No more snow, please.

Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Uh, well,

I don't know who I would vote for if I were an American.

Hillary Clinton could be my choice.

I dunno.

No offense, but ...

for me

Clinton is simply...

scary.

Happy (belated-again) New Year!

Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

High school students:

"What does 'agree' mean?"

"怒ってる(okotteru)?"

"Hey, it's 'angry'!"

"Ah, then it's '醜い(minikui),' isn't it?"

"Come on, that's 'ugly'!!"

My dear visitors, if you have a big laugh at it, you may be a Japanese expert.

Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

High school freshmen:

"Do you want to know why I never misspell the word 'together'?"

"Yeah?"

"I always remember it this way: To get her!"

"... Wow!"

Wow...

Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)

Someone emailed me to ask me about the lyrics of a Japanese oldie "Manatsu no Dekigoto," sung by Hirayama Miki (平山みき). I was in my teens when the song became a huge hit in Japan. My impression of the song those days was, uh, nothing but that it was sung by a woman in a strange voice. I think I see her sing it on TV programs of golden oldies every once in a while.

I found a video clip.

Do you like it? I remember M once said she liked the song very much. I guess there are a lot of non-Japanese fans of the song. If you like it, tell me how you like it.

So, J, I'll email you the Romaji lyrics. A translation? Well, ask M if she did it. ;)

Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

As you (might) know, I hate winter. I hate snow. ... more precisely, I hate snow shoveling. I'm always dreaming of the season of spring during winter.

But I have to admit winter has its own beauty. You know, Christmas should be white. (Oops, never in Australia!)

Well, the following photos were taken during "Abashiri Ryuhyo Matsuri" (the Abashiri Ice Floe Festival) this year by, er, my wife.

Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

Hey,

It's Feb-yoo-ary 13 today. That means, it's my birthday. Wow. You know, I'm a 年男 this year. 年男 comes every 12 years. So you can guess my age. ;)

Permalink

Well, well, it's already the year 2007, huh?

Frankly, last year was not a good year for me, in a lot of ways. How bad? You know, so bad that I didn't feel like blogging at all. (C'mon!) Uh well, now that the new year has started, I hope it will turn out to be a good year.

It's the year of the wild boar this year, and I'm a 年男 (toshi-otoko: the male who was born in the corresponding animal's year. For the famale, it's 年女, or toshi-onna.).

So, folks, Happy Belated New Year, and yoroshiku this year, too!

Permalink | Comments (2)

Oops, it's already July!

8th graders in class:

"Isn't Sydney a country??"

"Wow, I've thought it's a country, too!"

"Yeah, I thought it's a country because the Sydney Olympics were held."

Seems like I have to teach them New York is not a country, either.

Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Oops, it's already June!

9th graders yesterday:

"Now we're studying English, a foreign language. Do you think there are people in other countries who study Japanese?"

"No, I don't think so. A great number of people study English because it's used all over the world. But, hey, who uses Japanese?"

Mmm....I have to try to open my students' eyes to the world around them.

Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)