While riding From Nagahama to Hikone, my bicycle seat became loose. While I was trying to fix it, I looked across the road & noticed this field with several old-fashioned water pumps in it. Cool! I like this kind of pump, especially the curved handle. I popped across the road & took this photo.
Every cloud has a silver lining! [イディオム: すべての雲は銀の裏地を持っています = 不幸中にも幸いあり]
Vocabulary:
Be careful!
- A bicycle has a SEAT, not a saddle (In English, saddle = 鞍)
- A car has a STEERING WHEEL, not a handle (In English, handle = 取っ手)
Last week I went on a cycling trip around Biwa Lake. I started in Nagahama, on the north-east side of the lake. It`s a picturesque town with a castle & lots of traditional buildings. It`s famous for glassware (vases, drinking glasses, jewelry and things like that), but I didn`t buy any glassware. Instead (代わりに) I bought a lunchbox wrapping cloth (風呂敷) as a souvenir of my visit. After about an hour, a big group of students on a school excursion (遠足) arrived, so I decided to get back on my bike & head for Hikone Castle.
Grammar:
- go/be cycling, go/be traveling, go/be camping
- go to/be in Nagahama, go to/be in the bathroom
- go/be ON a trip, go/be ON an excursion, go/be ON a tour
Australia finally made it* to the World Cup Finals in Russia next year, by beating Honduras 3-1. Nice. I wish I could make it* to Russia to see them (& Japan!) play live, but I guess I will just have to watch the games on TV. I wonder what the time difference (時差) is...
* 'make it' = successfully reach
Yesterday my wife took me to Magome-juku, in Nakatsugawa City to see the autumn leaves (紅葉). I`d never heard of Magome before, but I saw quite a lot of foreign tourists there. A lot of them were wearing hiking gear.
There were also a lot of soba (buckwheat noodles) restaurants, so I had that for lunch. However, I didn`t try the horse tongue that I saw for sale in the souvenir shop...
Vocabulary:
- 秋 = autumn (英英語), or fall (米語)
- 紅葉 = autumn colours / autumn foliage (英英語), or fall colors / fall foliage (米語)
A student sent us this postcard from NZ. As you can see, it was missent to India! I wonder why? She didn`t misspell 'Japan'. Maybe the post-office mistook Japan for Jaipur, a city in India? Strange.
Grammar:
- 'mis-' is a prefix (接頭辞) which means 'incorrectly' or 'by mistake'
- be careful: 失敗 = 'make a mistake' , NOT 'miss (ミス)'
Last Sunday the annual Nobunaga festival & parade was held in Gifu City. Oda Nobunaga was a famous Japanese leader in the 16th century. He had a wife, Nohime, & two concubines, Kitsuno and Lady Saka. The woman in this photo is dressed as one of those ladies, but I don`t know which one. Do you know? How can you tell*?
The weather was good, and my family & I had a good time.
Vocabulary:
- 'tell' usually means 教える/物語る/語る, but here* it means 見分ける
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n85OeppYtiI
I heard this song on the radio a few times when I was last in Australia. It has a pleasant, dreamy feel - great for listening to on a long drive. I read the lyrics, but I`m not really sure what they mean.
Reading/Pronunciation:
`ea` is pronounced in different ways:
dream, mean = イー
read (読んだ), pleasant = え
heard, search = アー
great, steak = エイ
I bought this minature teaset for my daughter last Christmas, but she didn`t have a good place to keep the pieces, so last weekend I made this rack for her. When I gave it to her, she was so happy (which was a nice change; when I give handmade gifts to my wife, she often looks unhappy...).
Grammar:
- buy/make/cook 何か for 誰か
- give/send/take 何か to 誰か
I guess this person doesn`t want their car to smell smoky. Anyway, they shouldn`t be smoking while driving. Actually, they shouldn`t smoke at all - it`s a bad habit.
Grammar:
- If we don`t know if somebody is 'he' or 'she', we can use 'they/them/their etc.' even though it`s only one person.
For a while my 3 chickens were only producing 2 eggs a day. One of them wasn`t pulling its weight (= not working hard). However, now I`m finally getting one egg per chicken everyday - that`s 3 eggs a day, or 21 a week.
That`s a nice ROI (Return on Investment, 投資利益率).
Vocabulary:
- a/per = 対して, に就いて
- 'a' is more common than 'per', but 'per' is usual for people e.g. '$5 per person'
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