KEC Journal

September 15, 2010

Nemuro Again

Fifth-graders:

"What country is London in?"

"Europe!"

"You know, Europe is not a country."

"New York!"

"There's no such country...."

Permalink

June 20, 2010

Nagoya 2010

My wife is from Nagoya. So, she is a native speaker of Nagoya-ben.

She talks to me in Nagoya dialect and accent. That hasn't changed a bit since we first met in Nagoya.

After living in Hokkaido for more than quarter of a century, she has acquired Hokkaido-ben quite a bit.

Sometimes I feel she is a more skilled user of Hokkaido dialect than I am. You know, she must have a gift for languages.

Permalink

April 28, 2010

History

There are a lot of places to see in Hokkaido. And they are not restricted to scenic beauties.

Well, I've noticed recently how little I know about the history of Shari and Hokkaido. Learning about it has become a matter of our interest these days.

奥行臼駅逓

Never mind. I couldn't read the kanji, either. It's "Okuyukiusu Ekitei" . Ekitei is a public establishment that used to be placed in Hokkaido in its development days. It served as a kind of a hotel, and also provided a transportation and postal service. The Okuyukiusu Ekitei was closed in 1930 and it's been maintained as a cultural property.

奥行臼駅(Okuyukiusu Eki)

This train station was closed in 1989 with the discontinuance of the railroad line. There are a lot of railway lines that were discontinued in around 1980s.

And we drove to Nemuro, the easternmost city in Japan.

Permalink | Comments (2)

February 15, 2010

Abashiri 2010

網走オホーツク流氷祭り: Abashiri Okhotsk Ice Floes Festival

Permalink | Comments (1)

January 10, 2010

Twitter

Happy New Year to you all!

Probably the most-read entry on my blog would be "Yoroshiku".

I just started tweeting as my New Year's something new to do. So, Yoroshiku!

Permalink | Comments (1)

December 25, 2009

Better Watch Out

Even though I'm a (supposed-to-be) Buddhist, Christmas is definitely something special. Yes, something white that I dream of every year.

The other day, I let the students in the fifth-graders' class listen to the song "Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town." Interestingly, the words "better watch out" sounded like "belly macho" to them. So they were singing merrily, and jokingly, "You belly macho, belly macho... ."

Merry Christmas!

Permalink | Comments (1)