ネイティブが教える英会話のジェムスクール☆Teachers☆

This is my nephew and my brother-in-law. Recently they took a trip to the Cleveland Zoo, and my sister sent me a lot of photos. My nephew is now two years and five months old, as of yesterday. I know it so well because we were born on exactly the same day. Almost at the same hour, even. He was born on my 25th birthday at around 10 p.m. I was born a little after 11.
Even though he's nearly two and a half he is super short. Sometimes one year olds are taller than him. His father is really short to. And so am I, I guess. But I am taller than his father, at least.
My brother-in-law and I are very competitive, because he likes the Yankees (you can tell from his hat) and I prefer the Red Sox. Those teams are huge rivals. We often used to debate about it at family dinners, but he would always win, because I only kind of like sports.   

A couple of weeks ago Sadie and I went to a store looking for some goodies for our students. Unfortunately the store didn't have what we needed but we got some good replacements. But that is not what this post is about, its about what was at the front of this particular store. At the front of the store there were a bunch of crane machines where you could win prizes. Inside one of the machines was a super cute Mew! I had to have that Mew so I put 500 yen in and tried my luck. I had no idea what I was doing. One of the staff saw that I was completely lost and he came over to explain the game and reset it so I could try again. about 3000 yen in all the spots were filled in except the one I needed. The staff felt so bad that he essentially rigged it so I could win. After getting my Mew we went through the store and on the way out I couldn't help it but try again and see if I could get the Pikachu in a Snorlax costume! At the end of the day I spent slightly over 5000 yen but I went home with two new friends.

That same night Sadie and I watched Pokemon: Mewto Strikes Back and Pokemon 2000. Have you seen any pokemon movies?

  

In the midst of dozens of tax papers (health insurance, pension, city) it was nice receive a letter that wasn't demanding my money---and that I could read!

As you can see, my Mother makes writing letters fun by writing in a spiral. It was really funny to read on the train, I must have looked so strange turning the paper around and around!! She sent me some photos last month, along with some chocolate that had melted over everything. "It's the thought that counts."

The photos were of her new cat and the variety of wildlife handing around her countryside home. Raccoons, turtles, deer. There was even a peacock! I don't believe that Michigan has peacocks so it must belong to a farm nearby.

My mother wrote about her garden and lake, and how happy she is living there. She bought a kayak but almost lost it when it floated away! I was happy to hear from her, because I sent her birthday presents in early July and hadn't even gotten an email since. Turns out, her computer is broken. She hates computers anyway.

I feel like buying some cute letter sets and writing back soon!  

Throughout the year, I had been told time and again things like "Have you lost weight?" and "You look slimmer!". That is mostly because I have been losing weight. In fact, I am much thinner than I was when I first arrived to Japan. Mostly in a good way, though I think I lost a lot of muscle as well.
However, recently I think i may have put on a bit of weight. Not a lot, as I still fit in even my tightest of pants (still not all that tight around the waist). But I have noticed a bit of flab showing more around my stomach (that was always the problem area, but now it seems to have taken a turn for the worst).
I'm pretty sure it has to do with the fact that 1) I haven't been doing much exercise lately. Before I had a sort of routine, even if it was a bit on the short side. But now I barely get out to go for a short walk, and so the inactivity has led to more pudgyness. 2) Poor diet. I have been eating a lot of bread lately, mostly because I don't make anything for breakfast or lunch. All those carbs went right to my stomach, or so I believe.
I hope I get out of this slump soon. I really don't want to pack on all the weight I worked kind of hard to take off!