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?