Golden Week Day 4 mobile

Tonight, we're staying in the capsule hotel!
今日カプセルホテルに泊まる！

Good night!
お休みなさい！

Golden Week Day 3 mobile

My sister made it to Japan!
妹は来た！

I made a mistake on the days though … I've got one extra day in Tokyo after she leaves!
日が間違った！私は東京に妹が帰るの後にもう1日がいる。

Golden Week Day 2 in mobile photos

Today's photos are also all from my cell phone.

今日も携帯の写真だけある。

Today I left the hostel in Asakusa and headed for Ueno Park. It's basically just straight west and this part of town is mostly like a grid, so I just picked a random street to walk down. It was way less busy than the main street.

今日浅草のホステル から出かけた。上野公園まで行った。

The weather was perfect for the walk across town and for wandering in the park.

公園に歩くのために天気はちょうど良かった。

I was asked to take a picture of someone so I figured I'd have them take a shot of me for mom.

お母さんのための写真。

Where I ate lunch. Really yummy Korean food.

ここで昼食を食べた。とても美味しかった韓国料理。

I don't think they mean to say what it says in English.

たぶん英語で違う意味がほしかった。英語で意味は自転車でも、バイクでも、いいけど、立つことだめ。おもしろい！

Golden Week Day 1 in mobile photos

All of the photos in this post were taken on my phone. Better photos from my camera to come later.

この写真は携帯で撮った。後でカメラからのをのせるつもり。

The trip started at a near by train station. 

今日の旅行は近い駅からはじまった。

At the airport, I met friends who were headed to Shikoku.

空港で四国へ行く友達を会った。

Then I met two more Hokkaido friends, who were on the same flight and staying near me. We road the train together.

北海道に住んでいる友達は同じ飛行機を乗った。そして、近いに泊まったから、一緒に電車も乗った。

Kaminarimon at night. Isn't it pretty?

夕方に雷門はきれいだね。

After being distracted by a good chance to take some night shots, I finally went and found dinner. I had Indian Curry. It was delicious.

夕食はインドカレーを食べた。美味しかった。

Grad School App–Check!

My grad school application is ready! Just have to print my essay and then it’s done! The reason the USB stick is in the pic.

大学院の申し込みをできた！エッセイをプリントの後送られる！（その理由USBがある）

In other happy news, I leave for Tokyo tomorrow and I'll get to see Mandie soon!!!

明日東京へ行く！いますぐ妹は来る！

Packing

Less than a week till my sister comes to Japan! I’m so excited!

１週以下に妹は日本へ来る！楽しみ！

I spent the evening packing . . .  and procrastinating. So I didn’t take any new photos, so here are a few of my lovely sister!

夕方に荷作りしたから、新しい写真を撮らなかった。　だから、妹にいる写真がある。

At the Lebanese restaurant at home.

アメリカでレバノンのレストランで。

My sister and her husband.

妹とだんな。

You’ll likely be seeing a lot more of this face while she’s here!

たぶんいる時にたくさん妹がいる写真を見える。

A beautiful Sunday walk

After playing cards the night before, Sunday morning was absolutely gorgeous.

カードゲームしたの後の日に景色が見えた。とてもきれいだった。

With beautiful weather like that and everyone still asleep, I knew a morning walk to the lake was in store. So while everyone else slept in, I went for a walk.

とてもきれい日し、皆はまだ起きなかったし、湖まで歩きたかった。

Unfortunately the early morning light was already gone by the time I got outside, but the weather was still beautiful.

Here’s a cabin like the one we stayed in.

はやい朝の光が終わったけど、天気はきれいだった。　近いコーテジ。

The lake was a short walk from the cabin and being out in the sunshine made me smile a lot.

コテージから湖は近かった。　太陽があったから、うれしかった。

Until now, I hadn’t managed to capture the reflections on the lake.

この日まで、湖に反射の写真を撮られなかった。

One of the walking paths.

歩くの小道。

Even if I still should have been asleep, it was a beautiful way to spend Sunday morning.

Surprise Party!

On Friday, it was my friend, Aya’s birthday. On Saturday, We had a surprise birthday party for her.

金曜日にあやの誕生日。　だから、土曜日にサプライズのパティをした。

A small group of us went out to the cottages near the lake and prepared.

３人は準備をした。

This is Tomo.

とも！

This is Ami.

あみ！

Preparing. They decided that her birthday should have a graduation-like ceremony. Ami is making a list of the things that are going to happen during the ceremony.

卒業式見たい式した。

Here is the finished product, complete with all participants’ faces.

卒業式のリスト。皆の顔をかいた。

Here’s the “stage.” Complete with the paper flowers that are always used to decorate all Japanese graduation ceremonies.

これはスーテジ。日本の卒業式は紙の花いつもある。

After everything was ready, we had to take a few pictures.

準備の後写真を撮った。

Then Ami left to go get Aya. So we waited some more. (I had the camera set for time lapse so it could capture the whole of the ceremony, unfortunately I started it WAAAY to early).

あみはあやの家に行った。私たち待った。　（駒落した。はやすぎた。）

Then the ceremony began. Miyauchi-sensei gave a speech and a paper for Aya. I handed her the flowers that are in my hands in this shot. Apparently graduation ceremonies move quick enough that I should have had it shooting more than 4times per minute.

式ははじめた。　みやうちー先生はスピーチした。私は花をあげた。

Tomo gave a tear-filled speech. Actually, it was laughter filled, but faking tears made it less obvious she was crying.

とももスピーチした。

Be quiet Aya! Quit laughing! (Tomo was very strict)

しずかあや！笑わない！（ともはとてもきびしかった！）

The group shot.

皆の写真。

Birthday girl!

誕生日の女！

Apparently, 29 is the meat birthday. It’s a play on words, because 2 is read “ni” and 9 “ku.” Meat is “niku.” 29, isn’t read that way, but the two numbers separately are. This was dinner.

２９さいの誕生日は肉の誕生日。びっくり！

Aya with her birthday presents.

あやのプレゼンツ。

Round 2 for the meat birthday.

たくさん肉があった。

Aya and her cake.

あやの誕生日のケーキ。

The cake! It had blueberries.

ケーキ！

In the end, we stayed up until 4am playing cards. I taught them “Killer Uno,” but re-named it to “Crazy Uno” because I figured that’d be easier to remember (And how do you translate "killer" as a game name??). It was a lot of fun.

４時までUnoをした。私は「Crazy Uno」を教えた。とても楽しかった！

How a blanket becomes a scarf

Last week, I found a pattern I really liked for a blanket. So I decided to make it in pink and white.

先週に好きなかぎばりあみのパタン（毛布）を見つけた。　ピンクと白にすると思った。

Unfortunately I realized after starting that I didn’t think I had enough of the pinks to finish the project.

はじまるの後に自分のピンクがなかった。

I went shopping to find some yarn I thought would look good.

いい毛糸を買いに行った。

It wasn’t soft. Since I wasn’t going to have a soft blanket out of it, I decided to turn it into a scarf.

やわらかくなかったから、マフラーを作る。

Here are the results:

これは結果：

Okonomiyaki

Tonight I went out for dinner with a friend. We went for okonomiyaki. When I was driving there, I thought “my favorite!” Then I started thinking . . . soup curry, sukiyaki, nabe . . . I have a lot of favorites.

今日友達と晩ご飯を食べた。お好み焼きを食べた。　運転時に「大好き！」が考えた。　その後、スープカレーとすき焼きとなべを考えた。　たくさん大好きな日本の食べ物がある。

Here’s our okonomiyaki.

私たちのお好み焼き。

Orange and hazelnut Kit-kats

Today, a new seasonal flavor of kit-kats for my list – Orange and Hazelnut.

今日新しいキットカットが食べた。食べたのリストはここ。オレンジとヘーゼルナッツの味。

I was most excited for the hazelnut flavor because I thought it would taste like Nutella. It had a bit of a nutty flavor, but wasn’t anything amazing.

ヘゼルナッツの味の方がおいしそうと思った。すこしナッツの味があった。

The orange, on the other hand, was amazing! It was exactly what an orange and chocolate combination should taste like.

オレンジはとてもおいしかった。

It even had orange on the inside, see?

中にもオレンジがあった。見える？

What’s your favorite kit-kat flavor?

大好きなキットカットの味は何？

Dinner with new teachers

Today, I went out for dinner with two of the new high school teachers.

今日２人の新しい高校の先生と晩ご飯を食べた。

They are brand new teachers, just graduated from college.

今年の前に卒業した。

The one on the right is one of two new English teachers this year.

右のは新しい英語の先生。

This was my dinner! Look at all those bright, colorful veggies!

私の晩ご飯！明るい野菜があった！

It was a lot of fun getting to chat with these two.

話が楽しかった。

*  *  *  *  *

In other news, I had my first English club of the year today! I didn’t know it was even going to continue this year until yesterday.

今日英語の部活がはじめた。　昨日の前続くことが知らなかった。

I have 4 students this year – 3 girls and 1 boy.

今年４人　－　女３人、男１人。

We shared some things about ourselves and then we played Apples to Apples. Best English club game, EVER.

私たちは自分のこと教えてから、「Apples to Apples」と言うゲームをした。　英語の部活に最高ゲーム。

I had fun, the kids had fun and we all finished with a smile. Now I’ve gotta think of something good for next week.

私と生徒は楽しかった。　来週いいアクチビティが考えなければならない。

Mid-Winter Thanksgiving

A post written before the March Photo Challenge.
これは３月の写真チャレンジの前に書いた。友達たちとアメリカとカナダのThanksgivingの晩ご飯を食べた。この後日本語がない。

A few weeks ago, Ros decided to host Mid-Winter Thanksgiving. Why? Well, Turkey dinner is her favorite meal and she has a real oven.

So at 1 pm, she put a whole turkey in a real (but Japan sized) oven. This is what came out several hours later.

Ros is proud of her turkey!

What I ate. I’d say it’s a big step up for the girl who would only eat turkey, bread and jello as a kid on Thanksgiving day.

The group of us.

Ros’ house taught me a good lesson – a bed does not make a very good tri-pod. Next time we’ll use the chair you see cluttering up the photo!

Of course, after dinner dishes had been cleared, a massively long game of hand and foot ensued. In a total flip of how the game had been going, Lina won and I took last place.