Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Tuesdays' teaching

Let's see... Yesterday a day of teaching. Actually, Tuesday's "teaching" can hardly be labled that. In the morning 4 friends come over every Tuesday and we chat (in English) and drink coffee and eat sweets for about an hour and finally get around to reading and discussing or translating an English lesson I have prepared. And they pay me for this! (Thank you so much!) In the afternoon too, 2 friends come over and we do about the same thing! Do you think I have an easy life?

Usually on Mondays I'll stop at the supermarket and buy some cookies or crackers or something we can eat with our coffee. If I'm especially industrious I'll make a cake or cookies or something. Quite often (almost every week?) one of the ladies will bring a sweet back from a trip she's taken or they will make something. Some weeks we have only my measly crackers and some weeks everybody has brought something so there is no room on the table for study materials! Just coffee and goodies! (Not good for my diet.)

Yesterday, one lady made cookies, another lady brought some bean paste sweets and another lady brought cherry blossom tea sweets. Most traditional Japanese sweets have sweet bean paste somewhere in them and though many foreigners shy away from them, if you are planning to stay in Japan very long you'd better aquire a taste for sweet beans! I love them! Anyway, the cherry blossom sweet is obviously in honor of the cherry blossom season that is at it's peak, and it was very refreshing to the eyes as well as delightful to the taste buds.

And lastly, a picture of some little notebooks that one lady brought as presents! Last week, she had brought this nice memo notebook made from recycled paper and a bright Japanese print cover and we all had commented on how nice it was. She has a friend who makes these using the traditional book binding process and yesterday she brought a memo notebook for each of us from her friend! What a wonderful network of people I know!

By the way, I must apologize to any people who get a notice in the e-mail about a new post being published on my blog. I'm still not sure how this works as I still have to check out every blog daily to find new posts. Anyway, I often "publish" my blog, then go and look and it and then start rearranging the pictures and publish it again until I'm satisfied. I think I read on someone's blog that she was could find notices of recently published blogs in her e-mail box. Gosh if mine was on her list she might have been getting 4 or 5 notices just because I was still playing around. I've resolved to post only once and forget the perfectionism!

4 comments:

Connie said...

Tanya, If I lived near you, I would come over to learn Japanese and drink coffee with you! :)
The notebooks are so pretty. What a nice little gift. And last year we ate at an Americanized Japanese restaurant and had red bean ice cream. When I ordered it I dreaded tasting it but it happened to be quite delicious. Crossing dietary cultural lines for me isn't always easy because I'm a picky eater but occasionally I make a wee bit of progress. :)

Nancy said...

Those little notebooks are exquisite!

And you're tempting me to try a Japanese restaurant -- wonder if those in the states are even remotely like those in Japan?

VERO said...

Hola Taniwa!! I give you a felicitation for your blogg , is so amazing . I can learn whit it , something that I never thougt .How is your life there . Your culture. And whith your fhotos I can see your landscapes . That´s is fascinating . I am from Chile ,far away from there . A hug , Vero

Beth said...

Taniwa, You can sign up for that service too...Try www.bloglines.com I will answer any questions if I can. I think they just check for updates a couple times a day. I don't think I have ever seen multiples, even when blogs are republished. I love reading your blog!