Wed. 11 Dec 1996

A celebration was held at Tamanoyu of Yufuin in commemoration of Mr. Kazuyuki Nonoshita's bamboo craftwork which was awarded the honor for the permanent display at the famous Victoria & Albert Museum. I joined the party along with my husband in delight. A commemorative concert was held dedicated to Mr. Nonoshita, or Non-chan, his nickname, as the first part of the celebration. Hammered Dulcimer, a rare musical instrument, and later accordion were played. The second part was a celebration party in which the mayor of the town joined.

Thu. 12 Dec 1996

Today, I baked up four pieces of "Marble cake" for sale at the bazaar which will be held on the day after tomorrow. I wrapped and tied them with pretty ribbons along with ten pieces of the pound cake I prepared yesterday. I also put the cheese cake into small bags of eighty grams each. I put aside a piece of over-baked pound cake for me. I hope many customers will buy them. We will donate a portion of the anticipated profit to the year-end charity drive.

Fri. 13 Dec 1996

Today, we have the bazaar. At eight o'clock in the morning, we assembled all the sales goods like cookies and handicrafts onto the cars and headed to the Rainbow building in which the bazaar was to be held. We quickly arranged the site again, checked the goods, and displayed them on the sales stands. Many customers had already been waiting for the opening. At eleven o'clock, we started the sale. Within a half and an hour, all goods were sold out. I also helped sales, served black tea at the cafeteria, and worked in busy but pleasantly. I firmly believe our good intentions will be of help for the year-end charity drive.

Sun. 15, Dec 1996

Today, I cleaned up the community hall in our district. I use it twice a month for the meeting of "Haiku." Many people who are joined in various circle activities come and make use of it. They came together and did a general cleaning of the facility. As it was a rare warm day in the winter season, the work made much progress. We exposed floor cushions, swept the soot off from the ceiling, cleaned the room, rubbed the Tatami mats, and polished the window glasses. All of the room soon became shining. Now we are ready for the new year to come. Next, I must clean up my house.

Wed. 18 Dec 1996

Some of the nearby members of the Friends' Association came to my house to have the Thanksgiving lunch. The main dish was the Chinese food of vinegared roast pork. All participants brought together Chinese dishes such as, boiled spinach, broccoli salad, saute of radish and bacon. I by myself prepared boiled rice and Chinese corn soup. The desserts were squash pudding, Shinren Tofu(mixed with almond, apricot, and milk), parsley cake, Chinese orange paste, and orange. We recalled back the year and discussed on the theme of the coming year. One of the members disclosed us for the first time a baby of nine months old. It was very vivid and lovely baby, indeed.

Mon. 23, Dec 1996

Today is a national holiday of The Emperor's Birthday. We also had the regular on-air of the live program "Cafe COARA" from the studio in the COARA office. Mr.Ono, the secretariat of the COARA and a regular member of the live, is absent because of his overseas business trip. The "waiters" of the program, Miss Sawako and Miss.Misako had suggested that the audiences come together with big cakes as today was "an Eve of the Eve." I brought the cake that Mr. Penny of Australia suggested me by E-mail how to make. I have prepared it for the past one week by dribbling rum on it.Many cakes such as Babaroa cake, cheese cake, ginger cookie, and sandwich, were set together. Even the Santa Clause appeared on the site. The pleasant 30 minutes passed away before I knew. I enjoyed pleasant chatting after the on-air.

Tue. 24 Dec 1996

The elementary schools in Oita city have broken up today. In the afternoon, the members and their children of The group of friends in Oita joined at the Meeting house to have a Christmas party. I prepared tow pieceis of sponge cake and joined as well as a mentor. Young mothers proposed a good idea to decorate the windows glass with thin translucent color sheet to make them look like beautiful stained glass.All song The Holly Night and thought about the Holly stories of Jesus Christ. Then we collected contributions to the fund to prepare the stationery for the children in Bangladesh elementary schools. After then, we work together to arrange and sliced the cake for the tea party. We put some cake aside to share the day with neighbors. We have had a very meaning day to think about the Christmas.

Sun. 29, Dec 1996

Just two days are left for this year. I went to supermarkets to buy food material for the new year cooking. We drove down 20 minutes to the market. We bought spare cartridges for the portable cooking stove. At the liquor shop, we got beer and wine. At the usual market, I purchased a lot of food for "Osechi dish" like herring roe, black beans, taro, lotus root, carrot, bamboo shoot, burdock root, sweet potato, chestnut, rice cake, and others. I also bought "Shimekazari", or straw-madeornament. All shopping sites were full of people and families carrying handful items.