Friday, May 31, 2013

Dinner with friends

I went to a friend’s house for dinner this week.
今週友達の家で晩ご飯を食べに行った。

She invited a couple of other friends and we had a small party.
4人来た。

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She put me in charge of the rice balls. They’re Totoro rice balls, aren’t they cute?
ととろおにぎり。Kちゃんは食べ物が作ることが上手ね。

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As always, K makes a very delicious dinner.
Kちゃんの作った食べ物。とてもおいしかった!

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Thursday, May 30, 2013

Bread!

On Tuesday night, I put this into the bread machine:
火曜日にこれがあった。

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On Wednesday, I woke up to this! Whole wheat bread, which I could slice thinly, so I can make sandwiches!
水曜日の朝にこれがあった!全麦パン!

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In other news, this was today’s school lunch. I miss vegetables . . .
今日の給食。野菜はどこ?

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Furano adventures

On Saturday, I met Ros in Furano and we went on adventures around town.
土曜日に友達と富良野へ行った。

In our search for an onsen, we found these Tulips!
温泉へ行く中にこのチューリップが見つけた。

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After the onsen, we went to a cake shop in Furano for dessert.
温泉の後にケーキの店へ行った。

The shop had tree-house seating and we got to eat outside!
ツリーハウス見たい席があったから、外で食べた!

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My cake and tea.
ケーキと紅茶。

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Ros and the cake.
友達とケーキ。

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My phone’s front camera is terrible, but we needed a pic of the two of us.
携帯の前のカメラが悪いけど、写真が欲しかった。

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Couldn’t have asked for a better way to spend my Saturday. Got to spend the day with a good friend and I finally got my Sakura photos!
土曜日は最高だった。友人とし、桜の写真を撮ったから。

Monday, May 27, 2013

New friends

Last night, I went to my friends M&Y’s house.

昨日友達の家へ行った。

It’s been a while since I’ve hung out with them, so it’s been a while since I’ve seen their little girl, R.

久しぶり会ったから、赤ちゃんも会った。今R-ちゃんは2さい。

We had a whole lot of fun playing together.

一緒に遊んだこととても楽しかった。

Two-year-olds are a whole lot of fun.

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Saturday, May 25, 2013

THE Sakura photo

THE Sakura picture!

撮りたかった桜の写真!

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I finally got something quite similar to what I’ve been wanting to shoot for the last 2 years or so. It would have only been better if the sky had been more clear to provide a bit more contrast for the mountains, but I can’t control the weather and it was finally a mostly clear day.

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More on the day’s adventures later, but I was so excited about this shot, I had to share it!
I’ll probably try again next year for a day that’s completely clear.

晴れの日に山の方が見えるから、たぶん来年もう1回撮って見る。

I intended to shoot sakura

I intended to go out and shoot some sakura photos (cherry blossom) this afternoon. I got distracted by this rice paddy.

今日桜写真撮ったつもりだったけど、これが見た。

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Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Weather and a bread machine

Isn't today's weather cute? Though I'm still wishing for sunshine! 

今日の天気はかわいいですよね。でも、晴れがほしい!


In other news, I bought a bread machine. Not huge sliced, whole wheat bread here I come! 

パン焼き機が買った。今すぐ全麦パンを作りたい。そして、うすいスライスができる。


Monday, May 20, 2013

A Lazy Bento

Yesterday, I remembered that today was bento day at 5pm in a supermarket in Sapporo. Thankfully there were a lot of food choices. I bought bread and the stuff to make a salad.
昨日札幌のスーパーで「明日は弁当の日」思い出した。札幌のスーパーではたくさん食べ物があるから大丈夫だった。パンとサラダの物が買った。

I got home at 9pm and didn't care to put much effort into making a bento.
9時に帰った。弁当を作りたくなかったけど、作った。

Here is what my bento looked like today.
今日の弁当。

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Bread and salad with pecans and basil dressing.
パンとサラダ。

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I thought I was buying whole wheat bread, instead I got “black sugar” bread. It tasted like maple syrup. It was good, but didn't exactly go with basil dressing.
全麦パンが買ったと思ったけど、黒砂糖パンが買った。 メープルシロップ味があった。 美味しかったけど、ベジャールドレシングがあった。

As much as I didn't want to make a bento yesterday, I was glad today was bento day when I saw today’s lunch menu. Natto. Bento day for the win!
昨日作りたくなかったけど、今日の給食はなっと。弁当の方が美味しかった!

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Friends, Sakura and Lake Toya

Today, my friends ran a 10k at Lake Toya. This is them at 6:30am, when we left the house.
今日友達たちは洞爺湖の10kが走った。6時半に出た写真。元気ね!

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Sakua at the lake and you can see Mt. Yotei!
洞爺湖の桜!ようてい山が見える!

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While I waited, I sat here. It’s so pretty!
待つ時にこれが見えた。きれいね!

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The runners and I!
走る友達と。

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Saturday, May 18, 2013

A day in Muroran

Today, I visited my friends in Muroran. We went to do hanami (flower viewing) in a nearby park with a college international club. The students were from all over Asia and a super fun group to hang with. There were only about 6 flowers in the park though.

今日室蘭に住んでいる友達と遊んだ。 私たちと近い大学の国際交流部と花見に行ったつもりだったけど、花があまりなかった。生徒はだいたいアジア人。

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This is Ai, her name means love. I told her she was cute and she adopted me as her sister. Her dad is actually from my tiny town!

愛ちゃん。私は「かわいい」と言った。私の新しい妹になった。彼女のお父さんの出身は私に住んでいる町。びっくり!

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We also found my favorite seasonal ice cream at the convenience store. This means my birthday is coming!

大好きの限定のアイス見つけた!

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After hanami, we went to the beach.

花見の後に海に行った。

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Three of us ladies, we were missing J’s husband.

3人友達。Jのだんなさんがいなかった。

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Me, enjoying the sunshine.

陽光に楽しんでいた。

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Spring flowers!

春の花!

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We found Sakura! (Cherry blossoms)

桜が見つけた!

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Some highlights from today

It was the perfect morning for a walk.
歩くのためにいい天気だった!


I challenged my elementary students to organize their ABC cards from Z to A. This group had a bit of trouble. 
今日小学校生にチャレンジをあげた。ZからAまで。このグループが少し困った。


The sky on my drive this evening. Isn't glorious? 
夕方に運転時にこの空が見た。



Thursday, May 16, 2013

Another sign of spring!

Another sign that spring is coming . . . it’s not dark at 7pm!

春が来る! 7時に暗くない!

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Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Spring flowers

I found some spring flowers today! 
今日春の花を見つけた!


That's all. Homework time.
宿題の時。

Monday, May 13, 2013

First homework assignment

Last night I finished my first homework assignment, and actually today I’m almost finished with my homework until Sunday!
昨日最初宿題ができた!日曜日の宿題も今すぐ終わり!

The first assignment was to make a timeline of L2 learning (for me Japanese). Many of the events are recent and while I've been in Japan. Here are a few of them.
最初のは日本語を習うのタイムラインを作る。たくさんイベントは日本でした。この後少ないのある。

Leaving for the JET program, with not nearly as much Japanese as I would actually want to have.
JET Programのため日本へ引っ越した。その時日本語あまりできなかった。自己紹介だけぐらい。

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The garbage poster. Figuring out how to sort my garbage was a difficult thing.
ごみは難しかったけど、必要。

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Riding the train. I was so worried about getting lost that I used wikipedia to look up all the city kanji and put them in my phone’s ‘notes.’ 
電車を乗る。最初時にウィキペディアで全部市の漢字が探した。携帯に漢字を入れた。

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Coming back my first year and realizing how much my Japanese abilities had grown (my first ski lessons were my first weekend back).
最初の冬休みの後の方が来る時より日本語できた。そして、最初スキー教室した。

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Joining choir. I could barely keep up when I first got here, and even though I’m still far from perfect, I have a lot of fun singing with these ladies.
合唱。最初にあまりできなかった。今も完璧じゃないけど、とても楽しい!

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Going to see the lavender fields and telling people we were doing ‘hanami,’ which means ‘flower viewing’ but it’s specific to cherry blossoms.
最初の夏に友達とラベンダー場へ行った。先生と話に「今週末花見するつもり」と言った。理由は花と見があるから、花を見る時に花見でしょうと思った。違った。桜だけは花見。

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My car accident. It was a major pain, BUT I was able to explain what happened in Japanese! 
Thankfully God provided and I didn't have to try to explain to my supervisor – a family in town showed up and took care of me.
車の事故。ててもめんどくさい。でも、警察に説明ができた!キリストは与えた。町から家族が来た、私が手伝った。

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Moving on up to intermediate level textbooks!
中級の教科書がはじめた。

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Learning the word for snow plow and finally being able to use it. I have no snow plow pictures that I could find, so the dump truck of snow was the best picture – dump trucks of snow were completely unfathomable when I lived in the Portland area.
除雪車の言葉が習った。その写真がない。でも、日本来るの前にこのぐらい雪は考えなかった。

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Finishing two novels – Alice in Wonderland and The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.
日本語で2つ小説が読んだ!

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And, best of all, making Japanese friends and being able to talk to them!
1番楽しいことは日本の友達と話している!

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