ネイティブが教える英会話のジェムスクール☆Teachers☆

I lived in Italy from 1999-2001. When I got married in 2010, I promised my wife I would take her there on vacation someday. Most other Americans take a big vacation every year, but we've been staying home and saving our money for one really big vacation. Our plan was to go in 2020 for our tenth anniversary, but...

Buon giorno.

We have continued watching how things develop around the world, and we're choosing to be moderately optimistic. After a lot of thought and delay, we just booked our vacation for May 2022. We'll fly to Barcelona and take a cruise ship to Tunis, Palermo, Rome, Genoa, and Marseille.

The one complication is our kids. My kids are good travelers - every time we go on a long road trip, I tell them that this is practice for when we'll take a plane to Italy. But my wife and I are interested in seeing castles, cathedrals, ruins, and art museums, and my kids are...not very interested in that sort of thing. They're mostly excited that there will be a swimming pool on the cruise ship. I want them to experience the cultural treasures of Europe, but I also don't want them to be bored. This is very likely a once-in-a-lifetime trip for us, and we want them to have good memories.

Our next big international vacation will be to Japan. We're hoping for 2025, but we'll see what happens.

Thanks for reading!  

A friend of mine recently offered me a heater and I immediately took her up on her offer. The room in my apartment that I spend the most time in doesn't have an air con. With that in mind, I thought that the heater would be convenient to have in the winter.

As I picked the heater up from my friend's place, I was thinking how weird it was that I was getting a new heater just as summer gets started. Nevertheless, it always good to look beyond your current condition, right?  

As you can see from the embedded photo,
the bonsai I posted about last week still has not improved color wise, which is extremely sad, because it's actually a really cool designed bonsai with the rock placed in the center so that it would grow around it. I have been watering it every day, so I am now thinking it may be the soil has lost its nutrients. I am going to go and get some new soil for it this weekend. I'll make sure to post any updates through my next blog.

  

I've had the opportunity to see some fun and interesting places as I have explored different cities throughout my life. One of my favorites is a sculpture garden in Minnesota, it is a large outdoor art gallery that is free to the public to come and see. Many of the art designs were strange and odd, but they were all very interesting. Where are some interesting places you have visited?


  

Kagawa is just nuts about Slowpoke. He's got a cute face and he also loves udon, apparently. Someone needs to drive these cute little mail trucks and it may be me if I see an opening.

  

I saw this photo the other day and was mesmerized by how beautiful this tree was. However, I’m wondering if this tree actually exists in Japan and where it is. If anyone knows, let me know!  

It’s hot outside, so I ate Zaru Udon again. As always, it was delicious! I love Kagawa!  

For a long time, I have been interested in getting solar panels on my house. They can be very expensive to install, but then you get free electricity. Or I can get a deal from a solar energy company. They install the solar panels for free, but they get to keep the electricity I make and sell it back to me. So it's not exactly like I get the electricity from the solar panels on my roof. It's more like I allow an energy company to build a small solar power plant on top of my house. But, at the end of the day, I will be paying less for electricity and my energy use will have a lower impact on the environment.

Another reason I was interested in solar power would be to have electricity during a blackout. But this does not work like I'd hoped. If a storm knocks down power lines, my solar system will automatically shut off. This is for safety: if my solar panels were still sending electricity out into the power grid, it wouldn't be safe for electrical workers trying to fix things.

Getting solar panels was a very long process. The company had to take a lot of measurements, make a plan, submit the plan to the local government for approval, and do a bunch of safety inspections. I called them in early May and the solar panels didn't get installed until late July. But when they actually came out to do the installation, that part took only five hours.




Thanks for reading!  

This month I wanted to write about two significant women from Japan’s past. One was the first official novelist, and the other was a famous dancer who is still represented throughout Japanese culture. Today I will be writing about Murasaki Shikibu and Shizuka Gozen.

Murasaki Shikibu was the first ever novelist, a poet, and a lady-in-waiting in the Kyoto imperial court during the Heian era. She is still famous today for her literary work The Tale of Genji . This is generally regarded as the first true novel ever written. During this time women were usually not taught Chinese. Murasaki showed a talent for this, though, and became fluent. Chinese in Japan during this time was similar to Latin in Europe, or Persian in the Arab world. It was the language of the clergy, elites, and government. Her success here must have been quite exemplary considering that her gender would have normally excluded her. She got married and gave birth to a daughter, but shortly after this her husband died. It was a very short marriage. She probably began writing The Tale or Genji around this time. At about year 1005 she was invited to be a lady-in-waiting for Empress Shōshi. Empress Shōshi is also a very interesting woman. A lady-in-waiting is a woman who is called upon to serve as a servant in the imperial court. Shōshi cultivated a following of many talented and exceptional women, the most significant being Murasaki. She served for five or six years, but later retired with Shōshi. Ten years after The Tale of Genji was completed it was distributed across Japan. Eventually it was considered a Japanese classic and an object of criticism by scholars. It was first translated into English in 1933. The work is fictional, but one can learn an awful lot about court life in Japan during the Heian era from it. The novel was written during the zenith of of this era, so her work is one of the most important resources for understanding this time period. I have included 浮世絵 (traditional Japanese paintings) of her, as well as two photos I have personally taken in 宇治市 (Uji city) of a statue commemorating her. When I first saw this statue, I immediately knew it was her, despite the fact that I couldn’t read the inscription at that time. She was an exceptional woman, and is still recognized to this day as an influential and important author.



Shizuka Gozen was a shirabyōshi and lover of Minamoto no Yoshitsune. A shirabyōshi is a court dancer. Minamoto no Yoshitsune is one of the main military leaders of the Genpei war. Shizuka Gozen is one of the most famous women in Japanese history, and she is often featured in literature and various forms of theater. She was born in Tango province which is situated in the north of what is now Kyoto prefecture. During a drought the emperor Go-Shirakawa invited 100 shirabyōshi to dance in order to bring rain. 99 of them failed, but Shizuka’s dance was successful in bringing rain. This is also the first time that she met Yoshitsune. After the Genpei war Yoshitsune fled Kyoto because his military prowess was considered to be a threat by his brother, the head of the Minamoto clan, Minamoto no Yoritomo. While he fled Shizuka followed, but was eventually captured by Yoritomo’s allies. She was then forced to dance for Yoritomo, but she preferred to sing songs of her love for Yoshitsune. This made Yoritomo extremely angry, but luckily Yoritomo’s wife, Hojo Masako, calmed him. This all occurred while she was pregnant with Yoshitsune’s child. Yoritomo declared that if the child was a girl, she would be allowed to live. If it was a boy, this child would be out to death. She later gave birth to a boy. In an attempt to protect the boy, he was given to Shizuka’s mother. There are two versions of what happened after this. One is that Shizuka then went to Kyoto and became a Buddhist nun. Her and her son were later killed by order of Yoritomo. The other is that she was welcomed back into court life benevolently by Masako, but eventually drowned herself in a river because she was so full of sorrow of the loss of Yoshitsune. Her life is commemorated in traditional Japanese puppet shows, Noh theater, kabuki theater, and popular culture. Her dedication to the man she loved is admirable, so much so that she is still remembered nearly 1,000 years later.



I wanted to write about these two because women in history are often overlooked, but these two ladies made quite an impression on me when I first read of them. I think next month I’ll write about another interesting women from the Heian era.

Thanks,

Jesse Street  

The Olympics have been on TV for about a week now. Because my friend likes sports, I have seen a few of the events. I watched swimming. I was surprised by a lot of obvious things.

The swimmers sometimes swim backwards.

The imaginary line in front of the swimmers that says WR means World Record. A few World Records and Olympic Records were set this summer.

The country's flag is shown in the water at the beginning and when the event is about to end. I think this is to build excitement.

Some Olympians wear glasses. A Canadian member who won the 100-meter butterfly, couldn't see the score right away. The pictures of her squinting have been posted all over the internet.







  

I went bowling at a Don Quixote with some friends recently. Although I didn't win, I still did much better than I expected.

The only cons were that it was more expensive than I expected and I had to pay a little extra because my shoe size is above the standard sizes offered.

It's an alright social activity, but I probably won't be doing it again anytime soon. I don't think that it's entertaining enough for me.
  

I went to go water one of my bonsai, and I noticed that the leaves were this light brown color. I am very worried that it is not something as simple as dehydration, because of the heat. So in order to try and give it the best chance that I can to keep it alive, I have decided to move it in-doors starting tomorrow. It will still face the sun, but will be behind my glass door. I really hope this combined with a lot more water quantity wise will revive it; I will also post to the plant health subreddit for advice.
  

Last week we went swimming! It was a lot of fun. We jumped off a rock, we floated, we played with a beach ball, and we had good fruit. The only bad thing is I got sunburned!
  

Joking.

However, I did read this book for a good hour when I found it. Was it secretly made with me in mind? This man has a lot of ideas about mayo that I never ever thought of.

Good stuff!

Joe