Summer and Eggplants

It's been a long time since I wrote the previous post. As much as I want to update my blog regularly, I can't due to the fact that English still remains to be an unfamiliar language to me. However, if so, I need to practice writing it on a regular basis !! I'll keep trying. =D


This morning on my way to the job, I happened to find the two big eggplants on the ground. I was very lucky to meet them. After all, I like eggplants very much ! And they are an important vegetable in Summer here.

We still have the lingering summer heat in Japan. Speaking of Summer, it's a season you lose your appetite.  In case like that, Summer vegetables will surely boost your appetite, and here eggplants are thought of as one of very summery vegetables.

Here are My Favorite Ways to Eat Eggplants!

1) Eggplants Sushi

2) Japanese pickles of eggplants

3) French-fried eggplants

4) Eggplants Tempura


Now I can't wait to welcome Autumn, the best season in a year, but part of me misses Summer. I ate eggplants pickles at lunch to appreciate the late Summer.(Not the ones on the ground! =P)

Summer 2011 is leaving.....

Fukushima Sun Set

We've bee in a difficult situation ever since the great earthquake hit Japan. The situation Fukushima(where I live) has had to be foced  is even worse because of the radiation issues. So many people left here, which is necessary for those who have children who are more susceptible to radiation than adults. The disaster has changed so many people's life course. Most of my friends has gone to other prefectures. And things surrounding Fukushima seem to be getting worse and worse. There seems to be nothing I can do about them, but I'll try to do what I can for my own life. The teacher's exam for this prefecture which I aimed to take has been canceled this year on account of the issues, and the next year's exam is completely up in the air whether or not it'll take place when they think of the rapid decline of the number of children at school age.

In spite of all these troubles, the Sun shines brightly and the sun set is as beautiful as before.

Benches are....

also sitting on the ground.

The River Bank.

About 3 a.m. on 8th of June, my important friend passed away of cancer. He was 77. He was born and brought up in a small village in England. He couldn't go on to high school due to  the First World War. Instead of going on studying at school  he started working at a farm. He said he was reading the Bible in the farm's pigsty back then when he could find time. When he was 20 something, he studied the Bible at a seminary in the UK. At age 27, he decided to leave for Japan as a missionary. The place God assigned him was Fukushima. He had worked 50 years there to convey the God words. Until the last minute, he had been staying steadfast to the Lord Jesus Christ.


The picture was taken on the day he went up to Heaven, and the river bank was where Mr. Lawrence and I often took a walk together.


Today I attend his funeral ceremony.


Dear Mr.Lawrence,


Thank you & See you again !


Your friend in Christ,


yoshi

Hello My Friends !

                                                       Hi ! I'm a squid.

                                             Hello !  I'm an octopus !  Nice to meet you !

See you,Mr.Squid & Ms Octopus.
Please look after children who like you two !

Lead me to the way I should go.

There is a high school whose name is Tachibana in Fukushima city located in the northern part of Fukushima Prefecture. It's not like the school is my Alma mater. Technically, I couldn't get into & graduate from it no matter how I liked the school. Why?? It used to be a girl's school while I was a high school student ! LOL It's only recently that the school decided to start co-ed.  After they had decided to accept boys, the school building was completely rebuilt, and it has become one of the fanciest looking school in the city.

I graduated from college at age 24.  Back then, I vaguely pictured my future becoming a teacher,however, the vision was neither grounded nor down-to-earth. I just wished so. The big turning point of my actually having determined to be a teacher came suddenly and it did absolutely by chance.

One afternoon in 2005, I am talking with a lady over a cup of coffee who is a high school teacher. She asks me about my vision toward life. My answer is nothing but the one that at best junior high school students could give to you. It has not any specific plan. I think I just said I liked to study English. Her response is amazingly quick and to the point. She goes like "Then, why don't you become an English teacher? " The moment was the critical moment which has been shaping the goal for which I've been headed ever since then. Within a week or so, she searched a distant learning program which offers the course that you can get your  teaching credential, and she even bothered to get the application form for me. I started studying for my new tailor made couldn't - be - better goal. But it was also the inception of my mental torture . I had to go through real emotional crisis,including depression, obsessive compulsive disorder and so on.

What with this and that, 6 years has already passed since I declared that I wanted to be a teacher! The last 6 years was like a long long dark tunnel with no light coming into. I literally went through so many twists and turns.  

But at last, after having kept walking the way I should do, brilliant light is starting shining and the spacious exit is showing itself right before my eyes. I mean, when I pass the college exams for the teaching credential on June 26th, I will get it finally.

I'll pull myself together and do my best until the very day when I surely receive it with my hands.

Life is not easy,but it's worth challenging.

LindemanS !

                                                       

This evening, I got two bottles of Belgish Bier at a liquor store in Fukushima. The left bottle is cherry beer and the right one is apple beer. I think fruit beer is tend to be weak in alcohol. Both bottles say their percentage of ALC is 3.5, which seems to be not strong compared with ordinary beer. I like European beer,say, the famous Heineken, because it's usually not so bitter. Bitter beer is good only within the first couple of gulps. On the other hand, Belgish or German beer usually stays pleasant to drink through the whole bottle.(Heineken is  Dutch beer,most popular European beer in Japan ) Come to think of Germany, I studied German for five years back in my college days.Unfortunately,most of what I studied has gone somewhere from my brain. All the same,I still have my interests in German,so I just started learning it again. Studing foriegn languages is one of the best ways to widen your perspectives!

My original natto radish bowl!

       All ingredients put together on the hot rice,my original natto radish bowl done!!!

What is a vegan like??

Take a look at the Tofu pictures.(Tofu is 100% made from soybeans!) She is dressed in white tender silk. She is so beautiful,isn't she? But she is not rich at all. So, she always has to be calorie-conscious. She is poor physically,to be sure,but she is so rich spiritually.I might be wrong,but I feel who a vegan is seems like who "she" is.No matter how rich we are materialistically,if we are poor　spiritually, making money, seeking prestige,and so on are like following up the wind. It's like I'm repeating what the　Old Testament said about 4000 years ago.


So, why not be poor together? lol

My Journey.

The longest journey begins with a single step.

My dream is to get a Ph.D at a university in the US or Australia within 20 years. My long long journey has just begun.I'll devote myself to studying ,pressing the pedal to the metal !!