Today we went to the annual (=once every year) Thai Festival in Sakae. It was pretty busy when we arrived at 2pm, & was still busy when we left at about 5pm. It seems very popular!
I tried a few different Thai dishes - fried thai noodles, chicken with basil & chilli, boiled chicken with rice, deep-fried marinated pork strips, spicy papaya salad, deep-fried banana, & of course some Singha beer. Mmmmmm... it was all delicious.
Maybe you`re not interested, but beer Singha beer used to be 6.0% alcohol content, but now (since 2007) it`s 5.0%. I think it tastes better. Beer Chang (`Elephant Beer`!) is 6.4%, but ONLY in Thailand - if you buy it in Japan, it`s 5.0%!
There were various performances on stage e.g. Thai dancing, J-pop, traditional Japanese instrumental, & when we were leaving, they were preparing for a kids` Muay Thai demonstration. I didn`t wait to see it though. If I want to see kids fighting, I can just tell my students I`ve hidden candy in my classroom.
Thanks everybody who came to the party on Saturday. It was a good chance to chat with students I don`t often see nowadays. I had a good time, and if you went I hope you did too.
Also, thankyou Kiyotaka for your live set. Good job, mate! Oh - and thankyou Makie for cooking some great food for us - it was delicious!
Did you go? If not, why not? (If you answer in `comments`, I`ll forgive you!)
I was watching the classic western, A Fistful of Dollars recently and my wife commented that Clint Eastwood looked like David Beckham.
What do you think?
You should be able to find several westerns starring Clint Eastwood at your local DVD rental store. If you haven`t seen them, why not have a look? If you do, make sure you watch in wide-screen/panorama!
I also like Clint Eastwood`s character (but not his 70`s clothes) in the "Dirty Harry" series of movies. What? You haven`t seen them either??? Well, now is a good time - they`re only 80yen at GEO.
Go!
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Besides things like bbqs, streams, parks & restaurants, Kawashima Water Eco Park also has a building called the `Aqua Restoration Training Center`. Inside, there are displays, videos, books etc. about Japanese rivers and their ecosystems. I found it very interesting.
Anyway, at home I noticed that most of my medaka release eggs, which become babies. However, a few of my fish give birth to LIVING babies. Now I know why! The volunteer a the A.R.T.C. explained that the ones which have eggs are Japanese medaka, but the other ones are from North America. They were introduced to Japan in the 1950`s. The American ones are stronger than the Japanese ones, so in fact, now in Kyushu there are only American `kadayashi` - no Japanese medaka!
Occasionally I release medaka back into the creek near my house, but the volunteer told me not to release the American ones. Haha - I have American prisoners - maybe Rambo will visit me!
Anyway, the above picture, which I found on the internet, shows the difference.
I`ve always taught Tuesday to Saturday at Teragoya, but I will change to a Monday to Friday schedule now. Our new teacher, Parren, will take over my Saturday classes, including this one - my Advanced class.
To celebrate, last Saturday Mariko bought a delicious cake, which we ate in class. Thankyou, Mariko!
Actually, I`m sure I will still see everybody sometimes. In fact, a lot of these students are coming to the party this Saturday night. See you there, guys!
My wife & I are excited about this weekend`s Thai festival in Sakae. If you`re free (& have recovered from Saturday night`s party) why don`t you go? It looks like there will be lots to see, do and - most importantly for me - EAT. I loooove Thai food!
We plan on going on Sunday. If you see me, say hello & have a Singha (not Chang) with me.
On Saturday night (Sept. 4) we`ll hold a Farewell/Welcome party for Ichinomiya teachers Nikko and Parren. It will be at Teragoya Ichinomiya school from 7 - 9pm. The price is 2000yen, which includes food & soft drinks. Please bring your own alcohol if you want to drink (and you`re not driving!).
If you`re free, please come. You can enjoy good food, good company, and good English speaking practice. ALSO, Friday night student Kiyotaka will be playing some live music! It looks like being a fun night.
Hope to see you there!
I know fish aren`t trash, but ones like Medaka (`killifish` in English) are free to collect if you want to. I keep some in plastic plant boxes and fish tanks (suiso) at home and in a fish tank in my classroom too. I caught them in a creek near my house.
Usually wild medaka are brown, but occasionally they are white, and last week I caught a rare orange one for the first time. Cool!
Maybe I have an invisible one too, but I`m not sure.
I hope the orange one will have orange babies. Then, when I have lots of orange medaka, I`ll sell them and become rich and buy a 1969 Ford Mustang.
This weekend Australia will have an election to see who will be our prime minister (souri daijin). Probably it will be one of these two. Hehe.
Rose & I have already sent our votes to the Australian Consulate (ryoujikan) in Osaka.
Everybody is saying it will be close - nobody is sure who will win. Interesting!
Unfortunately the weather during our Obon holiday was pretty bad, so I didn`t do any of the adventurous things I had hoped to - camping, hiking, cycling, bare-back deer riding, etc.
But I went to `Water Eco Park` (kasen-kankyo-rakuen) a couple of times. Do you know it? It`s near Ichinomiya tower. There`s a wide, shallow stream there which is popular with small children. Owen loves sitting in the cool water, picking up pebbles and throwing them (sometimes on my foot - ouch!). Afterwards we eat shaved ice (kakigori) before coming home. Yum!
If you haven`t been there, I recommend you check it out, especially if you have small kids.
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KUMA 
TERAGOYA おとな 
yukio 
エメラルド 
mokomoko 
birdy 
田仲なお美 
PSPINC JP 
bokushi 
内倉憲一