My family spent a week in America to visit my Mother and relatives.  We just got back late  Saturday night, and I'm still suffering from jet lag.  （時差ボケ）　I wake up at 3:00 a.m. and am unable to get back to sleep. So, here I am writing my new post in the middle of the night.  I hope I get over this quickly! We really had a good time in America, but it was a very short trip, with a long travel time. It was great to see my family and friends again, but it reminded me how far away I live.  I guess my home is in Akita now.  It felt great to "come home" again. Here are three proverbs about family: Baldness runs in my family. （うちは禿る家系だ）   I'm the black sheep of the family.　（私は家族の外れもの）   Blood is thicker than water.　(血は水よりも濃い）   Here are a few pictures from my trip.   [caption id="attachment_938" align="alignnone" width="1024"] My neice Charsty and her 4 beautiful daughters[/caption] [caption id="attachment_939" align="alignnone" width="768"] We had a pie party on Sunday night. Everyone brought a different pie. They were delicious![/caption] [caption id="attachment_940" align="alignnone" width="1024"] mmmmm! Steak and lobster. Delicious![/caption] [caption id="attachment_958" align="alignnone" width="576"] My mother.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_941" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Utah's Capitol Building[/caption] [caption id="attachment_942" align="alignnone" width="768"] My daughter practicing holding her relative. (cousins's daughter)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_952" align="alignnone" width="1024"] My Mother had a birthday party for all her children at once. 10 birds with one stone![/caption]   [caption id="attachment_943" align="alignnone" width="1024"] We found this beautiful memorial to the Tohoku Earthquake victims in Portland Oregon International Airport.[/caption]   [caption id="attachment_945" align="alignnone" width="1024"] The ex-governor of Portland.[/caption]

I walked through Akita Station, Popo Road on Monday afternoon, and was surprised to see the new stores and Akita Cedar interior.  It smelled wonderful.     Akita City, and Prefecture have started a new campaign: Northern Station Gate Akita, in hope of making Akita the gateway to Tohoku.  I think it's a good idea, and wish them luck. Even though Akita has some of the most beautiful scenery  I've seen, and the best Summer Festival, Kanto, it still has the lowest number of foreign visitors in Tohoku.  WHY!!! What can we do to help sell Akita to the world?  I think the first thing is to be welcoming with visitors.  Learning English is the first step for this.  Next time you see a foreigner on the street, how about casually greeting them?  Nothing fancy, just Hello, or Good morning, etc.  It could be the beginning of an interesting conversation, or even a new friendship.  

February was so short and quick!  March is here already.  Here are a few English phrases using "March". Trump is as mad as a March hare!  (means he's crazy)     He marches to a different drummer!  (means he does his own thing and doesn't worry about what others think).   The march of time doesn't stop.  (you cannot stop time)   They are all marching against Trump. (to protest).   March comes in like a lion, goes out like a lamb.  (March starts with harsh weather, but finishes with warm spring weather.)   By the way, did you know the month March was named after the Roman war god Mars.  Is that connected to marching?   I don't know . . . hmmm.   おまけ Last Wednesday and Thursday I went out camping again.  It was a rare beautiful sunny day in Akita.

I first came to Akita in 1985.  I know, I'm so old!  At that time, one of my favorite stores was パレドゥー.  Do you remember?  For a short time between ジャスコ秋田店 and FORUS, there was パレドゥー. I have many good memories there.  They had a SONY Plaza store where I could buy many American snacks and books before the internet or AMAZON.COM.  I enjoyed many movies at Cinema Palais.   I also remember saving up and trading in blue chip stamps at the store there.   Last Sunday my wife and I went for a final visit to our old dating grounds.  I walked through the store from top to bottom and said good-bye to a part of Akita's history. I hope the store renewal open in October will be successful. Good luck OPA!!!     I hope the young people in Akita will be able to make many good memories there!    

I called my mother today to talk about going to America next month.  She didn't answer.   She is out of town.  Then I remembered today is a holiday in America. The third Monday of February is President's Day.  It started as "Washington's Birthday" (George Washington was born on February 22nd 1732), and has now changed to "President's Day".  Abraham Lincoln was also born in February (12th, 1809), so the birthdays were combined to make a new holiday. There is no big celebration, but everyone takes advantage of the three day weekend to go out of town. For some reason I'm feeling a little depressed about President's Day this year . . . . I wonder why? 例文 I'll be going out of town for the rest of Trump's presidency. My wife is out of town for the weekend, let's PARTY!!! I'm sorry I'll miss class next week, I'll be out of town.  

So, I went to Tokyo on Saturday, by airplane.  It was planned to be a one day quick trip.  I was going to return to Akita Saturday night on the last flight.  It was so beautiful in Tokyo.  Warm weather with the plums in bloom: We arrived at Haneda airport around 7:00 p.m. for our 8:00 p.m. flight, and found this sign: canceled due to snow. We quickly checked the time for the last shinkansen and found we were too late.  We had no hotel reservation and no change of clothes.  Quickly we called many hotels and finally found one with an open room in Hamamatsu cho.  So we spent the night in Tokyo. The next day, we were finally able to make it back to Akita around 4:00 p.m. and found this waiting for us at home: We spent two hours shoveling snow before we could even get into our house.  A great end to our "quick" trip. "Due to"  is very common and a convenient way to give a reason: School was cancelled due to influenza. The concert was cancelled due to low ticket sales. Due to a low viewership, theTV program was cancelled. Due to a terrible President, America is going through a very hard time.  English class is cancelled due to a tired teacher! I hope you can use this phrase in our class this week.      

This phrase is difficult to explain, but I'll try.   I was locked out of my house on Thursday.  I came home from school, to change my clothes, eat lunch, and go to my next class, but the door was locked with my bag on the inside and me on the outside! It happened because: my car was in the shop for car inspection (車検）, so my house key, and my 台車 key were on different key rings. I had an early class, and left before my wife. My wife had a late day, and left after me. my son had to go to school that day. my spare key was in my other car. All of these things worked together to lock me out of the house for the first time in 23 years!  This is what we call "a confluence of events".   It doesn't only mean a bad result, it can also be a confluence of events that lead to something great.  For instance, a confluence of events led me to marry my wife.  But that's a story for another day. I hope life's confluence of events works for your benenfit. おまけ I went camping Friday night, and snowshoeing again Saturday morning.  It was beautiful.  Here are some pictures.