Last Hoikuen Classes
18 Sunday Aug 2013
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in18 Sunday Aug 2013
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in06 Saturday Jul 2013
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flower: ajisai, park: tsuchi-to-hi-no-sato, school: mikabo hoikuen, season: summer, season: tsuyu, umeshu
June is the month of “tsuyu”, or the rainy season. It is a pretty wet month usually, but this year tsuyu came a bit late, so it is still pretty cloudy and rainy everyday. It is very pretty and green right now, though, and the hydrangea (ajisai) are in full bloom. Here are some random pictures from throughout the month:
Following instructions from youtube video, first I soaked and washed the plums well, took the stems out, then dried them.
Then I cleaned the jars, layered the plums and sugar, poured in the vinegar and white liquor… and my camera batteries went out.
So I don’t have any pictures after that. When it is actually ready I will post pics again!!
Some hydrangea (ajisai) pictures
And an outing with my hoikuen students to go feed the fish at Tsuchi-to-hi-no-Sato. Shin was into it, Seina was grumpy!
18 Tuesday Jun 2013
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flower: sakura, flower: tsubaki, flower: tulips, school: mikabo hoikuen, school: onishi, season: spring
The new school year started after spring break too quickly for me to really get over jet lag from Europe, but overall there weren’t too many changes. One of my JTE’s changed schools, but I knew the incoming one from a previous school, so there wasn’t really anything I needed to get used to. I had all new students at Onishi Hoikuen, but at Mikabo two of my old students came back… the rest went on, so I suddenly had a VERY small class there.
And despite the peak of the cherry blossoms happening while we were in Europe, I still managed to catch some decent pictures of the tail end of the season, which was nice. So all in all despite how tired I was, the school year was off to a good start!
And since I had that afternoon off, I did a flower walk around my neighborhood
There were still sakura here and there
As well as a ton of other flowers. Dunno what the purple or yellow ones are called, but the middle ones are tsubaki (camellia I think)
The trees were that pretty new green color, and the weather gorgeous!
Japanese maples grow first in red before turning green, so it kinda looked like patches of fall here and there!
About a week later I headed to Mikabo Hoikuen, and after that Kenji and I went on a motorcycle ride to see the Koi-no-bori hanging around. Actually, these pictures might be from two separate bike rides, I can’t remember. Whatever:
22 Wednesday May 2013
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city: fujioka, city: maebashi, flower: ume, kimono, mountain: haruna, park: misato bairin, school ceremony/event, school: mikabo hoikuen, school: onishi hoikuen, season: spring
Graduation time is usually a time I take lots of pictures, because it is the time when the Japanese plums (ume) really start to bloom and other flowers begin to pop up, and also because it’s, well, graduation. This year, however, I was a bit… preoccupied with planning for our Europe trip for Spring Break, and I also accidentally forgot my camera battery on graduation day, so I have a good number of flower pics, and like three iphone graduation pics. Sorry.
So to pad this entry a bit, I’m going to include a few pictures of my Hoikuen (day care) students, as well as a short trip to a plum grove on Mt. Haruna. It’s a bit random, sorry.
Dunno what this flower’s called, but I like it!
Plums, plums, plums, pink plums
Oh, and I almost forgot about this Kofun/Mound thing… we passed it on the way to and from Misato Bairin. I forgot the name though…
You could go inside so that was interesting
Pre-graduation celebration kyuushoku (school lunch)
Me in hakama and kimono, and a student. My dressing skills aren’t showing through well here; I’d been walking around a lot at this point.
Anyway, that’s it. Yeah, boring, sorry, I’m working up toward the Europe trip photos, but there are a ton and the entries will be really long, so it might take me awhile. Not another 4 months though, promise!
15 Wednesday May 2013
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inFirst up, I went to Mikabo Hoikuen (day care I teach at every other Friday) thinking it was regular English class day, but as it turns out they were supposed to call and cancel and had forgotten. Instead of just going home, they invited me to make dango with them. I’m sure there is some significance with the colors (white, pink, light green) and putting them on the tree branches to roast them, but I don’t know what it is (oops), so I just sat back, took pictures, ate a couple dango, and enjoyed.
That weekend happened to be a big dondoyaki festival near our old neighborhood, so we went to watch them light all the old New Years decorations and daruma to prepare for the new year. That’s about all I know!
Decorating the tree with the finished and cooked dango
Approaching the dondoyaki place
People roasting the sticks with dango on them
Getting lit and slowly burning down
A bit later in the weekend, we had a big storm blow through and actually got some snow! Kenji and I went to eat our usual weekend Indian food in Saitama when it started to snow, and of course by the time we got back and I had put on snow stuff, it was back to raining. I still think I got some good pictures though!
22 Saturday Sep 2012
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inI have three new schools this year, one junior high school and two day cares. They are all small schools up in the mountains, and while it is a bit of a long commute, how rural they are is really appealing! I’m really loving my time here so far 🙂
So I go to that school Monday through Thursday, then on Fridays I head to either Mikabo Hoikuen (day care) or Onishi Hoikuen. Both schools are also out in the country, Mikabo being the smaller one with only 7 kids!
The area is really rural, but that makes it really great too!
The second school is Onishi Hoikuen, with a great view!
Here I only teach the 5 year olds.
When I first came they were practicing for their sports festival
Fridays are so nice, I love the younger kids, and I really enjoy the drive out even though it is a long way. Also, I only teach for an hour, and right before lunch for the kids, so I can sleep in, have a nice drive and easy class, then be finished for the day… it’s pretty great!