Tuesday, June 29, 2010

annual pickled RAKKYO has come


Right now, I received a parcel, it is a bin of pickled Rakkyo that my friend made.
To tell the truth, I don't like pickled Rakkyo, but I "love" hers. I can eat only hers. Rakkyo is Japanese shallot, but they seem not to be in the same group.
Thanks Micchan.

Monday, June 28, 2010

my speech at Toast Masters

Yesterday I participated a club meeting of Toast masters, and made a speech for the first months after a few months. I'll show the contents.


Today’s title is about English people.
I found an interesting book, the title is "How to be Alien". The author is George Mikes who was born in Hungary. When he moved to stay in England, he knew in England everything was different from other European countries, and he understood he was an alien in England. He writes what English people are like in this book.
Well, I learned a thing from an English man, people say “England”, they sometimes mean “Great Britain”, sometimes “the United Kingdom”, or sometimes “British Isles”. I’m sorry, this time I’ll use just England or English without thinking of the difference.

Let me start my speech.
To live in England without troubles, you should understand some important rules.

First “Speak slowly and quietly”
In England they learn to speak slowly and quietly, in Europe important people speak loudly and clearly. And in England only stupid people try to show they’re clever
It’s interesting, isn’t it?
Thinking of Japanese people, some people say speaking loudly is not sophisticated.
And usually we don’t show our cleverness. “He who knows most speaks least” is one of Japanese proverbs.

Next, “Pleased meet you” is a necessary greeting sentence.
English people won’t shake hands if you put your hand out, they smile and wait. When you stop trying to shake hands, they try to shake your hand and say “Pleased to meet you”, in Japan we usually bow instead of shaking hands.

The third is “nice” is the most useful adjective.
The author says, for the first three years you do not need to learn or use any other adjectives, just “nice” is necessary, you can say that the weather is nice, a restaurant is nice, Mr. So-and-so is nice, Mrs. So-and-so’s clothes are nice, you had a nice time. And all this will be very nice.
In Japan probably two phrases are at least necessary, they are not adjectives though. Sumimasen and Arigato. And if you are an office worker, you should learn one more phrase, Otsukaresama. And if you are a teacher, you should learn “Ganbatte”

The forth is “The English hide their feelings by speaking very little.”
If a man really loves a woman, he just says “I really quite like you, in fact”. He doesn’t say anymore.
It might be similar to old-type Japanese men.”Follow me without grumbling” is an old phrase when to propose marriage.


He also tells the easiest way to show that you speak good English.
It is to finish all your sentences with the question tug “isn’t it? “

In this book the author mentioned about tea. England tea is very famous. He said “Tea was once a good drink with lemon and sugar. It tastes very pleasant. But then the British decided to put cold milk and no sugar. They made it colorless and tasteless; tea became an unpleasant drink, even though it is called tea...
Well, I love milk tea, though.

There are more rules, if you are interested in them, please read the book of "how to be ailen".
According to this book, English people seem not to deny directly. Thinking of Japanese people, you probably know this phrase, “Japanese people can’t say no” .This phrase is said to show the Japanese character. Additionally another popular phrase is “American people can’t say sorry”.
Toaster masters club started in America, and now in many countries the club meetings are held. Every club in every country or even in every city has their own style. But in any speaking styles, like they speak clearly, or vulgarly, loudly or quietly., we can understand each other through oral communication. And if we know there are various styles of speaking, we will be able to accept and understand each other more easily.
We’ll build an amicable relationship with other people, instead of exclusive one to aliens.
Thank you for your listening to my speech.

The end

P.S I could organize this speech thanks of supporting by Tim. Thanks.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Angel visit

We live in the city, but fortunately we have trees. And my neighbour, they have some birds. So we hear birds singing. But yesterday I heard a bird singing(or yelling) loudly. It's unusual.
Yes, a bird was in my house. It came from a window in the bathroom. It was calling to help to (probably) its parents. Actually outside some birds were flying with twittering or crying.
To tell the truth I'm not good at treating animals. But I have to do something. So I put a big water bowl on it, scooped it up, and let it out from the window.
It was not injured, so it and its family flied up in the sky.If it had been injured, -----
Do you remember? Once we had a cat, which name was CHORO.
When she came to my house, she was a stray cat because she had a color, and she seemed to really starve. So we decided to have her as our pet.

Well, now most plants (mainly herbs) of our small gardeing have flowers motestly.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Rainy season has started

According to the weather report rainy season has started. Probably it's right. Last Sunday it is humid and cloud, the day before yesterday, it was raining. Yesterday it was sunny and humid. And today until 10 o'clock, it was raining, now it is sunny.


I don't have drying machine, so this morning I didn't washing. But suddenly the sun came out, so I did washing quickly, and dried them out. In one hour my classes will start. So I already take them in the room, and now, I turned on air conditioner in the class room to dehumidify.


Well, Well, do you know rusk? In America it seems to be called Melba toast. We often see at bakeries, it makes sense, because usually rusk is made from bread which gets dry or hard. Of course at bakeries, they seem use broken bread or excessive amount bread.

To tell the truth, I don't like bread rusk very much.


But these days my friend baked butter cake rusk, and she said "it was delicious". (Unfortunately I couldn't taste it, she lives in another prefecture.)

And instead of it (it happens coincidentally), I got rusk of puff shells.

"It is delicious."
Opt. it starts raining again. I have to close the windows.

Monday, June 07, 2010

Garden 2



Now actually we have May weather.
Not so hot, not so cold, it is good for me. And of course we have sudden thunder
To tell more concretely, suddenly on a fine day, it gets dark with clouds and we hear thunder with heavy rain ( the day before yesterday, we had hail), and after a few minutes it gets sunny again.
Thunder and lightning is one of characterising things in TOCHIGI. So some people who are not born in TOCHIGI says "Why people in TOCHIGI are not afraid of thunder and lightning".


I have one rose tree, and it started blooming. And Chinese rampions also started blooming.
Today, Lea comes to eat dinner with us. It will be the last day we(Yuki and I) see her. She will return to France on Friday. She came "here" last September. It is true time flies like arrows.


The day before yesterday one man came to eat dinner with us. Do you remember the blog about Mexican cooking lesson. Last winter? we took his Mexican cooking lesson. At that time we made tacos, but they were not so"hot" for Yuki, so I want to let them to eat "hot" tacos. But -- I failed. the tacos or salsa source I made was not enough hot for them. Anyway they enjoyed tacos with pepper sauce and jalapeno sauce.


Well, well, probably for a while we will not have any guests. Both of us , for a while "dedicate" to each jobs. I have to attend "business"meetings on some weekend, and Yuki is going to go to China on business.


Thanks of Jan, new habit added to "my" way to enjoy eating. I usually don't drink alcohol. But "a little" vodka with much cranberry juice is good. Now the expensive vodka has already gone, and instead of it usual vodka bottle and expensive SHISO juice bottle are on the table.






Wednesday, June 02, 2010

Garden


In these days my small garden is getting full of greens.
The flowers of sage has started to open. Around the pot mints are growing. So I enjoy mint & sage herb tea.

And "one day lily" (the Japanese name is KISUGE" ) opens. unfortunately it will fade at night. Anyway when I see the blooming, I know rainy season is just around the corner.

And now "MITUSBA" is now in the season in my garden. It is eatable. It seems to be Japanese vegetable, and is a group of parsley. I pick some of them, and "flash-cook" them.
But the way of my flash-cooking, is just put it into the pan and put the lid for a few seconds.