Another year of eikaiwa finished

Another year of Eikaiwa classes (my adult evening classes) has finished. Here’s my group of students that made it from October to June. It was a fun year.

もう一つ英会話の年が終わった。　この人は１０月から６月までできた。今年は楽しかった。

After dinner, we had dessert.

晩ご飯の後にデザート。

Fukimi Festival and a road trip

 On Sunday, my friend K and I headed out to Ashoro for their Fukimi Festival. 

日曜日にKちゃんとふきみ祭りへ足寄に行った。

Along the way we stopped at this michi-no-eki. 

行く中にこの道の駅へ止まった。

Apparently there are a lot of horses in the area, so the whole michi-no-eki was horse themed and there were even races outside. 

この町にたくさん馬がいるらしい。道の駅に馬の物がいっぱいあった。

After that stop, we headed to the festival. 

祭りへ行った。

We wandered around the festival a bit to look at the different things that were around. 

We bought fuki-tempura. It was delicious. 

ふき天ぷらを買った。おいしかった。

There was a fuki foot onsen. We wished we had brought towels along with us. 

ふきの足の温泉があった。

After we wandered the festival for a bit, we went in search of fuki. We found some just a few minutes walk from the michi-no-eki where the festival was. 

祭りを見たの後にふきを探した。祭りから２・３分かかった。

It's so tall! 

高いね！

Fuki forest? 

ふきの森？

A single, super tall fuki in the michi-no-eki. 

道の駅の中に１つとても高いふき。

K: Aren't these cute? Me: They're not cute. Feet should not have feet. 

K:：かわいくない？　私：かわいくないよ。足がある足はこわいね。

Meat flavored cookies? Who would even think of such a thing? 

肉の味くっき？なぜ？

After we wandered the festival, we went to yet another michi-no-eki where we had lunch. This was the view from our lunch spot. 

祭りの後に他の道の駅に昼ご飯を食べに行った。食べるところから、これが見える。

K made bentos. Aren't they cute? 

Kは弁当を作った。かわいいだよね。

Inside was: veggies, 

中に野菜と

ham-katsu

ハムかつと

and rice with homemade bonito flakes. So delicious! 

ご飯と手作りぼにと。おいしかった。

On the way home, we stopped at the huge cake shop. The chocolate cake was yummy! 

帰る中に大きいケーキ店へ行った。ショコのケーキが美味しかった。

K didn't have sunglasses and I wasn't wearing mine, so I made her use them for the super sunny part of the drive. 

運転に光が強かったけど、Kはサングラスがなかったから私のかぶった。

And after that fun-filled weekend, I came home and went to bed at 8pm. 

週末はとても楽しかったけど、眠かったから８時寝た。

Foggy morning run

This morning I went for a run. I was surprised at how foggy the weather was this morning. 

今朝に走った。霧が多かった。

Apologies for the crappy cell phone camera, I don't run with my good camera.

悪い携帯の写真からごめん。走る時にカメラを持って来ない。

Birthday package

Birthday package from my family! 

家族から誕生日プレゼント！

Elementary school sports day.

On Saturday we had a sports festival at one of my tiny elementary schools.

土曜日とても小さい小学校で運動会があった。

I was very much surprised to find that there were as many events for the adults as there were for the kids.

Speeches were made at the beginning.

スーピチがたくさんあった。

There were lots of events. I ended up participating in a lot of them, so I didn’t get very many pictures.

たくさんエベントがあった。私たくさんしたから、写真をあまり撮らなかった。

The last event of the day was the relay.

最後のエベントはリーレ。

We won, but barely. Note the other runner has fallen over because his shoe fell off.

勝ちた！

Second place.

二番目。

After the sports day, we had a barbecue and hung out in the afternoon. It was a fun day.

運動会の後に焼肉した。その後に校長先生の家でパーティへ行った。楽しかった。

You know you've been in Japan too long when . . . (2)

You know you've been in Japan too long when, salad seems like a perfectly acceptable addition to breakfast, even though you have bananas. 

バナナがあるけど、朝ご飯にサラダを食べることがいい時に日本に長過ぎていることが分かる。

This was Friday's breakfast after finding leftover salad in the fridge from the night before. 

前の晩ご飯に友達はこのサラダ食べなかったから、金曜日に冷蔵庫に見つけた。

Pizza and card games

On Thursday night, I had friends over for a pizza party. I made the crust ahead of time with my new, shiny bread machine.

木曜日に友達はピザを食べに来た。

A & T are putting toppings on the first pizza.

AちゃんとTちゃんとピザを作っている。

Here it is a little closer. Topped with onions, peppers, zucchini, spinach and some beef/pork I tried to flavor like Italian sausage.

ピザのトッピングはネギとピーマンとズッキーニとほうれん草とスパイスがあった豚牛。

This is what came out of the oven. Yum!

オーブンから出た。美味しかった！

T made an apple pie that we had for dessert. It was delicious! She made it because she knows how much I like cinnamon.

私はシナモンが好きから、Tちゃんはアプルーパイを作った。美味しかった！

I didn’t have enough plates, so we ate pie out of bowls.

たくさん皿がなかったから、ちゃわんからパイを食べた。

By the end of the night, the group grew to 6 of my friends in town, plus a game of crazy Uno (aka. Killer Uno).

６人友達は来た。CrazyUnoをした。

It was fun, but we stayed up WAY too late for a school night.

とても楽しかった。でも、次の日に学校がある日に遅れすぎた！

Okonomiyaki

Earlier this week, I needed to go to the grocery store, so I asked a friend if she wanted to meet for dinner. We went out for okonomiyaki.

今週スーパーへ行ったから、友達とお好み焼きを食べた。

We got two kinds. This one is kimchi.

２つ種類があった。これはキムチ。

This one had potato and cheese in it.

このいもとチーズがあった。

My friend.

友達。

It was a fun excuse to hang out.

楽しかった。

You know you've been in Japan too long when …

You know when you've been in Japan too long when, the price of this watermelon doesn't surprise you at all. ($12.80 USD).

このすいかのねだんがびっくりじゃない時に日本に長過ぎていることが分かる。

Birthday

After the barbecue, a few of us camped out by the lake. It was absolutely incredible to wake up to the next morning.

バーベキューの後４人は湖の近いにキャンプした。　朝にとてもとてもきれい。

Before everyone left, we went for ice cream. It was so delicious!

皆は帰るの前にアイスを食べた。とても美味しかった！

It was a really simple, but really good birthday.

簡単けど、いい誕生日があった。

A birthday celebration

Yesterday, I celebrated my birthday with a bunch of friends. Some from town, some who live in other parts of Hokkaido.

昨日誕生日パティをした。

K brought Totoro onigiri.

Kちゃんととろおにぎりを作った。

R was one of the group who was cooking.

Rは料理した。とても上手！

A couple of group shots, we didn’t quite get everyone in them though.

皆の写真けど、２．３人いなかった。

Birthday dancing.

おどりした。

Here are the shots from various cell phones. Cell phones don’t take the best photos at dusk.

皆の携帯の写真。　黄昏に携帯の写真は難しい。