Here or There

Usually, I take my son to the park next door. It's a very beautiful place because everyday a group of kind volunteers clean it up. I am always amazed by how hard they work. They even pull up the weeds one by one by hand. Of course, there is no garbage in that park.

When the evening comes, many people come to the park. They walk around the park with their dogs, exercise, or play with their children.

Next to the park, there is a pair of train tracks. When the train comes, children in the park get really excited! Sometimes, if the children wave their hands while saying "Bye-bye" to the train conductor, he will wave his hand back to them. Then, all of the children jump for joy!

These days, because my son has so much energy, I need to go to the park and play with him. While there, he can run much, play with his friends, and do high-fives with the kind volunteers that I talked about before.
Needless to say, while he is playing with his friends, I can talk about many things with my son's friend's mothers (I became friends with them through this park) and then I can get rid of some of my stress!

  

It was rainy all day yesterday. I don't like rainy weather because I can't play outside with my son.
However, if it doesn't much rain in Shikoku, we have a big problem. Especially in Kagawa prefecture, we always have a water shortage during the Summer. It rains very little in Kagawa. Our water supply comes from the Sameura dam in Kouchi prefecture.

About 13 years ago (maybe) during the Summer, we had a very serious shortage of water. At that time, we got water for only 4 hours (5pm to 9pm) a day. I remember that, when we could get water, I would save it by putting it into the bathtub or a water bowl. Then, I would pour some water from the bathtub into the toilet tank or washing bowl, using the water little by little. Of course, we only took a bath or did laundry from 5pm to 9pm. I think we did that for about 1month.
It was an experience that I can't forget. Sometimes, I check the amount of stored water in Sameura dam and try to save water to prevent this from happening again.




Here is a picture of the "Dragon men", who came to nearby kindergarten before. These original characters were created in order to teach children the importance of saving water.