ネイティブが教える英会話のジェムスクール☆Teachers☆

I started making things again! While I am always thinking of creative things, I don't often have the time or drive to sit down and do them.

I bought an adorable pair of earrings for a dress that I like to wear in the summer. I needed a gold necklace to compliment it, so I got out my resin and created a cute pendant. I did this a lot quicker than I thought I would, and I really like it!

I have two containers full of nothing but stickers, so choosing the right goldfish to use was pretty fun. I'm inspired to try and do more of these, but I don't need them, so I guess they would be emergency presents. In my house, we always had a box of "emergency presents" full of things that were nice but we didn't want. If an occasion came up where one of us needed to give a gift, then we reached for the emergency presents.   

Last weekend I went to my first Cat Cafe! There were so many adorable kitties and I didn't sneeze even once! I don't think we have cat cafes in America, if we do I've never been to one before. Playing with animals can be very therapeutic so I'm surprised we don't have these around. My favorite cat was a thin grey cat who perched on my shoulder for a good five minutes before running to play with someone else. I wish I had a pet.  

It’s me sitting again, under a tree this time. I actually am not a fan of sitting, as it is responsible for destroying my lower back. But that’s not to say that I’m a fan of standing either. Rather, it is all about the squat, a mix between the sit and the stand, since it is like a healthy sit with a minimum of healthy effort, as it requires balancing and stretching. I wonder why I didn't squat for this picture. Or maybe I did in another photo. This particular tree that I am under is a plum tree that my friend and I visited one random day before work. In my hand is a bar of ice cream. I have a thing for them, really obsessed with them. I am lactose intolerant, which means that my stomach hurts if I eat too much dairy, so ice cream has only become much more precious for that. Squatting with ice cream under the shade of a blooming plum tree, that is some divine stuff. The whole thing unfolded in a Japanese garden we randomly found on one of our outings. We stumbled across the garden after we visited the shrine right beside it. I wish plum and sakura trees wilted or passed much slower, and that ice cream never melted, so that I could enjoy them both again today.  

Salutations readers! For a while now, I've always wanted to learn how to play an instrument. While back home, I never seemed to have the time or focus to do it. I played the clarinet back when I was in junior high school but it was more for the class then myself. I do have to say though, there was a small part of me that enjoyed it then. I guess that part stuck with me later in the years. While living in China, I was gifted an acoustic guitar by a dear friend of mine who encouraged me to learn how to play. Unfortunately, I had to leave it in China when I moved to Japan and in turn gifted it to another friend of mine. I recently came in possession of another acoustic guitar and this time around I am determined to learn how to play a song by the end of this year. I've always dreamed of being able to play and sing a song dedicated to my new wife. I want to write many songs about her. She is my muse and now my main motivation to learn how to play.  

I was feeling a bit under the weather last week. Luckily, I made it through the week without getting too severely sick. Still, on Saturday evening after work, I came home and had the strong urge for soup. So, I made my mom's famous soup. She would make this for us every time one of us was sick. Even if we weren't sick, we were always happy to eat it because it's so delicious. I decided to make some for myself at home. I had made it before, so I was familiar with what to do. You need vegetables, garlic, ginger, onions and peppers, and chicken if you want. Needless to say, I felt much better the next day.


  

Hello!

I have been in Japan a little over a month now and have gotten to try just a few of the many desserts Japan has to offer! Just this weekend I had amazing matcha soft serve and several weekends ago I had a parfait that blew my mind! Not only are desserts here yummy, many of them include far less sugar than what I would expect in America. This makes them super refreshing as one can eat them without the undesired effect of a sugar coma. As someone that often prefers a lower sugar content, I’m loving it!   

They're selling some special coffee cans with Shonen Jump to celebrate old comics they used to run. I remember watching these when I was a kid so I thought I'd keep a few. They don't take up too much space on my book shelf so it's not so bad. At least they won't go bad, yea? I never read Yu Yu Hakusho as a kid but the cartoon was really great! That intro was so catchy. They changed the lyrics to English so it's interesting to hear the two differences.

JP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hlk7AzBMmOA

Eng
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUW2hRQkegM

Sounds like they re-created the track music completely. The Drumkit sounds so much nicer on the JP track. It really was a different time back then :0   

One TV show that i just love is called Twin Peaks and for not that long ago I went through a huge marathon of the new season of it! The new series (2017) is far different from the original (1990-1991) but it still very much is the same show!

Have you ever watched this TV show or heard of it?


  

Last Friday I started the process of getting my driver's license. Three hours on the train, back and forth to Matsuyama. Another hour or so walking through the sweltering humidity. An hour long interview with a police officer about my experiences in driver's education...twenty years ago. It was an interesting day. To top it off, I can't drive until I get my license, which will be a minimum of another ten days.

Hopefully there won't be too much trouble between now and then. Although I already got lost walking around around Niihama.  

Last weekend I went to Kobe, it was my second trip within Japan, after Tokyo. I want to visit many cities in Japan, and Kobe was first on the list, as it is very easy to get to, just a 3 hour bus trip from Takamatsu station. I went there to see the international street with all of the old houses, but mostly to eat Kobe beef! the beef itself was very expensive but the taste was incredible. It was the best meat I ever had and I recommend everyone try it!  

They are redoing my apartment, which has been a new experience for me. It was mindboggling to see every inch of the halls covered in plastic, including my windows. But it was even weirder for me when I realized that the workers were going to build scaffolding up to the very top of the building. For at least two weeks, my neighbors and I have heard metal banging as they climbed. It makes me feel like they're kids, trying to see "how high can we build this??"

Sometimes they are nice and work at 10, other times, they start making lots of noise at 8:30 and wake me up. I work late, so I sleep late, and in the warmer weather I am already sleeping badly. I don't really know what they are doing to the place.

Sometimes there's a worker outside my balcony, which is really startling! I'm not on the ground level so I'm not used to seeing ANYONE outside that window. I can't wait for them to be finished.  

What are allergies? An allergic reaction is the body's response to a foreign object, for example, pollen or nuts. Many people have nut allergies. I have a very specific nut allergy. If I eat cashews or pine nuts my body will respond in a very specific and painful way expelling the nuts from my body. Think The Excorcist. Sunday I found out that I'm also allergic to some kind of Indian spice used in curry. My friends and I went to a wonderful Indian restaurant and had naan, rice, chicken, and I ordered a very mild Indian curry. Less than two hours later I found myself re-enacting a scene from Poltergeist 2.

Do you have any allergies?  

Hello all! Last week was a tricky week for me. After work on Thursday night I felt a bit ill. When I checked my temperature at home, I found that it was very high. It was the first time I have been that sick in a long time. I remember remedies my family (specifically my Grandmother) would tell me to take when I fell ill. I visited my local supermarket and brought some lemons, honey, and ginger. I boiled the ginger in water and mixed lemon and honey in the pot. I drank that tea all weekend and I feel a lot better. Thanks Grandma!!!  

Here is me in a squatting position out on the veranda lining the second or third floor of one of those Japanese multi-storied towers found at some temple grounds. Some people can’t take this position due to bone structure differences. Such a squat is often known as the “Asian squat,” and me being Asian I happen to be able to take and hold this position. It is a wonderful fix to lower back pains. I’ll often go through some Japanese flashcards in this position, between work breaks, or sometimes in the hot springs. In America it is a rather odd pose to take, so much so that even my own mom told me to get up when she saw me like that in public. Here in Japan though it seems to be very common that I even find myself squatting like that in public, such as in this picture. Sometimes I’ll just perch on a bench or edge while talking to someone to stretch out my lower back. It is supremely comfortable and it offers an international like myself a new perspective from which to view the world.
  

This is my cat named Daisy. She is 4 years old and will be turning 5 in July. I got her when she was 2 weeks old. I had to leave her with my parents upon coming to Japan. It was one of the hardest things I ever had to do, but I know she is being taken care of well with my mom and dad. I was so happy to see her when I went back to America for a few weeks. She was still the cute, cuddly, affectionate Daisy I always knew. I love her so much and I can’t wait until I see her again.


  

Hello!

Today’s blog is a bit of a throwback to my first couple weeks in Japan when I stayed in two different hotels. Breakfast was included at each hotel and I took full advantage of the opportunity to try out some Japanese food! Both hotels served similar dishes which handily beat standard American hotel breakfasts in terms of nutritional content. Case in point: one dish served each morning without fail was salad. For anyone familiar with American style breakfasts, you know that the last thing on an American’s mind first thing in the morning is salad. If we have vegetables with the first meal of the day, they’re usually steaming hot, cooked into omelettes or other egg dishes, and don’t include lettuce! Personally, I enjoyed beginning my day with something light and healthy but I definitely had to adjust my expectations for what “breakfast” means!  

Go to the Library for free lessons. Really fun people and they speak a lot of English too. The best part is that most of my fellow students don't speak English as a first language.

I've made a lot of progress these three months. "I know enough to know I don't know anything", or something like that is a phrase I heard a lot growing up from my father. He says that it's really important not to get prideful after learning the basics of something. That's how you stop moving forward and get better. He's a really wise person I think.

  

What a title! But what does it mean? Well to put it simply is the Chinese philosopher, Zhuangzi's, concept of reality. I have been reading up on good ol' Daoism and I made a great discovery within the text! The best way to cope with things that are hard is not to put too much of your mental power into it!

Might sound strange but it helps with stress and not causing other problems!


  

I don't have a strong opinion on rice. I haven't tried enough brands or varieties to make any kind of informed decision. So rice shopping is a bit overwhelming.

There are, apparently, three general grades. Since I mostly use my rice for curry, I buy the cheap brands. To be honest I haven't even tried to make a 'real' bowl of rice. And I have never bought dashi.

My rice cooker has a dozen different settings for different kinds of rice. It makes me curious. I think my goal for this weekend might be to improve my rice skills.  

Hello everyone!

The weather has been getting much hotter in the past few days, which is something that I am not a fan of. The part of the United States I come from is referred to as the "Northeast" and "New England", and in New England the weather is much more mild. Our winters are also very long, often lasting from late November/early December to Late March and as with this year, sometimes even the middle of April. So I am used to much colder weather, but since it looks like warm weather might be here to stay in Kagawa for a few months, I will have to get acclimated to the changes!