Elle's Adventures

Hello all...I'm sorry for the long absence. I can't believe how busy I have been lately, planning lessons and all that. I usually stay back at school until 4.30 ~ 5.00, even though I can leave at 3.30. It has been so humid and sticky too, so I tend to have a shower and then fall asleep until about 8.00! Then I have to cook and really, really can not be bothered doing anything else. That means that I don't clean up, so I have a lot of cleaning to do on the weekends. It's never ending and I'm getting a little fed up. But leaving the house messy makes me angry too so I have to do it! But yes, it's a hot summer night. Although the heat is awful, I like nights like this. My apartment is surrounded by rice fields, and it means that there are many, many frogs living in the water. It's relaxing just looking out my window into the dark nights and hearing them croaking away. It sounds like there are thousands! Well here's a few pictures which must be over a mo...

Japanese has a lot of different suffixes for names, the most well known being ~san (Yamada-san, Honda-san, etc). In the past it was often translated as Mr., Ms., Mrs., or Miss. However, we obviously don't seem to use these in normal conversation! Well for me at least, the last time I did was in High School. Of course we still see it regularly in letters. I have one JTE who hasn't realised that this little part of English has changed, and there is no need to translate ~san anymore. All the students in her classes are now referred to as Mr. Okada, Ms. Yamaguchi, etc. I want to correct her on this; friends are calling each other Mr and Ms and it's really odd for me. But now I feel it is too late... But what I was getting at! There is another suffix, very famous among anime fans. This is ~chan. It's basically a cute way of saying someone's name. Amon friends, they shorten their name and add on ~chan. For example, Su-chan (Suzuka), Non-chan (Nozomi), and the list goe...

Speaking and listening to Japanese has always been my weak point;  I always found it much easier to focus on reading and writing. But of course I want to be able to communicate verbally to a much higher degree within the smallest amount of time possible. Yesterday at school the Grade 2 students were off on a field trip, so the school was significantly quieter. I felt brave enough to venture to the Grade 1 floor and try and find some kids to talk to during lunch. Luckily I found a group of girls, who of course exclaimed 英語分かんない！eigo wakannai, or "I don't understand English!" I don't know why they bother to yell this at me every time I see them. I tell them that simple English is enough, but if they really want to talk to me Japanese is okay. I usually just stick in a few English phrases that they should know. Anyway, as I was speaking to them I was amazed that words were just flowing out of my mouth without really thinking. I was explaining the differences between ...

Yes that's right, I've just created a brand new blog for my food adventures. Here is the link: http://lorelliecuisine.blogspot.jp/ My aim is to document dishes that I will be cooking in the future, and also to talk about some of the food I have tried from restaurants. I'll probably still post some food related photos here too, but talk about it in more detail over there. I hope you like it, and maybe you'll try some of my recipes :) Good night! xx

Every day, the idea of 給食 (kyuushoku), or school lunch, always makes me feel a little scared. It could be anything. I hate the feeling of walking into the lunch room to grab my tray of food and discovering something I would rather feed a dog. Some days are fantastic; today we had minestrone soup with two slices of bread (and not white bread too I might add! Brown bread is almost impossible to buy), a simple salad, and a small slice of salmon. I would've been happier without the salmon, but that's a seafood hater for you! Other times I have had...what I can only describe as whitebait piled onto a piece of toast about five times thicker than usual, and covered in cheese. I hate the little fish most. Actually any kind of fish is not exciting for me. I usually do my best to eat it first, then finish it off with my rice and (usually) miso soup. Sometimes a tasteless piece of meat. Once I even had whale...even though it actually tasted okay, if a little dry. There is one Japanese...

A couple of weeks back Dede and I went on an adventure to nearby Tajimi, a city a bit bigger than Kani. We went to see Eihoji Temple, and here are the photos I took: There were quite a few buildings leading up to the temple, so unfortunately I don't know what they were all called. I wondered how many people had died in a well. Wells always seem to have scary stories. The Ring, obviously, but also a well at Himeji castle is supposed to be very haunted. This orange gate seemed a bit out of place, and it even had love hearts carved into it. Not Eihoji Temple. Not Eihoji Temple, but close! And this was the temple!! Of course, we came during repair work :( And there was a scared snake! She slithered into the rocks behind her when Dede approached. Dede setting up; he was there for about twenty minutes. This would have been so beautiful, I wish I could've seen it. Friendly koi and an inquis...