早起き Getting up early

ああ、早起きがたいへんだよ！土日が早初めと長道程、だからちょっと疲れた！でも、三田の道程がとても美しい。仕事に行くがお休みのようだ！毎日山に葉がますます美しいなっている。

Oh, I'm telling you, it's tough getting up early! It's an early start and a long journey on Saturdays and Sundays, so I'm getting somewhat tired! But the trip to Sanda is absolutely beautiful, I might be going to work but it feels like a holiday! Every day, the autumn colours are becoming more and more beautiful in the mountains.

神戸 Kobe

今朝、神戸に行って、餃子レストランに定食をたべた。もっと写真が左リンクに有る。

This morning I went to Kobe and had a set lunch at a gyoza restaurant. More photos at the left link.

淀川 Yodo River

町に歩いて、日本語の試験本を買った。これは淀川。

I walked into town and bought a Japanese test book. This is Yodo River.

京都 Kyoto

今日、京都に行って錦市場と銀閣寺を見て哲学の道を歩いた。美しかった！
写真が左リンクに有る。

I went to Kyoto today, and looked round the food market at Nishiki, went to the Silver Pavilion, and walked along the Philosopher's Path. It was beautiful! More photos at the left link.

大日学校

This is the shopping mall that houses the Osaka Dainichi school. As you can see, the mall goes off the edge of the photo on both sides. It was very big, but actually smaller than the mall in Kobe Kita.

Wow!

Gosh, I'm working in a HUGE shopping centre!

First journey to Sanda

Today is my first day at work here. Sanda is the school north of Kobe, and a bit of a trek. Much of the journey was through whacking great tunnels - the Japanese attitude to building train lines is that if there's a mountain in the way, it's best to bore a hole through it...

In the respite between tunnels, the trees on the mountainside were starting to change colour, should be beautiful soon. At the foot of the mountains were rice fields. And of course, although the countryside, lots of houses still!

This being my first day at a far school, I left plenty of time. Good job as I just missed the half-hourly bus. Bit of a difference from Tokyo! Sanda seems to be a decent-sized town with a department store. I'm working at a school in an out-of-town shopping centre.

Now on the bus...

道頓堀 Doutombori

道頓堀が大阪の有名なレストラン通り。お昼においしお好み焼きを食べた！

Doutombori is Osaka's famous restaurant street. I had delicious okonomiyaki for lunch!

大阪のアパート Osaka flat

これは大阪アパートだ！私のアパートが４階に有る。ドアから梅田スカイビルを見れる。

This is my flat in Osaka! I'm on the 4th floor. I can see the Umeda Sky Building (two towers with a hole in the middle) from my door.

大阪の旅 Osaka trip

さて、今日新幹線で大阪に行っている。晴れから、ちょうどに富士山を見た！

Well now, today I'm on my way to Osaka by shinkansen. Because it's fine, I just saw Mount Fuji!

吉報 Good news!

先週にわかに、一月間大阪に働く機会があった。すごいね！もちろん、この機会をとらえた！だから、来月に、大阪に働く。週4日間制で働いて、3日間の休暇をとる。楽しみ！！！

Last week, completely out of the blue, an opportunity came up to work in Osaka for a month. How fantastically lucky is that?! Naturally I jumped at the chance, so in November I'll be working in Osaka! I'll work a four day week, with 3 days off. I'm really looking forward to this!!!

及ばずながら頑張ります！ I'll do my best!

この間勉強から忙しいだ。だから、ブログに書けない。成功を確信している時、また始める。でも、今試験前に余りの一か月半が有る。今、全部がまだ難しいから、練習の試験に及第点だけ取れる。

I'm really busy at the moment with study, so I can't write the blog. When I feel confident of passing, I'll start again. But now I only have 1.5 months left until the exam and, because everything is still difficult, at the moment I can only just reach the passmark...

子供の新聞 Newspaper for children

さいきん、友だちが子供の新聞をくれた。意味は振り仮名がある。そうかと言って新聞を読みなのにJLPT3が成功してない。でも、子供の新聞やマンガや勉強を読んで楽しい。 これまでは一週で新聞の扉しか読まない！

Recently, a friend gave me a children's newspaper. This means that it is written in kanji with the furigana (Japanese reading) alongside. That said, even though I'm doing lots of reading, it won't help me pass the JLPT3. But it's enjoyable!　So far, I'm only reading the front page each week!

エッシャーの展示、佐倉市 Escher Exhibition, Sakura

日曜日に佐倉の美術館に行きエッシャーの展示に見た。楽しかった。

Went to Sakura to see an Escher exhibition - very enjoyable!

新H&M New H&M store

ああ、ヤッダア！今日新銀座H&M店を見たかったけどすごく長列があった。じゃあ、祝日だよ！

Youch, no chance! I wanted to look at the new H&M shop in Ginza, but there was a VERY long queue. Well, I suppose it is a public holiday, of course!

御宿、月の砂漠 Onjuku, Desert of the Moon

(The camel statues are Onjuku's symbol. They were built in 1969 to commemorate a children's song composed in 1923. They are called 'Desert of the Moon' 月の砂漠

In 1609, a ship en-route from Mexico to the Philippines got shipwrecked and the crew was rescued by the village. This led to Onjuku now being twinned with Acapulco.)










今日早起きだって御宿に行った。

御宿に0830着いてビーチに歩いた。電車で二時半間くらいだった。早くて疲れたけど気持ちがよかった！仕事がない、うれしい！

でも、御宿がまあまあと思った。。。千葉県の海岸は銚子のほうがいいと思う。あちらにきれいで荒海がある。
されでも、御宿でサーファーとか波を見れたからリラックスさせられた。

I got up early today and went to Onjuku. I got there at 0830 and walked to the beach. It took about 2 and a half hours by train including changes. Although it was early, it was a nice feeling to be up and out. No work today, it's good!

However, I did feel that Onjuku wasn't anything special... Within Chiba, I think Choushi is better - more wild and beautiful. Still, watching the surfers and the waves made me feel relaxed...

東京の丸の内の牛 A few cows from the Cow Parade, Marunouchi, Tokyo

Just a few cows from the Cow Parade that's in the Marunouchi area of Tokyo this week (see link to the side). 左リンクを見て下さい。

おはよ！ 'Morning!

さて、約束したから今日日記に書く。今日が休みだ、確か少し勉強をするつもりだ。
今週が会合で満ちて。明日は社長が学科を観察する、そして木金曜日で朝会合がある、めんどくさい！

Well, I did say that I would write more in the blog! Today I have a day off so I'm going to do a bit of study. This week is full of meetings - tomorrow I have a lesson observation and then Thursday and Friday a couple of morning meetings, which is going to be a bit tiring...

Update 最新

Right... It's been way way too long since I posted on this blog properly, so just to let you know that I'm going to start again! これから日本語の勉強新たに始める！ほんとに！(このポストは日本語が終わった、ごめんね！　Apologies, that's it for the Japanese in this post, I have too much to write!)

I had a fantastic time in England with my family in August. It was very relaxing, but as usual, because it was so nice to see everyone, the time went by much too quickly. I also spent a couple of days in London so managed to see a few friends who live in or near London.

To my shame though, I've been far too lax with the blog, and yes, also with the study... It was a mixture of getting side-tracked with the holiday, bogged down with work when I got back, a little run-down, and discovering I could watch Australian soap operas on mobile youtube (should I really admit to that one...!) I've signed up to do the level 3 exam in December, but really am not very confident that I'll pass. I really need to knuckle down to studying again!

I'm now planning a new trip - I want to go back to Okinawa again for some sun and cycling, so probably planning to go there in December again. Probably the Yaeyama Islands again just because they're easiest to get to by plane and ferry and Ishigaki is cheap to stay on as a base. I have a real draw towards Okinawa, even more than the initial draw towards Japan. I think it's because it's so laid-back and unspoilt in many of the places that I've been. It's just a pity that it's too hot most of the year to live there! Planning a trip like this though makes me aware of how much my Japanese has improved over the last few years - still not that good, but it does at least enable me to Google for events, places, restaurants, hotels etc in Japanese - thereby actually getting useful results. But boy, can it mean sometimes that internet browsing takes a lot of time!

When I think about it, I do a lot of internet shopping (including booking hotels) these days in Japanese. When I get to the stage of not having more than a little smug grin at things actually arriving, I will know that my Japanese really has come on!

Talking of lengthy internet browsing in Japanese... I remember my last trip to Okinawa... My hairdresser lived in Naha for a couple of years and had a restaurant recommendation, I know... talking to my hairdresser... Actually, he is the first hairdresser to get me over my fear of hairdressers - I no longer feel that I'm sitting in an electric chair! Anyway, he recommended a restaurant on the outskirts of Naha City, it sounded really nice as it had a garden and the dishes sounded really nice too. But of course, he only knew the name of the restaurant, and it's impossible to search for a restaurant in Japan in English. Moreover, not only are there are many kanji for the same pronunciation, Okinawan Japanese has different pronunciation, so it took some considerable time to find the address of this restaurant on the internet. But, of course, once done, my phone's GPS could take over so that the friend that I went with and I could easily track it down...

Next time I go back to Naha City itself I want to go to this tree house restaurant in Naha that I found whilst 'stumbling'...
http://damncoolpics.blogspot.com/2008/05/tree-house-restaurant.html
In fact there are so many places I want to try or go back to...!

My study of Japanese Doraemon-style is coming on a treat - it's the one thing that I didn't give up over the holiday - but I am very aware that kiddy comic book Japanese somehow just isn't polite enough... I've also been watching Japanese films - not sure how much it really helps my Japanese, but I do get really into them and at least get the gist and feel as if I've understood it by the end...

Next time, more Japanese... ... ...

東京のさる Wild Tokyo monkey

http://www.japantoday.com/mobile/view/wild-monkey-leads-tokyo-police-on-city-chase