Standing in the HS parking lot

I live in the middle of the country. 

田舎に住んでいる。

One of the best things about living in the country is how beautiful it is. 

田舎に住んでいるのいい事は自然がきれい。

These are a couple of things I get to see from the parking lot of the high school I visit. 

高校へ行く時にこれが見える。

I don't know why, but I really like these trees. The fact that there is a sing line of them along the hill is visually interesting and I want to capture it with my camera. 

この木はなぜなら分からないけど、面白いと思う。線にあるから面白いからいつも写真を撮りたい。

Also, I love how colorful the roofs are on buildings. In the summer they have nice contrast and in the winter they're bright and cheery with white everywhere else. 

日本の屋根は色んな色がある事が好き。夏にいい対比色がある。冬に他の物ずっと白いでも屋根は明るい。

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。

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。

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。

Sea of clouds

On Saturday morning, a friend and left town at 4am so owe could see the Sea of Clouds in Tomamu.

土曜日に友達と４時に雲海を見に行った。

When we were driving my friend kept talking about ‘unkai.’ So I decided to look it up. The kanji are “sea” and “clouds.” She was surprised that I understood the kanji, but not the actual word. Those are super easy kanji, but together I wouldn’t have thought they’d be read like that.

運転中に友達は「うんかい」よく言った。　私はうんかいが分からなかったから、辞書に探した。　漢字は「雲海」！　漢字は分かり安い。　でも、読み方は難しかった。

This was the view on the way up.

上へ行ったの眺め。

This direction isn’t the main thing to see, but if we could just get a little higher, I think it’d be really pretty too.

この側にもきれい。

My friend and I.

友達と。

The view on the way down.

帰る中に眺め。

After we got back, it was about 8 am and time for a nap.

帰ったの後に８時ぐらいけど、昼寝の時間。

A Friday drive

On Friday, I visited one of my tiny schools, there are only about 8 students in the whole elementary school. The tiny schools are awesome because I get to talk to all of the kids more.

金曜日にとても小さい小学校へ行った。全員は８人ぐらい。小さい学校に生徒とよく話せるから、大好き。

On my way home, I spotted this, a scene that I always think, I should take a picture, but there’s no good place to pull over. This time I realized it when driving back, and there’s an excellent place to pull over if you’re coming back into the main part of town.

帰る中にこれを見た。いつもきれいと思うけど、金曜日この所の最初写真を撮った。

June Photo Challenge Day 2

June 2: First things

６月２日：最初の事

Today was the Junior High School’s Sports day. Before any of the sports began, we did ‘rajio taiso,’ which is a Japanese-style warm-up.

今日は運動会があった。　最初はラジオ体操した。

Everyone got to pick a kanji to put on the back of their Tshirt. These two friends, picked the two kanji in ‘friend’ so that when they stand together their shirts say friend.

みんなはTシャツの後ろの漢字が選んだ。　この２人は友と達が選んだ。　一緒に友達になる！

Fever or hot, if I understood correctly, it’s because she has a warm heart, though that may have been lost in translation.

熱。

My team, the red team!

私の組は赤組！

I like taking jumping photos – it’s a fun challenge to try and get the timing right.

跳ぶの写真は楽しい！正しい時に撮ることは難しくて、いいチャレンジだよ！

I laughed when I saw this part of the obstacle & relay race. Two students have to get in a cardboard box and move to the end of their part of the relay.

びっくりした！ダンボールに速い動いている！

The tunnel race. It always looks like a lot of fun!

トンネルの。いつも楽しそう！

After sports day, we had party for the teachers. It was a lot of fun, though I was both happy and embarrassed when a teacher picked me as an MVP for taking photos and went on to say he thinks my photos are better than the town photographers!

運動会の後にえんかいがあった！みんなはMVPの人が言った。１つ先生は私と言った。写真撮るから。そして、彼は私の方が町の写真館より上手と言った。とてもびっくり。うれしくて恥ずかしかった！

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。

An afternoon with a friend

Last week, my friend Mayumi invited me to go out to lunch. She used to work at the bank, in town, but she moved to another branch nearby a couple of years ago. I’ve seen her a couple of times since for choir activities, but not very many times.

先週にまゆみと昼ご飯に行くのが決めた。彼女は２年前に同じ町に仕事をしたけど、　引っ越した。その後あまり会えなかった。

Today I met her near her house and we drove into Furano for lunch.

今日まゆみの家の近いに会った。富良野で昼ご飯を食べた。

We went to a nice restaurant called Le Chemin.

このレストランに行った。（たぶん正しいローマ字ができない）。

This is the building. I liked the red door.

この建物。赤いドアが好き。

A photo of us. Unfortunately, I forgot that when I hand my camera to someone who’s not used to an SLR, I need to set it to dummy mode, so that it takes care of all the settings. We’re slightly out of focus, but the guy behind us is in perfect focus.

私たち。　店員が撮った。　でも、一眼レフがあげる時に簡単モードに変われば良かった。　後ろの人はピントを合わせる、私たちじゃない。

This was the appetizer. It was pretty yummy.

これはアピタイザー。　美味しかった。

The next course was potato soup.  The cup was so tiny.

次のコースはスープ。　コップはとても小さかった。

Mayumi caught me photographing the main course.

まゆみは私がメインの写真を撮った時に写真を撮った。

Here’s the result. Don’t the meat and veggies look amazing? (Yes, dad, it’s steak)

結果。　美味しそうだよね？

Tiramisu and apple ice cream for dessert. Yum!

デザトーはティラミスとりんごアイス。　おいしかった！

After lunch, we went to a nearby onsen. It was so nice and relaxing.

昼ご飯の後に温泉に行った。

We decided after that onsen is always best when followed by ice cream, so we headed to the Furano Cheese Factory. I’d never been. We got to peek in the windows for the factory, but since it was Saturday afternoon, not a lot was happening.

私たちは温泉の後にアイスが最高が決めたから、富良野チーズ工場に行った。私は行ったことない。

Here’s Mayumi with her grape and pumpkin ice cream.

まゆみはぶどうとかぼちゃを食べた。

I got Haskap and Cheese – I figured it would be like Haskap cheesecake.

私のはハスカップとチーズ。ハスカップのチーズケーキ見たいことが考えかた。

We talked about my love of big windows both there and at the onsen. I love being able to look out and see what’s happening outside. The cheese factory had a giant window that allowed us to glimpse a bit of the blue sky while it was visiting.

大きい窓が好きから、温泉と工場で話しました。　外を見えることが好き。　少し青空が見えた。

In the distance you can see Furano’s Ski Resort. Closer, you can see bits of green! That means spring is coming!

富良野スキー場と緑が見えた。だから、春が来る！

Here’s my new friend, Ms. Cow.

新しい友達は牛さん。

Photo Challenge Day 11

March 11: Apple

I didn’t know what to do with an apple today, so I decided to play with my flash more – something I’ve been meaning to do anyways. I picked the one I did as the large shot, because I liked the contrast the bright apple had against the shadows.

The smaller shots to the left were a few other things I tried – shooting the flash straight from above (not an apple’s best angle), the flash from the other side, and over exposing it.

Here’s the set up I used again. White paper, an apple, Nikon D5100, wireless flash hot shoe set, flash and a remote trigger.

*  *  *  *  *

Today I had a lot of time at the BOE, where I have no internet and none of my normal things with me. I studied with textbooks and flashcards for a bit today, but I also started The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in Japanese today!

March Photo Challenge

A couple of months ago, I stumbled upon this website called iheartfaces. They had some cool photography ideas that as far as people photos went, were much more the kinds of photos I wanted to be taking.

Then I spotted one of their photo challenges. My camera has been largely ignored the past few months because I’ve been busy and behind on editing and not feeling any major need to get more behind.

But, I’ve been wanting to get back in the habit of taking photos on a regular basis and looking for the kinds of things I like to take photos of. When I saw a month-long photo challenge I knew I had to try it – project 365 last year lasted for a couple of months, so I know I can take a photo everyday for a month.

Here’s the project if you’re interested in joining in. I’ll probably post everyday during the week and then 3-4 on Monday after the weekend’s over.

Unfortunately, the project started on an away weekend, so here are the first 3 days.

March 1: Me

This shows how I spent a large portion of my day – outside in a very windy-snowy Hokkaido. Between my walks to and from the car to schools, a school’s winter festival and a 20 minute wait for the train, I got a lot of snow in my face.

March 2: Favorite

In Niseko, we found GOOD chai. It doesn’t take much food talk with me to discover chai is a favorite of mine – and chai spiced anything comes very closely behind that.

March 3: Happy

There were lots of good moments today. But I have to say I was especially happy when, after a weekend of a crazy blizzard where several people died, I made it home. This is after shoveling the area in front of my garage which has nearly a meter of packed snow that isn’t going anywhere.

Stay tuned tomorrow for better pictures from my real camera, rather than my phone.