Agony or Fun?! Second Language Learning
I am a native Japanese speaker who used to teach Japanese in a university somewhere on this planet. Currently I don't work but stayed in my house in Northern part of JAPAN. I hope that you could enjoy reading my posts and know what life in Japan is like.
Since the tree is by the road that many junior high school students come and go in the morning and evening, I am expecting that a student may be stealing it without my permission. That happened last year. But this year, it’s still hanging on the tree.
If it happened, am I going to make a phone call to the teachers’ office in the junior high school? No, I won’t do it. I don’t mind, it’s okay by me.
Every time I buy, cook, and eat “Burikama” that is part just behind of gills of yellowtail, I always think the same thing; I will not buy it again but buy ordinary slices of body meat which doesn’t contain a lot of thick bones. Because Burikama contains a lot of bones, it is difficult and even dangerous for my mother to eat by picking up pieces of meat between bones.
Next time I buy yellowtail, I am going to cook “Buri-Daikon” which is a famous winter menu.
I wanted to get on local trains to go to Kanto region. Because using local trains costs only a half of bullet trains (Shinkan-sen). But influenza is now prevailing these days. If I got on local trains for many hours, it could increase the chance to be exposed to flu virus. Perhaps I may transmit influenza to my mother after I get back to my house. This is the reason why I got on Shinkansen to go to Kanto Region near Tokyo.
Tickets of Shinkansen are expensive. In order to save money, I usually get on a car for non-reserved seats. Such a non-reserved seats are on the several cars on Tokyo side. Of those non-reserved cars, I like to get on the top car.
Since the Jo’etsu Shinkansen runs thorough snowy areas, there are water sprinklers all along the railways in Niigata area. By melting snow on the rails by water, Shinkansen doesn’t get delayed even in winter.
This time of year, almost of the time the sky is cloudy and dark in Niigata side.
While Niigata is under dark clouds, people in Kanto region enjoy clear sky.
And I saw Mountain Fuji through the window in the following morning.
It was certainly a peaceful day.
That’s it for today, because I’m not good at writing a post on smartphone.
The last time I visited there was seven years ago. Yesterday I went to Niigata and took a lunch in an Indian/Nepali Restaurant in Furumachi. I ate “A lunch set” that was curry, naan, salad, and plain lassi.
The curry was a little much. As I was eating, I came to think that dipping wouldn’t consume all of it. So, I used chop-sticks and ate a piece of Naan by submerging it entirely into curry. I thought, if you would eat two Naans, the amount of curry fit them. It was 1080JPY, but my stomach became quite full.
I went to the town of Niigata today. Getting off a local train at JR Niigata station, and then I got on a bus to go to Furumachi, where used to be the center of commercial area of Niigata. What I found in Furumachi was that the underground shopping street had already closed. In 2018 to 2019, I was living closed to there and visited and walked there every day. It seemed to me that closure was a matter of time because few people were going there and obviously shops couldn’t make much money.
Niigata is an area where motorization is developed thoroughly. Almost of all people move by vehicles. They don’t want to go to the city center, rather like to drive to suburban shopping malls.
We left home at 10a.m. and went to see a dermatologist. My mother has a skin problem on her both ankles to lower knee. She had already finished using medicine of the last time. So I took her to there because she cannot go there herself. When she bought new medicine at pharmacy, it was almost noon. We went to Rahmen restaurant to have a lunch. I ate a “Hot Miso Rahmen” as shown in the photo.
I won’t write a long post tonight, because I am going to write a music score using “Sibelius” from now. I need to learn how to use that software.
I woke up at five in the morning because I felt very cold in the futon. Since my house is built using traditional Japanese architecture methods, I feel very cold in winter. I got up at seven, cooked and ate breakfast. Today too, my mother asked me to tell her how to use the washing machine. No progress has been made for this issue. I made a list of fruit trees in my garden. It was not completed, but I wrote the list on my “yearly diary notebook” until nine thirty. Then I took a shower and shove.
I had been reading an English book and checked words that I didn’t know until noon. I took a lunch and then went out at 1p.m. for shopping. I came back home at 2:30 with foods in two bags. I carried them by walk. Although I tried watching a DVD for training about Japanese teaching, but I fell asleep at once. 4 to 5, I practiced the piano by playing Hanon. I cooked and ate supper. Then I am now in my room, typing this.
Recently, I upload my blog post every day. And I write my post after supper and before going to bed (In fact, “going to bed” is not right for me. My bedroom with “Bed” is too cold now, so these days I sleep in a room with tatami mat on the floor. There, I sleep not in bed but in futon). Anyway, I think writing a post in English is part of learning. English is the second language to me. I know that even if I make much effort, I will not be able to be as good as a native English speaker. But looking back my life, learning English has helped me a lot. Having almost retired now, I am not sure if I have another chance to use my English in the future. But I want to continue to learn English.
Agony or Fun?! Second Language Learning 