日本語の授業

さいきん、また本当の日本語の授業を始まる。まだ一週一回に友だちと勉強するがもう少し練習が必要の感じだ。この授業に文法を勉強しない、会話だけを有る。今日の授業で日本語で英語の新聞の記事を説明しなかればならなかった。難しかったが楽しかった！

そしてから、一緒に電車にのって、話をした。その時にたとえば電車でとか喫茶店でとか居酒屋でとか皆さんは私に集中するらしいかもしれない！だから、その時にいつもあわてる！もうすぐはっきりに考えてあわてずに喋りたい！

Recently, I've started proper Japanese lessons again. I'm still studying once a week with a friend, but I feel that I need a bit more practice. In these lessons I don't study grammar, just focus on conversation. In today's lesson, I had to explain an English news article in Japanese. A touch tricky, but fun!

After that, we took the train together and talked. At those times, for example on the train, in a coffee shop, a bar and so on, I feel that everybody is paying attention to my Japanese! So I usually get a bit lost for words. Soon, I hope that I'll get over this block and be able to think clearly and talk without panicking!

Hooray!! I've finally managed to get rid of the 'Read more' caption on my posts!

Narita Drum Festival continued

This video shows some of the drumming groups around the town, before the parade started.


This video shows scenes from the parade, including the wrestling drummers (from 58s to 1min36) and the Okinawan style drummers (at the end).


This video shows scenes from the last half of the parade including the final steel drum group (from 18s to the end). If you like these steel drummers, then you're absolutely going to love the steel drumming performance on Mountaincat's blog - I especially appreciated the music from 'My Neighbour Totoro' from 5 minutes until the end!


This final video shows a very lively and happy group of drumming teenagers - absolutely fantastic!

Still photos at the left link...

Narita Drum Festival 成田の太鼓祭り

Today I went to the Narita Taiko Festival... Took loads of pictures and video clips so it might take a while to get them up... I'm not sure how to edit videos yet... In the meantime, here is a unedited clip of one of the acts... Enjoy!

Happy Easter!

Wishing everyone a very Happy Easter!

皆さんへ、イースターおめでとうございます！

Good Friday 聖金曜日

さあ、日本で砂糖衣の十字つき菓子パンを買わない。。。。だから想像が大切。。。

Yes, well, today is Good Friday and you can't get Hot Cross Buns in Japan so imagination is important...

Weather 天気

このごろ天気がすごいきれい、本当にあたたかい。そして明日は度が22になる。。。いいね！最後の文が「そしてあしたは気温が２２度になる。。。いいね」そうだ。

These days the weather is beautiful, really warm. And tomorrow it's going to get up to 22C - nice eh?!　More natural apparently is 気温が２２度になる in the last sentence.

Cherry Blossom 桜

Some cherry blossom pictures from the weekend! 週末の桜の写真だ。