Culture through English・Writing English・Freshman English Reading B: My summer

Hello! 

How are you? Welcome back to classes for our new semester! 

How was your summer? Did you do anything fun, interesting, or exciting? I'll tell you about my summer! 

I had a friend of mine from the U.S. come to visit me here for two weeks. It was his first time in Japan and he was excited to see and do things. He loves Japanese food and wanted to do two special things - first, ride the Mario Kart in Tokyo, and second, go hiking along the Kumano Kodou in Wakayama prefecture. 

The picture at the top is of the Hongu Taisha - one of the three great shrines that make the Kumano Kodou a World Heritage site (世界自然遺産). So we went!

First, here he is in the Mario Kart:

Here's me in my kart:

Here is the group we were a part of, riding past Tokyo Tower. (I'm all the way near the end!) This was a lot of fun!

Now here was our trip along the Kumano Kodou. We took so many pictures - here are just a few of the places along the way:

These are a lot of pictures - more than I usually upload on these blogposts! 

So how was your summer? Let's talk about our summers with each other!

I'm glad to see all of you again. See you next time!

Images: Personal photographs. All rights reserved.

Welcome back! お帰りなさい！

Hello! 

How are you? Welcome back to the classes for the second semester!  

As you can see, here is a picture I took of a lovely little kangaroo - in Australia! I went there from September 6th-16th to see my brother, who lives in Perth on the west coast, and my cousin, who lives in a small town southeast of Perth, along the coast. I had a great time and many experiences. I grew up in Perth, so there were some memories for me. 

But I saw many things like this, off the southeast coast, that I hadn't seen before: 

If you look a little to the left of the picture, directly ahead, far in the distance, you will go to Antarctica! This is not so far from where my cousin lives!

As for Perth, it's the largest city in the west of Australia:

Here are a few shots of the Hay Street Mall, one of the most famous locations in Perth. It's like a Ginza for Perth, with shops, cafes, and restaurants: 

This was the entrance to the Piccadilly Theater, a movie theater I went to sometimes when I was a child. It doesn't show movies anymore, but it is such a famous building that the Perth city government  kept the front and outside of the theater and made it a shopping arcade! There are many old buildings that have been kept well along the Hay Street Mall, like this one:

 Plus this one as well:

Here is a shot of the Perth skyline - not a very good one, but the best I could get! It was unfortunately a cloudy day when I could get this picture.

There are many more things I could show you, but this post could get very long, and I don't want to be boring to all of you! So how about your summer? Let's talk and write about what we did, and anything that we learned, over the summer. (I learned some things I didn't know over this summer. How about you?)

It's great to be back and I'm glad to see all of you. Take care! 

See you next class! 

Images: Top and all except map - personal photographs. All rights reserved. 

Map - screenshot of image by NordNordWest - own work, usingUnited States National Imagery and Mapping Agency dataWorld Data Base II data, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4811950

おかえりなさい！夏休みについて/Welcome back! Writing about our summers

Hello and welcome back!

How are you? Welcome back to our class for the second semester. 

Let's write about our summers! It would be a nice way to help us remember what we did this summer. 

I had a great summer. I went to Vietnam with a group of teachers and presented at a conference (研究会) and workshop at a university there. The picture above is one of many I took when I was there. Here are a couple more pictures of my trip there:

　

This was me with my facilitator - a student who just graduated from the university who was very kind to show me around the city where we were. We were in Hue (フエ), the old capital (首都) of Vietnam, and this place is famous in Hue - the Citadel, which was the fort of the old imperial palace (王宮の砦). The picture at the top is one part of it. It's a big place! Here's another picture:

It's an incredible place - I still didn't get to see all of it because it's so big! 

While many of you had to work part-time jobs and were busy with them, and some of you weren't able to go anywhere, many of you had some good times this summer with friends and family. So what did you do this summer? 

Let's hear about your summers! Write 1-2 paragraphs abut what you did this summer!

Images: Personal photographs. All rights reserved.

Our summers (Part 4)

Hello to all my students,

Here is Part 4 in our series of summer paragraphs! Let's look at these:

I went to Hakodate with my family for seven days. I went to Mt Hakodate and mother’s parents house and I ate Chinese noodles, a lot of seafood and melons. I saw the beautiful view and sea from Mt. Hakodate. Hakodate is a very beautiful city, so I liked it, and the view, very much.

After my trip, I started a part-time job at a drug store. It is a hard job, but I also really enjoyed it. Even with this work, I really enjoyed the summer vacation.

Okay! Now let's look at this one:

I went to an amusement park in Yamanashi with my friend. We went there by train. There were many roller coasters and everyone screamed when they rode on them. It was very fun! During the summer vacation, I also worked a part-time job in a bar. Many customers came and I had many chances to communicate with them. My place of work was very fun.

I returned to my family home and went shopping with them, and met my sister’s son for the first time. When I brought my hand close to him, he grasped my finger. He was very cute!

I watched a movie called Armageddon. It was a man’s story, who was an oilman. I was very moved by it, and I listened to its theme song many times. 

I also read many novels written by Mitsuki Tsujimura. I’m a big fan of her work. Her novels made me feel sad and painful, but they are interesting, so I can be absorbed by them. 

Check this one out too!

I had a part-time job during almost the whole summer vacation. I worked at McDonald's. From working so much, my skills have developed much better. I can do a lot of things much more than before, so it was a good experience.

Not all was work, however. I went to Tokyo Summerland too, even though I hate water that so many  people like to play in. It has an amusement park, however, so as a result I could enjoy the day, even being afraid of the water!

How about this one:

I went to Niigata with my friend by shinkansen. We got driver’s licenses there. We went to a driving school, studied driver’s education, and practiced driving everyday. We went to the beach after school and ate some nice dinners every night, mainly Japanese or Chinese food. some of the dishes we had were things like tenshinhan, tonkatsu, and hiyashityuka. We shared a room with both Japanese and Chinese students. One Chinese student we got to know was very smart. He could speak Chinese, Japanese and English fluently. Overall, it was a great trip and great summer. 

Great! Now here's this one:

I went to Yamanashi with my teammates for one week. We joined a training camp. It was very hard, tired and long, but full of precious, happy memories. We did many things there, and tried some new things. For example, I ate a camembert cheese parfait. It was delicious!! Near there, we could enjoy Mt. Fuji. It was beautiful and large. I enjoyed this summer vacation.

These sound like great summer memories!

I'll see you all after the university festival. If you participate in it, good luck. If you go there, have a great time!

See you later!