11/30/2018

November 30, 2018

クラスありますよー。
12月 2, 6, 9, 10, 13,  23-31 は休みです。
Please study English at your home on those days.

11/29/2018

November 29, 2018 Botcha botcha!

クラスありますよー。😀

12月 2, 6, 9, 10, 13,  23-31 は休みです。
Please study English at your home on those days.

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Botcha botcha!

New words & phrases:
- commemorative
- engraving
- wheelchair
- loan words

Let's get started!

Yesterday in class, one of the students brought in some Paralympic commemorative coins. One of the coins had an engraving of a man in a wheelchair. He was playing a new game called "Botcha".  I thought that I had heard this world before. My mother had said this word to me many times when I was out playing as a child.  She would say "Botcha botcha", which meant "bath time".

Why did my mother use this word?  I googled it and found the answer in Wikipedia.  It says that Hawaiian people, like my mother, use a lot of loan words from Japan. Botcha botcha is one of them. According to Wikipedia:

  • Bocha: Take a bath. Originally from bocha-bocha Japanese onomatopoeia for splashing noises.a


So, the next time you go to the hot springs, you can say, "Botcha Botcha"!


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11/28/2018

November 28, 2018 My Navy Life - One Week

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My Navy Life - One Week

New words & phrases:
- military
- the outside world
- unexpected
- stick it out

Let's get started!

Bootcamp is the word for basic military training.  It was 8 weeks long, and perhaps one of the most difficult things in my life.  Everyday, my instructors were yelling at me, and the training was so hard. Every morning we would wake up at 4 am, eat, exercise, study, fold our underwear, march, exercise, march, study, and sleep.  Then, wake up in the middle of the night for drills.

There were no days off, no breaks, no communication with the outside world. On the third day I thought I wanted to go home. I made a plan to jump over the fence and hop on a train home. However, I thought I should wait one week.  If I still felt the same after one week, I would run away and never come back.  But something unexpected happened.  I became stronger after one week, and so I decided to stick it out until the end.  It was the first step on my long journey in the U.S. Navy.

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11/26/2018

November 26, 2018 Retro Movies

クラスありますよー。😀


11月 27 は休みです。
Please study English at your home on that day.

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Retro Movies

New words & phrases:
- Retro
- (re) kindle
- relieve
- the movie came out

Let's get started!

Recently, thanks to the students in my movie class (every Wednesday at 2:15pm), my love for movies has been rekindled. On my way home from work, I relieve stress by watching a movie on Google Play.  The other day I watched "Close Encounters of the Third Kind".  I think the Japanese title is completely different. I was 4 years old when it first came out.  A couple of years later, I remember my parents watching it on TV, but I couldn't understand it at that time.  It is a great movie by Steven Spielberg about aliens.

I think tonight I will watch another old movie, "Beverly Hills Cop".

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11/25/2018

November 25, 2018

クラスありますよー。😀


11月 27 は休みです。
Please study English at your home on that day.


11/24/2018

November 24, 2018 Shopping

クラスありますよー。😀


11月 27 は休みです。
Please study English at your home on that day.

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ブログを聞きましょう。
Click here to listen. (fast)
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Shopping

New words:
- Fitting room
- Alterations
- Hem
- tailor
- shoplifting

I need to go shopping because I have to buy some new winter clothes, but I really don't like shopping.  Every year, I wait until it gets really cold to go shopping, but by that time, the stores already have the clothes for next season out.

Trying on clothes is a pain.  It is a little different from the U.S.  In my country, you don't have to take off your shoes in the fitting room. Also, someone is always at the entrance of the fitting room to count how many things you take in to try on.  The purpose is to prevent shoplifting.  

One thing I do like about shopping in Japan is that you can have alterations done if the clothes don't fit. In America, if you need your new pants hemmed, for example, you would have to buy them first, and then take them to a tailor for alterations.

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11/23/2018

November 23, 2018 Have a Cow

休校です。Sorry, no class today.💩


11月 23, 27 は休みです。
Please study English at your home on those days.

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Image result for dont have a cow


Have a cow.

Image result for dont have a cowIn my blog about the laundry the other day, I used the phrase, "My mom had a cow".  No, my mother didn't live on a farm.  It is an idiom.  It means that she was so upset (angry, excited). Maybe the 日本語 is 頭にきた。I remember there was another time when she had a cow.  I was in elementary school. I was running around the house (inside) pretending to be a ninja.  I had a plastic knife. I was hiding in my room at the end of the hallway. 
Image result for dont have a cowAt the other end of the hallway was the living room. When my mother walked across the living room, I jumped out of my room and threw the knife down the hallway. I wanted to show off my ninja skills. It flew right by her and hit a vase on the table.  The vase broke and she had a cow!



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11/22/2018

November 22, 2018

クラスありますよー。😀


11月 18, 23, 27 は休みです。
Please study English at your home on those days.

11/20/2018

November 21, 2018 Laundry Day Pt. 2

クラスありますよー。😀
11月  23, 27 は休みです。
Please study English at your home on those days.

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Laundry Day Pt. 2

It was always so easy when I lived in the U.S. Just throw the laundry into the washing machine, then toss them into the dryer and VIOLA, you're done! It felt so good taking the laundry out of the dryer in the wintertime because they felt so warm and comfy.  I remember once, my mom had a cow when she found that I had left my crayons in my pocket and they melted all over the clothes in the dryer. I thought it made the clothes look pretty.

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November 20, 2018 Laundry Day Pt. 1

クラスありますよー。😀

11月  23, 27 は休みです。
Please study English at your home on those days.

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ブログを聞きましょう。
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Image result for laundryImage result for laundry

Laundry Day Pt. 1

Today it seems like the weather will turn out nice, so I decided to do the laundry this morning before work.  Doing the laundry in Japan is a lot more work than in the U.S. because generally Japanese people don't use dryers.  I'm not talking about the spin-dry types, but the big-size super heater types.  I never hung out my laundry until I came to Japan.  Japanese people don't have laundry-rooms, either. I think it is very strange that people have their washing machines in the bathroom!

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11/19/2018

November 19, 2018 No Flowers

クラスありますよー。😀

11月 18, 23, 27 は休みです。
Please study English at your home on those days.

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No Flowers

Yesterday, I decided to go for a jog to Kurihama Flower Country. Unfortunately, there were no flowers. I was disappointed.  So instead, I jogged around and admired the dirt, lol. I did spot some yellow flowers on the side of a grassy hill.. They spelled out the words, "花の国”. I thought it is kind of like life. Sometimes in life you are surrounded by beautiful flowers, and sometimes there is just dirt.

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11/18/2018

November 18, 2018 NO CLASS

休校 No class today.

11月 18, 23, 27 は休みです。
Please study English at your home on those days.

11/17/2018

November 17, 2018 Chicken!

クラスありますよー。😀

11月 18, 23, 27 は休みです。
Please study English at your home on those days.

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Chicken!

Image result for chicken
One of the foods I miss from the U.S. is chicken. Chicken in Japan is different from chicken in the U.S.  Japanese chicken is usually small and cut into tiny pieces. I prefer eating chicken from the bone. I think the seasoning is different as well. 

KFC is quite expensive in Japan, I think. The menu is different, too. I miss buttermilk biscuits, coleslaw, macaroni and cheese, and mashed potatoes.  I'm getting hungry now, so I better stop.

If you see a foreigner somewhere today, try to approach him and practice your English. Don't be chicken!

Have a super super day!

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