Tuesday: I only had one class today. So I did stuff and relaxed. It was hot.
I walked to Nishiyama Koen in the morning. The azalea are in full bloom.
I made a new friend.
During my walk, I finally saw a crane while in possession of my camera.
Most of the rice fields are flooded now, most were planted over the Golden Week holiday. Every tanbo has a ramp down from the road. Some are more sophisticated, some are packed dirt.
Here is one of the planting machines.
Wednesday: Make-up class in the morning. 30-min class — I forgot, so it was 45-min. Heh. I’ll not cease making mistakes. But oh well.
Then Hugh and I went to watch a couple of Casey’s classes. That was pretty fun. We stopped on the way back to grab coffee and donuts (yup :p).
Class 1 went well. Class 2 was cancelled unexpectedly. So I made dinner before going to Fukui for class with Miki. That was fun. Her class is only an hour, usually I’m there hour and a half. This time was closer to 2 hours as I explained some idioms :p (hard to explain, I say!).
Thursday: Tkd, then played with kids. They went a little wild today. Which was kind of funny. Kind of scary as well. 14 4-year-olds can mob you. They really, really like me.
Private class at the temple. Only the 3rd class, and there were 2 more kids there to watch. So it was just review. I talked a bit with the mother afterwards, nice as always. But I know nothing about schools in the U.S. We don’t have a sports day, right?
Friday: A day off. Hugh gave me magnets and I had a field day. (My bathroom door is magnetic.) Dance in the evening.
Saturday: I went with Hugh to Sports Day at Kitanakayama. We watched for the morning. The team colors were red, blue, and white. They had team races, where each kid runs half the track to pass the item off to the next kid,
and they had various competitions with gigantic balls. And masked senshi.
After that, I fixed part of my computer, went out for a walk, then settled in to get some work done and read more Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Recent words:
ajisai = hydrangea
tanbo = rice fields
moya = mist, haze
shokuinshitsu = staff room (where teachers usually wait)
me no tankobu = lit. lump on the eye. Something really annoying that gets in the way.
rinkiouhen = play it by ear
karakau = to tease, mock
itazura = prank
undoukai = sports day
akiraka ni naru = to become clear, to be made public
iratsuku = irritating
oodama = giant ball
ichirensha = unicycle; also, wheelbarrow
How are the dance classes? Is ballroom dancing different there?
ReplyDeleteMy middle school had something of a sports day, but it was only for the best students from all the schools in the area. Classes still went on as usual.
What happened to your computer? Did the keys finally melt?
And what the heck is your new friend?
The dance classes are pretty fun. I dunno, I think ballroom dancing is fairly the same, except there are people who've been in the class 14 years.
DeleteMy computer permissions are fixed. But the Desktop (file system anyway) is now super slow. No hardware failures ye-- I mean, ever.
Mr. Hebi is an old respected resident of the Random Box-Thing That May or May Not Be a Shrine By the Koi Pond.
The azaleas are beautiful, are they fragrant?
ReplyDeleteAre there more rice fields in Sabae than elsewhere in Japan? They are really pretty. It reminds me of how we have pretty areas of grass in our towns, but outside of parks, they're usually golf courses or cemeteries. : )
Sports days sound like a great idea. Our schools did not have them. Only Athletics (competitive), pe classes, or extracurricular sports.
Smelling an individual flower they aren't very fragrant, but sometimes while walking the park I suddenly can smell all of the flowers together and it's quite pleasant.
DeleteI don't know there are any more rice fields here than other places. It's just a kind of rural area. Is it rural because of the rice fields or are there rice fields because it's rural?
I love the rice fields. People who have been here a long while (or native Japanese) seem surprised when I say so. I guess I just really like water. And growing things. (no, things that grow)
The rice fields are all in place of empty fields of grass, of which there are absolutely and unfortunately NONE. Anywhere. At all.
I'm glad to hear there aren't sports days, because that's what I told Miwa-san, she seemed surprised. Then she asked me what events there ARE at American schools and I had no idea.
I guess you could tell her what we have is outside school hours usually, like football games, music events, plays, but only for the more talented kids. Of course we have things like chess & science clubs, etc. Although they do field trips and there are fun things like science fairs, and museum and zoo visits and learning activities surrounding those things.
ReplyDeleteI had heard they weren't usually fragrant, but that certain varieties were, so just curious. Did you know that azaleas are a type of rhododendrons (but smaller)?
It occured to me that the rice fields added a nice amount of green to a lot of your pictures, but I hadn't realized it was the only green! (well, besides on private property, and trees and stuff).
Thanks for the ideas. Somebody also pointed out school dances.
DeleteI really didn't know much about azaleas before coming. Now I now a little more :P
There are tons of trees and bushes everywhere, but basically yes the rice fields are the only big stretches of open green. Aside from a few field-like things in some of the parks.