On Sunday I took my kids to the airshow at Gifu Air Base in Kakamigahara. First we looked at the planes parked in the hangars & on the runway. Then we watched some of them flying past & overhead. Next we had lunch, and finally we looked at the souvenir (土産) stalls (屋台). My kids wanted to pick up & play with all the toys in the stalls. I had to watch them carefully.
Grammar:
- look at + 動いていない物 (photo, map, house etc.)
- watch + 動いている物 (movie, football, kids playing, etc.)
While walking around my neighbourhood, I noticed this car parked in someone`s carport. It`s a Datsun Bluebird from around 1970. It`s nice, isn`t it? I especially like the colour. What`s your favourite car? favourite colour? favourite ice-cream flavour?
Spelling:
Some words spelt 'our' in British English are spelt 'or' in American English:
- UK: neighbour, colour, favourite, flavour
- US: neighbor, color, favorite, flavor
About 100 kids came to our Halloween party. Teragoya teachers & staff prepared various games & activities for them. For my activity, kids had to stick black felt mouth, nose, eyes, & plastic insects on an orange felt pumpkin face. Then we took a photo together. It was fun & interesting - each face was different & original.
It was a warm day, so I was getting a bit sticky in my Donald Trump costume, but fortunately the fake (偽物) hair & eyebrows I`d stuck on didn`t fall off.
Vocabulary:
- stick 動詞 (stuck 過去動詞 ) = 貼る / 付く
- sticky 形容詞 = べたべた
- sticker = シール (Be careful: In English, 'seal' = 封 / 印, so, "The teacher gave each student a sticker (NOT seal)."
You can now enjoy all 31 videos in our 'Living & Traveling Abroad' series on YouTube. Have you watched all of them? Some of them? Any of them...?!
We had fun making them. I hope you enjoy watching them.
Grammar:
- have fun + 動詞ing
- enjoy + 動詞ing / 名詞 (Be careful: 'enjoy' needs an object 目的語, so e.g. "Did you enjoy?" or "I really enjoyed!" are WRONG. "Did you enjoy yourself/the party/camping/etc?" & "I really enjoyed it/myself/talking to you." are OKAY.
A week ago we held our adults Halloween party at our Gifu school. There were lots of scary, funny, & interesting costumes. I dressed as Donald Trump. It was a lot of fun.
Vocabulary:
Be careful: funny = 笑える, fun = 楽しい, so: "The party was fun" but "This cartoon is funny."
Did you watch the game last night? My wife recorded it (cheers!) & I watched it when I got home from work. I was cheering for Australia, but I think the 1-1 result was fair.
Vocabulary:
- In the above examples, "Cheers!" = ありがとう (not かんぱい)
- In the above example "Cheer for" (動詞) = 応援する
On Sunday the 2nd of October there was a parade in Gifu to celebrate Oda Nobunaga, a famous lord in the 16th century. This parade is held every year, but this was the first time I`d been to it. For me, the highlight (見所) of the parade was when participants in samurai costumes fired guns. What a noise! But for many kids, the highlight was the Disney characters on two cars; Mickey & Minnie were on the first one, and Donald, Daisy, etc were on the second one.
Grammar:
- It`s usual to use `the` before ordinal numbers (順序数) e.g. "on the third (3rd) of April", "on the fourth (4th) floor", "The first time I went there...", "at the eleventh hour (= 土壇場に)"
During my lunchbreak on Saturday I popped out to check out a fleamarket in the park nearby. I picked up (= bought) these two helmets, because my sons` current helmets are old & damaged. One was ¥100 & the other was ¥500 - a bargain (買い得)! Another stall had Ultraman figures, but they were made in China, not Japan, so I didn`t buy them. I like to buy Ultraman figures made in Japan.
Grammar:
- About 2 things: "One... the other..." (not "Another...")
On Sunday I went to Itadori. On the way, we passed a caryard full of cool old cars. As we went past, I quickly took this photo of one of the cars (my wife was driving). It looks like a Chevrolet Nova from about 1970.
Later I looked online & found the place: http://carcass.jp/
Vocabulary:
Be careful: `through` & `pass/past` are different:
(車で) 店の前を通る = go/drive past a shop OR pass a shop
(車で) トンネルを通る = go/drive through a tunnel
Last weekend I went to `Jazz Dream` outlet mall. I noticed heaps of people walking while looking at their phones. Do you know why? You got it - they were playing Pokemon Go. It`s a fun game - I get that - but it`s not a good idea to walk while looking at your phone. It`s inconsiderate (心無い) & dangerous. Don`t they get that?
I call these people `phonbies`. (Get it? Phone + zombie = phonbie)
Don`t be a phonbie!!!
Vocabulary:
- In these examples, `get` = understand.
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KUMA 
mokomoko 
yukio 
エメラルド 
田仲なお美 
内倉憲一 
birdy 
PSPINC JP 
bokushi