ネイティブが教える英会話のジェムスクール☆Teachers☆

Last weekend I went to Kompirasan. I've been there three times now. The first time I climbed up only to the hours, the second time to the main shrine, and this time to very top. The view at the top was absolutely beautiful, and it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Still, it was a lot more fun coming down.  

This weekend I will be cleaning my PC. It has been some time and I am starting to hear the fan so clearly I have waited too long. I have never gone looking for the compressed air cans in Japan but I hope they are easy to find. My first stop will be K's. Usually I clean the PC every 6 months just to keep it running as efficiently as possible. Not to mention the money I save on the electricity bill. This machine is huge and pulls in too much power.

How often do you clean your PC?  

Last weekend, my sister and our friends went to an anime convention in Michigan! It had been awhile since anyone did some cosplaying so I was really happy for them! They looked really cool and I bet a lot of people took pictures of them at the convention!

On one of the days, my sister and our friends did a group cosplay from the video game Undertale. The game has characters with big personalities, so it was pretty perfect for my friends.


Brian (in the middle) made his skeleton mask with his 3-D printer, and it was a lot of work! I think it turned out really cool!


Cosplaying is really popular and shows no sign of stopping in Michigan. Our conventions just keep getting bigger and bigger!
  

Lately it's been difficult to find time to be cooking, especially since work tends to finish late. I am not fond of eating very late, especially right before bed. Since it is easy for me to get sleepy by around midnight, and since cooking can take a bit of time with preparation, heating up, and plating, I will end up going to bed maybe an hour after sleeping. Blargh.
Because of everything mentioned above, my wife ended up finding this food delivery service, called "Yoshikei". It is quite cool. They set up a neat little lock box, where they place the food for us to pick up at our leisure. Of course, we can't leave it in there too long; the food is frozen, so we need to get it out and into the freezer before long. What's also nice is the selection of food they have. It is restricted by the week, meaning when we order, we get whatever food they have prepared for the week, but the food is all varied and quite delicious. Plus, they have healthy options, as well as appropriately portioned per person.
We have only just started using the service, but so far it's been very useful. Can't wait to try all the food they have to offer!  

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.
  

Hello!

Well, I wrote a couple of weeks back about suffering from spring fever, and even though I don't seem to be affected by it this year, I'm noticing a lot of students (both adults and children) wearing maskes and sneezing and sniffling a lot more than usual. Maybe there's a new cold or some flu going around (I sure hope not!), but I think a lot are suffering from the seasonal allergies. It reminds me of how important proper sneezing technique is! When I was in school, they taught us the bests way to sneeze with the lowest chance of spreading your cold was to sneeze into your elbow. They called it the “Vampire Sneeze”, because you look like Dracula wearing a cape over your face. This way, the germs aren't all over your hands when you meet some one or shake hands. Hopefully this seasonal allergy season will pass, so I can stop worrying about getting a Spring cold!

A  

Here is a picture of my mom and sister. They are at Reno, the world biggest little city. It is seen as a minor or miniature Vegas, minus all the famous replicas. Reno is located in a mountainous area so in the Winter it becomes a popular spot for snow sports, such as skiing. In the rest of the year it becomes a great place to enjoy some of the outdoors. My family just likes to walk about town and relax and try out all the various shops. We used to talk once about getting a timeshare there, which means that we reserve a room there and pay a small fee for that. I think once, actually, we did have a timeshare there, but I don’t actually remember going there often. I never really liked long drives since I get car sick easily. Maybe now I’d enjoy them, but before I couldn’t say they were my favorites. Arriving at the actual destination however was always a joy, and my times in Reno and nearby Lake Tahoe were enjoyable to say the least. Unfortunately, I would always get sick on my first day there! I think this was largely due to the new bacteria in the altitude of the area and my body being a slow learner. I’m a bit jealous though seeing my sister enjoy her birthday there and with my family. You can’t really tell from this picture, but I really resemble my mom. I miss her a lot, as well as the rest of my family, even my brother!  

This weekend I bought a new shirt at GU, I really like it and I was very excited to wear it.
I wore it to one of my classes and it happened to be the class where we were learning about colors. We were talking about colors (and how you can say "light ______" to talk about the paler version of a color) I held out my shirt and said "It's light purple!"
Half of my students were very confused. "No, it's light blue!" They said.
I was so surprised!!
I thought it would be fun to ask all of my students what color they thought it was and keep track of how many people thought it was purple and how many people thought it was blue.




I lost!!
Most of my students thought my shirt was blue, but I thought it was purple. It was a fun lesson in English, but also a good lesson in perception. Sometimes what's blue to you is purple to someone else!   

The nice spring weather has me feeling so excited for summer. My husband and I went for a hike on our favorite local mountain. It was sunny and cool. I particularly like the old, broken steps. Reminds me of ancient ruins in other parts of the world. I love the feel of old places, especially if they are quiet and unpopulated.


  

I hate to smell stinky things. Sometimes I take out the garbage and it's extra stinky. I can't image that anyone would enjoy that situation. Stinky things are sometimes difficult to escape as well. So, for this situation I like to be well prepared. In my effort to always be prepared, I found this novelty clothespin. It's enormous and does the job, of holding my nose closed, well.

  

Today, I made banana bread! I have been looking for the best recipe that would produce the most flavorful and delicious banana bread and I think I finally found it. Baking here in Japan has been a little different than baking back home in the U.S., the main difference being the oven. Other things that play into the differences are finding certain ingredients. Nonetheless, I managed to make a tasty banana bread and I am so thrilled! I will definitely be using this recipe again. (-:

Until next time,

Cristina


  

I took a day trip to Kochi.


When I was there, I went to Kochi castle for the first time. It's one of only 12 original castles left in Japan. Climbing the main part of the castle was really cool, but the old wood stairs were super steep!

One of the things I always do when I visit a castle is to imagine what it would be like to attack it, and how I would defend it from attackers. Kochi seems relatively easy to attack really. compared to Imabari, it's a pushover. There's no moat and no extensive outer wall, only the walls of the central tower.

Anyway, I like visiting castles. :)

  

I found something interesting in Kochi the other day.



This is a stone monument to one of the fight songs for Kochi's "higher school". The lyrics to the song refer to "feeling the waves crash on the shores of California" or something like that. Katsurahama always makes me feel nostalgic for California, and seeing the word written in stone just intensified that feeling.  

This last week I was working on a puzzle! One of my students loves to do jigsaw puzzles and she inspired me to do one. It has been a long time since I have done one, and I forgot how long it can take to do! I worked on putting together this really cool puzzle I bought in Canada, it is all black and white! The best part is that now that it is done I get color it! I will show you what it looks like when I'm done.


  

We're back in Japan, we got back Thursday evening. Our trip was almost 4 days long, we left on Monday night and didn't get into Kanonji until Thursday, it was exhausting.
We are glad to be back, we missed Japan a lot. It really made us think how much longer we want to be in Japan and what kind of place we want to live in the future. Somewhere safe and small, with nice people.
I look forward to seeing everyone soon!  

As said in many posts ago I've been working on my Japanese language and I must say, it has been getting easier and I've been comprehending more as time passes by. I must say my studies in some linguistics, cognitive science, and the philosophy of mind that I'm a firm believer of passive and active interaction with a target language you want to learn.

As mentioned before I'm all about passive and SOME active input (Japanese in this case), so in turn I need to listen to more things in Japanese, however I find it a bit frustrating if I'm watching a new TV show (well for me), that I don't understand anything (because of the language). I then found out that a certain video streaming service has plenty of American TV shows dubbed (the original audio replaced) into Japanese. I must say multiple TV shows that I watched back in Canada are making my passive input of Japanese much more enjoyable merely because I'm having fun and having a form of investment in the program.

Do you have some form of passive input of the language you're learning?


  

This week, I celebrated my Japanese teacher's 72nd birthday with him by taking him out to go eat yaki niku! We had a great time--it was so delicious!
  

I was born in Kansas, one of the flattest states in America. I went to college in Indiana, a place known for fertile farmland and basketball but not much else. Only once had I ever even seen a real mountain.

They may not be as imposing as the Rocky Mountains, but being surrounded by mountains gives off a completely different feeling.  

February 27th was my birthday, and since then I've had some kind of birthday celebration every weekend. First I went bowling with some pals, and last weekend my friend ordered us a pizza and we played video games, and the next day my Japanese dad threw me a party at his friends house. This weekend I'm going shopping with Rose because she wants to get us matching bomber jackets for my birthday. It's been super fun.  

On one of my trips to Kochi I saw this Sakaida in Ember. I instantly knew I wanted it. Sakaidas are something that you never see back home in Miami. I don't know in the rest of the country but South Florida just doesn't have them. Here in japan they are incredibly obnoxious. It took me some time to get used to their annoying noise. Not to mention that the bridge I cross to play PoGo is full of them. I assume they are completely harmless but still they are a nuisance.