Jikiden Reiki with Mari: Valentines Day

Jikiden Reiki with Mari: Valentines Day:

Japanese Valentines Day is very different !

Valentines Day

Today was a Valentines Day.

It is so different.  

So, So different.

Couples go out for special dinner,

my daughter was busy whole day yesterday to make Valentine's cards 

for everyone in a class.  At first, I thought "WHY FOR EVERYONE ???"

Because 

Japanese Valentines day is very different.

This is the only official day of entire year when

"A Girl to tell a boy her feeling that 'she is in love'."

It's a day of "Girls-to-Boys", not "Boys-to-Girls"

Girls in love, they go out for a chocolate and gift shopping.  This time, girls wrap the chocolate and the gift by themselves. 

 It is common in Japan, when we buy a gift at a store, the store lady wrap the gift with their pretty store wrapping paper.

But for the Valentines day, girls even buy wrapping paper and wrap by themselves!

This is so special!

I know in Canada, wrapping the gift by ourselves is the only way.  

But in Japan, wrapping the gift by ourselves is luxury!

That's why, when I moved to Canada and saw the way people ripping open the gift wrapping paper, I was shocked. (Read my birthday present story?)

OK, What happens on The Valentines day.

The popular boys brings so many chocolates home.  Not so popular boys do not get chocolates, maybe from his mom or from his sisters.

Some girls give chocolates to boys as a friendship chocolate, called "Giri-choco".

Some girls give chocolates to one boy as a true love chocolate, called "Honne-choco".

Mothers counts her sons chocolates and asks her son

"You have 8 friendship chocolate, but do you have any true love chocolate ? "

or

"You have 12 true love chocolates?  Which girl are you going to chose now?"

or

"I am happy for you that you even got 1 friendship chocolate. Here is your true love chocolate from mom...."

This even happens in a office! 

 Family wait for her father comes home from work to count how many chocolate he will bring back. The more chocolates he has, the more popular he is at work and it is like a prize !!!

It is a big day for boys, and girls.

But this story continues here.

On March 14th, is the day that boys return the gift to girls. 

It's called "White Day" 

Those boys who received chocolates would go out for cookies shopping.

Yes, this time Cookies.

Boys who received friendship chocolates usually return friendship cookies for the girls.  But if he does not like the girl who gave him a true love chocolate, he does not return the cookies.

Boys did not receive any chocolates, they don't have to go out for shopping... 

It's a big day for a girl who gave a boy "true love chocolate".

"Do I get a cookie back from him...."

It's is a longest 1 month for a teenage-girl-in-love to wait for a reply.

I remember those days.

I had a heart breaking day because of the no chocolate return.

I also had a joyful day with a cookie box and a ornament bunny in my hands.

Awww, heart melting days...

Now, everyday is a Valentines day.  I love going out for a dinner spontaneously, not because everyone go out for a Valentine's dinner.

Spontaneous dinner is much more special, to me anyways.

Reiki for phobia

I wrote about my caterpillar phobia a while ago.


I have been working on get rid of the phobia by self treatment.  But I have never asked
other people to work on me to get rid of the phobia.
I never thought that it is neccessary as it is not a severe problem.

Well, I had an opportunity that someone could work on my phobia during the Jikiden Reiki
class I was teaching.

It was so interesting !!!

The basic style of Reiki is to place hands on the problem area of receiver's body or your own body. 

But there is certain technique to treat psychological problem such as depression,

anxiety, anger management, fear, phobia, trauma and also works for terminating addictions like drinking alcohol, smoking, sugar etc. 

 It is another wonder of Reiki, really.

Anyway, I wanted to see what will happen if someone work on my caterpillar phobia.

Soon after she started the treatment, I felt lots of shivers and goosebumps 

and I had to take few deep breaths to get through that stage.

Then, the left side of my body, between just below the rib and the hip bone started to pulse very noticeably and obviously.

"oooK,,, what is happening ???"

I thought I might be imagining something, or just my position.

I wiggle my body, sit upright, but it was still pulsing as if my heart moved to that spot.

Then I remembered !

If you read my old post about the phobia you will understand.

When I was attacked by the caterpillar, it left a big nasty hives all over 

my soft little belly, the left side just below the rib.

"Yes, just below the rib, left side !"

During the 15minutes Reiki treatment for my caterpillar phobia,

I felt with my body that the trauma was stuck in the area that had the nasty hive,

and by doing Reiki, it was drawing out !!!

I thought this is pretty amazing.

I never thought that my phobia was stuck in my physical body, but obviously,

it was not only in my mind, but also in my body.

I just love the wonder of Reiki.

To be able to do Reiki, you require

no medical knowledge,

no higher education,

no analyzing,

and you do not have to understand how it works.

The only thing you can think of during the treatment is,

"Nothing"

I know that not everyone is interested in Reiki, but every one can do Reiki.

I personally wish that every one could do Reiki for their family and friends!!!

" Reiki is the compassion in action. "

                          by Chiyoko Yamaguchi

Brown rice homemade yeast

I bake bread once a week.  Just because I LOVE fresh baked bread !!!


When I was flipping through some Japanese recipe book, I found that
there is a lady who makes "home made yeast" and then bake bread with
the home made yeast.

She said that only ingredients are "brown rice, honey and water".

" Woa, homemade yeast ???  I want to try. " 

Sounds so simple, let's try!


Soak 1 cup of brown rice in a water. Change the water everyday.

At this time, I do not know what will happen.

I noticed that the rice are getting whiter.  

The one in the left is soaked for 2 days,
the one in the right has not been soaked.

 At the 3rd day, I noticed a tiny little bump on each grains!
It was the same joyful moment when I just found out,

"I'm having a baby !!!" 

Little bump.

Growing !!!

A proud parent takes baby's photo.

"My baby ! "

Look!  It is really growing !  5th day.

Once the shoots reached to 2~3mm, add 4 cups of water and 1 cup of honey.

Put all together in a blender.

Pour it is a container and let it sit in sunshine. Keep the lid loose.

Shake the container once a day.

But I just could not put all of them in a blender, so I kept some in a separate container

to see what will happen.

I am curious.

Look at the long shoots!!!

Brown rice is alive !!!  

It will never do with white rice!!!


I think I am going to eat more brown rice than white rice from now on.  I trust that for us to be able to feel alive, we need to eat more alive food.  


In fact, Japanese people eat rice everyday it is because people believe that the Japanese rice (short grain rice) holds the most pure energy from the Universe.

See?  We need lots of water to grow rice.

As you can see, rice farm needs lots of water. 
Water comes from rain. 
The rain comes from the clouds.  
In old Japanese teaching, clouds are the highest place and god can only be above 
the clouds.  
So, rain is considered as the blessings from the Universe, god, creator, source, whatever you call.  
That makes the rice contains lots of blessings from the Universe.
That's why Japanese people respect rice.


I usually talk about this when I do Jikiden Reiki class, and people are very fascinated
by this fact !  






Anyways,
I am just waiting to see if the home made yeast will work for baking breads. 


But I am already happy that I happen to find out that brown rice is really alive food!




Those babies that left in a separate container are now in a soil to see if it really grow into brown rice...

To be continued.

Candle Making

Bees wax candles.


I love the smell and the positive effect of the bees wax candles.


I use only bees wax candles in my Reiki room during the Reiki sessions and classes.

Because my Reiki room is a small room, and many sick people come for Reiki sessions,
so I do not want to use the petroleum based candle, nor the candles with scent. 

When beeswax candles burn, they clean the air like a great, natural, air purifier.

To burn a beeswax candle is to enter into the wisdom world of the bee, and you enter, too, into a world of benefits from the bee. 

Compare this to breathing toxic fumes from paraffin candles.....

Beeswax candle fuel is the only fuel that actually produces negative ions, which not only helps remove pollution from the air but increases the ratio of negative ions to positive ions, the ideal and necessary scenario for clean air.

Well, I do not need to use any candle, but I like the warmth that 

the candle light give out to the room.

I used to be able to buy bees wax tea light candle for 30cents each.
It was already more expensive than regular petroleum based tea light candle that
I could buy 100pc for $7.00. (7cents each)


But the bees wax price has kept going up.




 I care about my Reiki room environment by reducing as much as chemical as possible, but 90cents per small candle became too much.




But I still wanted to use candle.  

" Hey, can I make candles ??? "

I Googled it.

"Yes, I can make candles myself! "

I got a block of Bees Wax from "Wicks and Wax" in Vancouver. 

Double boiler is the best way to melt the wax, but I use an old rice cooker.

Mean while, tie a fishing weight on the end of a wick string.

Let's have a close look.

I do not know the proper tools to make handmade candles, so I asked 

my husband (he is a plumber) to cover the end of a pipe.  

He used a scrap copper pipe and closed the one end.

Pour the melted wax into a metal pipe.

Dip and dip and dip...

After three dipping.

Cut the weight off after about 7 dipping.

Keep dipping and dipping.

Tada ~~~ !

Hand made dipping candles !  Oh my babies !

I also pour the melted wax into the tea light candle cups.

It is probably laughable for professional candle makers to see
my tea light candles that has cracks and wicks are not straight!!
But, they are my cute babies !!

While I am experimenting candle making, I learned,,,,

 Lighter colour bee's wax is OK for the tea light candles, 

but the dark colour bee's wax does not burn well as tea light candles. 

I also found that the dark colour bees wax needs thicker wicks.

It seems like there are lots to learn about the bees wax candle making!