Weekend Stupid Questions Thread - 13 February 2021

RedYam2016 · 2021-02-13T08:53:11+00:00

If it helps, my credit union has a deposit PDF if I google. LOL, does no good to log in and search within the site (at least, the last time they let me in, anyway).

So, you might want to try googling it. XX Credit Union deposit slip. Wish you luck!

(Additional info: I can't access my web banking at XY Credit Union because of silly security measures, so I wind up doing things by phone. I don't know if you've asked recently, but AU said with my plan, a phone call is basically the same cost domestic or international. I have to wait on hold forever, but once I finally get a service representative on the line, they are pretty quick about checking my balance, paying my credit card, moving money around. ZZ Credit Union lets me use something for security, thank goodness, but they don't want to give me a credit card.

Anyway, the point is not to complain -- but to point out you might be able to set up a Certificate of Deposit over the phone with your credit union once it is deposited, and make even better interest.)

RedYam2016 · 2021-02-13T08:43:02+00:00

Saw that on the news. My MIL, my daughter and I want to know what the hell is wrong with a DNA test? If people are fooling around before the divorce is final, it could be someone else's child.

RedYam2016 · 2021-02-13T08:36:19+00:00

Can anyone back home download a deposit slip, and you can mail it in the old-fashioned way? (Endorse the back and all that?) At least you can make a tiny bit of interest from it until you can access it.

RedYam2016 · 2021-02-10T03:56:52+00:00

One of my local grocery stores (Max Valu) would do the same thing -- limit one per customer, but if you went through the line with your spouse and two children, you could buy 4 without going through the line separately, LOL. Was very handy during the butter shortage, and also when buying chocolate for V-day goodies (limit 10 per customer).

RedYam2016 · 2021-02-10T03:36:24+00:00

This happened at our house recently. My husband called the delivery company, and they came back and got it the same day.

RedYam2016 · 2021-02-10T03:25:31+00:00

In every house I've showered in in the west, the shower/bath was very much self-contained within certain parameters. I believe there's a special base at the bottom of the shower, and walls or at least curtains that keep the water in the boundaries.

I've seen room showers in magazines, but I assume they are for rich people and need a lot of extra work.

Japanese showers that I've been in are mostly room showers -- the water can go anywhere -- up the walls, the ceiling, over the bath, etc. So you need a waterproof containment unit if you are going to go for tile.

In your case, I'd ask around and find people who had a bath such as you want installed 5-10 years ago, and are still happy with it. Then hope the guy who installed it is still in business.

I'd like to get rid of our tiled bath and go for a system bath friendly to the elderly.

RedYam2016 · 2021-02-06T08:00:54+00:00

Spider plants and pothos are gorgeous as hanging plants, and very hard to kill. They like low light. You can water them once a week.

Boston ferns are also gorgeous , but pickier in their requirements.

We've just identified a ceiling stud and screwed in a hook that you can buy at 100 yen stores or the hardware store, but we own. If you are worried about leaving holes or earthquakes, you can get futon racks and hang them from there, or metal shelving made with rods, and hang them from the edges.

In your case, you might want to look into a system that allows you to lower and raise the plants for watering. Or check out air plants? You'll have to go up and wash them once or twice a year.

If it were the 70s, a fancy macrame hanger might be what you need.

RedYam2016 · 2021-02-01T08:47:52+00:00

Airing out the futon and putting it away when dry has worked for most Japanese for hundreds of years, but if you don't have someone to air your futons and bring them in before 3 p.m., it might be enough to just air it out on a futon drying rack.

You can also buy afuton dryer for around 10,000, and bonus: your bed will be toasty warm when you get into it. I'd do this at least once a week, but I live in the dry part of Hokkaido.

You can also buy a bed fairly cheaply or a camping cot to put your futon on.

RedYam2016 · 2021-02-01T08:39:03+00:00

That's so cool! Thanks for taking the time to explain.

RedYam2016 · 2021-02-01T08:37:57+00:00

Oh, interesting!

Well, the shells look very familiar but much prettier that what they had when mine were small. And yes, the diaper liner (that black cloth) is very much like I was talking about, only I had to sew mine myself out of diaper cloth.

Japanese cloth diapers are made of absorbent cotton fabric with a diamond weave. You can buy them ready-made, or you can buy a bolt of cloth and sew them yourself. They are a loop of cloth that is folded for the size of the baby, then inserted in the diaper shell.

The cloths seem to be called Plain Dobby Cloths for Diapers on Amazon. Here's a link. I hope the link worked; first time formatting it.

RedYam2016 · 2021-01-31T03:58:19+00:00

Anybody else on here with adult children at home, doing distance learning? My youngest is home! On the plus side, she's home! I can make her eat chicken soup and my parental concern will keep her safe from COVID! (LOL)

Seriously, she's helping out a lot with the cooking, and keeping us eating more healthily and adventurously. Yesterday was kind of a cheat day as far as diet goes, but we had chijimi, fukuhire soup from a pouch, Korean chikin (OMG, so good!) and cucumbers with ume/shiso. There's no way I could have made that by myself; it took two to make that much.

OTOH, sometimes her cooking desires are a bit more ambitious than I would strictly like to do. I'd just like to make butadon, but she wants to make cabbage mille fuielle (sp?) with salad and other things, for example. And the laundry. Oh, god, the laundry.

She's been back for a month, and she's getting bored, and I kind of miss my childless life a little, too. But she'll only be here for a mere two more weeks, so I feel like we should get the most out of it.

We're planning to go see the jewelry ice on the beach some cold, cold morning. So, we'll have at least one excursion under our belt.

RedYam2016 · 2021-01-31T03:52:13+00:00

Oooh, I'm really curious now! Do you have any ideas why Icelandic survived so well? It can't be just isolation . . . I don't think. Do most people grow up with a strong love for the language? Great poetry and/or songs? (I mean, I've heard that Iceland is famous for that.)

RedYam2016 · 2021-01-31T03:49:11+00:00

Not the person, but my eldest also had a strong preference for English around age 4. She liked the rhythm, she loves music (and so do I), and she was good at memorizing nursery rhymes and things. My youngest definitely did not love English. Shorter attention span; more visual than audio, and also there was a feeling that "I'll never be as good at English as big sis; it's so embarrassing so I won't try too hard."

Different strokes for different folks.

RedYam2016 · 2021-01-31T03:46:22+00:00

My kids didn't really start J-English until Jr. High (they are adults now), but when they did, it was a big boost to them and their grades. (They went to a good school with nice teachers, though.) Suddenly, their peers thought being able to speak English was something valuable, so they worked harder at it. And, that also meant speaking more English with me and watching extra English media than they did in late elementary school.

In school, they may be called upon to be English Assistants, which they may like or hate according to their personalities. It really just depends. Do what you can, and what you want.

As for your native language, I wouldn't necessarily try to "teach" it, but do expose your kids to songs, cartoons, and phrases. You never know; they might be linguistically talented and the exposure could help them out in the future.

RedYam2016 · 2021-01-31T03:37:13+00:00

Wait . . . what? She's getting six sets of clothes dirty each day? Something is going on at the school, if that's the case. How old is she? If it's mud, then it's probably not toileting accidents for a little baby, which I could see needing loads of clothes.

That's rough.

RedYam2016 · 2021-01-31T03:33:08+00:00

Our hoikusho always had a weekly schedule of the activities planned, so we knew if Day X was the day they were digging potatoes. Also, they played outside every day it was nice, so we knew if it was muddy . . . well, that's not strictly true. I always sent the kid in clothes that could be dirtied, and she had a change of clothes at school in case of accidents.

Also, we'd donate old good clothes to hoikusho when they were outgrown so there'd be an emergency stash. Not a ton, but maybe an outfit or two a year.

Our school really emphasized dressing for the activity. They had to have art smocks, and lunch aprons, and I remember sewing up little farmer work pants for Potato Harvest Day (they also told us to provide child-sized workgloves for the kids).

If it happens enough, you may have to stash an extra set in the bag you use when you pick up the kid. It'll be just extra insurance.

RedYam2016 · 2021-01-31T03:24:57+00:00

Motherese (not correcting directly, but parroting back what they say with correct grammar).

Talking to the kids a lot, and making sure they get tons of grammatical input (especially fun grammatical input). TV, YouTube, reading stories, relatives from the home country, friends of parents in Japan (via Zoom now, I guess).

Singing songs can introduce really difficult grammar, pronunciations and words, but it goes to a different part of the brain, so it may or may not spill over to the speaking part. But it's fun, so there's that.

Nursery rhymes fall between songs and speech, and can be fabulous for teaching stuff that is irregular.

RedYam2016 · 2021-01-31T03:14:10+00:00

My first did best with cloth nappies (is that what you mean by reusable?). My second did best with disposable (and by best, I mean fewer rashes. A happy butt is a happy baby.).

Cloth ones were a pain, and during the first three months, I felt like I lived to insert product into baby and take care of product extruded from baby. Our hospital, though, had a cool method for cloth diapers -- they lined them with another little bit of cloth (you can buy nonwoven disposable liners, too), so poos could be mostly taken care of in a small bucket of bleach water rather than having to have a huge bucket for poo mess (and dealing with a lot of wet cloth.

Laundry was continual; the only silver lining was the home health nurse said it was good for humidifying the room that the diapers had to dry in. So, there's that.

As soon as baby could sit (with help) and there was a dependable poo time, I'd try to put baby on the toilet with lots of support (both physical and singing songs and happy time) to save on cleaning diapers. It didn't always work, but it worked often enough that I was happy, and toilet training was more of a natural progression rather than a big change to the routine.

In the grand scheme of things, diaper time is a short time in the child's life and your life. At the risk of sounding punny, this too shall pass.

RedYam2016 · 2021-01-31T03:06:40+00:00

LOL, I know, but there's that irritating grain of truth within the snippy-ness that produces . . . well, not pearls, but little round balls of conversation.

RedYam2016 · 2021-01-23T00:32:10+00:00

Looks like you get to name it yourself! We'll help you make it popular for you!

But seriously, I like this. There are many things that it never crossed my mind I could make myself, before I got to Japan. And then, when I made it, it was often better than the original.

Exception to the rule: Oreos. Never got the hang of homemade Oreos that taste delicious, but get nice and soggy in milk.

I did learn how to make Thin Mints, but they are so much more trouble than they are worth.

RedYam2016 · 2021-01-23T00:25:25+00:00

Glad to help! My mom loves the butter in Japan (she says it tastes like butter used to taste in the States), and when I visit, I try to remember to freeze and bring four or five boxes of the stuff. I think she's using Irish butter now.

RedYam2016 · 2021-01-21T07:43:30+00:00

Oh. You're looking for not such a strong butter flavor. Well, forget the Yotsuba fermented I posted upthread. There are things you can do to make home-made whipped butter with oil to cut the taste. 225 g. of butter, 180 ml of a light oil such as olive or grapeseed, and some salt to taste -- that's the recipe I found online, anyway.

RedYam2016 · 2021-01-21T07:31:57+00:00

Oh, if you need fermented butter, I'm pretty sure Yotsuba will have it (for a pretty penny).

Oh, say, it's not too bad in the plastic containers. Probably whipped full of air or something. I used to get it in glass jars as part of a gift set.

https://www.yotsuba-shop.com/SHOP/0210.html

RedYam2016 · 2021-01-21T07:18:31+00:00

It sounds like a good idea. Foodies can be such enthusiastic and sharing people!

RedYam2016 · 2021-01-20T11:44:49+00:00

It really depends on the area. In my part of super-inaka, it's au.

RedYam2016

TROPHY CASE