40-Minute Walk under Cloudy Sky in Sunday Afternoon
タグ: japanese
I made Three Bottles of Apple Jam using “Kougyoku” that I got in my Garden
An apple “Kougyoku” is a little sour. The apples are suitable to be processed with heat, rather than eating fresh. Since I had put three of them in refrigerator, I made jam in the early evening today.
There are many ways to make apple jam. Today I made it by grating the apples. Apple peels are rich in pectin, so, I wanted to use those peels in the jam.
Many cooking recipes on the web say that sugar must be 50 percent of weight. But I am not sure about this 50%; Is it 50% of weight of fruits, or 50% of the entire weight of jam? Anyway, I don’t have a cooking scale, so, I just put a lot of sugar in the pan by intuition. I think the sugar must be 50% of the weight of the jam in order to keep the jam longer.
Though I forgot to take a picture, I did “boiling disinfection”. I closed the lids of bottle loosely, put the bottles in a big pan, boiled water in the pan with gas fire, and then closed the lids tightly by my hands with gloves.
I got three bottles. I will use them for toast of my breakfast from tomorrow morning. It will save some cost of living.
Learning how to teach after quitting the job as a teacher
Today, in the morning, I worked in my field. When it comes to growing vegetables in this autumn season, there is not much thing remaining. But I still have one thing to do. That is to plant onion’s seedlings and garlic’s bulbs. In order to plant them, I need to make one more ridge in the field. It will be five meter long; three meters for onions and two meters for garlic. What is tough is to get rid of roots of weeds from the place for the ridge and furrow. Since the place had been untouched for two years, now weeds’ roots in the ground are like spaghetti.
I worked in the field from 8 to 9:30 am. and then I got shower. From 10, I was watching a DVD that is about teaching Japanese as a second language. Actually, I had brought those DVD with me to the campus during the years I was teaching in a university. Watching the DVD today, I regret that I should have watched while I was teaching in the university. There are a lot of tips for teachers to teach a foreign language. For example, there is a concept of MMC for beginner’s level; the first M is mechanical training, the second M stands for meaningful training, and C for communicative activities. Did I do that? Usually, I didn’t extend my teaching to communicative activities. And there was no clear distinction between mechanical and meaningful trainings in my teaching. I would like to improve my teaching skill, but I don’t see any chance to apply improvements to my teaching in the future. I have already retired from the job as a Japanese teacher.
I had planned to go shopping in the afternoon. But it was hot like 34 Celsius degrees. So, I didn’t go to a supermarket, but continued to watch the DVD about teaching Japanese in the afternoon. I practiced my piano from 4 to 5 pm, cooked a supper from 5, had the supper at 6:30, and then I went shopping. I got back home at 8 pm, and started writing this.
I have Harvested Three Apples “Kougyoku” in my Garden
I am not sure, but according to a book, it says the apple Kougyoku is one of varieties which was obtained from the seeds of “Esopus Spitzenburg” of North America.
Today I got three from the tree in my garden. In total I have got four, and that is all for this year. Kougyoku apples are a little sour. So, it is better to cook with heat than to eat fresh one. Now they are in the refrigerator. I am thinking about making them jam.
Two Students sent me Messages on “Teacher’s Day”
I should say, I do not blame my students that only two students sent me messages on the so-called teacher’s day. I am always forgetting about the day until a student says “Today is the teacher’s day”. Anyway, I thank those two students who remember me.
(Let me say the following is not about “teacher’s day”, but about farewell at the end of the last semester. Actually, AI suggestion was confused by the change of the topics. Without mentioning this, a reader would also be confused)
Before I quit the job in July, I asked all the students not to give me any letters or present. It may sound like I was a cold-heart teacher, but the reason was simple. I didn’t have enough time to write a reply in the last days in the Campus. I am a person who always writes a reply to the letter I got. As for presents, it was hard for me to pack them into two suitcases.
But there was one male student who gave me a present that was a small-scale model of “Gandum”. I couldn’t put it into my suitcases. If I had thrown it, I would be really a cold-heart guy. I put it into a carton box with my books and asked another teacher (of that country) to send me from a post office.
Since this is the only “Figure” that I have, I don’t know how to display it. But it would be better to take it out from the case, to put them together, and to decorate it.
Strong Rain of Linear Precipitation Belt
I practice a piano from 4 to 5 pm these days. Today, too, and near the end of the practice, I was singing “Will you still love me tomorrow” with my piano accompanying. The song was composed by Carole King, and I was singing it in key-E with Roberta Flack’s version. I like the repeat of the (E) and (D on E) at the end of that version.
When I finished singing, I realized that it was getting dark outside, the sound of wind grew stronger, and it was like a storm’s coming. Looking through my window, I saw strong rain and trees were bent by the wind. I remembered that the window left open on the second floor. So, I went up the stairway and saw that a lot of rain drops were coming into my bedroom. I shut the window.
I feel that Climate change is real. We have had the hottest Summer these three years. I can’t go outside because of heat and strong sunshine for almost two months from the middle of July to the middle of September. Another change that I feel is how it rains. When it rains, it is not drizzle nor light rain. It’s terribly strong. I frequently hear a new word to describe a strong rain in weather forecast on TV. It is “Senjo-Kosuitai”, which is Linear Precipitation Belt. Probably, the strong rain of today also came from a Linear Precipitation Belt.
Now the climate is different from what I knew in my childhood and younger days. It seems that the change is not for good, I mean the hot summer and strong rains are both troublesome for us.
September 9th in 2023 was the day I left my hometown for the Campus
I don’t think it is good to always looking back things in the past, but I found that today is the day I left my hometown two years ago in order to go to a university in foreign country. Until then, I had been teaching Japanese for that university on-line because of the pandemic. The on-line teaching lasted three and a half years. Finally, the pandemic had ended, I got my work visa from the consulate on September 4th in 2023, and then I got on a Jo’etsu Shinkansen (Bullet train) to go to Narita International Airport.
Since then, I had taught Japanese language in the university for two years. There were so many things happened during those two years, that I cannot write something in detail tonight about them. Although I think I had tried doing the best, I am sure that my teaching was not the best, especially for grade-23 students. I regret my teaching style in the listening course.
If I teach one more year, could I be a better teacher, or I be able to teach more sophisticated way? This is a difficult question. And I’d say “NO”. When I made up my mind that I would not renew my work permission for another school year, I had already felt that it was too much for me. If I write like this, I may make some of my students sad. I am sorry for that.
The best thing to me was that I could meet some good students. Learning together with them was my sheer pleasure. Although I have already left the Campus and I cannot see them in person now, I hope that I can be able to keep exchanging with those good students into the future.
I couldn’t see Lunar Eclipse this morning because of Strong Rain
But now I can see the moon from my window.
It seems that some of my (ex-)students have visited this blog today. I know this because the numbers of viewers are displayed by country.
The rain stopped before noon. So, in the afternoon, I walked to a supermarket for shopping. I bought fishes and pork for suppers of today and tomorrow. When I got back, I planted sprouts of onion in the field. Planting by hand took time more than I thought, I didn’t have time to practice piano before cooking supper.
My life is tranquil these days.
My manual labor turned the bushes into a vegetable garden
Please look at the houses behind. They are the same as the photo above.
By the way, I found there were many persimmon fruits on the tree in my garden. In every year so far, all the persimmons have fallen down before ripening. But this time I can see them a lot. So, I wish that some, or a few of persimmons could survive until it becoming orange color in November.
Walking along Rice Fields in Niigata Plain in Early September
The mountain is Kakuda-yama whose altitude is 482 meters.
As the rice grows, the top becomes downward due to the weight.
People always say that Japan is small. But I think the Niigata Plain is very wide area.
Red cockscombs are blooming by the Rice field. Farmers like to plant flowers at the spare area.
The train has only 2 cars, because it is a local train in rural area.
Agony or Fun?! Second Language Learning 