Otto's blog

Kakamigahara Airshow

11月

30日

Did you go to the airshow on Sunday? It looked like everyone in Gifu was there! It was more crowded than last year.

I arrived about midday, so we were too late for the formation flying display, but we were in time for a helicopter show, which Owen really liked. He was a bit scared by the loud jets though, especially the F-15 Eagle and F4 Phantom. But by then I was ready to leave anyway - I didn`t want to get caught in the closing time crush like last year.

What`s your favourite JSDF jet fighter? I think I like the F-4 best, even though (because?) it`s old. Japan is one of only a few countries in the world still flying them.

#飛行機

Root Beer & Twinkies

11月

25日

When I was a kid I used to read American comics like Spiderman, Batman & Superman. Sometimes in those comics there were ads for a kind of snack called `Twinkies`. However they weren`t (& still aren`t) sold in Australia, so I was really curious about them. What were they? Were they tasty? They looked tasty!

Similarly, when Snoopy drank something called `Root Beer`, I was really curious about it. What was it? Was it tasty? If Snoopy drinks it, it must taste great!

Finally, after so many years, I got to try these two things in Hawaii. Twinkies are just small sponge cakes with cream inside, & actually we have `root beer` in Australia, but it`s called `sarsaparilla` - in the end I had tried it but didn`t know it.

Visiting Hawaii was very educational.

#グルメ #旅行

Hanauma Bay

11月

21日

Not too far from Waikiki Beach is a place called Hanauma Bay. It`s an excellent place to go snorkelling - you can see all kinds of colourful tropical fish, and coral too. I had a great time taking photos of them with my underwater camera.

The beach is very scenic, isn`t it? So it has appeared in various TV shows and movies, such as `Blue Hawaii` in 1961, featuring Elvis Presley. I`ll look for it next time I`m at the DVD rental store!

#アウトドア #動物 #旅行

Hotel View

11月

21日

Our hotel, The Imperial, was in a convenient position - a five minute walk to the beach, & five minutes the other way to shops & restaurants. We didn`t have a great view of the beach, but we had a bit of a view, & I was able to take these photos. It was interesting to see everything change colours as time passed. Also, we were in a great position to see the fireworks [hanabi] display (for APEC). Lucky!

#旅行

Hawaii Holiday

11月

21日

Last week I went with my family to Hawaii. It was the first time any of us had been there. It`s a popular holiday destination, and as I expected, Waikiki Beach (Honolulu) - where we stayed - was pretty touristy [kankouchi], but it was nicer than I expected - everywhere looked clean and well-maintained, the people were polite, the traffic was orderly, and there was no annoying noise, like loud music or shouting people.

It`s very different from the last place I went on holidays - Bangkok, Thailand. What a difference!

What else would you like to know about my trip? Let me guess:

How was the weather? Did you get sunburnt?
- Good; warm but not too hot - 20-28 degrees C. No, fortunately I didn`t get burnt.

Did you go to Ala Moana shopping centre?
- Yes. I bought a pair of shoes, a pair of jeans, a top, & some postcards.

Were there lots of Japanese people there?
- Kind of, but I also noticed a lot of Koreans & also Australians.

Did you go surfing?
- Unfortunately not. I really regret it, because the waves looked absolutely PERFECT for beginners (that`s me).

Do you want to go there again?
- Of course!

#旅行

Cool Cars in Ichinomiya #12

11月

17日

Actually, this car is not really cool, but it gives me a chance to tell you that a camera crew from local TV station ICC came to our school recently. They filmed a segment featuring Samantha`s small kids class.

Do you get ICC? If so, please watch it!

番組名：　　いちのみやTV
(30分番組)

コーナー名：いち★コレ

チャンネル：ICCチャンネル　地デジ12ch(121ch)

放送日　　：１１月１４日（月）〜１１月２０日（日）

放送時間　：9:00am
/ 12:00pm / 16:00pm / 20:00pm / 23:00pm

#車

One Man`s Trash #13

11月

5日

Making my refrigerator halloween costume was a lot of fun, & inspired me to make something else.

This time, though, I wanted to make something which:

- is useful
- is long-lasting
- doesn`t make little children cry
- doesn`t make my wife roll her eyes
- involves cutting lots of wood with a big saw while not wearing a shirt

By chance I found an old metal children`s chair frame, so I decided to repair it using recycled wood.

It only took a few hours, & looks pretty good I think.

What do you think?

#アート #趣味

Lavender

11月

5日

To help erase the awful image of my halloween costume from your mind, here is a nice picture of a flower.

Eriko, one of our fabulous staff, has arranged a lot of nice plants & flowers around the front of our school. If you`ve visited us recently, I`m sure you`ve noticed.

The pot in this picture is full of herbs - mint, rosemary & lavender, which is flowering now.

Lavender... Hmmm, that colour reminds me of... Argh!!!

#花

Adults Halloween Party

11月

3日

This year`s adults` halloween party was excellent! Lots of people came, and the costumes were amazing - I was really impressed.

I didn`t wear my refrigerator costume from the kids` halloween party; it was too damaged and I couldn`t be bothered [mendokusai] repairing it. But I think my replacement costume is pretty funny and stupid too, right?

Aaah... I`m a bit embarrassed about it... Nevermind!

Anyway, it was a really fun event. Did you go? If so, I hope you had a good time, and if we chatted, I hope I didn`t say anything too silly to you (I blame Henriette`s delicious cocktails).

If you didn`t go, please join us next time!

You can see more photos from the adults halloween party here .

#パーティ