It’s December! In Japanese, each month has a particular name and the name of December is shiwasu; 師走. The first character means ‘teachers’* and the second one means ‘running’; Japanese teachers sometimes exchange greetings like ‘are you running around (= busy) as it’s shiwasu now!?’ in December. Yes, I am a teacher and I am […]
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The above photo shows, needless to say, asparagus. The photo was taken at the Hamilton Farmers Market. Yes, it is the asparagus season right now! 言うまでもなく、上の写真[しゃしん](= photo)はアスパラガスの写真です。ハミルトン・ファーマーズ・マーケットで撮[と]りました。今、まさにアスパラガスが旬[しゅん](= season)です。 If you look at it very closely, you can see green ones and white ones. Until recently, we did not see white asparagus here (I might be wrong; […]
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It is November now. I do not think we should say summer has come quite yet, but it seems it has according to the temperatures today. The high in Hamilton will be around 25 degrees and the temperatures in some towns in the South Island will reach over 30 degrees! People now wear a half-sleeve […]
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I wrote about Japanese-themed snacks you could buy here before. I have found another one: Wasabi corn chips. Probably it is good to eat this while watching the rugby game tomorrow… (I have not opened the packet yet; so I cannot report how spicy it is!) Go All Blacks! 前[まえ]に、日本の味[あじ](= flavour)のスナックについて書きました。また、別[べつ]の(= another)スナックを見つけました。わさび味のコーンチップです。明日のラグビーの試合[しあい](= match)を見るのにいいかもしれません（まだ食べていないので、お味のレポートはできません。。。）がんばれ、オールブラックス！
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We were all gutted last week… Yes, I am talking about the defeat of All Blacks last week. As you can see in the above photo, the front page of the New Zealand Herald turned to absolutely black on the next day. Asahi Shimbun Newspaper, a Japanese newspaper, reported on this; if you are interested […]
Continue readingI said yesterday there was a lot of media coverage about Japan thanks to the 2019 Rugby World Cup. Now Japanese phrases are used on the media. 昨日、ラグビーワールドカップのお陰[かげ]で(= thanks to)、日本についての報道[ほうどう](= report)がたくさんある、と言いました。そして、日本語のフレーズも英語のメディアに出ています！ I just happened to find this article on the Guardian mentioning niwaka fans (of rugby). It explains: …The Japanese even have a phrase for it: […]
Continue readingThe 2019 Rugby World Cup campaign is now over for the Brave Blossoms… But the Rugby World Cup is not over yet and you can still find quite a lot of media coverage about Japan here. I saw this article on today’s New Zealand Herald showing a few phrases of Japanese. I do not think […]
Continue readingWe will be all excited this coming weekend again; yes, I am talking about the quarter-finals of the 2019 Rugby World Cup! All Blacks will play against Ireland and the Brave Blossoms will face Springboks! この週末[しゅうまつ]はまたラグビーワールドカップで盛[も]り上[あ]がり(= heating up)そうですね。ニュージーランドはアイルランドと、日本は南[みなみ]アフリカ(= South Africa)と対戦[たいせん]します(= to be matched with)。 Needless to say, the Rugby World Cup is very important here, […]
Continue readingTyphoon Hagibis hammered Japan really hard and we can now clearly see damage caused by the typhoon. We all hope everybody and everywhere will recover soon. As you know, the typhoon forced three games of the Rugby World Cup to be cancelled, which is a real shame, but heartwarming scenes were witnessed as a result. […]
Continue readingI wrote about a big typhoon approaching Japan yesterday. This typhoon is called Typhoon No. 19 (2019) in Japan. I found its English name on TV news here last night; Typhoon Hagibis. 昨日、日本に接近[せっきん]している(= approaching)大きな台風[たいふう](= typhoon)について書きました。この台風は、日本では台風19号[ごう]と呼[よ]ばれて(= to be called)います。英語ではハギビス台風(= Typhoon Hagibis)です。昨日、こちらのテレビのニュースで見ました。 Probably because people in New Zealand are really interested in the Rugby World Cup in […]
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