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.
みなさん、こんばんは。
写真は私の庭のエサ台です。いままで、スズメさんたちにエサをあげていました。 冬の間は、雪が積もって、スズメさんたちがエサを見つけるのは難しいです。 だから、冬の間だけ、私はエサをあげます。 毎朝、６時５０分には、20羽ほどのスズメが私を待っています。
でも、もう春になりました。地面も出てきました。 そろそろ、スズメさんたちは自分でエサを探す時だと思います。 ちょうど、２ｋｇのエサが、今朝全部なくなりました。 明日から、自分でエサを探すでしょう。。
この写真と文章は、私の学生たちとのコミュニケーションの一環として、Dingtalk上に掲示したものです。
みなさん、こんばんは。
今日は雨が降っていました。私は来週の授業のパワーポントを一日中作っていました。雨だから、畑の作業はできませんでした。
写真はジャガイモです。しかし、食べるジャガイモではなくて、植えるジャガイモです。１kg買いました。植える場所は、もう耕して（たがやして）あります。
日本では男爵イモ（だんしゃくいも）というジャガイモが一番食べられています。しかし私が種芋（たねいも）に買ったのは、メークインというジャガイモです。男爵イモは煮るとやわらかくなるので、イモサラダやマッシュド・ポテトに適しています。メークインは煮ても煮崩れしにくいので、煮物に適しています。ジャガイモを煮た時、ドロドロになるのが嫌いなので、メークインを畑に植えることにしました。１kg植えたら、３kgぐらい収穫できるでしょうか？世の中、そんなに甘くないかもしれません。
みなさんに注意ですが、ジャガイモから出て来た芽（め）や、日光に当たって緑色になった部分は、食べないでください。毒があります。
この写真と文章は、私の学生たちとのコミュニケーションの一環として、Dingtalk上に掲示したものです。
みなさん、こんばんは。
私は今日一日中、作文の添削をしていました。そして夕方、３回目のコロナワクチンの接種会場へ老母を連れて行ってあげました。会場では私のように、５０代の息子が８０代の母親を連れて行っている光景が多く見られました。みなさん、日本は高齢化社会ですよ!
母を接種会場に連れて行ったあと、私は近くのホームセンターに行って、今シーズンの野菜の種を買ってきました。マクワ瓜とゴボウは、私の栽培技術では無理だと思います。でも、挑戦してみたくて買いました。青菜と二十日大根は、なんとかなります。大事なのはニンジンです。４月に入ったら種まきができるように、今から土を耕して、準備を始めています。
この写真と文章は、私の学生たちとのコミュニケーションの一環として、Dingtalk上に掲示したものです。
みなさん、こんばんは。
今日は2041組の授業のあと、それぞれの学生にフィードバックを返して、そして、午後 散歩に行きました。
私のいるところでは平地の雪はなくなりました。
白い山は1600から2100メートルくらいの標高です。山の向こう側は福島県です。 だんだん春らしくなってきました。気分がいいですね。
It is a cylinder like sponge cake, or I should say “a roll cake”, with white cream inside. This is a famous sweets in Niigata of northern part of JAPAN. Bandaitaiko by Osakaya is a very good choice for souvenir when you visit Niigata.
Now snow on the ground is gone. I can get green vegetables from my garden.
I put those green leaves into miso soup.
The photo above is yesterday’s. I boiled sweet potato in the pan. Those were the potato that I planted in my garden last year.
This is a photo of today. I wanted to take a picture of train running, but those local trains do not come so frequently.
Today I bought the fish Mackerel. That was not “Horse Mackerel”, but simply “Mackerel”. This is Japan, but we usually see on the supermarket shelves, “Mackerel from Norway”. The mackerel in the photo was not from Norway, but from an Island of Sado which is the major island of Niigata Prefecture.
I boiled them with Miso which is salty soy bean paste for seasoning. Not only Miso, I used also a little bit of sugar, ginger slices, pieces of red pepper, and Japanese Sake for seasoning.
The white slices accompanying with Mackerel is white part of green onion.
Now it’s already the last third (we call it “Gejun”) of Februray. But this winter is cold and still going on. Since the spring semester will start from the coming week, I have been just making PPT slides all day for my classes.
Viewers of this blog often see the pictures of mountains. Those mountains are all on periphery of Niigata Plain where I live now. Today I am going to write about a mountain which I don’t think I can see from my place, because it is a little far from here, in deeply mountainous area.
One day, when I was a kid, my dad said that he didn’t like mountain climbing. He said the reason. When he was young, he went to climb the Mountain Mikagura (Mikagura-Dake) with his two friends. Bad thing was that, in the middle of summer heat, those three men had just only one bottle of water. My dad had got terrible thirst while walking up and down the Mt. Mikagura. That was the reason of his saying he didn’t like mountain climbing and never wanted to do it again. I was just a kid at that time, but I thought that it was NOT a problem of mountain, but the problem of lack of preparation for mountain climbing in summer.
Now two years have just passed since my dad died. I always offer chrysanthemum flowers, sweet snack like cakes, and a cup of water on his altar. There is a big photograph panel of his face on the altar. Every night before I go to bed, I check the water in the cup. Water in the cup hardly reduce because no one drinks it. Vapor into the room air is little. I also check the water level in flower vase. This one downs every day. I pour water from the cup to the vase so that chrysanthemum flowers could last longer. Then I take the cup to the kitchen, change the water by the tap water, and put it again on the altar, with saying “Hey, dad, drink it”. Of course, there is no answer from the photo frame. I do this because I don’t want him to be thirsty in that world with the same problem that he experienced on Mountain Mikagura in this world.
The Mountain Mikagura is a little far from here. It exists near the border with Fukushima Prefecture. So, it is so deep in the mountainous area between Niigata and Fukushima Prefectures. Now it is winter season, it is difficult to even get closer to the mountain, let alone climbing it. It is cold, there is a lot of snow cover with risk of avalanche. And I don’t have my car (I hate driving). If I want to go there, I have to use public transportation. Even if there were some, I think the buses should be just two or three operations a day. I think I have never seen the mountain, “Mikagura Dake” in the remote area of Aga Town. Now I feel like I want to visit and see the shape of the mountain. Maybe I will find the trail that my dad climbed in his younger days.
Come spring, will I be able to go there? Though I am not sure if it’s possible.
I used 30 minutes to make this post. I should not waste my time because I have to work hard for the coming semester.
Agony or Fun?! Second Language Learning 