ちょっと遅[おそ]いですけど、今年初めてのポストなので。。。明[あ]けましておめでとうございます。今年もよろしくお願[ねが]いします。 Belated… Happy New Year! (as this is the first post this year) Please visit here this year again! Note: the above photo shows shimekazari (しめ飾[かざ]り). Each household/shop/company etc. put this type of ornament for the new year.

今日はクリスマスですね。みなさん、いろいろな楽しい予定がありますか。ニュージーランドは夏のクリスマスです。だから、お天気がいい時は庭でみんなでクリスマスのごちそうを食べたり、BBQをしたりします。今日のハミルトンの天気予報はまずまず。。。お庭で楽しく、あるいはビーチで楽しくクリスマスが過ごせますように。 日本でも多くの人がクリスマスを楽しみにしています。ですが、日本では祝日ではありません。学校はすでに冬休みになっているので、子どもたちは学校に行きません。でも、大人はいつも通り会社で働いているんですよ！ どこにいようとも、大切な人たちとステキな1日が送れますように。 It’s Christmas Day today! Do you have a lot of plans? We have a summery celebration in New Zealand for Christmas. When the weather is good, many people enjoy Christmas feast at theirs backyard, have a garden BBQ and so on. The weather forecast in Hamilton today does not look bad… I […]

アジサイのほかにもいろんな花が咲いています。例[たと]えば(= for example)、フクシア(= fuchsia)です。きれいですね。 I wrote about hydrangeas yesterday, but that’s not all! You can see beautiful fuchsia too!

December is officially the first of month of Summer in New Zealand. You can see beautiful hydrangeas all sorts of places now! ニュージーランドで、12月は夏[なつ]のはじまりです。今、いろいろなところで、アジサイがとてもきれいに咲[さ]いています!

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 […]

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; […]

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 […]

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！  

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 […]