Japanese lifestyle ~61~ rainy season 梅雨（つゆ）

  In Japan, it has become the rainy season.
Today is fine. But yesterday was rainy...
  After this season, it suddenly becomes so hot season.

  Is there the rainy season in your country?
For me, it's hard to guess how the season changes in foreign country.

Japaense lifestyle ~60~school trip

  Some of students in my English class have gone to Kyoto.
It's school trip for the, Students spend 3 days in Kyoto.
They leave our prefecture from 6 a.m. and go to Kyoto by bus.
Maybe it would be more than 7 hours by bus.
They are going to look around the temples in Kyoto.
  They are junior high school students. In my case, I went
to Kyoto at our school trip when I was in high school.
That was so nice trip. The atmosphere of Kyoto is fascinating.
I went to a university in Kyoto because I wanted to live in Kyoto
for a while. Actually, I have lived in Kyoto about 7 years in total
in my life.
  Well, I assigned one thing to the students in my class.
  There are many travelers from abroad, so assignment is to talk with
those foreigners. I gave them some useful phrases, such as
"Can I talk with you a few minutes? Or are you busy?
 How long will you stay in Japan?, Did you eat Japanese food?...
  Thank you, Nice to talk with you. etc."
  Actually, they should think those phrases by themselves. But
I thought some of them couldn't make those phrases.
  As I said on this blog, it is hard for children to find opportunities
to talk with foreigners in English. Trip in Kyoto is good chance to do that, I think.

Japanese food ~33~ Furikake ふりかけ

  When you eat rice, you would need some side dishes.
Because, the taste of rice is so simple. Actually, there is no any tastes.
(But if you bite many times, rice gets sweet just a little bit.)
  If you can't prepare for nice side dishes, it's good way to
put on furikake on rice.

The left side is maguro(tuna) taste. The right side is wasabi taste.
Wasabi is Japanese horseradish. It's spicy.

Furikake is convenient.

Japanese food ~32~ water melon すいか

  It has been getting hotter in Japan.
Water melon is one of the fruits Japanese like to eat in summer.

  It's too early to talk about summer.
First of all, I want to know if you often eat water melon in summer.
And second, if so, do you put on salt when you eat water melon?
In Japan, some people put on salt because water melon become
more sweet.

Japanese lifestyle ~59~ the National Pention fund国民年金（こくみんねんきん）

  Do you have the National Pension fund in your country?
In Japan, you have to start to pay the pension from 20 years old.
If you are students, you are exempted from paying by special
procedure.
  You have to pay 15,050 yen(148.56 dollars, 114.85 Euro) every month now. This is
duty of all people. The welfare is not so sufficient like Northern Europe.
So, I guess the sum is smaller than Northern Europe.
You can pay at bank, convenience store, or  on Internet.

Japanese expression ~10~ Yojijukugo 四字熟語

  Have you heard of Yojijukugo?　That is a kind of saying. That
consists of four Kanji and tell us suggestive meanings.
  I would like to introduce those Yojijukugo.

  虚心坦懐 kyo shin tan kai　きょ　しん　たん　かい
I think the idea of  this yojijukugo is closely related to the Japanese way of thinking.
This expression means...
It is the condition of your heart without vexations, and prejudice.
And it is also innocent,and gentle...
When I look up on the Web, it says, it means "open mind" in English.
  Actually, that translation sounds good. But I thinks this expression
sounds more dignified expression. Maybe you would use the word,''open mind''
easily. But we don't usually use this 虚心坦懐 in daily conversation.
  Some sporksman use this term at the public speach.

私は虚心坦懐に業務を進めていきたい。
I would like to do my job with a mind of 虚心坦懐.
 

Japanese saying ~17~つtsu

   I haven't posted on this blog recently.
That's because I have to prepare for my English class and Japanese class.
I have classes of English and Japanese.
  When I am teaching at my class, I sometimes get surprised to hear
what student's saying. Today, I had a class of Japanese. We read the
article on environmental problem. There were three students.
(They are 6 grade at elementary school. They are 11 years old.)
One of them have known about Ozone layer. And he has known that
there are a lot of the ultraviolet rays in the southern hemisphere.
  One of the students worried about something. That is,
we have made too many factories and eliminated a lot of trees.

  Today's saying

つりおとした　さかなは　おおきい

意味　もうすこしという　ところで　にがして　しまったものは、
　　　　すばらしいものだったように　かんじる　ものだ。
 If you let a fish escape, you must feel it was a great one.
One is apt to think that the fish that got away was very big.

  Do you have this kind of saying?

 

Japanese habit/custom ~48~ a ruler

  This is a Japanese stylish ruler. When we are in elementary school,
I guess most of students use this type of ruler. This ruler is made of
bamboo. In Japan, the unit of distance is "mm","cm", "km".
  I don't know how people count the distance in abroad. We don't use
"mile" or "feet" like America at all.
  This ruler is 30 cm. This is a common ruler, maybe.

Japanese lifestyle ~58~ German festival

My hometown is country side. But sometimes we have some events.
This is one of the events. This is a German festival（ドイツフェスティバル）in Gunma.
This handbill says, Japanese government learned knowledge to develop nation
from Germany when Japan modernized about 150  years ago.
  This event is held by Japan-German association in Gunma.
We can buy some German stuffs like bread(Brezel, Weißwurst) .
And there is a  car exhibition.
  I have not joined this event before. If I have chance, I will go on 2nd June.

Japanese lifestyle ~ 57~ a clothes-drying platform 物干し台

This is a common clothes-drying platform in Japan.

  I have never seen this kind of stuff abroad. So, I don't know well about
how to dry clothes in abroad. When I stayed in abroad, I have used the
drying machine.
  Do you dry your clothes under the sun?

Short trip in Gunma ~10~ Mikazuki mura

 The other day, I went to amusement park, called Mikazukimura.
You can feel the atmosphere of old time there. The scene goes
back to Edo period(1603～1868). I think you can see many
interesting stuff if you learn about this Edo period. A lot of
stories(drama, movie, novel...) have been created based on
this age.

This is a fireplace of old time, called IRORI

 This is a fireplace of old time, called "Irori".

You need to exchange the coin to buy something in this place. This coins look like old stylish ones.

My work (children's story) ~9~ the Kamishibai of "The wild boar on the rock"

  My father made a Kamishibai(it is like picture cards) of my story,
"The wild boar on the rock".
These are some of the picture cards.
  I haven't had a chance to make children hear my stories...
I will keep writing...

Japanese saying ~16~ち chi

The saying that begins from chi　ち　is
ちりも　つもれば　やまとなる（chiri mo tsumoreba yamatonaru）

chiri = dust
tsumoru= lay
yama = mountain

 This saying may be translated to "Many a little makes a mickle".
If I translate the Japanese saying, If dusts were accumulated, those
would become mountain. It's hard to translate...
 Each dust is so small. But if those dusts are accumulated, they would
become mountain...
 I always keep this idea in my mind...

How often do you hear this kind of idea in your culture?

Japanese traditional culture ~20~ 千羽鶴せんばづる(senba zuru)

  About one month ago, we could see cherry blossoms on this street.
I  took some pictures here and uploaded on this blog.

This is the arcade street of Maebashi city. 

There is a tombstone along this river.

There used to be an air-raid shelter at this point. During the World War 2, this Maebashi city had a big air-raid. It is said that 535 people who were in the shelter died. This is the monument.

  

These ORIGAMI is called senba zuru. (thousand crane)

  I think people made this senbazuru in the hope of peaceful world.　
I did not know about this monument until recently.

  Maybe I don't really know about the history of our prefecture.
Today, I talked with my friend. Japanese people have worked so much
to make our living. And people  made light of telling our history to younger
generation.

  Young people need to learn the history on our own initiative.
Well, do you know about the history of your district where you are living?
In my case, I did not have any chances to hear the history of my
hometown because my grandfather and grandmother had already died when
I was kid.

Japanese lifestyle ~56 ~ the policy of our government

  Japanese government is going to try to increase people who
travel in Japan. Nowadays, Japanese people don't spend money for
buying goods so much. As you show on this blog, young people tend to
save money to buy cars.
  To overcome this situation, Japanese government is switching the
policy. That policy is going to be rely on the consumption by foreign people.
Now there is a rule: if you want, you can get the license to reside in Japan for a while
according to your academic career, one's business career, and annual income.
  The government is going to ease the requirement in the near future.
  The number of foreigners who visited in Japan was 8710000 in 2012.
The government have the aim: they are going to increase the number
20000000 by 2017.
  This is from today's news paper.

Japanese lifestyle ~55~ barbershop

Is this pole(we call this sign pole) common all over the world!?
We can see this red and blue color pole in front of most of barbershops.
Adult 1575 yen
child 1050 yen
shampoo 315 yen
This barbershop is more inexpensive than average.

Japanese lifestyle ~54~ the church

  This is the photo of the church which is near my hometown.
I  don't really know what it happening in this church on Sunday.

  I have visited the church on Sunday when I was in Canada.
I was impressed by the great music I heard there.

Japanese traditional culture ~19~ Koinobori こいのぼり

May 5 is the day for boys. We call the day "children's day"
There is a tradition of decorating the carps at the garden.
Those are called "koinobori".
koi = carp
nobori = flag

 People tie those plastic cloths which look like carps at the string. Those carps
wave when the wind comes there.
 And those carps look like swimming in the air.
People keep this tradition in the hope of the healthy growth of the child.
We don't see this koinobori a lot around my hometown.

Short trip in Tochigi Furumine shrine

I attach the photos.

This moss on the gate is so nice. This is Japanese stylish beauty.

This green tea is real maccha! We rarely drink this kind of green tea.
This maccha is served at the tea ceremony.