Iris in Meiji Jingu Inner Garden

Yes, and rounding off with an ajisai from Yoyogi. 

So you say you wanna be married

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3RSeXvcr2Y

Royal things are happening in the mother country...

まだ強制退去させられていません

日本語は余意が多くて、微妙な言語です。例えば、紹介する時とかお願いをする時直接な質問ではなく、「晩ご飯を食べませんか」とか「電話をしたいんですけど。。。」という間接的な言い方が普通です。それかれ、主語が省略されることが多くて、受身がよく使われています。欠けている部分は聞き手が想像しないといけないことがあるので、時々外国人は困ってしまいます。 

「子どもがいますか」と聞かれた場合に「いいえ、まだです」は、「いいえ、いません」より良さそうです。そう言わないと　「子どもが好きじゃないか、産むことできないか、腹立っているか」というように考えがちな人がいます。褒められる時も「まだです」のは便利です。「日本語が上手ですね」に「いいえ、まだです」のは遠慮深く丁寧な答えです。

さて、外国人入国記録用紙の裏側に「あなたは、日本から退去強制されたこと、出国命令により出国したこと、又は、日本への上陸を拒否されたことがありますか」という質問が書かれています。この文を読むと、「いいえ、まだです」と返事したい衝動に駆られます。だけどその通りに答えるのはまだです。

.....

Part of this week's homework, let's see what my teacher says on Wednesday. I was supposed to clean out my wardrobes etc today but got caught up in Japanese homework instead, but it turned out pretty okay I hope, especially since Itoko-chan reviewed and gave me some pointers. If anyone else have any  grammar pointers/style improvement pointers, your advice is most welcome. 

自家製の野菜たぷりパスタ

I should probably learn how to write down a proper recipe, but this is basically what you need for 1 person (and some left overs). 

• 1/2 to a 1/3 red onion
• a little twig of rosemary
• 1 lavender flower
• 3-4 okras (lady fingers)
• 1/2 red pepper
• 1/2 yellow pepper
• ちんげん菜 not sure what it is but it is some kind of bok choi/Chinese cabbage looking green leaf-y veggie (Brassica rapa var. chinensis for those who are friends with Carl Linnaeus and 小白菜 for those of you how are more of a middle kingdom persuasion. It is really tasty though with a hint of harsyra コミヤマカタバミ).
•  5-10 cherry tomatoes that have seen their better days
• 1/2 dl of mixed frozen veggies (basically some pea/corn/carrot left-overs I found in the fridge)
• Salt, pepper & a dash of Tabasco
• Rice vinegar, something like 1/2 dl
• 1/3 dl of chopped up zucchini / squash 
• 1/3 dl of chopped up 茄子/eggplant/aubergine/melanzane call it what you will (add Wherever I may roam, melody in your head)
• Parmesan
• olive oil (not the most fancy you have)
• Some other stuff you might have in your fridge that you think you can get away with...

Make the pasta al dente, and put it aside to rest. Then (or preferably while doing previous step, if you don't want to wait all day for dinner), let onion sweat together with the herbs, then add veggies in a common-sense order - things that need longer time/ you want to give a bit of a surface earlier, then wet stuff. If you don't understand common-sense order, just make different permutations of this dish for a week or so, and you will soon be an expert on how to prepare the most common veggies. Pour vinegar, salt&Pepper&Tabasco, let come together (right now... over me... find out yourself which melody that goes with that). Add as much Parmigiano-Reggiano as you want. Mix in the pasta and put it on a plate and enjoy! If you want to be a bit fancy and give your Instantgram/FB/Blog photos that little extra touch, decorate with some green stuff on the top. 

More Kanazawa Photos

Someone's garden, someone's very pretty garden to be more exact. 

Another house with a nice garden too.

Parts of Kanazawa Castle. 

One of the ponds in Kenrokuen. 

The castle again.

A random house in Kanazawa, if it wasn't for the cones with the give away Japanese written on them, this could very well have been a house in Lund.

Kanazawa station, which has pretty interesting design, but the thing you should look at the fountain digital clock they have in front of it - each "pixel" is a tiny fountain. 

And a photo of Japanese country side, and no, it is not Mt Fuji, it is some other mountain.

金沢の兼六園

Yesterday afternoon I went to Kanazawa and this morning I visited their famous garden Kenrokuen  . Even if it took semingly for ever to get there (shinkansen 1.5h + local express 2.5 h) it was well worth it. 

Finally Honolulu

Lolo Vista Point

It was rather scary with 700m basically straight down and no fence in between, scary but very very pretty view.

Itoko relaxing in on the lawn after the hike. She was very brave, the rooster came very close to her and almost touched her hand. 

Zipline and a bit of Kayaking