I Eat Everyday

     It has been non-stop since I got back from Mongolia. First, I had to move. I had three weeks before I had to return the apartment. I moved several boxes a day. Then my father came to help. While he was here, we had to drive to Kochi, which took three days. I drove 12 hours each way. Then it was moving week for both me and my cousins. A day before we actually moved the last of the furniture, my cousins got a phone call. It was dreadful news. Their father had passed away due to his illness. As soon as we finished moving, or more like shoving things into the house, they had to prepare to go back to Mongolia for the funeral. That week was horrible.      Then it was time to look for a parking spot for the car. The house comes with a parking spot, but we have two cars, so we needed to find a spot for the second car. It was a stressful week right after my cousins had left for Mongolia, because I had to park the car at the coin parking since my cousin hadn’t f...

     It always feels sad to say goodbye.       It has been almost a month since I came home. I helped my parents, especially my mom, move things and clean. My mom just started a tourist base an hour from the city center. There were a lot of things to do, specifically, little things that needed to be done. Then I became an inpatient at Bodi Setgelten (the one I was hospitalized back in May of this year). I spent 5 days and got home today. Now, I have a few more days before I go.       No matter how many times I have said goodbye to my family and friends, I always feel sad. Initially, I felt like crying. I cried once when I had to leave my 3-month-old brother. Even though I don't cry anymore, I always feel sad.       Back in May, I thought to myself that I needed to come back home at least once a year. It helps my sanity and physically ( I am in a cooler environment when it is the hottest in Japan).  Also, I g...

     It has been a couple of weeks since I posted.       It was hectic for a couple of weeks.       First: Work. During the summers, we offer themed programs in English (of course). This year we had two different themes: Dinosaur and Pirates. There are a lot of things that go into putting a program together. From tiny details like who is going to buy the snacks or who is going to sweep the floor, to what each teacher is going to teach and make. I am responsible for all the seasonal programs. So, I had to delegate some of the logistics tasks to other people. The first week went fine. We had wonderful kids who could understand and speak in English to a degree. Also, we were more prepared for the week. Then the second week comes. We weren't prepared as much as in the first week. There were a lot of ideas, and we did them all. Even though it felt like we weren't that prepared, we were prepared enough to have some activities that we didn...

     So, it was a long Saturday.       In the morning, I had First-Aid training, which I wanted to attend to refresh my memory (I got certified last year).       A background story is needed here.       A few weeks ago, the person, whose position had only received a name makeover, wanted to have a training session without consulting anyone. That is fine. It is a good chance to learn from each other and discuss more about our programs. Then he sent an email about BBQ. In the beginning, everybody thought it was only for the staff, where we would casually hang out and get to know each other better. Then he sent another email saying that we are going to open up the BBQ to our students and their parents. It got escalated quickly because he decided he wanted to do it. Then he complained about the menu item, which he wanted to cook a burger. Also, he was second-guessing (or more like doubting) the lady who is working wi...

 Today, I had a dental appointment. Going out in this heat, I didn't want to but I had to.  As soon as I open the door and step out, the humidity and the heat hit me. I immediately start sweating, and I can feel that my cap is getting wet. I was worried about my body because my stomach was weird last night which made me vomit.  Then as soon as you step into a carriage of the train, it is cold. I felt cold. The extremes of hot and cold affect my body. It sounds weird, but I usually get cold during the summer in Japan because of this.  My dentist got a new chair, and it looked very fancy. She told me that I need a small-headed toothbrush for my molars because my Oral-B head is not small enough to reach back there. So, I got one. On the way home, I stopped by the supermarket. Purchased avocados to make a toast. It was yum.  Right now, I am sitting and finishing my last assignments of a course I am taking online, and sweating.  Oh, I restarted my fasting and di...

     Every day has been over 30 degrees Celsius. During this heat, it is smelly if you are riding trains like me. don't think Japanese people realize that they stink.       Imagine this: you are standing next to a guy whose arm is stretched to hold on to the rail. You get a whiff of his underarm smell, and you must stand next to him until he or you get off because the train is packed. After all, it is rush hour. OR… you finally get a seat next to a guy. That guy is talking to someone that is sitting next to him. Every time he opens his mouth, you get the smell of someone who is not in the habit of brushing his teeth. Again, you must sit next to him because the train is packed. AND…you wish you had a mask to put on.       I don’t think Japanese people realize that they stink or don’t care about personal hygiene. Sounds ironic. Japan is the land of onsens and public bathhouses.       The majority of the time, you w...

     It is mid-June, and it is starting to get hot. We are still rainy season. However, it is hot when it is sunny.      Japan has a lot to see if you are traveling. On top of that, if you like the summer season, I applaud you.       I don't like the summer season. It probably is my least favorite of the seasons. Japanese summer, I would call it, the sweaty season.       If you are like me who sweat easily, the one you sweat through the crack of your butt, you will not like Japanese summer.       So, the sweaty season of the year has started. At this moment, it is tolerable. There will be a nice breeze, like today, once in a while. I feel overall okay when going out (of course with my hat and sunscreen).        Once July starts and rolls over to August, that is when it becomes unbearable. I would sweat just sitting still. I felt that last year when I broke bones in my foot ...

  It was a weird week.      It started as normal . My normal working schedule has been back in place since the second week of April . I needed a little adjusting, but otherwise, it was pretty normal.      A friend of mine stayed for two days before going to South Korea.      Toward the end of the week, I checked my upcoming flight information . I have a transfer at Daegu International Airport . There was a notation saying "I need a transit visa." So, as a rational person, I went on to the embassy website to check and get the list of materials I would need.      That is where I encountered the website language can be set to either Japanese or Korean, not English . The website is designed for Japanese and Korean people . For people like myself, who can converse comfortably, but hard time reading Kanjis, the website doesn't service . So , I went to different countries (USA, Singapore, and Mongolia) embassy websites ...

     So many things happened in a week.       We are waiting for a business visa for my dad because he established a company in Japan. We have been waiting for a year. Yet, we still have to file for taxes and even pay local city taxes.       I know it is weird to pay tax on a company that cannot operate because the person who established the company hasn't gotten his visa, yet. We cannot open even a company bank account because Japanese banks ask for the owner's residence card. There is no residence card if you don't have a business visa.       In Japan, if you are a business owner, you must file for taxes 3 times. First, it is the national tax. You or an accountant prepare the financial statements and you go to the national tax office for tax filing. You may or may not pay taxes because it will depend on whether you had a good year or a bad one. Second, it is the city tax. It is the tax you pay where you have yo...

     I have been teaching English where I worked part-time as a student. I accepted a position at another company where I worked (part-time, of course) during the pandemic before moving to my current employer (non-profit organization).       For a couple of years in the beginning, I learned a lot. It is a set of skills for navigating tantrums, conflicts with a toy, or whatever the situation may be. The skill set you have relied on might not work on the next kid. You have to update and refine the skills constantly.       Don't get me wrong, it is rewarding to work with kids, and I am humbled (thankful for their trust) by the fact that the parents are leaving their kids in my care (there are other teachers, of course). However, after a while, once you have gotten the basics of child care and development, everything you are (I am) doing becomes routine. That's where I struggle.       Last week, I had a meeting with ...

       It has been a busy week. My parents went home after a sudden trip to Japan. A friend and I helped a co-worker move (which they forgot to get me lunch when I said get me something on the way back). It had been a long tiring week. This week is going to be a busy one as well. However, my friend from Australia and I are gonna catch up when she visits.       It had been a few weeks since I last checked my weight and BGL. However, everything that I am eating is sugar-free. From next week, I am cutting out flour.       Finally, my foot feels like my foot. My calf muscle hurt so much this week. My thinking is that my leg is starting to relearn how much I move. Also, the shittiest part of recovering from a foot injury is that your toenail will bother you so much which it hurt so much this week.       On the positive side, I swam 4 times a week and I didn't snack much. Yesterday, I had a big bowl of salad for d...

     For as long as I can remember, Mongolia celebrated March 8th. In my teenage years, I found out that it was the International Women's Day. The day that women fought for their rights, today my rights.       On a personal level, I don't care much for celebrations. Basically, I treat them as any normal day.       In Mongolia, celebrations are on different levels. That celebration always means excessive drinking. If the celebrations are about women, that means women expecting, more like demanding, some kind of gifts from their significant others. I find that whole thing bizarre.       Yesterday, my dad was reading the news and pointed out that in Mongolia more than 700 women spent the night in a place we call, eruuljuuleh tub or sobering up centers (roughly translating into English). Based on that, I am amazed at how low Mongolian people get.       It is not just this day. The majority of cele...

     Getting home on Sunday evening from our Lunar New Year celebration, I started to feel sick. The funny thing is that I know what I ate that made me ill. It was the good old lamb meat.       Living in Japan, I mostly eat beef, pork, and chicken. Sometimes, I cook internal organs such as the liver or heart.       For the celebration, my cousin and his girlfriend cooked some lamb meat. I had a few pieces along with the famous buuz. Halfway through the dinner, my stomach started to bloat, and it began to feel very uncomfortable. Right then, I knew I was going to be sick.       I got home fine and started to continue working on the small gifts that I was making for my students, who were graduating in a couple of weeks. Slowly, my stomach started to act up. My visits to the toilet increased and I felt sick every time I sat in front of the toilet ready to vomit. After a couple of hours, it happened, everything that ...

     Like many Asian countries, Mongolians celebrate the Lunar New Year or we call it Tsagaan Sar.      We put an elaborate centerpiece, aka tavag, which consists of long-shaped fried dough with engraving. The number of layers depends on the household head or the elder. For example: If the head of the household is in their 30s, the layer would be three. If the person is in their 40s, the number of layers would be five. If the person is elderly, then the number would be nine. The centerpiece layer number cannot end in an even number. That is also reflected in the gifts that the guests receive, hence the guests would receive usually 3 pieces of things. On top, we put candies, aaruul (my favorite snack made from milk), and anything (people usually put white edible things).       Another thing we put on the table is an almost whole sheep, obviously cooking either steam or smoking. The "almost whole sheep" means that the front portion of the ...

     I made pumpkin soup and froze some for future me.       Thursday was a super annoying day ( I am writing this as I feel it). At work, everybody wanted something (I mean kids want something all the time) it was super annoying to remedy small situations between two small children or somebody coming to me wanting something that was nowhere to be seen. On top of that, my supervisor added another fifteen minutes to my time and didn’t say anything. One, I could have checked or two, she could have mentioned. After I finished covering my time, it gave me about 30 minutes to eat my lunch and get ready for my classes which I have 3.       I forgot to weigh myself, but my BGL was normal.      I am finally getting the hang of the quick turn when I swim. Finally, I finished a yoga session without thinking about my foot (maybe I thought about it twice?). Before, I always felt a little scared thinking what if I hurt it again. N...

       On Monday, I made Chicken Tikka Masala using the spices my friend gave me before she moved to another country. Unfortunately, I added too much chili powder, making it quite spicy. Nevertheless, it turned out delicious.       The other day, I visited a halal store and was thrilled to find large tortillas. I also bought frozen chapati but noticed that it contained a little bit of sugar. Next time, I will buy frozen naan instead.       Throughout the week, love was in the air, with chocolates everywhere. In previous years, I might have been tempted to buy some for myself and others. However, this year, I haven't felt inclined towards anything sugary.       As the weekend approached, I experienced some gas and was farting quite a bit (which was a bit embarrassing, but it's a normal occurrence). I had yakisoba, and I think that might have contributed to my discomfort.       Interestingl...

  One of my Health goals for the year is to decrease and eventually quit sugar. Pretty much everybody knows that sugar is not good for our health or we don't need to stay healthy.  Even before starting the challenge, I gave away everything that had sugar in them.  Last Sunday, I went for grocery shopping. That was the day I totally (to a degree) quit sugar. In the supermarket, it felt weird. It was strange not to buy any snacks that I usually buy. The whole feeling was that I wasn't following the usual rules of grocery shopping. Till now, when I went shopping, I would start by putting some veggies in my cart, some protein, and dairy, then I go to the middle aisles to put some snacks in my cart.  Before going into the supermarket, I reminded (like two people in my head started having a conversation) myself, that I was starting a new challenge. The challenge is to decrease and eventually sugar which means to snacks. So, I purchased what I needed plus a bunch of...

    Hello to the dear reader, and Happy New Year to you.      I wanted to thank you for reading this blog. I am so happy you find my writing interesting.       In January, several things happened. I turned 35, my sink tap broke off, and my family stayed with me until the mid-January. It was a busy month, and I couldn't get a moment for myself. Now, that I am alone in my apartment, I can do some thinking.       I watched some self-improvement videos and wrote down a few goals for the year.       In previous years, I would write down many things but never really accomplish them. Then, I would self-blame because I didn't achieve those things.       This year, I wrote down at most 3 things for each category on propose. I have five categories: Work, Health, Relationships, Brain, and Takes Time. As the name suggests, work, health, and relationships are straightforward. Under the Brain cate...

     Well, it is officially Christmas month.     I checked my blood glucose level this morning, it is within the normal range.      I started to rewatch Dr. Mindy Pelz. I love how she describes fasting and food. I stumbled upon Glucose Revolution . Dr.  Jessie Inchauspé explains how glucose works and when to eat.     Oh, I made this for my friend's daughter.     It is magnetic seasons. She can place the flowers, leaves and snow on the background. Hoping that she will like it and use it. I think that is it for now. See you in the next one.

    Since the last incident on the train with a lady falling on my injured foot, everything has been normal for the most part.       I had my regular physical therapist sessions and x-ray appointments. I had my last x-ray last Monday and the doctor said everything looks good. Also, I resumed my swimming. It felt SO GOOD just to be in the pool. Of course, I cannot do flip-turns or use full force, yet. Still, it is so nice to move in the water.         My father came to visit me while I was using one crutch. He helped with carrying things. It was nice to have my father with me for a little over a week. A week after my father left, my fridge broke down. I don't know the reason. All of a sudden, it stopped working. I cleaned the back of the refrigerator and left it unplugged for a day, no use. It is broken. My cousins suggested calling a handyman or ordering freon. I told them I don't know anything about it so you have to figure it out....