ネイティブが教える英会話のジェムスクール☆Teachers☆

Last Sunday, I attended a large hanami with my friends. It was on a riverbank in Saijo, and there were sakura trees everywhere. It had rained earlier in the morning, but by the time we reached the meeting place, the rain had stopped and we were able to enjoy a relatively dry hanami. It was a dream of pearly gray light and pale pink petals. Many other people were out too, sitting on tarps, kicking around balls, and chatting, all to the rhythmic backdrop of a taiko drum. It was wonderful to see so many people out and enjoying themselves. There was also a path lined with food stalls; big bulbs filled with shaved ice, colorful ice cream cones, fried chicken, and, of course, takoyaki! I had not eaten takoyaki since last summer, so I went and bought some. So there I was, sitting on a riverbank, surrounded by flowers and friends, eating searing hot balls of fried octopus. Such an amazing experience!

  

Last week, in my Japanese class, my teacher told me that there was going to be a speech contest in Niihama for people learning Japanese. She said that it was a very good event to participate in, because it will help you to study and give you motivation. I am, sadly, very much in need of motivation, and I can definitely see that it would be a good idea for me to participate. But the idea makes me very nervous! I am not a very good public speaker even in English. Standing in front of a crowd trying to speak Japanese (and in a formal style!) sounds like nightmare material. But on the other hand, I think that this, combined with the trip that I’m taking with my parents next month, might be the universe telling me that I really need to pull myself together and learn more Japanese. So, I think I’m going to do it. It’s still nerve-wracking, but I think that in the end, even the attempt will be worth it.
  

A couple of weeks ago, my friend took me to see the Senyuji Temple in the mountains near Shikokuchuo. It was a gorgeous day, and I was happy to be able to get out and have some fresh air. The temple itself was very beautiful as well. It’s built into the side of a mountain, and there is a stream running under the temple itself. The stream tumbled swiftly down the mountainside, and we climbed beside it, up many stone steps. Once we reached the courtyard in front of the temple, the building itself loomed above us, old and rustic. My friend told me that it was 1,300 years old, and the temple felt heavy with its years. But there was something whimsical about it too, probably because the style reminded me of the bathhouse from the movie Spirited Away. Isn’t funny how such a simple thing can connect an ancient temple to a modern movie, two pieces of culture so far removed from each other, but still emerging as parts of a whole? Culture really is fascinating that way.
The greenery around the temple was verdant and lively with spring. I was feeling pretty lively myself, so I tried to reach the top of one of the staircases that started in the courtyard and ascended up the mountain. I thought I would reach the end quickly, snap a few pictures, and then come down. Unfortunately for me, there were a lot of stairs! There were many friendly Buddha statues on the way, and each one seemed to whisper, “Just a little bit further.” Up and up I went, think that each curve in the path would reveal the end. But, finally, I had to give up. My friend was waiting for me, and I didn’t want him to think that I had fallen off the mountain. So I went back down, stepping carefully. The steps were covered in old leaves, and I was worried that I would slip and break my neck on the stairs. Luckily, I reached the bottom safely but much winded. If I am going to be climbing up all sorts of stairs at Buddhist temples, I’m going to need to be in better shape!
  

On Friday, the day after my birthday, I was biking home from my Japanese lesson when I caught a glimpse of light pink flowers. They were beautiful and the day was fine, so I wandered over to have a look. At first, I thought they were plum blossoms, because I was told that cherry blossoms would not be out for a while yet. But I asked a couple of girls who were nearby, and they kindly told me that they were, in fact, cherry blossoms! I was really excited, because it was my first time seeing the famous cherry blossoms of Japan. The day and the flowers were so beautiful, and I wanted to stay and admire them. Of course, my brain immediately reminded me of all the things I was supposed to do before I went to work later that afternoon. But after a moment of mental struggle I made my decision: right now I had time, and flowers, and a beautiful day. My chores weren’t urgent, and would still be there tomorrow. But I had no idea when I would have another chance to enjoy myself in the warm, fragrant sunlight.
I quickly went home and grabbed a book, a yet-to-be-opened birthday present, and a bottle of juice. Then I found a bench under the cherry blossoms and had a lovely mini-hanami. I took pictures, read my book, and opened my present (which was a gift card for more books! Yay!). It was so restful, and it made the whole day bright. Sometimes, you really need to take yourself away from your responsibilities and make these moments for yourself.
  

Last weekend, I went out to eat with some friends, and I got to try many foods for the first time! There was a lot of delicious food, but my favorite was probably katsudon, or pork cutlet bowl in English. I was excited to try it, because it’s a food that comes up a lot in manga and anime. Most recently, the character Yuri from Yuri On Ice! is shown to really love them, and he gets his coach Victor hooked too. I wanted to see if I would enjoy pork cutlet bowls as much as the characters do. The result? Well, I found out that I do love pork cutlet bowls, but it is probably impossible to love them as much as Yuri does.   

I finally finished the beginner portion of my Kanji studying app this weekend! I managed to correctly answer 200 questions about Kanji, Kun-Yomi, and On-Yomi readings. Whew! That sure took a lot of study. I’m the sort of person who connects more strongly with written language than with spoken language when I’m studying, so learning how to read Japanese well is important to me. I can now read very simple stories designed for language learners, which I’m really excited about! It’s good to be making progress, and I’ll continue to study hard. Now that I’ve passed the Beginning Kanji section, I can either move on to On-Yomi Reading Groups or subject groups. For now, I’ve decided to study the food section, so that I can get better at reading Japanese menus. Wish me luck!  

Today, I went to get my car washed for the first time in Japan. I was nervous because I wasn’t sure how to use the machine, and I couldn’t read the kanji. But I just shrugged and thought, “Here goes nothing.” Sure enough, the machine quickly bogged me down. There were so many options, and I couldn’t understand any of them. Then a nice gas station assistant came to my rescue. She spoke some English, and soon got the correct information into the machine. I pulled up to the car wash and thought I was home free.
Then, my car began to move.
I completely panicked, slamming on the brakes repeatedly, putting the emergency brake on, and finally reversing, all to no avail. I kept moving. I had no idea what was happening!
Slowly, my beleaguered brain started to realize that I was on a moving platform that was pushing me back and forth through the car wash. My heartbeat began to slow down, and I couldn’t help but laugh at myself. Oh my goodness, did that scare me though! That’s not how car washes work in America. In those, you drive through yourself, and you know when to go and stop by watching for green and red lights, like traffic lights. Since I didn’t know about the platform, I thought I had lost control of the car somehow. Overall, my first car wash in Japan was way more exciting than it should have been, but I’m glad that I know what to expect now!
  

When I first came to Japan, I was afraid to try sleeping on the train. I knew that people did it all the time, but I was worried that I would fall deeply asleep and wake in Matsuyama or Takamatsu. Once I fell asleep between Kanounji and Niihama, and woke up in a panic, because the train was between stops and I had no idea where I was! (It was fine; we were only at Minoura, but it freaked me out so bad!) My friend told me to just set an alarm before my stop, but that only made me worry about disturbing other people on the train. So, I managed to make it through several months in Japan without truly falling asleep on a train. But, last weekend, the time came. I needed to board a train at 6:00 in the morning, after a very long night, and a very long day beforehand. I knew there was no way that I was going to stay awake on the hour-long train ride. Luckily, I realized that my big winter coat had a small breast pocket that would keep my phone against my chest. I would certainly feel it buzzing even if I turned the volume way down. So, I set the alarm just as the lightest gray was touching the mountains in the distance. I closed my eyes…and almost immediately, it seemed, my phone was buzzing. I opened my eyes to full daylight, and seconds later came the announcement that the next stop was Niihama. Mission accomplished!  

For Valentine’s Day, my friends and I went out to eat at an Italian restaurant in Komatsu called 10 Taro. It was so nice! We had pasta salad, vegetable salad, a broccoli dish, and honey tofu for appetizers. It was really interesting to have the Japanese version of pasta salad, and the broccoli and tofu made me feel very adventurous. The broccoli was something I never would have chosen on my own: it was a big, steamed head of broccoli served with broth and tiny, whole fish! It definitely wasn’t the kind of Italian that I was used to, but I was very happy to get to try it. Yay for savvy, adventurous friends! It was the same with the tofu. I wasn’t sure what to think when we ordered it, but it turned out to be a sweet spread for bread that had the consistency of soft cheese. Absolutely delicious! For my main meal, I chose pasta with pepperoncinis and shrimp. This was a lot closer to the Italian food that I grew up with, and I enjoyed it very much. Just make sure you like black pepper before you order it, because there is a lot of it on the noodles! The service was excellent, and we had a nice, private booth for our party. I had a great time, and I’d love to go back!  

Recently, I went to a restaurant in Niihama called Cook’s Café. The food was good, and the atmosphere was very nostalgic for me. It reminded me of the kind of cafes you would find in Fort Collins, Colorado, where I went to college. Lots of sturdy furniture made from light wood, many windows to let in light and air, dishes and cups made from thick, plain pottery; it’s very much the college town aesthetic. The people of Niihama apparently think so too, because there were a ton of young people there, and the place was packed. It’s obviously very popular with the younger crowd. The food also reminded me of Fort Collins, because Cook Café’s specialty is bagels. If there is one thing that Fort Collins loves (besides pizza) it’s a good artisan bagel. In an average bagel shop there, you can choose from about ten different kinds of bagel and over a dozen types of cream cheese! It was very nice to get to eat a decent bagel here (cranberry topped with a tuna and cucumber mixture), as Japan doesn’t seem to sell them in many places. I’m having a wonderful time exploring my new home!  

This weekend, I went and saw a really great exhibit at the art museum in Niihama! In the early 2000’s, a local man made beautiful paintings of all sorts of different place sin Niihama. The paintings are in the impressionistic style, with lots of big, sweeping brush strokes and bright colors. They emote a great deal of joy. It’s obvious that the painter loved his home.
Also, alongside the paintings were photographs of the same places, taken within the past few months. These photos were beautiful in their own right, but it was also really interesting to see how places had changed in the past fifteen years. Some looked very different, while others didn’t seem to have changed at all. I guess bits and pieces of Niihama are truly timeless.
  

I’ve been having a lot of fun cooking Japanese food lately! Recently, I decided that I was going to be more ambitious with my recipes. I got a real Japanese cookbook for Christmas, and so far I have been putting it to good use! Last week, I made udon soup with chicken and lots of vegetables. It was delicious! It was also my first time cooking with dashi, so I was super nervous. But my friend helped me find the kind of dashi I was looking for at the supermarket, and the soup turned out really well! I was so grateful. This week, I’m going to try out miso soup with pork and vegetables. I’ll be cooking with all kinds of ingredients that I’ve never used before—like daiko, burdock root, and red miso—so I don’t know how it will turn out. But I’m super excited to try! Wish me luck!  

On Sunday, my friend took me to eat at a ramen restaurant called Ichi. It was so delicious! I’ve loved ramen ever since my best friend introduced me to instant ramen back in high school. It sounds stupid to say that I loved instant ramen, since it’s just about the cheapest food there is, but I really did! It didn’t taste like anything else that I had had before, and it is so quick and easy to make. Truth be told, I still eat a lot of instant ramen for the same reasons—it’s cheap and all you have to do is put it in the microwave. But I can’t say that I love it anymore, now that I finally have access to real ramen. There’s just no comparison! I know ramen was originally from China, but I think that Japan has really made ramen into a culinary art. I’m so happy that I get to eat it here all the time!  

When I went home for Christmas, I brought back my old down-stuffed coat. It hasn’t seen much use in a while, since I was living in New Orleans, where dressing in a down coat (a coat stuffed with feathers) is a bit overkill (no pun intended). But here in Japan, the winter is getting really cold! I love my new Japanese coat, but I think of it as a medium-weight coat, rather than heavy-weight. Anyway, now I can wear my down coat, and I am so happy! I forgot how amazingly warm it is. Now I am finally prepared for winter!  

For the first time in 23 years, I had a white Christmas!

Snow in Arizona isn’t actually such a rare thing, if you live in the right place. There is usually snow on the mountains in winter, but the storms are erratic and the snow tends to melt off quickly, gone after only a few days except in patches of deep shade in the forest.

When I was younger, we lived down in a valley, where snow was rare enough that we didn’t expect it every winter. My parents have since retired to a mountain town, but up until now, the storms never happened to coincide with Christmas. But this year, we had a huge storm on Christmas Eve, leaving everything with a thick layer of powder just in time for the holiday. It was beautiful, and I was so happy that I got to see it!

  

I love wrapping Christmas presents! Every year, my mother buys one or two new rolls of wrapping paper to add to our collection from previous years. She also buys colorful ribbons with cute patterns on them. Choosing the perfect ribbon to go with the paper makes each present a small work of art! This year I had to hurry though, because I got home on December 24, so I only had one day to wrap all of my presents. Oh no! But it worked out fine; here are the presents that I wrapped for my family this year.
  

On Saturday, I will be in America. And I’ll be making pie.

My family didn’t always make pies for Christmas. When I was a young child, we didn’t. Although, now that I find myself reaching back, I can’t actually remember what we did have for dessert on those long ago Christmases. Whatever it was has been completely supplanted by the memory of pies. Apple pies, mostly. What happened was that one Christmas, sometime during my teenage years, my aunts gave us an apple pie recipe book. My mom had never made a pie before, but she was fascinated by the idea, thinking of it as a dying art. From that year on we baked pies for Christmas. Mom would handle the crust, kneading and stretching the dough into shape, while I threw fruit and sugar and spices together to make the filling. The air would be filled with cinnamon and flour, and the apple juices would bleed into the sugar and pears and cranberries and nuts. We would end up with cold, firm piecrust and mushy, sticky-sweet filling. Then there was the baking, simple until the very end, when you have to make sure that the top of your crust doesn’t burn while the rest finishes. Finally, out of the oven and onto the cooling rack, and taadaa! A beautiful homemade apple pie. Dessert is finished, and now you get to make everything else! Christmas cooking is a lot of work, but it’s fun when everyone cooks together.

P.S. Here’s a picture of me in my ugly Christmas sweater!

  

‘Tis the season for Christmas shopping! I’ve always had mixed feelings about this time, because it is both fun and really stressful. I like buying presents for the people I love, but you constantly have to think of things like “will he actually use this” or “would she like this sort of thing?” It doesn’t really matter, because it’s the thought that counts more than the actual gift, but I always try my best to get something that each family member will like and appreciate. This means that Christmas shopping takes a while though, and there is always so little time! One bright side of this year is that I don’t have to try and shop while taking my finals. No more school for me, at least not for a while. It’s such a relief! Except that now I have replaced finals stress with international travel stress. I guess there really is no getting away from anxiety right before the holidays!  

I finally went to the library in Niihama! It was very peaceful. The building is low and flat, and there are a ton of large windows that look out onto a grassy area. There are trees and bushes to shield the street from view, so people can sit and read, and when they look up, they see a tranquil piece of nature. I’ll have to take some time and try reading there. I also looked at the foreign language section of the library and I was happy to see many English books! I’ve already read a lot of them, but it’s been a while. For instance, they had both Anne of Green Gables and all of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books! That really takes me back; I read those in elementary school! They also had a full set of the Harry Potter books. I really appreciate this, because my set is at home, and I know that I will miss them while I’m here. But now I know that I can get them from the library! Yay!   

When we were in Matsuyama, my friends and I went to Matsuyama Castle! This was very exciting. I loved seeing an original Japanese castle, and the historical features were all really fascinating! I also liked seeing all of the old samurai armor and swords. They were really beautiful in their workmanship and so different from European armor. There was even an area where you could try on some fake armor to see how it felt and how heavy it was. One of my friends tried it on, and got some really great pictures. I was so jealous! I would have tried it on too, but I was already wearing a kimono. Putting on armor over the kimono that I was wearing would have been very difficult, though it might have been funny, now that I think about it. Maybe I will get to try the armor next time!