.

My daughter is 9 years old and her daughter is 8 years old. Both of them are just around the transition term. It will be beneficial for both of them to spend more time together.

At this moment my friend still has not decided yet. Right before we hang up the Skype conversation, she said she would think about the trip seriously and get back to me as soon as possible. 

I mentioned about her thought to my husband and daughter. They are all excited about their visit. I hope she will decided to make it happen.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

The day of my trip to Japan has been coming closer. I talked with my Japanese parents on the phone to discuss about our detailed plan.

Previously I planned to stay at my parents’ house during my visit in Kobe, but on my second and third thought, I changed my mind. I decided to stay at a hotel instead of my parents’ house.

There are many reasons.

First: My parents don’t have a WIFI. For the people who fully depend on the Internet, the life without Internet connection for several days and nights is a real torture, right?

Second: My dad smokes a cigarette inside the house. I hate the smell of a cigarette. Besides, I don’t want my daughter to suffer from a second-hand smoke.

Third: my mom and I are not close. Since I was small, we never fully get along with each other. I can control myself for up to three hours a day to spend time together with my mom peacefully. Spending more than three hours may cause me to explode to a huge anger. I don’t want to end up with fighting with my mom during our precious visit.

***

I told my mom all my reasons why I chose a hotel instead of my parents’ house.

My mom understood me and agreed with my decision.

My dad, on the other hand, could not agree with it easily. He behaved like a petulant child. Even I could not see his face, I felt his cheeks were puffed out.

I asked my mom to give a phone to my dad. I needed to hear my dad complaining for a while. While listening to him, I felt his love. He really looked forward to our staying at their house. I sincerely apologized to him many times. In order to change the subject, I asked him if he needed anything from America as a souvenir. Obviously his tone was calmed.

He said he had two items in his mind.

One is nuts. On my last visit, I brought a variety of organic mixed nuts. He said he liked them very much.

The other thing was a bottle of cactus pickles. He bought it on his last visit in America as his souvenir. It was 10 years ago. It tasted good as a light snack for alcohol. He said the texture was similar to Mekabu (root of the wakame seaweed). Although he does not remember the name nor the brand, I think he is talking about nopalitos pickles.

I promised my dad to bring those items as a souvenir. He was happy to hear that. I am glad nopalitos uplifted my dad’s mood.

I was amazed my dad’s intuition. He intuitively bought a bottle of nopalitos pickles in America. This food is beneficial for diabetes as it helps to lower blood sugar level. He didn’t know the benefit until I mentioned today. His body naturally liked it.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

This morning I went to the grocery store. Right after I took off from the grocery store’s parking lot, I received a text message. It was from my bank regarding the credit card fraud. They asked me it was me who just used my credit card.

While I was driving, I also received a phone call from them. It was an automated machine call, asking me to listen to their instruction and press certain number to confirm. Since I could not do so while driving, I hung up the phone.

After I came back home, I called the bank. The operator asked me some questions and confirmed it was me who used my credit card.

I wondered why they thought it suspicious. I do shopping at this specific grocery store for almost 10 years now. On my second thought, one idea popped up. The bank closely monitors each customer’s shopping patterns. Based on their data, I normally go shopping on Friday morning. Today I went there on Thursday, which was rare for me. Maybe it was why their system suspected a credit card fraud.

It was kind of freaky to know they have all my shopping pattern data, but I should appreciate for their efforts to protect me and monitor my credit card history.

During the conversation with the bank operator, she casually asked me how the weather around here was. I answered it was nice and hot. She was surprised by my answer. She said she envied us to have such a nice weather. She said her area was extremely cold.

After I hang up the phone with her, I looked up the weather news. There I found this news. “Northern states to be colder than Antarctica as temperatures drop to -40C”

I feel sorry for those people who are suffering from the extreme cold temperature. I hope they will have normal weather soon and get back to their normal life.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

My daughter’s school sent a note to all the parents and guardians. The note says that recently some students needed to be sent home due to the cold symptoms such as high fever and coughs. The school asks us not to send our children in case they have any cold symptoms for other students’ safety.

I thought of my daughter and found out one thing.

She has not gotten sick this winter.

According to my last year’s calendar, she took a sick leave from school in last February for two days. It was after a snowy cold day.

In this winter we had some snowy cold days at the end of last year and the beginning of this year. Even such cold days, my daughter did not catch a cold in this winter.

It’s amazing to know she has been building a stronger immune system.

For us parents, it is always amazing to know our children’s progresses and growth..

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

Today’s acupuncture treatment was something new. After discussed with my acupuncturist, we decided to add Tui Na massage with ear acupuncture.

After I came back, my glucose level was 107, which was pretty good for me.

This is my fourth acupuncture treatment from my second acupuncturist. For the previous three times, the glucose level after the treatment was not good very much. They were 148, 121, and 148, respectively. Compared with the previous three results, today’s result was much improved.

This was my first time to receive Tui Na massage. I had a quick one for 15 minute at the Chinese medicine fair, but that does not count.

With today’s therapy of Tui Na massage combined with ear acupuncture, I melted. I loved it so much. I wish I could receive Tui Na massage therapy every week.   

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

This morning when I was almost back home from the school bus stop, I saw one neighbor boy walking toward the bus stop. He missed the bus. Recently he missed the bus many times. Every time when I asked him if he needed a ride to school, he politely answered he would be fine.

His house is three doors down from our house. When I passed by his house, I saw his mom standing on the street.

The mom asked if her boy missed the bus. I said yes.

The mom told me a quick story. After she saw her boy got ready to leave the house this morning, she went back to her choirs. She is a busy mom with her four children including a new born. When the mom came back to the living room, she was astonished finding her son sleeping on the couch.

While the mom went back to her room to get ready in order to give him a ride, her boy already took off.

By the time she finished telling me the quick story, the boy was walking on the street around 100 meters (330 feet) away from us.

Now, it was my turn to be astonished.

The mom called her boy’s name at the top of her lungs. Her voice was really loud. It followed by her finger whistling, which was also clear high pitch tone, and very loud.

I thought it cool of her to be able to finger-whistle in such a clear high pitch tone.

While I lived in Japan, I hardly ever heard anybody finger-whistling in the daily life. Here in America on the other hand, I heard many people did so in the daily life, even in my daughter’s school. Even small kids can finger whistle.

Finger-whistling is one of my favorite abilities of Americans that I admire.   

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

In today’s news letter from Hay House, the CEO wrote down about a bucket list. He recommended the readers to think about their bucket list.

I thought about it. I sat down quietly in front of a blank paper to write down my bucket list.

— Nothing particular came out. —

I thought it interesting.

Contrary with my current age, my bucket list in my younger days was a very long list. Most of my bucket list items happened naturally. And I learned from my personal experiences that everything happened in their right and best timing.  

So now I know, all my desires will happen in their right and best timing.

It is good to be aged. We learn from our own experiences and see things from a bigger and wider perspective, comprehensively.

I think I am at the best place with the best people in my life. I appreciate everything I have provided.

***

This evening we had Zui-un. There was rainbow colored lights in the thin-layered clouds. It was beautiful.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

My family and I went to the Asian market in Tucson.

Their parking lot was almost full, which was very rare. When we entered the store, we were welcomed lots of colorful new year’s decorations. Chinese New Year is coming closer.

Later on, I learned Chinese New Year ranges from January 21 to February 20. For this year 2019, it is set on February 5th.

I recall my days in Japan. My office was close to China town. I liked to see their celebration performances such as Dragon Dance.

I have acrophobia, fear of heights, since I was very small. Every time I see somebody who can go up very high, like in a circus show or a dragon dance, I admire them for their brave action.

I look forward to seeing their performances next month.            

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪