take it easynotes in English

 
A precious friend of mine passed away in December 20th. I remember that the tragic notice arrived from her father just after I posted my previous blog. I was to show her my little aquarium. She was fighting against lung cancer but was not able to live even a year long since she first felt something wrong her body. I heard she was looking forward to spend Christmas with her family which never came true. I'm feeling so down since then...nothing I can do but I just want to write some memories about her.

I met Sinead in May, 1999 while I was traveling New Zealand by myself and so she was. We were on a same boat in the Marlborough Sounds. At that time, I was feeling a bit tired of traveling alone. Then, she started to talk to me. She was very friendly, cheerful and easy to talk to even though my English was good. We were up to the same hostel called "Lazy Fish". It was really a nice place and located near the beach. Unfortunately, it was raining on the day and the next. So we talked a lot in the living room. She was living in Australia and came to New Zealand to get her visa renewed. She was interested in Japan and Japanese so I taught her some Japanese characters. When I left the hostel one day earlier than her, we exchanged our address and kept in touch since then. About a month later, we met in Brisbane while I was traveling in Australia. She came to see me off at the long-distance coach station. We took a picture together for the first time.

In February in 2000, she came to Japan to find a job, staying at my place for about a month. She found a teaching job for one of the biggest language school in Japan. After she found the job, she went back to Ireland once and came to Japan. She enjoyed teaching English, especially teaching little children. During a year and a half of her stay in Japan, we shared a lot of memories together. We went sightseeing in Kyoto and Nara, watched some movies, went for drinking and so on. Once we went skiing together but she wasn't a good skier at all. She loved Japanese food such as Kitsune-udon (thick white noodle with sweet deep-fried tofu), Salmon Sushi and Tempura Renkon (deep-fried lotus root). She was able to use chopsticks perfectly because my mother taught her how to use them with beans. Just before she left Japan, I asked her to name my website. I was going to open a shop site with handmade bead jewelry. And then, I named the site "pink coffee". I closed the site a couple of years ago but still use the name with this blog. After about a year and a half of stay in Japan, then went back to Ireland.

Soon after she went back to Ireland, e-mailing me and said she had met a nice guy. She was so in love with him. I understood later why she loved him so much when I met him later. While she was in Japan, she found she loved teaching children so that started to study to become a school teacher. It must have been a tough decision but she studied hard made it. She came to Japan again in April, 2004 for about 10 days. It was the beautiful cherry blossom season so we went to see some famous places to see them in Kyoto and Osaka. She traveled from Tokyo to Kyushu by herself. We visited one of her school where she used to teach and met its school manager and some of her students. The last night was her birthday so we celebrated it with my family.

I was invited her wedding in July, 2007. She e-mailed me 2 years before it if I could come. I was so happy to hear the wonderful news. The wedding was held at a local church. My mother and I were impressed by the warm Irish wedding. The banquet was held at a old castle hotel. Some parts of it was very unique to us. They all danced at the chamber after the meal with live music. While we were there, we were staying at her and her husband's house. It was designed by her husband, Seamus. It was very spacious and cozy. They were very busy for wedding so her parents took us to many places. We really had a great time.

I remember the day she e-mailed me that she had lung cancer last March. I drove to work in tears. I was devastated. She didn't smoke, drink coffee or tea. I had never imagined that she would have contracted such a disease. She was getting chemotheraphy every 3 weeks. I was able to visit her in June between the treatments. It was about 10 days after she got it so she must have been still tired. I really had a great time there. She planned a lot for me. We went to Dublin and did what tourists do. She took me to her school and I taught her students Origami (holding paper). I was glad that they seemed to enjoy a lot. She and her hasband took me to Northern Ireland. I felt sorry for her that she had to walk long way even though she was exhansted. While she was busy taking art therapy or tired, her parents took me to many places. They all really nice to me, I'm appreciated a lot. The last day, she and her husband see me off at the airport. As she was quite mobile and seemed to be mostly ok, I really believed she would be able to get lid of the disease. It became the last time to see her....

After getting chemotherapy, the tumor shrank and she was able to get an operation. I was relieved when I heard the news....but it wasn't easy. I heard that she got another tumor on her spine, and had trouble walking. Her father e-mailed me how she was. She was getting weaker and weaker....then passed away. The very next day, I received a Christmas present from her. It was a lovely cat-shaped glass mural decoration. She gave me a letter with a card....it was so warm. She recommended me to go to a beautiful place, Cork in Ireland, asking me to take her husband around Japan if he ever came to Japan and so on. And the last words were "Maybe we are able to skype over Christmas. I'd like that."

I believe her life was too short but brilliant one. She was surrounded by wonderful people. She herself was a cheerful, charming, friendly, hard-working and thoughtful person. Sinead, I thank you a lot and just hoping you to sleep peacefully. Bye for now.

Noriko

It has been almost a month since I set up the tank. Now there are 2 Clown Anemonefish,  a Yellow Coral Goby, 2 Bulb-Tentacle Sea Anemones, a Tube Worm and other little sea creatures which were found in the rocks. Unfortunately, a blue and yellow blennie died a week ago.  It was obviously my fault. I cleaned the tank a week after they came and gave them too much stress. The blennie was too timid....it changed its body color when it felt stress. I should have cared more. Other fish were not very well, either. They didn't eat much for a few days.... I feel relieved that they are fine now. The two anemones are really strange! They fought each other until they fit onto the rock.  Time fries so quickly while I'm looking at them.....sooooo lovely.


 I feel so sorry....


 Doesn't it look like a canary?!


 Smily :-D

I've been too lazy to keep this blog....well, I'll try again.

I'm just setting up a tiny aquarium. I had been keeping goldfish for over 8 years, but it died about a month ago. The telescope gold fish was more than 2 years old, but the last few month, it was suffering from tumors which were covered its right eye. Then, I bought a little tank. At first, I wanted to keep a  baloon fish. I like their unique shape and I heard that they are friendly. Although, there was an objection...."Only one balloon fish??? That's too boring. They are not beautiful at all! Why don't you make something beautiful." Hmmm.... I have to wait for 2 or 3 weeks until the water will be ready. Well, what should I keep....

I went to Miyajima & Hiroshima at last weekend by local trains. It took about 7 hours from here (Osaka) to Hiroshima....because I went there by "seishun 18 kippu". You can use local trains only....In Kansai area, there are super rapid and rapid trains but there was no rapid trains between Himeji to Okayama. It was so crowded and could hardly move in the train, I guess most of passengers had the ticket like me.



We, my mother and her friend, went to Miyajima the first day. Miyajima is famous for Itsukushima Shinto shrine which is built in the sea. We were lucky that we could walk to the famous gate "torii" because it was a low tide. Many people were looking for shellfish. We found lots of natural oysters so we took and tasted them. Miyajima is also famous for wild deer. They were rather tame and nosing toward people but cute. They even ate paper.



We stayed in Hiroshima for a night. It was my first visit to the both places. We went to see the A-bomb dome the night before and the day. Of course I knew there but when I saw it real, I was moved and tears came up. The city changed to Hell in a moment 62 years ago, is now a large urban area! In Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, there were lots of information about the A-bomb and articles of the deceased. They were so shocking and full of sadness. There were a lot of people from overseas. I think about one forth of people were not Japanse. Out side of the museum, people were having picnic under the cherry blossoms in peace. "It may not grow any grass nor trees for 75 years." I'm glad it didn't come true.

It's my mother's birthday today. Yeah, it's the April Fool's Day but it's not a lie. In Japan, the school year begins in April. So that people who are born from April to March go to the same year at schools. However, if you were born in April 1st, you have to go to school with people who were born in March....it means children who enter elementary schools this year are born from April 2nd in 2001 to April 1st in 2002. When my mother was 5 years old in March, just before her birthday for 6 years old, my grandmather found that my mother had to go to school a year ealier than she thought. They were so surprised and hurried to prepare for entering an elementary school. I have no idea about this system. I cannot think any meaning of it....I think it's just confusing.

It was very warm today. I like spring blossoms like cherries and magnolias, they are beautiful when they are in full bloom before the leaves come out. Spring has come....I have to wash all the winter coats and sweaters by now, but I cannot remember what I was wearing last year.

I went to a New Zealand bar called "Mission Bay" last night. I knew it was in my city but I didn't have chance to go. I found one of my teacher friend went there often so I asked her to go there together with another friend.

In the bar, all the things are related to New Zealand! The owner used to live in New Zealand by working holiday (like me) and he started the bar after he came back to Japan. And I found out we were in New Zealand at the same time for a few months and he used to stay in the same town as my host family's house. The name of the bar "Mission Bay" is the most popular bay in Auckland where located near my homestay. I used to go there by roller blades. I was in New Zealand from July 1998 to July 1999....it's quite a long time ago...but my memories were comming back rapidly and talked a lot about there. While we were there, lots of customers who have been to New Zealand came.



The meal and drinks were great, too. We had roast pork dish some New Zealand beer. It was very tender and delicious! I hadn't tasted much New Zealand beer before but it was soooooo good. My friend and I had the beer called "Tui" which is the same name as a famous singing bird in New Zealand. I liked it very much because it was a little sweet and light. I'm sure I will have the same beer again next time.

It was unbelievably warm today. I was wearing a sweater and a spring coat as usual, but soon I found it was a miss choice! When I went to Umeda to look for some books, I found some sakura trees were blooming already. They usually started to bloom around the end of March to the early April. Isn't it because of the global warming?

I heard sounds of explosion like firecrackers at 7pm today, and then, I saw fireworks from my window. It was the first game of Gamba Osaka which is a soccer team of the J1 league in Osaka. They were only for a minute just before the game started but magnificent and beautiful. I didn't know about them at all....I like soccer but I'm not a big fan. Their home stadium is very close to my place but I went to watch the game just once. They lost that time against Yokohama Marinos but they beat Omiya Ardija by 1-0 tonight.

create your own visited country map
or check our Venice travel guide

I've just found this site while I was surfing the internet. The countries where I have been to are red in the map. There are still lots of places to go to. I really want to go to Africa to see wild animals and Victoria falls sometime. I wish it'll be come true....