英語学習にも役立つ、札幌の外国人英語教師の英語日記 札幌 英会話 [ステップアップ]

Obon

2014年8月19日 (火)

Well, my summer vacation has come and gone in the blink of an eye. Unfortunately the weather was pretty bad at first, so I wasn’t able to enjoy being outdoors as much as I would have liked. I did, however, find time to do some marathon training, spend a night on top of Mt. Youtei, and also do some beach camping at Shakotan.

There’s nothing better (in my humble opinion) than building a fire on the beach and watching the sun set. It’s one of life’s simple pleasures. Hope you enjoyed your time off as well!

I did it!!

2014年7月22日 (火)

Hello all. I said last week that I was going to a Yukata party and I wanted some advice about wearing a yukata. I used YOUTUBE and found a tutorial video and managed to put my yukata on by myself!! I even tied the bow (obi) by myself. I am usually not very good at that kind of thing but I was very happy.

I have put a picture so everyone can see it. Even if my bow isn`t perfect, I made it myself so I`m a little proud.  My yukata is a sky blue one with cherry blossoms on it. I bought it a few years ago but I am usually a little shy to wear it. I really enjoyed the Yukata night. This friday there are fireworks at Toyohira river, I hope everyone wears a yukata and has lots of fun!!!

Yukata!

2014年7月18日 (金)

Hello all! Well, the time has come once again for me to try and wear a yakata. I will go to a yukata party, so I must try and put it on. When I bought my yukata I didnt want a premade bow, so I bought a long obi which I must tie myself. There is one problem with this plan; I dont know how to tie an obi!!! Tonight I will be studying obi techniques on youtube. There are actually many tutorials in English about yukatas, so if you are unsure, please check it out.

This weekend is also a long weekend (monday is a national holiday)… but on Monday Step Up is OPEN! So please come and study if you have time. If you are too busy to come to school, I really hope you have a great weekend and enjoy the hot hot HOT weather.

p.s. If my yukata is successful, I will post a picture next week!!

Ceviche

2014年7月11日 (金)

I know I write a lot about food…but I cook a lot, and talking about it is one of my favorite things to do in lessons. Recently, after coming back from a trip to California, I began to reaquaint myself with ceviche, the national dish of Peru. It’s a great summer dish easily complimented by beer or a light wine.

Ceviche, while there are many variations, is basically seafood salsa, or a seafood marinade, if you will. It’s very easy to make and can be eaten as soon as you finish cutting all the ingrediants (although I like to let it sit in the fridge for an hour first). I won’t write out a recipe here – it’s your job to go online and find one you like. But remember that you can always customize it to your liking, for example by using shiso instead of coriander. However, if you don’t use fish of some sort it won’t be ceviche. Fresh lime juice, red onion and tomatoes are also basic requirements.

I’ve made it three times in the last 10 days. Here’s a picture of last night’s batch (sorry it’s so dark). I used scallops, maguro, shrimp, salmon and added cucumbers to balance the hot sauce. It was great. Oh yeah, you need to lightly fry a few tortillas too, to scoop the ceviche up with.

Enjoy!

Earthquake warning message!

2014年7月8日 (火)

Hello everyone! Well, a small earthquake just happened and I was really shocked because everyone`s phone went off. There was a beep and “earthquake!”, it was crazy. Not all the phone had the alarm at the same time. I have never heard this earthquake alarm before so it kind of panicked me a little. The earthquake was small here in Sapporo but I always worry about people in other areas, perhaps there was a bad earthquake somewhere else. I really hope everyone is ok. 

When I first came to Japan I was impressed by the level of technology but today I really admired how everyone’s phone (even the teachers’ phones) warned us about the imminent earthquake.  It was probably the most exciting thing that happened to me today.  Did you phone go off? Where were you? Hopefully nowhere embarrassing!!! I can imagine a whole subway train full of earthquake alarms; I think that would be noisy and confusing!