My new 6hours

My new life starts from this September !

Yes. My youngest son goest to Kindergarten.  From this year, Kindergarten is a full time school, not the half day school!

My son went to the pre-school, but it was only 2hours and 3 times a week. 2 hours goes by really quick.  After dropping him off at pre-school and by the time I finish the grocery shopping, it is time to pick him up....

Anyways, from this September, I will have an empty house for,

6 hours/day, 5 times/week

that is 30hours/week.

What do I do now? 

I have been wishing for the free time for all these years, but one it is given,
I don't know what to do !!!

The first 4 years of my family life, I was either pregnant or nursing.  Children are now 9yrs, 7yrs and 5yrs. It has been 9 years and 9 month since my oldest was born.

Somebody was always at home, 

"Mommy, I'm hungry~!" 

"Mommy, I want to do painting, can you help me to set it up~?" etc etc etc.

Especially when I am on the phone,

"Mommy! Can you read this book now~?" "My nose is bleeding!"

When I am packing the old clothes for donation, my daughter would start unpacking,

"Mommy! This is my favourite shirt! Oh, I remember this shirt when I was just a baby,,,, maybe it will fit to my stuffy bear." 

When I practice piano,

"Mommy, can you play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, instead?"

When I want to do knitting,,,, forget it.

When we do some family gatherings, I could never finish one conversation from the beginning to the end.  Usually, join the conversation half way through and trying to figure out the subject.  By the time I caught up with the converstaion,

"Mommy, my hands are sticky with ketchup~!"

By the time I wash the ketchup-hands and back to the conversation (if there is a seat),

the last subject would be finished, and next subject would be already starting. 

When I look back, I have not been able to complete one thing without any distruction 

for 9 years.

Now I am facing to the fact that I get to chose how to use the 6 hours!! 
For myself, or for others.  This is so exciting!

I even asked moms friends from school,

"Can you pleeeeease not ask me to do volunteer for the first 2 month? I have been waiting for this time so long, and I just want to enjoy the 6 hours for now. I promise to

do volunteer once I had enough of my 6 hours!"

What a selfish request !

Anyways, as a gradual start, the first day of the kindergarten was only 2 hours. The second day will be 4 hours, and the third days will be 5 hours.

From the 4th day and on, it will be 6 hours!

my son, being proud to be in a big school.

changing into inner-shoes.

find his name and hook his back pack

sit in the center space and listen 

to the teacher carefully.

There is my son isn't listening nor looking 

at the teacher at all.

He is distracted by the sea animal pictures

on the wall....

"My want to do list"

More Reiki sessions during day time and have free evenings

Yoga into my life

Practice Piano and Harp more

Start knitting again

Offer Reiki as volunteer

Edit videos and photos

try new recipes for meals

and more Reiki. did I say that?

Seems like I can fill up the 6 hours pretty quick.

Life is beautiful

12 years today !

When I came to Canada for the first time, I came to Chilliwack straight from Nagasaki, Japan.


1999, August 27th, 12 years ago today.




People asked,
"Why Chilliwack?"




I had a choice of Victoria, Chilliwack, Cranbrook or Kimberly as a gymnastics instructor.




Before I decided which town I should go, I researched a little bit.  There was no "Google", so I pulled out a world map, and checked each city.


" Victoria, I have to take a ferry to go to Vancouver. Neh~."
" Kimberly, there are only 6000 population in the little town. Neh~. "
" Cranbrook, O-K-, but far away from Vancouver."
" Chilliwack, it is only 1cm away from Vanconver (on the map), it should be 30minutes train ride from Chilliwack to Vancouver! It should be good!"




So I decided to go to Chilliwack, without knowing that there are 
no rapid train, buses run only 1/hour and rarely on-time, 
takes 1.5 hours to go to Vancouver by highway bus and 
takes 1 hour to get to the highway bus station by city bus....




When I got here in 1999 Summer, I thought,
"Where are all the people?"
"Does anyone live here?"
"Does anyone drive cars on the highway?"




Coming straight from Japan to Chilliwack, I felt this town is so empty.  The population of the city of Chillwack was 65000 in about 900km². 
That means one person has 13m as her/his own space without touching eachother.


The population of Nagasaki city was 455000 in 406km². 
That means one person has 80cm as her/his own space without touching each other.


..... I am pretty sure I got this number right. (If anyone notice this is wrong, please let me know !!!)




Anyway,


I did not know anyone except the owners of the gymnastics club,
I did not know what is where,
I did not know how to ask which ways to go to where to buy what (if this makes sense..).




I thought 
"What did I just do... I am here in a different country, with a little English, and I know nobody.... and I made 1 year contract..."




Eventually, I was able to adjust my Japanese lifestyle into Chilliwack lifestyle. 




1 year plan turned into 12 years, and more to come !








I was filled with gratitude last night at the Party in the Park.




"Hi Mari, how's everything?"
"Hi Mari, how are you?"
"Hi Mari, your kids are getting big!"
"Hi Mari, oh you got a hair cut!"
"Hi Mari, where is your husband today?"
"Hi Mari, I haven't seen you a while! How are you doing!"






You don't know how much it means to me to have these simple conversations.
I feel like I live in a community where I feel welcomed!








Thank you, Chilliwack, for being just 1cm away from Vancouver on the map. If you were 
3 cm away, I would not chose to come to Chilliwack.
You gave me everything I dreamed of.
Husband, children, extended family, friends, house, car, water, etc, and all are wonderful.

Reiki at camping

I love Reiki. Both teaching and practicing.

Especially when I see the positive result from the Reiki treatment, I get so excited

and want to do more to see even better result.

But I know not everyone understand Reiki. In fact, most of the people has some 

level ofdoubt for Reiki. Until they experience the Reiki treatment themselves, 

then they understand !

I am not saying Reiki gives complete cures to the serious illness, but Reiki always gives positive result.

You can doubt, criticize, not believe, it still works.

Here is my recent story of Reiki !

We went 3 generation family camping for 4 days. Started with a big adventure.

Our poor truck broke down 1 hour after we left to the camp site. 3 hours to go, not even close to the camp site.

Here comes tow truck for a rescue. 

We almost missed the big family camping !

But everyone helped us to get there, and we finally arrive to the camp site!

But my father in law was sitting there with upset stomach. He looked pale.

Father in law on the right

Beside him, there was my niece having a headache and her mother was giving

her a Reiki treatment.

Sunshined, big rain came. But it was all fun, because we were all together!

However, my father in law still does not feel good even on the second day.

I thought,

"I wish I could do Reiki for him. I am sure he would feel better if he receive Reiki treatment....."

But I know he is not really sure about Reiki.  He does not say anything bad about Reiki, but I just know, he is not sure.

In the morning of the second day, I mentioned to him,

"If you are open for Reiki, I am more than happy to do Reiki for you. I am sure it will help to make you feel better. You can think about it !"

I did not want to push him too much, but at the same time I wanted to let him know that Reiki was available.

He was still feeling sick at the lunch time. He even said,

" If I feel like this tonight, I will not stay another night. "

Some of the family members sort of understand, or accept Reiki. In fact, my sister in law (his daughter), and my niece (his grand daughter) learned Reiki. 

They are telling him,

"Let Mari do Reiki on you!"

"O,,,,K,,,,, if you guys say so,,,,,"

I did Reiki for maybe 30minutes.  He sat on the lawn chair, and I put my both hands 

on his belly.

30minutes later, I asked him

"Are you OK? Would you like more?"

and he said

"I think I had enough." 

Am I torturing him?  

I told him

"You might want to go back to your motor home and rest for a while. Even though you don't feel any difference now, you will start feeling better later. Give some time for your body to digest the information." 

And he went back for a little rest.

Meanwhile, other family members were playing a Reiki train!

Alanah had allergy reaction, and her mother was giving her Reiki. The son came along and give his mom a pretend-Reiki on her head. Uncle came along and give his nephew a pretend-Reiki. Nephew came along and give his uncle a pretend-Reiki. Sister came along and give her brother a Reiki.

***) Only the 2nd and the 5th person on this Reiki train took Jikiden Reiki training.

But I love the way Reiki is working here!

 I even brought my massage table to a camp site to do some Reiki.

Few hours later, father in law came back.  He does not look sick, in fact, he looks just fine! 

"Where the heck is the wine that I brought?" and he started to drink his favourite red wine.

father in the middle, red jacket

I was in a kitchen and making sushi rolls by myself.

As he pour himself a glass of wine and going out the door, shyly and not looking at me, he said,

"Whatever that is, Rakay or Riki, something. I think it worked. I feel good now. Thanks!"

At the dinner time, he said to the family 

" Wine works really good to me! I feel really good now ! "

Some family members told me later

"There is no doubt that Reiki worked on him. What a big difference since few hours ago! It's not the wine!"

Look at his smile !  4th from the left

Beauty of Reiki.

no electricity

no computer

no capsule, no pill

no bottle of herb

no bandaid

does not have to be in a special room

in a house, on the ferry, in the airplane,

in the office, on the island

noisy place, hot place, cold place

learn reiki and anyone can do reiki in any place.

Reiki is intelligent.

I think.

Share my hair

I have a long hair.  Well, I HAD a long hair.

My hair became so long because I could not find a good hair stylist 
in Chilliwack, the farm town where not so many Japanese live.




When I first time came to Canada in 1999, my hair was short, and I wanted to maintain
my short hair. 


 But every time when I went to get a hair cut, I came home with a big
disappointment!  After the few attempts, I came to the conclusion that 


"The Canadian hair stylists are not used to cut the Asian hair ! "

Every hair stylist in Japan said, my hair is so soft and very easy to handle and 
I always satisfied with the hair cut in Japan. 

But compare with caucasion's hair, Asian hair is coarse hair.  If stylist hasn't been trained with Asian hair, they have very hard time to make it stylish.

I became afraid of going to the hair cut, and thought it is safer to let it grow longer 
than get a hair cut.




For about 6,7 years, I always have long hair and I did not get any hair cut last year!

One day, my friend who had a long hair got a hair cut.  I asked her

"Why did you get a hair cut ?"

She said,

"I donated my hair."

"BINGO~! My heart rang !"

That's it !  I am going to do it !

I have no idea that I could donate my hair!

I researched about the hair donation, and there are few rules.

- No perm

- No colouring

- at least 9 inches

- less than 10% of grey hair

Well, I passed everything!  I have no perm, no colour, I have 17 inches to donate, and no grey hair!

I hope my hair will help to make one more wig for people who 

lost their hair because of the chemo therapy, 

or the hair loss illness called Alopecia.  

Distant Reiki

Distant Reiki is amazing.  This is one of my favourite technique of Reiki.

Once you learn the second level of Reiki, you will be able to do distant reiki.

Distant Reiki ???

Yes, Reiki sessions from distance.

I sit in my living room in Canada, and do the Reiki session for a person

who is in USA, or England or Japan.  Anywhere in the world.

Yes, energy is connected all over the world.

I know, I know, you are thinking,

"How is it possible to do a healing work without even touching nor meeting

 the person who is receiving a treatment ???"

It IS possible.

Distant healing has been in Japan even before the country was named "Japan" . 

3000 years ago or more.

There are many different ways of doing distant healing, but in Japan, it was part of a nature healing, not everyone knows how to do it, but everyone can learn how to do it.

It works amazing.

Before I learned Reiki, I have no idea there is such thing called "distant healing". When I was introduced to the idea, I asked the person,

"Do I use phone to do it?  or Fax? Internet????  How ? "

She said,

"You don't need phone, fax, internet. You just have to learn how to do it and you will be able to do it."

"Hummmm." I said.

Anyways,

After I came back from my first Jikiden Reiki seminar with Mr.Tadao Yamaguchi, I was very excited to be able to do Reiki from distance!!

Since 2006, just about everyday, I am doing either in-person Reiki treatment, or Reiki treatment from distant, and this is one of my favourite technique.

One of the sign if Reiki is in progress or not is that "tingly sensation" or "goose bump feeling".

So when you are feeling sick and if you asked me to try distant reiki, but not knowing when I am doing distant reiki session, please watch for the sensation of "tingly" or "goose bumpy feeling".

That is the sign that you are receiving Reiki treatment, so please be thankful and rest!

Remember, anyone can learn and do this technique. It works for cuts, bruises, burns, cold, flu, pains, or more serious sickness, also anxiety, depressions, stress etc.  

It really comes handy for me as I live in Canada, and both of my sisters and original families and relatives  and old friends are all live in Japan.

I just keep doing distant reiki when I hear my sister, or my brother in law were feeling stressed, or sick.   So far, it always works !!!

What a wonderful thing to have in my life.

Too many passion, too little time.

I love Reiki.


I love teaching Reiki.


I love doing the Reiki treatments.


I love my husband.


I love my children.


I love spending time with my family.


I love playing the piano.


I just starting to love to play the harp.


I would love to volunteer at Hospice Society.


I would love to start doing Yoga.


I would love to sleep at least 8 hours a day.


I do my best to keep my good health.


I want to keep writing blogs so then when my children gets older, they can read my story and get to know about their mother.






I just wish if there was 27 hours/day, so then the extra 3 hours can help to do whatever I want to do !!!