flower of rainy season

Every year in June especially in rainy season, they are adorable!
Can you read what it says on the red box next to them or guess what is inside the box?

love

I love the sound of "love".

When you say "l" for the start of the word, you get ready for expressing your most beautiful feeling by bringing your tongue upward.

Then you pronounce "o" part (I don't know how to explain the phonetic of the sound by spelling... but it's a kind of upside down of "v" phonetic alphabet). I do love the vowel sound. You don't open your mouth so wide or you don't close your mouth. You say it out loud but you still keep it inside you..... I think this part represents "love" itself. You want to say it to the person you love and you still want to keep the beautiful feeling in you forever. Also it sounds like you really cherish the feeling of "love".....


I love the sound of "love".


As an ESL student who has been learning this language with deep love for the past 8 years or so (after many years of absence since my school days, the time when I didn't have any fervor with any subjects!) , I often find some English sounds so beautiful and meaningful to each word. I'll write about it if I find anything new!

shine

Lately, I think of English words' sounds and find several of them beautiful.

I love the sound of "shine".
Whenever I say "shine" out loud, or even just imagine "shine" in my mind, I feel something shiny in front of me.

The "sh" sound makes everything sparkling!
Then "ai" double-vowel comes after "Sh", you open your mouth so wide, that you feel the "sh"'s shiny air is brought from your mouth into the air.
Then you close your mouth to say "n" sound as if you enjoy the shiny sound.

I think it's perfect!
It shouldn't be "dine" or "gine" or "rine" or anything but "shine"!


Am I weird to feel this? I don't know....
I want to write about the sound of one more word.

better and better

When you feel something worst, then you will feel better and better as I've been so for the past two days!

When I woke up yesterday morning, I already felt better.

I chatted with my friend, who made me feel even better. She listened to my story and understood the struggling and was with me.

Today, I went shopping to buy a pair of black sandals since the only black pair I had got broken last week. I found good ones and felt so happy.

You can do anything which might make you feel better and you'd realize you had been already happy.

tomorrow

Sometimes, I'd feel like I want to stop living my life then I'd find that kind of thought so wrong and think of myself stupid.

I have a tiny darkness in my mind. Every time I meet the person it would emerge to my mind again.... and I'd remember it'd been existed. I'd think I'm the lest happiest existence on the planet, I know it's not true, but you sometimes go there and cannot help.

Today I was in that kind of mood and I hated my fate of having the person around me. I know it's an evil thought and I don't want to think that way.


Sometimes, I'd miss yesterday because I was happier there.
Sometimes, I'd miss even tomorrow because I want today to be gone as soon as possible.

Today, I'm hoping I do have tomorrow as soon as possible and I know I will!

Hello, tomorrow, where are you? I want to see you soon! I'd love you there!

I love you, tomorrow!

Tomorrow, I'll feel much better.

Summer!

It's been so hot today here in Osaka. I compared the temperatures in several places.

It's 16:10.
According to Yahoo weather website current temperatures are:

In Osaka, 89F

In Brooklyn, 64F

In Washington. D. C. 65F


I know it's at midnight in the US though...... it's hot here! I'm sure summer is right here!
I feel like going to the beach right now!

Sunday dinner and Tonight's

It was Takao's birthday this Sunday. So I went to the department store after doing an MC job at a concert hall outskirts of Osaka and bought two boxes of luxury bento-box made by a famous restaurant (it was on a bargain, $10 for each though!) and a rolled cake with a lot of fruits in it!

We enjoyed his birthday party together with these gorgeous meals. Thanks to the department store shops!

Then tonight, I made dinner like this.
It was cloudy today so I didn't want to go out. I made it up from what we had. The white meal was made of Tofu, salty sun-dried sermon, a cucumber seasoned with soy-sauce dressing, mayonnaise, and some seeds of sesami. The brown meal was made by chicken, eggplant, carrot, and Shimeji and Maitake mushrooms seasoned with instant brown stew block, ketchap and salt'n pepper. Even though I didn't go grocery shopping, it was still a gorgeous dinner!

Assisted an ESL activity on a school trip in Nara

I visited Todaiji in Nara today with elementary school pupils. Several English language volunteers were asked to help them for their ESL activity to interview foreign tourists from all over the world.


Last Tuesday, I got a phone call from my friend who is an elementary school teacher. I met her in Canada in 2001. We were class mates in an ESL school. Our meeting was interesting. It was my first experience both to stay in local people's home in English speaking country, and also to attend an ESL school. We sat next to each other on my first day at the school. We both had a limited ability to speak English at that time. We were serious students so for the first few weeks, we just tried to communicate with each other just in English, not in our mother tongue, Japanese, so our conversation hadn't gone very deep.

As her leaving time was getting near, we gradually had a desire to know each other more and finally one day, when I had a gloomy day and needed someone to talk to in my language, we started to speak in Japanese. Then we knew that we had the same accent, a kind of Osaka dialect, after a few weeks from the first meeting, we knew we both were from Osaka!

After being back in Japan, we got in touch with each other, and she started to come to my house regularly to have music lessons with me. We became close friends before long.

Anyway, I got a phone call from her, and she asked me to help their ESL activity and I said Yes! The activity plan was: The 6th grade students were going to visit Todaiji in Nara and try to interview foreign tourists by themselves. When they need any help, for example, when they cannot understand what the tourists are saying, then we, the volunteers, are there to help them.

Last Wednesday, I went to the school to have a rehearsal with them. The 5th and 6th grade students in the school are going to have English class once a week regularly starting from this month or so. They have done English classes with a native speaking teacher coming from outside for several times. They are getting used to English but still have difficulty with it. So this is a very challenging activity for them. At first their voices were rather small but got louder and louder as they got used to it. I was so impressed with their efforts.


And it was the school trip day today! I was assigned to a group consisting of 5 boys. They asked a question about Japanese cartoons. They greeted the tourists, asking if they may ask a question, asking to take a picture together, saying thank-you, handing a thank-you card to the interviewees. Our group met four groups from Holland, England, Australia, and France. All of the interviewees were kind and patient, waiting for the students speaking slowly but accurately.... I think they had a great experience there. Thanks to all of the tourists we met there!




As I was being there with them, I remembered my first experience talking to foreigners..... when I was a kid, perhaps, I don't remember exactly when, but I do remember that I was so nervous about if my English could be understood or if I could understand what they were saying. So my voice must have been so small and my pronunciation was not so good. But I was sooooooo excited when I could communicate with foreigners for the first time then I thought I wanted to communicate with them deeper and deeper..... The first experience and the first impression led me to the study abroad experiences afterwards.

I hope they had a great time today with us and liked the communication with foreigners. I also hope some of them are going overseas in the future and become rainbow bridges between many many people in the world!!!

Booko was gone to heaven in peace

On May 23th, early in the morning she was gone in peace under the gaze of Takao and I. She gave us a lot of happy moments and we were really fortunate having her as our family.

She loved getting on top of towels, especially when they were newly washed like this picture.

We love you, Booko, forever. Thank you for your lovely presence in our lives.


And... we still have two more kitties with us, Gara and Momo. I hope they have longer and joyful lives with us.