Tuesday, May 5, 2009

A day at the beach


I went to the beach with my mom yesterday.
The waves were very calming and the sand felt good to my feet.
We had a picnic lunch and I made a painting while my mom was taking a nap :)
It was a good day.

Movie: Music of the Heart

I have been lucky with movies lately. Saw another good one last night.
Pretty moving to me.

Flowers flowers flowers!






They are the source of my life!
Wonderful.

Painful days

I was suffering from this unexplained pain in my stomach for about 4 days last week.
It was intolerably painful that I even called an ambulance.
I went to the hospital four times, did all kinds of examination and saw five doctors but they have found nothing abnormal with my body.
It is very strange and frustrating to be told "everything is fine" when you are feeling an excruciating pain.
The pain went away after the 4 days and now I feel fine but I will keep searching for the true cause of the pain.

Lots of people helped me during my battle with the pain and it was amazing.
Without them I wouldn't have been able to take the brunt of the pain.
I would like to use this space to thank all the people who gave me support.
Thank you.

Monday, May 4, 2009

Movie: Dead Poets Society 映画『いまを生きる』

This is a great movie.
"Seize the day!"いまを生きろ!

Sunday, May 3, 2009

the large intestine endoscope

the examination itself wasn't really so bad.
the feeling was wired but it didn't hurt at all.
i got to see inside of my intestine on a screen and it was interesting.
the doctor said everything was fine with my intestine, which was a great relief.

but the process of emptying my intestine was awful.
i had to drink 2 litters of magnesium-containing laxative liquid in the two hours before the examination.
it was a lot and the drink must have been loaded with artificial sweeteners like sucralose and it was hard for me to drink.

and after the endoscope, i had to fight with a feeling of fullness in my abdomen
it was painful

it was one of my toughest experiences for me.
i do not want to go through this again :(

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Hello again

It's been quite a while. How have you all been?
I've been doing pretty good.

I'm going to grow sweet rice this year. It's much stickier than normal rice. You use it when making rice cake or mochi in Japanese. Not many people grow the sweet kind of rice lately because they find it bothering or something. I decided to make it since I thought it has scarcity value to grow the sweet kind, and the mountainous area where the Ooyama's rice paddy is located is said to be suitable for sweet rice farming, and it is my dad's favorite food in the world:)

Most of the farmers now BUY rice seedlings from seed and plant suppliers, or grow the seedlings in gas-stove heated green house. I make beds in a rice paddy to grow seedlings of the rice. That's how people in 50 years ago would do it and it seems great to me because you need little equipment or money, or work since the nature does most of the work for you.

Today I coated the edges and sides around the rice paddy with mud, in order to prevent the water from leaking out. It was interesting. Felt like I was decorating a huge cake with whipped cream or something :)

A new friend T volunteered to help and it was great. Much funner and easier than to work by myself. We were able to make two muddy beds successcully. The friend has moved to Sado from Tokyo after quitting a full-time job to live a happier life.

The rice seeds that I've been soaking in the water for two weeks are almost ready to sow. The seeding party is scheduled on Monday.

My dad's right foot has been swollen and hurting since five days ago. He had been insisting on not going to see the doctors because he hates hospitals& doctors. But he said yes when I asked him to go to the hospital so I took him there this morning.
It seems like the gout. My dad would need to suffer from the pain for a while but I'm relieved to know that nothing seems wrong with his bones at least. I was afraid that he would have difficulty running again so.

I had a computer tomography of the abdomen taken in the hospital. I will have a colonofiberscopy next week. I'm a little scared since I hear it could hurt a lot and is not pleasant at all. But hopefully the results of the two tests will show what's causing the pain in my stomach that starts when running.

My friends who live in Lithuania sent me a package by mail. It had post cards, photos, socks, various kinds of seeds (herb and peas)and home-dried fruits. It all made me very happy. They are great people. I feel blessed to have such friends and am excited to plant the seeds and have an international garden soon:)

A good friend of mine, M is coming to Sado tomorrow. She will stay with me and my family for a while, and help my dad with his project on the land in the woods and me with farming, etc. I'm very excited.