Hiroko’s Diary

寒い日が続きますね。

Today is cold.  Yesterday was cold.  The day before yesterday was also cold…….

寒いとなかなか外に出ようとしないのでこんなにもブログをつけることができるのかしら、と思ってみたり・・・

When it’s very cold, I tend to stay at home.  I’m wondering that’s why I can continue to put articles almost every day.

私はテレビを見るのが好きです。私のことを知っている人は私がそう言うとびっくりする人が多いのです。

I like watching T.V.   People who know about me are most likely surprised to hear that.

どうも私はそういうタイプには見えないみたい。

They say that I don’t look like a person who like T.V.

昨日、島田伸介が出ているテレビ番組を見ていたら、

Anyway, I watched a T.V. program where Shinsuke Shimada, a very famous comedian, appeared on. 

伸介が言ったのです。

Sinsuke talked about a very interesting story.

今まで自分の３人の娘たちに何一つとして物を買ってあげたことがないと、

According to him, he has never bought anything for his three daughters before.

ほしいものがあれば自分でお小遣いをためて買うようにしつけたみたいです。

He told them to buy something they want by themselves using their own money.

自分でお金を貯めて買う喜びを奪いたくないとも・・・

He continued to say that he didn’t want to take the pleasure of buying something after saving money for certain period of time from those three daughters.

自分の家にお金があるからという考えを持ってほしくなかったとのことです。

He didn’t want them to think that there were a lot of money at home.

友達が全員自転車に乗っていても子供たちには走らせたそうです。

Even if thier friends were all using bicycles, he made them run.

すごくいい話だなあと思いませんか。

Don’t you think it’s a good story.

これを貫き通すには相当の苦労がいったはずです。

I think he must have kept feeling it’s hard to keep his stance.

私にはなかなか出来ないことですが、とてもいいヒントを得ました。

It’s difficult for me to do the same thing, but I got a hint as for discipline. 

２月９日（土）、私が所属する「お母さんパワーアップ塾」主宰でフルーツ大福を作ります。

On Feb. 9th, Mothers’ Power-up Group will hold an event.  We are going to make a Japanese sweet called fruits Daifuku.

詳細は私たちのホームページを見てください。

You can check the detail on our group’s website.

http://acs.yu.to/

主に外国人対象に募集しています。

Foreigners are welcomed.

この時期、和菓子屋さんに行くとおいしそうなイチゴ大福が並んでいますよね。私は白あんで包んだほうが好きですが皆さんはどうですか？

This time of the seazon, you can find delicious looking “strawberry daifuku” in Japanese sweets shops.  I prefer the ones which white bean-paste are used.   How about you?

今回はイチゴ以外にもバナナやキゥイなど他の果物も使います。

On that day, we are going to use other fruits like bananas and kiwis as well as strawberries.

イベントの様子はまた報告しますね。

I’ll write about the event on this blog. 

これは息子が幼稚園から頂いた小人のプレゼントです。

This is a present from the kindergarten my son goes to. 

毎年１組ずつ我が家にやってきます。

Every year, a pair of cute pygmys come over to my house. 

見る度にとっても癒されます。

Whenever I look at these pretty ones, my heart is filled with peace.

幼稚園の先生がひとはり、ひとはり、心をこめて作ってくれたもので中には丸められた羊毛が入っています。

These are hand-made by kindergarten teachers and rolled wool is inside.

市民塾に選ばれると２年間助成金がおります。

Once a city group is admitted, it is subsidised for two years by Suita city.

これまで私たちがしてきた活動は、留学生たちに茶道体験や着物・浴衣を着せてあげる、吹田祭りに一緒に参加する、和菓子を作る、モンゴルから馬頭琴奏者をよび、吹田市の小学校・幼稚園などでコンサートを開催する、といった多岐にわたるものでした。

What Mothers’ Power-up Group has done so far is to let international students experience Tea ceremony, wearing Kimono and Yukata, and make Japanese sweets with us and moreover let them participate in Suita Festival.   And also, we invited “Bato-kin” players from Mongolia, and took them to play it at several elementary schools and kindergartens.

お母さんパワーアップ塾は今年３月末で市民塾としては終わります。

Our group is going to finish our activities as the city group at the end of March.

でも、その後も私たちの活動はずっと続きます。

But, we are going to continue our activities forever.

そもそも「お母さんパワーアップ塾」という名前のとおりメンバー全員がお母さんで、子供の住みやすい社会のために何か自分たちの特技を生かして活動しています。

As the name  ”Mothers’ Power-up Group” implys, our members are all mothers and we want to make our city a safty and good environment for our kids.

私たちのホームページを紹介しますね。

Let me introduce our group’s website.

http://acs.yu.to/

まだまだ私たちの活動は始まったばかりで、どんどんしたいことも出てきています。また、報告しますね。

We’ve just started our activities, and we have many things we want to do from now on.  I’ll report them on this blog. ****

今日は私が所属している吹田市の市民塾、「お母さんパワーアッップ塾」の紹介をします。

Today I want to introduce “Mothers’ Power-up Group”, one of the city groups in Suita.

市民塾とはいったい何？と思っておられるたくさんの方々のために、まずその紹介から。

For many of you who think what city groups are, I want to explain it first.

吹田市の市民塾は吹田市の町づくりを活性化させるために日々活動しており、助成金を受けています。

Those city groups are doing several activities for invigorating Suita city and are subsidised.

その市民塾の中に私たちのグループ、「お母さんパワーアップ塾」があります。

Among those groups, our group, “Mothers’ Power-up Group” is included.

活動内容は次回報告しますね。

About what we’ve done so far, I’m going to write on next article. 

わぉ～！これで６日つづけてブログを更新しています。いつまで続くことやら。

Wow! I posted articles for 6 days running!!!!   

今日から日本語と英語の両方でブログを書いていこうと思います。

I’m going to write articles both in Japanese and English from now on.

というのは、せっかくブログをつけていても、（これまでに何と８０を超えていました；びっくり！）お友達に読んでもらえずコメントも少ないのでこの方法に切り替えました。

I’ve written more than 80 articles so far, but unfortunately since there are few who read English among my friends and even for them who read English, it’a little bit hard to continue reading, the number of comments I got is also a few.    That’s why I decided to change to this way.

書き始めて思っていることは、この方法は案外時間がかかって大変！

While writing this, I think this way is more difficult than I expected!!!!

去年の末に、デジカメを買いました。前に持っていたものはとっても古くて、本当にいつ買ったかわからないくらい。今のデジカメって凄いですね。まあ、そんなこんなで私の殺風景なブログにもようやく写真を載せることができました。

I　bought a digital camera at the end of the last year.   The one I had before was very old and I don’t even remember when I bought it.   Digital cameras these days are wonderful, aren’t they?   So, I could finally put pictures on my blog.

まだまだ使い方がわからなくて写真を綺麗にのせられないのですが、何とか続けて今自分が思っていることを綴っていきますね。

I still don’t understand 100% how to put pictures, but I’m going to continue to express what I think on this blog.

コメント、いっぱい待ってます。

I’m waiting for your  comments.

I love Kyoto, and I always think that if I have time I want to go to Kyoto and enjoy window shopping.  In this winter break, I went there with my family.  This time, we visited “Yasaka-shrine”.  That was the first time for me to visit there.   There were tons of people, and it took us more than 30 minutes on foot from “Kawaramachi station” to the shrine.  

I think that I should go there on week days by myself or with my friends next time.

One of my friends who teaches English recommended a very interesting picture book for my lessons.  The title is “We are going on a bear hunt”.  

 I also found the video on You-tube.  Here is the one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytc0U2WAz4s

Today is a Coming-of-Age Day.  I saw several girls wearing beautiful Kimonos this morning.   Each of the girls seemed to be happy and contented with themselves.  I recalled of the day when I joined in the coming-of-age ceremony 18 years ago.   My mother prepared a beautiful “Furisode”, a long sleeve Kimono, which many girls wear on that day.   I was so happy and proud of wearing it.  At that time, I didn’t have anything afraid.  I believed that I could do anything that I wanted.  I was too young to think of many hardships in the future.  

In 18 years, I got a job, got married, experienced a few surgery, and gave birth twice.   And now, I’m so happy just to be healthy.   Long time ago, my mother used to say that be normal is the most difficult thing.   When I heard that, I looked down on her a little bit.   I thought that I would want to be talented, better than others.   But now, I can understand her from the bottom of my heart.  

I don’t know how to say in English, a medium is a right word?  Anyway, I went to see a person who can see the spirit world the other day.   One of the reasons is that I wanted to make sure my son’s expected surgery is going to be successful.   My son has a squint in his right eye and I’ve been wondering whether he can’t see properly or not.  Whenever I took him to the eye doctor, he couldn’t do examination to full extent.   The doctor himself even didn’t know for sure whether he couldn’t see or he was just too small to answer properly.  But last time when we went to see the doctor, he mentioned that my son should go into surgery.   Since that time, I had been worried about the outcome.  Therefore I went to see a medium and asked him about my son.

According to him, my son has had bad eyesight since he was a baby so he recommend the surgery and he said that it would be successful.  Some of you might think that it’s ridiculous to ask somebody who is not a doctor about the surgery.   My husband is also one of them.  But I was so relieved to hear that and I’m peaceful right now.  

As you can easily imagine, I am not a decisive person.  Always my mind is swinging, I’m sorry this is not the right English.  Sometimes I hate this part of my character but in a way I’m satisfied with myself.