Piano recital

I  attend a piano recital once in every year. Since I restarted piano, I have performed five times in a piano recital. I think there are some important points to play the piano in a recital.
First, it is different between playing the piano at home by oneself and playing it in a recital. A performer always has to consider that there are listeners in a recital. We have to play the piano in order to satisfy listeners as well as ourselves. When we play the piano as we like, we can't control ourselves, and in the result, our performance become so monotonous. We have to build a piece with considering where we should play emphatically or mildly or where the climax is, and so on. We always take care how our performance is listened.
Second, it is important to select an appropriate number to one. It is not good to be more difficult or easier than one's level. If it is easier, we can't get good at piano, and if it is more difficult, we can't master the number. We are expected to express music not to make just sounds.
Finally, we should enjoy ourselves. I can't perform as I expect because I always get nervous. I would like to perform with confidence.

I will have a piano recital in February in next year. I have already prepared the recital little by little. I am looking forward it.

Piano lesson

I love playing the piano. I started to practice the piano when I was 3 year old. I don't remember a time when I touched the piano for the first time, but I had enjoyed playing the piano since I graduated from elementary school. I was happy to become good at piano and to increase my repertoires. But I took a dislike to play the piano in junior high school. One of the reason was that my piano teacher was so strict. The teacher always angried about bad technique and accused me of less practicing. I was very gloomy when I had to go to the piano lesson. But I was enforced to practice the piano by my mother.
When I was third-year student in senior high school, I could stop the piano lesson because of an entrance exam of college.  It was very happy for me not to have to practice the piano. After that, I had rarely played the piano for about ten years. I didn't miss the piano and I thought there would be no chance to enjoy the piano in my life.
But three years ago, I was invited to play the piano by my friend. She loved piano and she introduced her piano teacher for me. At first, I didn't want to take a piano lesson, but I decided to play the piano again because I loved music.
Since I restarted playing the piano, I got into it. My new teacher was a very good teacher. She has never angried about technique and less practicing. She teaches me how to express music rather than how to move fingers. She doesn't teach me a lot of expression. She gives me a little advice and tells me I should think. When I was a child, I played the piano as directed by my teacher. I didn't consider how to express music. But now I consider what a composer would like to express and how I should express it.
I really appreciate my teacher and my friend who is introducing me a teacher, and also, my mother who gives me a chance to practice the piano. If my mother hadn't enforce me to continue the piano, I could not play the piano as well as now.

My job

I am a trainer. I train our customers how to use our database. I am responsible for scheduling training sessions with customers, preparing training materials, and implementing training. If a customer give me any questions in a training session, I have to answer that. But when the question is what I can't answer, I get back to an office and ask colleagues in development team or editorial team. After I get answer, I inform customers. And the database is always updated and improved, so I should constantly check information of it.

Lunch

When I work in my office, I always eat lunch at a cafeteria in our office. I always buy a lunch bag, sandwiches, or rice balls in the shop of an office building. But there are a few shops in the building, so I get tired of them. Once in a while I go for a lunch with my colleagues in a restaurant. There are a lot of restaurants around the office, so we can select what we want to eat. But it is a little expensive to eat lunch at a restaurant. Previously I made a lunch bag by myself everyday, but recently I have been busy with work and I havn't made it. I think I should do that, but I can't. I wish there were some parks near the office, if so, I could take a lunch bag and eat it there. It may be confortable to eat ouside if the weather is clear in spring.
When I go out of the office on business, I always eat lunch in a restaurant and sometimes in a Shinkansen. The upper picture is a sushi lunch bag got in Osaka station. There are some smaller Nigirizushi. It's so cute. Many kinds of lunch bags are sold in stations of Shinkansen, so I don't like to get on a Shinkansen but I like to select a lunch bag and eat it in a Shinkansen. In Japan, these lunch bags sold in railway stations are called Ekiben, and they are very popular.

Climbing a mountain

This picture was taken on the Mt. Fuji two years ago. It was the first time to climb Mt. Fuji. I started climbing a mountain four years ago. At first I simply wanted to climb Mt. Fuji, and I thought I would stop climbing a mountain when I could reach the top of the Mt. Fuji.
When I went to buy climbing shoes and a backpack and I told a salesclerk that I started climbing for the purpose of climbing Mt. Fuji, he said that Mt. Fuji wasn't the best and there were much more beautiful mountains than Mt. Fuji.  I didn't understand what he said.
But now I agree with him. Actually Mt. Fuji was very beautiful, but there are a lot of mountains I want to climb.

This is Gurley

Today I introduce Gurley. He lives in the neighborhood same as Syary. He has a nice body and looks strong. He always cautious about human, so I have never been able to touch him.  As different from Syary he rarely appears around Sushi shop. But whenever I see him, he sits on the wall of Sushi shop. So I named him Gurley.
The reason why I named two cats Syary and Gurley is that they lives around Sushi shop. In Japanese Shari means rice with vinegar and Gari means slices of pickled ginger, and Shari is used to make Sushi and Gari is always eaten with Sushi. That is just a pun.
I havn't seen him for two months, so I am worried about him. I hope he lives well anywhere.

This is Syary

Today I introduce Syary. She lives in the neighborhood. Everyone calls her as she or he pleases because no-one knows her original name. Someone calls her Shiro-chan (Shiro means white), and another one calls her Mie-chan (Mie is a common name of cats in Japan). My husband and I named her Syary. Do you understand which Syary is derived from? Let me give you a clue. She always sits in front of sushi shop. The answer will be found another time.
She always lives outside even if it is raining, cold, hot, or stormy. She has to live in much tough environment. And if she gets a disease, no-one might take care of her. As compared with her, our pet Basil and Yuki spend in a confortable enviroment at home everyday and we can  take them to a hospital as soon as they get a disease. They don't encounter their enemy and they can have a full meal.
On the other hand Syary can go everywhere she wants and she can play with bugs or birds. But Basil and yuki only know our house and a hospital. They don't know bugs and birds and sky and grasses.
I don't understand which cats are happy. I think this is a difficult question.

My nephews

I have two nephews. One is four years old and called Haru-chan, and the other is three years old and called Sho-chan. We can't meet frequently because we are so far away. They are so cute and lovely. I think it is the best timing to play with them now. By the time they go to elementary school, they might not play with me. I feel rushed.
These picture were taken when we met last time.  The right toy was Sho-chan's and the left was Haru-chan's. I didn't have my toy but they kindly and heartily created my toy in the middle. I was very happy! I cherish this picture.
We are going to meet at the beginning of May. I can't wait.

My husband

Yesterday I wrote about my brother, so I am going to write about my husband.
We got married about seven years ago. We were originally classmates in college, so we have been always like friends since we got married. Both he and I have a full-time job, so generally on weekday one of us who comes home earlier do houswork. At first he couldn't do any houswork well, for example doing laundry, cooking, and cleaning. But now he become an expert at doing houswork. If he hadn't do anything, I couldn't carry on working.  I really appreciate him.
He is interesting in wine and he takes a wine course once a week to challenge a certification exam in Augest. He studies everyday until late at night. I want to be behind him. I am inspired by him and I am going to work harder with English !

my brother

Last week, I met my brother for the first time in years. He normally works in Mie prefecture but he is going to stay in Tokyo in two months. It was a first time for us to meet after he started working two years ago. He told me about his work a lot. I had heard his work was very hard, so I had been worried about his health. But he looked good and I was very happy to hear that he liked his work and enjoyed it.
I was very pleased to see him and hope that he will do his best.

Very cold day

It was very cold yesterday. I would like to go to Hanami(seeing cherry blossomes), but I couldn't.
This year cherry blossomes bloomed earlier than every year, especially in Tokyo. They were in full bloom two weeks ago but I couldn't see them because I went to Osaka. In Osaka cherry blossomes didn't bloom yet while I stayed. It is once in a blue moon that cherry blossomes bloom earlier in Tokyo than Osaka. I was very surprised.
The period of cherry blossmes blooming is so short that it is difficult to enjoy them every year. I'm sorry not to enjoy them this year. It was bad timing.
The picture was taken in Rikugien last year. Next year I hope to enjoy Hanami.