I recently had a run-in with some of the local wildlife here in Ogaki. As a native of Western Washington, my prior experiences with wildlife has been pretty tame: raccoons, possums, squirrels, an absurd number of deer going to town on the neighborhood roses, that sort of thing. But the other day on my way to work, I ran into a new type of fauna: a snake!

The only snakes we have in the Seattle area are garter snakes: small, harmless, and kind of cute. This snake was not any of those…

Upon further research after the fact, I actually have reason to suspect that the monstrous snake I edged around in spine-tingling terror was possibly a mamushi, which is venomous! So scary.

Venomous snakes have never been a part of my life before, so it was quite a shock to see a venomous snake at all, let alone one so visibly well-fed and well over a foot long. My only consolation is that there was only the one on the bridge that day. For now. We shall see what the future holds for me and snakes!

春ですね。冬の間に植えた球根から見事なチューリップが花開かせました。

冬の間じっと堪えて英語の学習に励んでいた生徒をたくさん見てきました。

頑張った分の成果は必ず出るはずです！

積極的に気分の上がる場所を選んで楽しく英語を学んでいってください！

I just moved to Ogaki from New York City. In NYC I was working at a jewelry design company. My company made every kind of jewelry, from plastic to diamonds!

I especially love making silver jewelry. When you make things in silver you can use fire and lasers! Since silver is soft and easy to bend, you can make anything you can imagine…

I usually like simple designs like hearts or flowers. In Thailand, I saw lots of elephant and snake designs. In Korea, I saw lots of rabbits and cats. I’d like to know what kind of designs are popular in Japan!

もうすぐゴールデンウィークですね！

今年は、休みが長いこと、平成から令和になることなど

記念すべき年になりますね。

もう計画を決めた人も、そうでない人もカレンダーを見て

ワクワクしていることでしょう。

私は、この時期、毎年たいていやっていることが２つあります。

それは、藤まつりに行くこと、ＢＢＱをすることです。

どれも何回もしていても、気づくことは毎年違います。

今年は、白い藤がきれいだな、こんなにきれいだったっけ・・・

エビを焼くとおいしいな・・・などなど。

近場でも自分のお気に入りを見つけてくださいね！

そして自然の中、５月の風に触れてみてください。

It’s been a while since I’ve consistently sat down to watch pro wrestling, mainly because I’ve been so busy with other stuff.  But when New Japan Pro Wrestling announced it was coming back to Nagoya with a big event, I couldn’t miss the opportunity to go see a show.  I’ve been to hundreds of live events in my life, from concerts to all kinds of different sporting events.  But pro wrestling shows might actually be the most fun of them all. The atmosphere is great and the matches, especially in NJPW, are usually excellent. 

“Sengoku Lord in Nagoya”, which was held at Nagoya’s Dolphins Arena, boasted two title matches and an undercard packed with some of the biggest names in Japanese pro wrestling.  We arrived in time for the gong, and the show got started with a really fun match between some of the organizations “Young Lions” – the young, aspiring wrestlers in New Japan.  There was only one match that wasn’t necessarily great, but it was still quite fun. My two favorite wrestlers appeared on the card and there was even a little bit of fun drama at the end of the show. I had a great time, and since the show ended I’ve been really in the mood for more pro wrestling!