I finally got to go to the non profit community cafe in the next town and it was so good!
It’s set up to provide training and living wage employment for learning disabled people (US English: intellectually disabled) so it’s super accessible which was great. There was enough room for my chair and the coffee machine was really quiet and I could actually hear the person I was ordering from which made it so much less stressful.
It seems to have become really popular with other disabled people which was really nice. Lots of people were there with PAs / support workers and I wasn’t the only person getting help with eating and drinking – I’m really used to being stared at when I eat in public so it was a nice change to not have that. Disabled spaces are so important and are definitely lacking in my irl life at the moment.
Here in Japan, May 5th was the last day of “Golden Week.” Several big cities were (and still are) under state of emergency or some stricter COVID-19 measures. But there was no strict lockdown and a good number of people traveled across prefectures. I guess most of us here in this country know what to expect in about 2 weeks or less...
ゴールデンウィークはいちおう終わり。県外ナンバーの車も結構多かった。
2週間しないうちにどんなことになるか、みんなある程度の予測はしている模様。
Under such a circumstance, we opened our twice-a-month community cafe this morning for 2 hours, doing our best to prevent COVID-19.
Since more than 90% of the customers are the elderly, we -- the cafe staff -- want our preventive measures to be effective. But this cafe is a part of local-government-led project and today I was like, “GIVE ME A BREAK” when I heard this rumor about what one of the government employees said. He supposedly said that if we’d only buy an expensive air purifier for this room and open the windows a few times during the cafe hours, there will be NO need for all the partitions and even face masks.
そんな中、今朝は私たちの地元での、月2回の地域カフェ。
行政主導の活動であっても、私たちスタッフは、お客さんの90%以上が高齢者のこのカフェで、ホントに予防したくてコロナ対策をちゃんとやりたいと思っているのですが。
After the cafe, I enjoyed this indigo-dye workshop at Geopark Center. :D
午後は、ジオパークセンターのジオカフェ前で、藍染ワークショップを堪能！
The workshop was held outside in the terrace-like space right outside of Geo Cafe in the nice breeze. It wasn’t crowded at all and I could take time to try this particular tie-dye method.
ワークショップは、ジオカフェのすぐ外のテラスっぽい場所で、ナイスなそよ風の中。すいていたので、じっくり時間をかけて、この染め方法を試させてもらえました。💗
Last time I tried it, they called this, “ chashao method” but this time it was advanced to “kebab method.” Getting internationalized, huh? ;)
前回このやり方で染めた時は、『チャーシュー染め』と名付けてくれたんだけど、今回は『ケバブ染め』に昇格しました。インターナショナルになってきたゼ。ｗｗ ^^）
I dried this at home and took this photo.
Interesting pattern, isn’t it? :D :D
I heard that it’s OK to combine persimmon dye and indigo dye, so that’s what I’m trying next time.
Can’t wait!
これは持って帰って来てから干して、写真を撮りました。
オモシロい柄でしょ？
柿渋染めと組み合わせるのは可能だと教えてもらったんで、次回はそれを試す予定です。
楽しみ～～！！！💕
Not many people showed up at our community cafe today because of the rain.
今日の地域カフェは、あまりお客さんは来られませんでした。雨のせいで。
But those who came seemed to enjoy our carrot cupcakes with coffee. And the packed sushi made with newly harvested rice sold well. ;) You might wonder why people make such a big deal out of “newly-harvested rice” in rural areas, but it DOES have better taste and texture. Trust me. :)
In the past, you really needed to be careful when cooking with newly-harvested rice. It has more moisture than old rice, so you need to use less water to cook. If you forget to do so, the rice turns out too soft, which can be really devastating when you’re making sushi.
But these days, for some reason, it doesn’t seem to matter very much any more. When you’re cooking new rice, even if you used the amount of water that you usually use for old rice, it doesn’t turn out too soft. Maybe slightly soft, but not devastatingly mushy. We’re wondering why. Some say it’s because they use machine for polishing. Others say it has something to do with how they keep rice after polishing. Anyway, newly-harvested rice seem to lose moisture faster than it did in the past.
それでも、来てくれた皆さんは、私たちの手作りキャロット・カップケーキとコーヒーのセットを楽しんでくれたようで。
あと、新米で作った五目ずし、喜んで買ってくれたようです。
田舎ではなんでいつも、「新米」をそんなにたいそうに喜ぶのかと思う方もいるかもですが。やっぱ味も食感も違いますよねー。
昔は、新米を炊くときに、古米と同じ水加減にすると、えらくびちゃびちゃになってしまって、やらかした感が大きかったけど。最近って、それをやってもあまり大失敗にならなくなってません？水加減の差があまりなくなってるというか。
ある人は、最近は機械精米だからだとか、また別の人は、精米した後の保存の仕方が昔と違うからとか、いろいろ説はあるけど。とにかくこの辺ではみな同様に、「今の新米は昔と違う」と言いますね。
Because of the months of “stay home” period, we couldn’t open this community cafe and senior community members missed their opportunity of socialization.
It is true that this cafe is NOT bringing people into this area and NOT contributing to the community’s economical recovery per se. But I believe that this cafe is contributing to keeping the community tie especially for the elderly despite the pandemic.
コロナによる自粛期間中、このカフェも休止し、地域の高齢者はほんとうに人と交流する機会がなくなってました。
確かに、このカフェは、コロナで収入の減った地域に人を呼び込んで、地域の経済回復に貢献してるとは言い難いです。
でもだからといって、このカフェが、コロナの時代に「何の役にもたってないもの」では決してないと私は思います。
ただ少数の地域の年寄りが来てるだけの、「それだけでしかない」もの扱いされるかも知れないけれど。
派手な活動でなくても、地味でも、細々だけど確実に、地域のお年寄りの間の絆という細い糸をシッカリとつないでいる。そういうものだと思います。
We make food here. And the customers buy the food, not just for themselves but for those who could not come to the cafe. They bring the food to their friends and neighbors on their way home and check on them.
Our food is our “caring mind” and it is passed along like this throughout the community.
It is my privilege to be part of that community tie as a cafe staff here.
そう断言できるのはたぶん、ここで実際自分の手で食べ物を作っている人間だから。
私たちが作ったものを、お客さんとして来てくれた人々が買う。自分たちのぶんだけじゃなく、来られなかったご近所さんや友達のために。そしてカフェからの帰りに寄って、食べ物を渡しながら、どうしているか安否を確かめ、話に花を咲かせる。
私たちがこの手で作っているのは、食べ物という形をとった「思いやり」であって、それが地域の中でこういう形で手渡されていく。そんな絆。
その、地味な地味～な細い絆を実感して、その一部であると感じることは、誇りです。
The day started with this terrible rain this morning. (Look at the rain cloud radar image!)
Today we ran the community cafe, and luckily the rain was not heavy when we were open.
今朝は、この豪雨で1日がスタート。オドロキでした！＠o＠
今日は私たちの月1回の地域カフェの日で、ありがたいことにカフェの始まる頃にはもう雨は弱まってました。
We usually open the cafe twice a month, but for the time being, we do so just once a month because of COVID-19.
Today we served nice homemade custard pudding with coffee, but I forgot to take photos. Too bad!
この地域カフェは普通月2回だけど、今はコロナのため回数を月1回に減らしてます。
今日は手作りプリンとコーヒーのセットで、なかなか見た目もカワイイ💕感じだったんだけど、写真を撮り忘れたのが残念！（ＴＴ）
Making chirashi-zushi to go.
これはパックに入れて販売するちらし寿司。^^）
Someone brought home remedy for burn. It’s garden balsam flowers soaked in oil!
誰かがホームメイドのやけどの薬というのを持ってきてくれてました。なんとホウセンカを油に浸けたものだそうで。火傷と言えばアロエとはよく聞くし、高知県と言えば火傷の民間薬はタヌキの脂がポピュラーだけど、ホウセンカも使われるとは。＠＠
About 30 people came and enjoyed chatting.
Hope our community cafe is giving our community members an opportunity to socialize in this Coronavirus era when the need to stay home tend to make people feel isolated.
今日は30人ほどのお客様が来てくれました。^^）
コロナで閉じこもりがちの今、この地域カフェが高齢の皆さんにとって、人と会って話せる場・機会になれているなら、本当にウレシイことです。
We run our community cafe twice a month so that local elderly can get together and socialize. But because of COVID-19 pandemic, we skipped it for several months and then re-started last month, reducing the frequency to just once a month.
So yesterday was our once-a-month cafe for August, and it was kind of special. An instructor was invited to give the staff how to reduce the risk of infection at our cafe.
Our cafe starts at 10:00 am, and yesterday, from 9:30 am to 10:00 am, the instructor gave us a lecture. We learned some basics about Coronavirus and were introduced to several checklists of what we should do.
カフェの開店は10時だけど、昨日は9時半から10時までキッチリ座学で、コロナウイルスについて学んだり、こういうことをしましょうのチェックリストを見たり。
And the instructor and other government staff observed how we serve our customers at our cafe. (We had been told that three people were coming, but actually twice as many government staff came to see what we were doing. That sort of scared the local folks off and the customers went home way earlier than usual. LOL)
そして、講師の先生と、一緒に来ている行政の職員の方々が、私たちの実際のカフェの様子を視察。
After the cafe, we had a brief meeting and they gave us some feedback and advice. Handmade partitions on the tables, protective screen at the counter, hand sanitizer at the entrance and social-distancing conscious seating arrangements... All our efforts were recognized and approved. They said our effort was good enough to put up this poster that says “We’re taking proper measures,” issued by the prefectural government and related organizations.
カフェの後で、また集まって振り返り。フィードバックやアドバイスを頂く。
頑張って手造りのパーティションを設置したり、様々に対策をしてたので、ちゃんとやってるほうだとの評価で、このポスターを貼ってもいいレベルだと言ってもらいました。
To tell you the truth, in the instructor’s lecture, there were a couple of things that I didn’t totally agree with him... For example, he said things like Coronavirus is NOT airborne and the sunlight kills the virus. I wouldn’t say that he is totally wrong, but I just feel that it is still premature to assert those.
Nevertheless, I thought it was a good thing to have this kind of session. I know the poster they are going to give us does not guarantee the total safety or 0% risk of infection at our cafe. It only tells the customers coming in that we have partitions on the table, but it cannot guarantee that NO customers speak to each other where there’s no partitions. But still, our cafe is at least better than some others that don’t have partitions at all or don’t have hand sanitizer at all. That’s what this is about.
Yeah, making efforts is a good thing. Hope the efforts will be rewarded. Really.
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This is the dessert we served at our Community Cafe today. :) Yep, refreshing peach jelly.
これが、今日私たちが地域カフェでお出しした、ももゼリー。^^）
We also made and sold gomoku-chirashi zushi. These are local folks’ favorite and sold out real quick. ;) Yeah, we should have made more. But we really didn’t know how many people would come, because of the COVID-19 concern and the forecast of (heavy) rain.
他にも、五目ちらし寿司を作って販売。これは皆さんのお気に入りで、すぐ完売。もっと作っておけばよかったのだろうけど、今日はホントに何人来てくれるかが全く予測できず。コロナの心配もあるし、雨がひどくなりそうな予報だったしで。
Coping with Coronavirus.
コロナ対策。
Despite various concerns, more than 20 people came and enjoyed chatting. One granny said that she missed this cafe so much because she had almost nothing else to do at home and this was her rare chance to socialize with others in the community.
It's really encouraging to know that someone is appreciating what we do.:)
色々と気をつけなければならないことがある状況だけど、それでも20人を超える、いつもの顔ぶれが来てくださいました。一人のおばあちゃんは、「もうこのカフェが楽しみで、他にすることが何もないんやから」と言ってました。
そう思ってくれてる人がいることが、どんなに励みになる事か、ねぇ。
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I didn’t notice this until today, but rice grains are ripening. Yeah, it’s already early July! @o@
気がつけば、稲の穂がもうこんなに。7月初旬だもんねぇ...。
In my neighborhood, we run a community cafe at the local community hall twice a month. It is to provide community people (mostly the elderly) with a place to socialize and enhance the community tie. But because of COVID-19 pandemic, we decided not to meet from March to June.
And tomorrow is our first time running it after 4 months of hiatus!
Today the cafe staff got together for the preparation. After spending a good amount of time for cleaning the kitchen, we made a dessert and changed the seating arrangement to keep social distance.
さて、地元の集活センターでの月2回の地域カフェは、コロナのため3月から6月まで休止してましたが、明日、久々に開催です！
今日はスタッフがセンターの厨房に集まっての準備の日。いやぁ4か月でこんだけ湿気がまわるのかとビックリ！自分の家ではこれ程の事はゼッタイないので、この多湿な気候の地で、木造家屋がどれだけ大したものかをつくづく実感。
皆で掃除をし、明日のお菓子を作って冷やし、テーブルや椅子の位置を、ソーシャルディスタンス仕様に変えました。
Would be nice to see the local folks again tomorrow (though a heavy rain is forcasted...)
明日、地域のいつもの顔ぶれが見られるのが楽しみ（雨ひどそうな予報だけど... ^^;;)
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