kabocha! - Japanese pumpkin

May 1

(The one on the right is kabocha. The other one is kyuri - cucumber)










May 15















May 30














Kabocha is awsome!! XD

Blogging a lot in the spring

I was just checking my old posts and it looks like I stop blogging around from fall through winter... I blogged most in the spring. I guess it's because spring is my favorite season!? Or is it because I get down in the cold weather and keep my mouth shut..!?

Anyways, there are still many things going on in the fall and the winter, you know. Like.. going on a picnic and enjoy beautiful and colorful trees with yellow, brown, and red leaves in the fall and going skiing and drinking vodka (..NOT!) and whiskey(yes!) at home in the winter~... etc.
I'll TRY to blog in the fall and the winter this year... I'll see...

Oh, yeah, our baby green peppers are popping out!
We are also growing paprika (yellow), red and yellow mini tomatoes, cucumber (as you can see in the photo in the old post), Okinawan red pepper, and Japanese pumpkin!
The Japanese pumpkin is growing soooo fast and taking all over the garden! I just saw for the first time one of the flowers blooming this morning! so excited!!
Also, some tomatoes are growing. They are still green. We can't wait for them to get ripe!
The red pepper is not growing as much as other vegetables. It is from Okinawa (the prefecture located deep south of Japan), so it just needs a super hot weather. It will probably grow a lot from July through August!

We can't wait to eat them!

Dear Leo

On May 23 around 11:30pm, my dog, Leo, passed away peacefully at the age of 11 years and 4 months. It was really sad, but I'm glad he passed away at home beside my family.
We had him when I was in junior-high school and we already had another golden-retriever named Belle who was two years older than him. They were good friends (though she always tried to steal Leo's meal...).
She passed away five years ago, 2005. The date when she died was really close to Leo's.. She died on May 18. They also both died in the same disease.. Leo was looking for Belle, looking confused, after she passed away.. But I believe Leo could finally meet Belle. I told Leo to say hi to Belle.
It's sad to see your own pet die. You would almost not want to have another one again. But it will be for sure worth having a pet you will be so attached to even if they will die someday probably before you.

I'll miss you a lot,
but thank you so much and good-bye, Leo!

Cucmber!

Long time no blog again...

We are growing cucumber! We planted it at the begging of May and it's already this big! Can't wait to eat it.
We also planted red and yellow mini tomatoes, red and green peppers, yellow paprika, and kabocha (Japanese pumpkin). It rains a fair amount and gets sunny often in May through July, so they grow fast. The pumpkin especially became 10 times as big as three weeks ago!!
Can't wait to see its big babies sitting on the ground~

ブログほったらかし

本当にブログ書くの向いてません、、、

最近実家に帰った時に、留学前に買った日記を見つけました。
見てみると、買ってから２ヶ月足らずで時がストップしてました。
ほぼ新品な状態だし・・・。しかも途中３週間くらいほったらかしにして、
あぁ書かなきゃ！と思ったのか一気に一週間分くらいを一日で書いてます。

そりゃぁ続かないわけだ・・・。
しかも書いてる内容すごーーくどうでもいいことを淡々とした
下手な文章で書いてます。（まぁそれはそれで面白かったけど・・・。笑）

ううううーーーーーむ。。。

友だちが英語でブログ始めたのを知って、
またブログ魂（？）にちょこーーーっと火がついた、けれども
その火は一体いつまで燃え続けるのか。。。


（-_-+）。。

Hiyashi-chuka

I like taking a picture of food. I also like looking at a picture of food. Because... I love eating!

This is Hiyashi-chuka (Cold Chinese noodle), which Japanese people often eat in summer. You boil the noodle (I think it's ramen) and rinse it with cold water. Put toppings like sliced tamago-yaki (baked layered egg), tomatoes, cucumbers, and ham. It's colorful and visially entataining with these toppings. And you put the sauce that comes with the noodle. This sauce is the key! It made of soy sauce, vineger, and sugar at least as I tasted...

This was the first try for me to make Hiyashi-chuka, but it came out pretty good and my boyfriend liked it too! I will make it again for sure!

95 degrees in California...

It was soooooo hot today... it was nearly 95 degrees... (probably around 32-36 Celcius degrees)

So, Mike and I jumped in the pool in the apartment after washing our cars in the heat. Even though it was 90 dgs, the water was still quite cold... but we jumped in the water together counting 3.. and it felt pretty good! I swam only about 10 minutes because I had to go to work soon, but it was very refreshing! When I was swimming, I found some bugs stuck in the water. Mike helped a bee get out of the water. I helped a ladybug (Tento-mushi) on the little leaf floating the surface of the water.

I feel like summer is coming soon... but, the weather forecast says it is going to be around 65 degrees this weekend... well since high temparature makes it hard to sleep at night, I prefer lower temparature... but it's nice to swim in the pool in the heat and under the strong sunshine!

The Sound of the Winds

This is how windy it was on the path to the lighthouse in Point Rayes...

Warning!: It is pretty loud so please turn down the volume on the video or your computer.

Camping!

Mike and I went camping in Point Rayes (North of San Francisco) last weekend.

Next day we drove from the campsite to the coast and hiked to the lighthouse and Chimny Rock. It was soooooooo windy there... I felt so stupid taking off the hood of my jacket before leaving home.. but luckily, in the middle of hiking up to the lighthouse, I realized Mike had another knit cap in his pocket and I borrowed and used it to cover my frozen ears. (well, I kida look dumb with this hat in the picture... but it helped A LOT..!)















By the way, we always eat hot dog, plus chili and mash potato or potato salad, when we camp. you know.. these foods are pretty FAT. so I always realize that I've gained some weight and FAT on my belly after getting home... which kinda sucks because we move around more than usual and always go hiking on the trails around the campsite. but I guess I consume more energy from camp foods than I burn from those exercises during the camping..

anyways, the most important thing is to just have fun and enjoy eating and drinking in the nature! (after all my favorite activity is to eat..haha -_-;)

what I want to do...pt.2

I was looking at the old blogs, and reading "what I want to do..", I realized I have done a few things in the list so I want to update and add a few more things to the list.


1. have a very short hair (soon) DONE!
2. get a teaching certificate for a high school English teacher (高校教員免許) and work in a high school in Japan as an English teacher
--> Got accepted to college so getting close to achieving this!
3. get lots of experience of teaching English (and Japanese) --
> Half done cuz I'm teaching Japanese now!
4. go to a grad school someday to study 'teaching Japanese/English as a second language' or education or linguistics (unlikely)
5. have a life without a car in Japan and travel by train
6. OHANAMI(お 花見; it's a Japanese traditional outside-party to enjoy seeing cherryblossoms while eating and drinking)!! belive or not, i have never done ohanami even though i was born and grew up in Japan for about 20 yrs..... DONE! (in US)
7. go to see my best friend in Poland
--> Soon? this summer!?
8. read all of Haruki Murakami's books
--> I've probably read most of them!
9. take Eiken 1kyu (the highest level of the official English proficiency test, which is the most common English test in Japan)
--> I'm (kinda..) studying for it...
10. read lots of books about Japanese education (esp. problems regarding Japanese education. e.g., bullying-いじめ, Compulsory Education-義務教育, entrance examination-受験, etc..)
--> I don't have a good access to those kinds of books... I will try to read them when I get back to Japan..
11. learn another language (Italian?, Polish?, I don't know yet...)
12. go to Okinawa-沖縄 and maybe live there for a few years if I like it there
--> maybe not.. but still want to travel there when I go back to Japan.
13. travel to Indo-Chinese Peninsula (Vietnam, Thailand, Syngapore...)
14. be a cyborg like the main character (素子) in Ghost in the Shell (攻殻機動隊) and jump from roof to roof, have a nice voluptuous body, and never get old
--> probably will never be able to achieve this in my lifetime... sad...(-_-;)

new things I want to do..:
15. go to many places by cycling in Japan (and hopefully lose some weight and get in a good shape..)
16. brush up my English (especially increase the vocabulary)
17. travel all over Japan (especially the country side)
18. go SUPER green; always keep "3R" in mind, "Reduce", "Reuse", and "Recycle"