タグ: Niigata

It was a cold day. I was making a trellis for an apple tree

Today’s lowest temperature was -1 and highest was +2 Celsius degree (30 to 36 in Fahrenheit). Although the outside was cold, I had been out of my house, but in a tiny hut. The hut was built about twenty years ago when my father was still alive. It is made of polycarbonate corrugated sheet for the roof and wall, and of steel pipes for its frames. Even the inside is almost like outside because there are a lot of gaps, but no wind blows inside, I can feel a little warm in the hut.

The inside of the hut has long been a mess. Since I came back my home, I keep to try tidying up the hut. And the hut is now going to be a fun place to be, not to say it’s a secret base. Today I was staying there for three hours in the morning to make a trellis using steel pipes. I am going to set up a trellis for an apple tree. It is common that grapes grow on trellis. And in my area, farmers use trellis for growing pear trees. But I don’t think it is usual to use trellis to grow an apple tree.

There are six apple trees in my garden. Two were planted by my father who passed away five years ago. So, I don’t know the names of those two. Four are planted by me; Ohrin, Kougyoku, Alpus-Otome, and Shinano-Gold. Ohrin and Kougyoku are old varieties, Alpus-Otome is almost exclusively for pollination. Shinano-Gold is a variety that is new and very delicious. What I want to do is to make that Shinano-Gold tree bigger so that I will be able to harvest many apples from that tree. In order to do so, there must be an area such that leaves can extend wide. This is the reason I want to set up a trellis for the apple tree. Since the branches of apple tree are soft and flexible, I expect that it is possible to grow the apple on trellis. I hope that the result is coming in two years.

Japanese remove all the Christmas decorations soon after December 25th.

I think it would be better if those trees and illumination things continue to be there until the new year, we Japanese surely remove everything. This time, I have put five color bulbs on my window and lit up them like from seven to nine p.m. Time was not so exact, but I turned them on after supper and off before going to bed. Since I bought them about twenty years ago, they are not LED lights but conventional bulbs. Those bulbs consume 20 Watt, not much, but use more electricity than LED, I guess.

Other Japanese remove all the Christmas decorations, so I thought that I also need to do something with my five color bulbs. What I did was not removing them, but changing from five color to mono color bulbs. Does it make any sense? I am not sure.

I am living in a residential area in small village surrounded by vast rice field. Population is not much. I am sure that my illumination is not seen by many people because very few people walk or drive on the road by my house in the night. But I would like to say that here is a lonely place with less people, I want some lights be there.

Before changing the bulbs

After; Upper half and lower half are blinking in turn. At that moment, the lower half were being turned off

I should have planted more vegetables for winter

It seems they will run out before spring come.

Since I don’t use pesticide, insects or worms have eaten a lot of green part of the Chinese cabbage as shown in the photo.  I need to wash the leaves well and get rid of worms’ droppings completely when I cook this cabbage.

I went to Kanto region three days ago. I came back Niigata today.

I wanted to get on local trains to go to Kanto region. Because using local trains costs only a half of bullet trains (Shinkan-sen). But influenza is now prevailing these days. If I got on local trains for many hours, it could increase the chance to be exposed to flu virus. Perhaps I may transmit influenza to my mother after I get back to my house. This is the reason why I got on Shinkansen to go to Kanto Region near Tokyo.

Tickets of Shinkansen are expensive. In order to save money, I usually get on a car for non-reserved seats. Such a non-reserved seats are on the several cars on Tokyo side. Of those non-reserved cars, I like to get on the top car.

Since the Jo’etsu Shinkansen runs thorough snowy areas, there are water sprinklers all along the railways in Niigata area. By melting snow on the rails by water, Shinkansen doesn’t get delayed even in winter.

This time of year, almost of the time the sky is cloudy and dark in Niigata side.

While Niigata is under dark clouds, people in Kanto region enjoy clear sky.

And I saw Mountain Fuji through the window in the following morning.

I went to an Indian/Nepali Restaurant in Furumachi, Niigata yesterday

The last time I visited there was seven years ago. Yesterday I went to Niigata and took a lunch in an Indian/Nepali Restaurant in Furumachi. I ate “A lunch set” that was curry, naan, salad, and plain lassi.

The curry was a little much. As I was eating, I came to think that dipping wouldn’t consume all of it. So, I used chop-sticks and ate a piece of Naan by submerging it entirely into curry. I thought, if you would eat two Naans, the amount of curry fit them. It was 1080JPY, but my stomach became quite full.

All the Shops had left, the Underground Mall was Closed

I went to the town of Niigata today. Getting off a local train at JR Niigata station, and then I got on a bus to go to Furumachi, where used to be the center of commercial area of Niigata. What I found in Furumachi was that the underground shopping street had already closed. In 2018 to 2019, I was living closed to there and visited and walked there every day. It seemed to me that closure was a matter of time because few people were going there and obviously shops couldn’t make much money.

All the stores and shops were closed, but the street is still being used as an underground passage

The place is lower than the groundwater table. There must be a lot of water leakage.

Niigata is an area where motorization is developed thoroughly. Almost of all people move by vehicles. They don’t want to go to the city center, rather like to drive to suburban shopping malls.

I took my mother to a dermatologist today.

We left home at 10a.m. and went to see a dermatologist. My mother has a skin problem on her both ankles to lower knee. She had already finished using medicine of the last time. So I took her to there because she cannot go there herself. When she bought new medicine at pharmacy, it was almost noon. We went to Rahmen restaurant to have a lunch. I ate a “Hot Miso Rahmen” as shown in the photo.

I won’t write a long post tonight, because I am going to write a music score using “Sibelius” from now. I need to learn how to use that software.

Cold and wet in Niigata at this time of year

I woke up at five in the morning because I felt very cold in the futon. Since my house is built using traditional Japanese architecture methods, I feel very cold in winter. I got up at seven, cooked and ate breakfast. Today too, my mother asked me to tell her how to use the washing machine. No progress has been made for this issue. I made a list of fruit trees in my garden. It was not completed, but I wrote the list on my “yearly diary notebook” until nine thirty. Then I took a shower and shove.

I had been reading an English book and checked words that I didn’t know until noon. I took a lunch and then went out at 1p.m. for shopping. I came back home at 2:30 with foods in two bags. I carried them by walk. Although I tried watching a DVD for training about Japanese teaching, but I fell asleep at once. 4 to 5, I practiced the piano by playing Hanon. I cooked and ate supper. Then I am now in my room, typing this.

Recently, I upload my blog post every day. And I write my post after supper and before going to bed (In fact, “going to bed” is not right for me. My bedroom with “Bed” is too cold now, so these days I sleep in a room with tatami mat on the floor. There, I sleep not in bed but in futon). Anyway, I think writing a post in English is part of learning. English is the second language to me. I know that even if I make much effort, I will not be able to be as good as a native English speaker. But looking back my life, learning English has helped me a lot. Having almost retired now, I am not sure if I have another chance to use my English in the future. But I want to continue to learn English.

A photo of Seven years ago at a Restaurant of Indian Cuisine

She never learns how to start an automatic washing machine.

Four days ago, I wrote that my mother “is eighty-six years old, still can wash and clean”. But in fact, she cannot do those chores completely herself. Cleaning is almost okay. Although she cannot change a trash collecting bag inside vacuum cleaner, that bag is not a thing that needs to be changed so frequently.

Washing is not okay. Every time she uses washing machine, she calls me from the first floor, and I need to go down from the second floor. Then I teach her how to start the washing machine. The washing machine is a product of Toshiba, which has a function to save amount of laundry detergent. Because of this function, the procedure to start washing is a little different from ordinary “automatic washing machine”.

The procedure is as follows; Close the lid. Push the power button. If the program for washing, rinsing, and dehydrating is okay, push the start button. And then, the machine rotates a little, measures the weight of clothes, and displays necessary amount of detergent. Open the lid, pour detergent of the amount indicated, and close the lid. After this, do not touch any button.

But my mother never learns this procedure. She says “Why do I close the lid before pouring detergent?”.

Actually, I also needed a little bit of time to get used to this washing machine when I started using it ten years ago. I am not sure whether or not this function and procedure are common to washing machines of other manufacturers. Since she cannot understand why such a procedure is required, she can’t memorize the way to start the machine. Therefore, every day or at least once in two days, I hear she tells me to come down saying with loud voice “Tell me how to start the washing machine!”.

Until several months ago, she uses another washing machine of old type. I mean the old type is the two-tub washing machine in which washing tub and spin-drying tub are separated. One day, the spin-drying tub became slow and eventually stopped spinning. I checked and found that ELEVEN socks were clinging to the shaft under the tub. Probably she put a lot of clothes into the spin-drying tub and rotated it without the inner cap to prevent clothes popping out. Since socks were light, they could get out of the tub by the centrifugal force, and fell under the tub. Even though I removed all the socks clinging to shaft, the spin-drying tub was broken. That was the reason for us to have changed from a two-tub washing machine to a fully automatic washing machine.

I guess that my mother exhibits early symptom of dementia. She cannot remember things that are new. I have the similar experience with my deceased father. He also got dementia in his last years. From that experience, I could say the progression of dementia is slow, takes many years. At this moment, I am not sure how her symptom is getting worse in coming years. But I have to take care of her and prepare for the things to come. Since I have already retired, I think it will be less tough for me when comparing with other people in their 50’s who still work, probably.