Hidemi’s Rambling No.78 Jan 1, 2010

A Happy New Year! It is said in Japan, ‘New Year’s Day sums up the new year’. To make the new year happy, I need to spend today happily. Yet, I can’t feel pressured. Whatever I do today, it’s supposed to be repeated all year long. So, no pressure. Just be happy. I wish you a wonderful, happy New Year.

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Hidemi’s Rambling No.77 Dec 30, 2009

Many stores in Japan hand out a free calender for customers at the end of a year. When I was a child, my family never needed to buy a calender for a new year because we got amply for free. Some stores offer free-to-take calenders in front of the entrance at this time of year. I went rambling down the street near the train station to get some. There are many shops and I got a lot of calenders for free last year. This year, the recession was obvious here and I couldn’t find one. A store put up a sign which said, ‘Buy one and get a free calender’. It’s not my option. The era of a free calender has passed…

Hidemi’s Rambling No.76 Dec 29, 2009

The Christmas card my mother sent me shows her character properly. My parents sent me a Christmas present of wine prior to the cards.They usually send in their joint names, but this time there was only my father’s name on the box. I thought he sent it by himself. It made sense considering how she had snubbed me last time we met. On her Christmas card which came later, she added with pretense of being casual, ‘Cheers with wine!’. She apparently had to imply that she had chipped in the present…

Hidemi’s Rambling No.75 Dec 27, 2009

A clothing store in the mall is going to close for good and I went there today for the closing sale. I often get a surprisingly discounted item when a store is closing. It has helped me save much money. Recently, more and more stores have gone out of business in the area I live, and the mall I went today has also had less and less shops. As a new shop hasn’t opened, they put tables and chairs for customers to rest where the old store used to be. Now the mall has the break areas everywhere. While I enjoy a sale, I lose a store to shop one after another around me…

Hidemi’s Rambling No.74 Dec 26, 2009

My mother’s hobby is drawing. She drew a Christmas tree on her Christmas card that I received yesterday. Over the years, she has gotten influenced by me for a Christmas card which she didn’t have a custom of sending. This year, she wrote ‘Merry Xmas’ in English baldly and decoratively across the tree. It must have been a big challenge for her who is not used to writing English. Sadly, she misspelled ‘merry’ and wrote ‘Marry Xmas!’ instead. For years, she has kept urging me to marry, and it finally got her. A word ‘marry’ automatically pops up in her brain when she tries to communicate with me…