Furano Fall Colors

After a week of having a cold, I needed out of the house on a gorgeous fall Saturday.

１週間に風邪がひいたの後に外で遊びたかった。この土曜日にいい天気があったから。

I decided to head into Furano and see if the fall colors in a park I like were as pretty as they were last year.

富良野へ行った。綺麗な紅葉が見たかった。去年に良かった。

They were.

綺麗だった！

Just wanted to sit on those benches and enjoy the weather. Unfortunately it was just a tad cold for that.

あのベンチで座りたかったけど、ちょっと寒かった。

The leaves are so gorgeous in October.

１０月に葉は綺麗ね。

This tree had all the colors – red, orange, yellow, green.

この木は全部色があった。赤とオレンジと黄色と緑。

So glad I randomly spotted this park a couple of years ago.

この公園を見つけたこと良かった！

Golden Week Day 7

You can see the pics posted during the trip here.

前の携帯の写真はここで。

Breakfast with our new friends before we all head different directions.

離れるの前朝ご飯を食べた。

(Photo by Oskar, Oは写真を撮った）

Our friend M gave us a ride to the station.

Mの車で駅まで乗った。

After we split up, Mandie and I headed to Tokyo station.

離れてから、妹と東京駅まで行った。

Mandie wanted to see a castle, so we headed to the Imperial Palace. I hadn’t really considered that we wouldn’t even be able to see the gardens inside.

皇居へ行った。

At a park nearby, there was a protest. We didn’t know why.

近い公園に抗言あった。なざかわからなかった。

Because of the protest, there were cops all around the park, but when we first saw the cops, we didn’t know about the protest and we wondered why they were so heavily guarding a park.

来た時に警察いっぱい見たけど、なぜが分からなかった。抗言を見たの後に分かった。

After our walk, we went back to the hostel and then out for dinner. Here’s Mandie with her first-ever onigiri (rice ball).

晩ご飯に妹は始めたおにぎりを食べた。

Dessert – a strawberry sandwich.

デザトーは苺のサンド。

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。

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！

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！

After hanami, we went to the beach.

花見の後に海に行った。

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。

Me, enjoying the sunshine.

陽光に楽しんでいた。

Spring flowers!

春の花！

We found Sakura! (Cherry blossoms)

桜が見つけた！

Golden Week day 13 mobile

I just got home and I have work tomorrow, so this is going to be short and sweet.

今日帰った。そして、明日仕事があるから、今日のブログは短い。

Today I explored Narita a bit. I asked the woman at the Travel Information office what she recommended for a couple of hours in Narita and she pointed me toward one of the most beautiful temples I’ve been to – it had a gorgeous park!

今日成田に行った。　観光案内の人のおすすめは駅の近い寺。　とてもきれいの。　そして、大きい公園があった。

After I came back to the airport, I had lunch and then found the observation deck. I was very happy to spend more time in the warm sunshine before heading back to Hokkaido.

空港へ戻ったの後昼ご飯を食べた。送迎デッキへ行って 陽光にいた。とてもうれしかった！

Then it was time to go. Goodbye Tokyo!

その後、帰った。　さよなら東京！

After I got back, I had about an hour and a half before my train left, so I had dinner with a friend and her mom, who is visiting. This is us on the train before splitting up.

空港で電車の待つ時間は１時間半ぐらいから、友達と旅行お母さんと晩ご飯を食べた。離れたの前に電車でこの写真を撮った。

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！

NZ Adventures 4: Paeroa

On Monday, Dan took the car to Auckland to take Josh to the airport to fly out. We had him drop us off in Paeroa (read: Pie-row-a) on his way.

We wandered the town. After leaving my tiny town of about 3,000, seeing how alive Paeroa is at 4,000 people had me amazed. I had to take a picture of how lively the little downtown street was.






Paeroa is home to the NZ famous L&P soda (Lemon and Paeroa). In American terms, it’s kind of like lemonade meets soda, not like sprite or 7up.



Look who’s inside that L&P bottle.



Palm trees and a park. I want to live somewhere that palm trees can grow in my neighborhood park!



L&P sign on the side of a building.



If I ever own a used bookstore, I think I’d like to label them pre-loved instead of used.



For lunch we went to a café with a million different delicious looking choices . . . I wanted to try every single dessert.



I sat with Dolly and Gene – a very fun pair.

Look at how big this cake is! I didn’t try it, but this is where I first discovered slice, my new favorite dessert, but I forgot to take a picture of my own dessert.



After lunch, we continued our wander through town. We ended up in the shop of a guy who spins wood, like a potter spins clay. It was really cool to watch him work.



He uses some sort of vacuum system to attach the bowl (or what he’s spinning) to the “wheel.” And then he goes to work.



Watch out for stray wood chips!



It’s the Nikown! Like Nikon and Cow had a baby, Nikown!



Even McDonalds has a NZ theme!



Doesn’t Paeroa have a cute post office? We went in and they had all their postcards on sale – a dangerous thing for me!



Positive Paeroa Office.



Since it was fall in NZ, they had my new (since coming to Japan) favorite fall fruit – Persimmons! Of course, I had to get one.



We ended our day around town with a ride in a taxi back to the B&B. We got a surprise and our taxi driver used to live just down the road from where the B&B is located. We thought she had missed the turn for our B&B, but it turned out she was showing us where she lived.

After our day in town, we decided to play a game of Scrabble. After all the Words With Friends I’ve been playing with mom and my uncle, it turns out I’m better than I expect at Scrabble these days – I somehow managed to win!