Journal in English #1 Gloomy rainy season in Japan I decided to write a journal in English here on italki and hope you like it. It's been weeks since we saw sunshine here in my region of Japan and I felt very stressed out, not only because of the weather, but also because of this "stay-home" situation due to the Co-vid.19. Since the Japanese government announced the "stay-home" alert, I have been trying to shake the stress off and have challenged myself by trying various new things, such as tiding up the closets and the pantry, making a pizza from a scratch, trimming trees in the garden (I almost fell from a ladder), sewing a diaper cover for my old doggy, etc.. I enjoyed the challenges (except for the trimming trees) and they turned out fairly well, well, most of them, I should say. So, I thought that I could cope with this difficult situation and I could keep going on. When rainy season started around the end of June, I suddenly lost my optimistic spirit and could not find any interests in those things at all. I guess it was a kind of burn out syndrome. I just ate, did work, a bit of exercise, and slept, nothing else interested me and I started feeling depressed. One day, my mom sent me a jar of "Nuka-doko", for making home-made pickles (they are called Nuka-zuke). Nuka-doko is made from fermented rice-bran and salt, and the pickled veggies are good traditional Japanese diet as they contain lactobacillus. I used to love my mom's pickled veggies, especially turnips and eggplants, and the smell of the paste (a bit peculiar but not so unpleasant, at least for me) reminded me of the family dinner in my childhood. Nuka-doko needs to be taken care of a lot ; you should stir the smelly muddy paste from the bottom of the jar everyday, and add ingredients to maintain the Nuka-doko paste in good condition as necessary. I was not sure if I could take care of the Nuka-doko - maybe I would spoil it in weeks or so- that is what I thought at first. Despite my doubt, now I have become a good mom of the Nuka-doko! The pickled veggies are really good and healthy, and my hands are so smooth and toned up by my daily routine of stirring the Nuka-doko paste which is rich in ceramide, Vitamin B, and E. I have tried pickling various vegetables, taking a good care of my Nuka-doko baby, and my gloomy feeling has gone away before I realized it. Thanks for reading my journal and I would appreciate it if you could correct my mistakes and give me feedback. よろしくお願いします。