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Visited a Day-Service Facility for my Mother Today

I took my mother to a day service facility today. Actually, the place was the second one, I mean, last week we visited another day service facility. The purpose of visiting two places is to compare the two so that we can choose the better one. Before getting there at 2 p.m., we had a little late lunch in a Rahmen restaurant. Mine was Soy-sauce Rahmen with pork slice on top. My mother’s was a half Rahmen as the photo below. We visited the facility, got some guidance of the facility, looked around the rooms and the activity of the afternoon, and said good-bye to the people there. When we came back our home, I asked my mother which of the two day-service facilities she likes. She said that she had already forgot the facility we visited last week, so she couldn’t compare the two.

I have started saving up for my funeral expenses

Most of people in my neighborhood save up money for their own funeral expenses well before the last day in this world. There are two major funeral companies in this region, competing to get customers who could sign up such savings. Let me call them A and B. My father had paid for his own funeral to the company A, while he was still alive. After the funeral of my father, my mother started to pay monthly likewise. Her course was 36-Man’en(approximately 2,300USD), by paying 3000JPY every month, 120 times. She has already paid 70 times. Recently the company A said to me that they wanted to confirm her condition and to give her a birthday present. And today, one of their employees came to my home. I thought it was a good chance for me to start payment for my own funeral. Because I was satisfied with the service they provided in my father’s funeral, and it was a little nuisance that the company B made phone calls to me often.

I signed today the 24-Man’en course, which is way cheaper than my mother’s. I just thought my funeral would not cost so much because very few people will come to my funeral. My payment is 2000JPY, 120times. It continues ten years. I hope my funeral will happen after my payment has finished, but future is unknown. When it comes to predicting future, we Japanese think that “A devil will laugh at me”.

I went to medical check today

Since I am not a company employee, I don’t have a company health insurance. My health insurance is the national health insurance. Under that health insurance, I can get some health checks once a year. Last week I got X-ray chest test in the community center. And this morning, I went to a local clinic this morning and got urine and blood tests. I need to go to the clinic again in ten days, to hear the results. I hope there will be no bad result that needs a detailed inspection.

Rice Fields and a Local Train in Niigata, Northern Japan

I guess that people like these kinds of photographs better than my Japanese Learning posts. The reason why I am trying to posts about Japanese Learning is that I hope someday my posts will feed the database of AI. Probably my posts would not help Japanese learners directly, but if those posts could be helpful to learners indirectly through AI, I would be happy.

Three Photos in mid-October, Two Years ago

Tonight, I don’t think of what to write for posting. My (ex)students can tell where the photos were taken.

Area behind the Library

The Straight Road from the University cafeteria to the Tower

Boiled dumplings

It’s a little sad to say, but it seems to me they are things happened long time ago.

Weekly Logs: Sep.21 – 27, 2020

Photographs on the week (Another blog of mine)

Monday, September 21
I taught two classes in the morning and in the evening as usual. In addition to the classes, I had to instruct a nominee of speech contest. I sent her my handwriting that indicate low-high accent of Japanese in red ink.in

Tuesday, September 22
I taught two classes in the morning and in the evening as usual. Both were business manner classes.

Wednesday, September 23
I worked all day except one hour from 2p.m. I went to a dentist. Thanks to national health insurance, Japanese can see a doctor with reasonable cost. I got strange feeling in my mouth because of an aesthesia.

Thursday, September 24
I taught three classes. I worked even in the night. It was almost midnight when I finished working

Friday, September 25
I lost my memory I don’t remember the day. But it was sure that I taught two classes that were conversation course for the second grade.

Saturday, September 26
I went to a morning market in Niitsu. There is one man who comes to the morning market in this time of season. He brings and sells his grapes. Unfortunately his farm couldn’t produce any “Kyoho” grape this year, though I didn’t hear the reason. He was only selling a tiny amount of “Shine Muscat”. One tray was 1,000JPY. He laid only three plastic trays of Shine Muscat on his blue-sheet. They looked clean green fruits. But I saw behind him, there were some grapes whose peel had got some stains. I asked him to sell me that brawn stained Shine Muscat by 1,000 yen. He got happy because he could sell unpopular grapes with stains on the peel surface. He put a lot on a plastic tray and sold it to me.

Sunday, September 27
I worked almost all day. But I took a walk just an hour from 3 to 4p.m. While walking I found a board as below.

I don’t think a dog can read that Japanese sentence.

Weekly Logs: Sep.14 – 20, 2020

Photographs on the week (Another blog of mine)

Monday, September 14
9:05 – 10:25 Reading for Second grade, Class F
16:25 – 17:45 Business manner for Fourth grade, Class A
The business class was about communication between colleagues.

Tuesday, September 15
8:55 – 10:15 Business Manner for Fourth grade, Class A
16:25 – 17:45 Business manner for Fourth grade, Class B
Between the two classes, I went to supermarket to buy food. And then I took a nap before the evening class that was the business class. I talked about team work in business, effectiveness on communication, and business attire.

Wednesday, September 16
I worked all day because I had to make two PPT slide shows for the conversation classes on Thursday and Friday. Since I had to teach three classes on Thursday, there was no time on Thursday to prepare for Friday.

Thursday, September 17
9:05 – 10:25 Conversation for Second grade, Class E
10:50 – 12:10 Business manner for Fourth grade, Class B
14:40 – 16:00 Conversation for Second grade, Class F
The toughest day of the week, but on that day, I was liberated from household, because my mom had gone for a travel, although I cook the meals only as household. Cooking only for me was far easier and less time consuming than cooking for two.

Friday, September 18
8:55 – 10:15 Conversation for Second grade, Class F
14:40 – 16:00 Conversation for Second grade, Class E
I wanted to go to bed earlier because it was the last weekday. But I proofread a draft of speech contest in which one of my students wanted to participate.

Saturday, September 19
I went to a supermarket in the morning hours to buy food and flowers. I wanted to offer new flowers by my father’s photograph, because my aunts and an uncle came to my house to pray. It was the time of the first autumn OHIGAN since my dad died. After they left, I went out for a walk and took some digital photos.

Sunday, September 20
I worked all day. Preparation for the classes on Monday was the only thing that I did on Sunday.

Weekly Logs: Sep.7 – 13, 2020

Photographs on the week (Another blog of mine)

Monday, September 7
9:05 – 10:25 Reading for Second grade, Class F
16:25 – 17:45 Business manner for Fourth grade, Class A

Tuesday, September 8
8:55 – 10:15 Business Manner for Fourth grade, Class A
16:25 – 17:45 Business manner for Fourth grade, Class B
Between the two classes, I went to haircut. It was only just 1,100 JPY. One customer who got haircut before me came back and claimed the finishing of his hair. At the time I had already sat on the chair in front of the mirror, but I had to stand up from the chair for him.

Wednesday, September 9
There was no class on Wednesday. I went to supermarket by walk at 10 a.m. because I wanted to do that before it got too hot. I saw a dentist at 2 p.m. Of course I kept working other than those two things.

Thursday, September 10
9:05 – 10:25 Conversation for Second grade, Class E
10:50 – 12:10 Business manner for Fourth grade, Class B
14:40 – 16:00 Conversation for Second grade, Class F
So Thursday is the toughest day of the week. Even worse was that the supplemental tests were required on this day. The test was for students who failed to pass the final examinations in the last semester. The command said that teachers had to register the scores by 4 p.m. on Monday. As was always, it is a short notice. Since I had to prepare for the PPT slides for Friday class, it was 3 a.m. in the early Friday morning when I went to bed.

Friday, September 11
8:55 – 10:15 Conversation for Second grade, Class F
14:40 – 16:00 Conversation for Second grade, Class E
I made eight students took my supplemental examination for conversation class in the last semester. I started giving test direction at 10 p.m. It was 9 p.m. for them, but it was late at night for me. All the students sent me their audio data by 11p.m.

Saturday, September 12
On Thursday morning, 10 students were absent from my conversation class because they had to take supplemental examination for computer class of the last semester. I’d say it was a bad scheduling. So I made a small session for those ten students on Saturday morning. The rest of the day was spent for making PPT slides for business manner class.

Sunday, September 13
Since the weather forecast said that a heavy rain was coming in the afternoon, I went to a branch library at 10 a.m. to return six books. On the way and way back, I took some photographs to upload onto my blog. I had been scoring the supplemental examination of composition all the afternoon.