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.
Today’s post is not about today, but about what I saw in the last days of my staying in the campus. At that time, I walked around the campus and took a lot of pictures. There is a pond at the northeast of the campus. When I went there on July 14th, I saw some lotus flowers.
Tomorrow is the first day of the school year 2025-2026. I just imagine that Japanese major students whom I know are coming to the classroom as they did in the last semester.
Now the end of the winter break is coming. I have to pack my suite cases up and prepare to move to Narita Airport. But the problem is that I am not ready for the classes in spring semester. I have been working through the break except yearly income tax filing. I have completed the preparation for the composition classes for the second year students, but it took too many days. I don’t have enough days remaining for preparation for the listening classes for the first year students. Tomorrow a shipment company will come to my house to pick up my suite cases for Narita. I don’t have time, and I am not sure if I can teach good classes for my students in coming spring semester.
I-adjective “いい” consists from two letters of “い”. The second letter conjugates (changes) as well as other I-adjectives. But the first letter also changes. Note that I-adjective “いい” came from “よい”.
1) The first letter “い” remains to be “い” ・今日は いい天気です。 ・・・“いい” modifies the noun “天気”
・今日の天気は いいです。
・・・“いい” is the predicative.
2) The first letter “い” becomes “よ”
・今日の天気は よくないです。
・・・ Negative predicate in present tense
・昨日は 天気が よかったです。
・・・ Positive predicate in past tense
・天気がよくて、外で遊びました。
・・・ A kind of Te-form
・天気がよければ、外に出ます。
・・・ Conditional form
Therefore, “いい” turns to be the original “よい” in the cases of 2).
There is a Smoking Booth near Bandaiguchi-Exit on JR Niigata station. Oh, but let me tell you, I am not a smoking person. I have never ever smoked even a single cigarette through my life of more than a half century. Passive smoking was terrible when I was a young company man, but I have already retired from company work. Now I am free from smoke of others.
Anyway, I took the photo above, and then I walked to the other side of this smoking booth. What I found there was…
Smoking Booth with Warning Written in Big Letters
It reads; BAN on Smoking Outside This Facility; A lot of complaints are coming (to the City Office) due to part of users with bad manner. If this situation continues, this smoking booth would need to be demolished. We ask you to smoke only inside of the facility.
As if these big letters indicate how the Niigata municipal government is angry with bad smoking people. And I thought that, if there are a lot of complaints, it would not be “part of users” but it might be “many of users”.
This time, I bought Small Horse Mackerels. They costed only 138 JPY (approx. 1 USD)I wouldn’t show you the most cruel process of the cooking. Opened Horse Mackerels were wrapped with Potato Starch.They were fried in Iron Skillet; I don’t like to use Teflon Skillet. Price hike does affect cooking oil also in Japan. So I tried using less oil as possible.It took more than 10 minutes to make them fried well.Sweet Vinegar with Soy Sauce was poured onto Them. Then They were kept in Refrigerator for several hours so that the Sauce could go into the Fries. By doing so, vinegar would make fish bones soft.There you go.
Thank you for taking a look at this post until the end. Good day,
A Horse Mackerel that I bought from nearby supermarket today. It was 398 JPYSlices of Horse Mackerel are coated with mixture of wheat and egg.So this is the main dish of today’s my supper. The white things are Tofu.
It took more than one and a half hour for me to cook tonight’s supper.
A River; It’s rare fine day amid rainy season, so the mountain top is covered with cloudA Small Shinto Shrine near my House, in Northern JAPANThe Same Shrine from different angle towards the river bank Two boards are put on the wall of a barn in the Shrine Area
The left board says that droppings from a dog shall be disposed properly by the dog’s owner.
The right board says that, when you play in this shrine area, do not break anything, do not make anything dirty, and put in your mind that we all have to keep the shrine clean.
But I can tell you that there is no longer any single kid playing in the shrine area. There are no kids around there because Japan’s society has already aged very much.
A River, Sakura, and Gozu RidgesCherry Trees and Mountain Behind that is Ninoji-DakeCherry Trees on a River BankCherry Trees on a River BankSakura Flowers in Close LookBehind the Rice Field is Gozu Mountains
I have been busy for so long. That is all for today.