Work Life Balance

The first term is ending

It’s been two months. The first term will end after a final exam in next week. I’d be okay unless I make terrible mistakes. There were a lot of reading, searching, and programming.

This busy feeling is since the last time in 2016. I was always busy and did not have enough time to relax. Working and having life as a wife was hard.

I enjoyed work and life, at the same time I was tired, frustrated, and stressed.

After that I started reducing workday, to four-day, and to three-day, and got a remote work at last.

It was before Covid, it was summer in 2019, a year of the RWC in Japan. My dad was in hospital. I needed to drive mom to the hospital.

Work from anywhere became possible. I could work sitting next to dad’s bed in the hospital.

After the summer, I moved back to my home. Then Covid in 2020.

I had two jobs and both were remote work. Another few years past. During these years I started thinking about the university.

A big difference is no commute. No worry about dinner prep as I’m at home. It allows to have two to three free hours everyday. Also utilize lunch time for groceries.

When I go to the office in Tokyo, it’ll take 60-90minutes on commute and another 60-90minutes for household and ready for work.

Now those minutes are used for the studies. In the next term, a course or courses get harder, I may need more time but I think it’s going to be okay!

The university I’m studying is online specific, no physical campus exist.

All students are learning from many different places, they all seem to be busy and they are handling courses. So I should be able to do the same.

My cat.

A field and track event@Nissan stadium

Nissan stadium 2023/05/21

For the first time, we went to watch athletics.

Seiko Golden Grand Prix

KERLEY Fred san won 100m. It’s stopped twice and had to restart twice.

We both wanted to watch Nozomi Tanaka san in 1500m competition. Tanaka san is up and raising in middle distance races, she has something draws people’s attention by her running style.

She is fast and very energetic. And very unique.

I was in field and track when I was junior high school, I ran 800m and that distance was tough, it’s not long but it’s not short, running with sprint-speed is expected so that pacing was difficult.

For Tanaka san, 1500 looked like a short distance, she was fast for the first six laps, and became faster for the final lap that did not allow others to compete with her.

I watched her running with my eyes, didn’t take out my smartphone so There was no photo or video.

Because these days someone else does video for us and share in YouTube, I found the one! This is exactly what we watched.

Tanaka san in 1500m competition at Golden Grand Prix.

Videos are always great, and live is better! I think many people gathered for her, we also saw a former professional football player was there to report about Tanaka san. That was on TV.

Back in 2021, we were going to watch marathon and some competition in 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic, however it was held anattended for the corona pandemic in 2021.

It was held under very strict rules and conditions for protecting athletes, there was tension that made us staying at home and watching through TV screen.

Due to that it was unreal and felt like occurring somewhere else not in Japan. Though they were competing in venues where only 30mintute away by train.

This time we could go and watch, hope there is another opportunity near future. We’ll follow Tanaka san!

Since this May how to treat corona infection has changed, we are taking off our masks at last. This summer will be easy to breath w/o them. It’s been three years.

Earthquakes

Lately we had earthquakes in many places. At first, it was in Hokkaido, next Ishikawa prefecture in Hokuriku region, and here in Kanto. Yesterday and today we had quakes in Kagoshima, Kyushu, also the islands of Tokyo. You know there are islands of Tokyo, and my friend is living in one of them Hachijo-island. I sent text to her she text back saying “yes there are many quakes”. I said stay safe.

Earthquake, heavy rain, whatever, against natural disasters we are powerless. When it occurs we just wish no further damages, and pray for safety.

In the map it looks like this.

It’s occurring top to bottom, left to right.

We are not surprised by earthquakes, we know what will come. I wonder what’s going on underneath of this island. I heard that there are several plates layering from different directions, and those are moving without stopping.

Time never stops so does the earth. I wish you are all safe. 🌎🌍🌏

Choron

Think of his thought, is he happy? Does he want to go outside?

I hope he is happy being inside with us, as much as we are happy and loving him.

If I can have him wear a escape-free harness then I can take him walks. But if he just jumps out, he will be caught (collected?) by someone again, and end up in the shelter.

Japan is safe, however not safe and relaxing place for stray cats. There are life threatning dangers outside. Cars, trains and so on.

If we had a large garden, we’d happily release him. He will be running around and play with buttetflies and birds.

Anyway he is sleeping most of the time, I think (want to think) he is leading a happy life.

He is on MacBook

Getting back to school in 2023

Three cats sniffing outside air.🐈🐈‍⬛🐈

My first term started and I have finished what I had to finish for the wk1 at last. Due date is tomorrow.

I chose computer science associate degree. As a part time student, I’ll take maximum two courses at once, so it will take two to three years to complete all of required courses.

Getting back to the university at this age is just fun, as an adult I know what I want to learn and I can focus on related courses only. Learning new thing together with new people, I have many classmates now.

Wk2 starts from tomorrow, it requires me to spend weekends to finish discussion and prepare a journal to apply.

What makes this back to school possible is work from home and the Internet. I have time and I have means to access to the online university anytime from anywhere.

One of our cats is biting my desk.

Then, napping.

Japan won 2023 WBC!

Wow, unbelievable ending. Trout vs. Ohtani. Since yesterday, the entire Japan is looking at the games. Okamoto hit HR and Murakami hit HR, I think baseball has deeply rooted again!

Shota Imanaga who started the Japan team is from NPB DENA Baystars for which I am a big fan! Can’t wait to watch him pitching for the season starting soon, really proud of him.

Ima chan! You did a great job!

A cat litterbox

Our youngest cat he came here last December, one day all of a sudden peed in a bathtub.

I thought he was confused or so. he is six months old now.

Anyway we closed a door, we usually keep it open to release humidity after a bath.

Then a few days later he used a washbasin as his litterbox.

It’s less issue as it can be cleaned easily, but something is not okay for him therefore I needed to think about cause.

He was fine until recently, using a regular cat litterboxes with other two cats.

We didn’t change a sand or its layout, keep those clean as much as possible.

What’s wrong?

We closed a washroom’s door as well.

Then, he started meowing when he wants to go to a bathroom.

I open the door, he jumps in to the washroom bowl and pee or poop.

Mom gave me a spare box. And I placed it right next to a washroom room.

He used it several times only when the door is closed, if we are there for brushing teeth, washing hands, he’ll jump in and pee or so, it’s quick and he looks like needing it immediately, really hard to stop or move him to his restroom.

The first option is a washroom, secondary is a kitchen sink, then a litterbox.

My concern is that he is holding himself until we open the door, that is not okay. He may become sick.

Thanks to Google, there are so many results for search keywords “cat” “toilet” “washbasin” “kitchen”.

It’s such a relief, there are many blogs meaning it’s not unusual, also there are advices and solutions available.

keep water in a washbasin or make it not available somehow
Place a cat litter at close place as an alternative
Block a kitchen sink, somehow
Wait and see

We used to have more than five cats and I don’t recall anything like this happened back then.

After some research I found a successful example which is to place a litter box in a restroom. Also applied a cover to make it his private restroom.

Deep-fried tofu chips

I always keep deep-fried tofu in the freezer for Inarizushi or side dishes.

Today, I learned a new recipe. it’s easy and really tasty, crispy chips.

I’m not sure if deep-fried tofu is available in overseas, anyway if you find the one please try it once.

I had 5 each in the freezer, sliced it in half and cut them into triangles.

Use a cooking paper, place triangles one by one as much as possible. Overlapping part would need more minutes to be crisp.

I made guacamole for corn chips, and thought I should try it with home made soy chips.

Boiled apple