Dave-sensei was on "Let's Enjoy English!" on Radio MOMO (79.0 FM) . Dave and D.J. Chiaki Kamibeppu talk in English and Japanese about Halloween, the election on Sunday and Culture Day. Click the button below to listen.
Dave-sensei will be on Radio MOMO (79.0FM) with D.J. Chiaki Kamibeppu on Thursday, October 28th (today!), at about 5:40 pm. They will talk in English and Japanese about Halloween.
10月28日（木）5時40分ごろにDave先生がRadio MOMO (79.0FM) に出演します（DJは上別府千晶さん）。英語と日本語の両方でハロウィーンについて話します。
Last night, my sons Tatsuki and Satoshi carved NEO’s pumpkin into a jack-o-lantern. In America, carving jack-o-lanterns is a very popular tradition around Halloween time. Many families go to a local pumpkin patch and hand pick the pumpkins they want to carve. Usually, each child will carve their own pumpkin.
I wanted to have two pumpkins to carve, but I couldn’t find a second pumpkin to buy. I drove around to several shops and Ayumi called a few stores, but there were no pumpkins around. A lot of pumpkins in Okayama are sold quite early, the end of September or the beginning of October. If we carve the pumpkin too soon, it will go rotten before Halloween comes.
There are a lot of seeds inside of a pumpkin. We collected our seeds and roasted them the oven with butter and salt for about 45 minutes at 150 degrees. They were delicious!
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
About six years ago I went and stayed at the international villa on Shiraishi island in Kasaoka for a friend’s goodbye party. But it was during the cold season, and it rained the entire time. So, we just hung out at the villa and ate a lot of food.
During the Neo break I decided to take a trip to Shiraishi Island again. But this time, I wanted to go back and see more of the island in better weather. We went on a Friday, and we were the only tourists on the island that day. It was still very hot for October, and as we found out soon after, the island was covered with giant spiders. They had made webs across many of the walking paths.
We tried to go to as many sightseeing spots as possible. Kairyu Temple in the middle of the island was one of the most beautiful locations. There was also a climbable rock, high up on one of the island’s hills. We were able to get a great view of the island from there. Even though we didn’t swim that day, there is also a great beach on the island.
Shiraishi is known for getting many foreign tourists. Sadly, it is difficult for tourists to visit right now but hopefully in the future many people will go there again.
Recently I learned that one of my students has a hidden talent – she’s an artist! During class one day, one of her friends told me about her ability. That student was not in class at the time, but I asked her about it later. Always humble, she immediately replied, “No, no, no – I like drawing, but I’m not good at it!”
Of course, that’s not the end of the story. The next week, at the beginning of class, this student smiled and pulled something out of her bag. I was impressed to see she had drawn a wonderfully detailed picture of a bowl of ramen.
But – wait a minute – there was something familiar about it. Then it dawned on me. It was a picture I myself had posted on the NEO blog a few months earlier! I had written about a new ramen shop near my house, and we had talked about it in class. My student had made her own stylized version of that photo.
Take a look at the original photo compared to the picture. It’s good enough to be an advertisement. What a fantastic gift!
On Sunday, my two boys and I went “net fishing” in Kojima Bay, we were invited M-san to join him and his family.
This kind of fishing takes place at night. There are a series of weather-worn shanty shacks along the water that have a big square net that is electrically lowered and raised on a boom over the roof of the shack. A light above the net attracts the fish and we raised the net up about every 30 minutes or so. After raising the big net, you collect the fish using a long bamboo pole with a regular fishing net attached to the end.
We caught a lot of red shrimp and a few small fish including some small shad and a blackhead seabream, which we cut up into some delicious sashimi.
We had grilled meat (including boar) for dinner and plenty of good beer. The boys did some fireworks, too.
The weather was perfect, neither hot nor cold and we had a nice breeze while we slept with the sound of lapping water in the background. We woke up early on Monday morning so that the boys could get back in time to head to school.
Ayumi cooked up the fish and shrimp that we took home. It was so good!
