27日の土曜日に英検がありました。

本会場で受ける場合は今週末ですね。

日頃の勉強の成果が発揮できると良いですね。

ぜひ頑張ってほしいです。

After visiting Gifu Park I headed over to Inaba shrine. I didn’t know about this shrine until I ended up there. It’s so nice to discover new places, especially when they are beautiful like this.

山野草の一つにすみれの花があります。

山野草とは、人間の手で植えられたわけではない自生した草花のこと

控えめな花を咲かせる山野草は日本人の好みに合い、自然な美しさ

があり清楚で可憐な花姿が素敵です。

サクラソウやりんどう、雪割草など季節によってたくさんの花が咲きます。

昔からあるそんな花を道端に見つけ山歩きの楽しみにしている人も多いのでは

ないでしょうか。

山野草が着物の柄にも取り入れられていて少し興味を持ちました。

皆さんは自分の誕生花を知っていますか。

バラやユリなど大輪の花だけでなく山野草にも興味を持ってみませんか。

Hey y’all. I hope everyone’s doing good.

I’d like to share this photo I took during a trip with my best friend.

We went to Shirakawago. People usually go there in winter but we decided to take a glimpse of what it looks like without the snow covering everything.

It was breathtakingly beautiful! I took this photo just with an iPhone but I am very happy with the output. I want to go back to take more pictures!

Our current topic in S6 class is “seasonal events,” and this is something that I think is great for students to talk about.  Japan is famous for its various festivals and traditional events throughout the year, and giving students the opportunity to talk about their own culture in another language is very important.  Festivals in particular are very interesting to me and I wanted to experience one the first time I came to Japan.  Luckily, when I came to Japan for the first time in 2005, I was living in Kyoto.  That summer I experienced my first festival when I went to Gion Matsuri with some friends.  It was a lot of fun to see such a massive festival in person.  

When I asked my students about their favorite seasonal events, the answers were mostly about local festivals.  With Ogaki Festival having just happened, we got to talk about that and it sounded like a lot of fun.  A couple weeks ago, my neighborhood’s local festival also happened, and we had a great time.  Here’s a picture from that event.  What’s your favorite seasonal event?