My American vacation: One more hike…

Sorry this post is so late! I’m back home in Canada now, and it took me some time to get settled back in to my routine. I finally have the pictures I need, so here’s the last blog from my wonderful trip!

After a few more days of relaxing, we wanted to get one more hike before I left. But the weather was very hot - one day it even got to 40 degrees! - and it was a little difficult to find a good day that wasn’t rainy also. But we were lucky and got one!

This hike wasn’t quite as tall as Mt. Cadillac in Acadia, but it was still long! Luckily, we were covered by trees most of the way.

Near the top of the hill, called “Great Blue Hill”, there was an old-fashioned watchtower. It wasn’t very old - I think it was made in the 1960s? - but it had a great view from the top!

It was neat to see Seattle from far away!

Pikachu liked the view too!

At the very top of the hill was a weather station, interesting to see, but nothing super unique.

Then we made our way down. It was actually pretty difficult, because the path we chose had a lot of uneven rocks. I’m glad we brought our hiking poles with us!

This was an easy section!

It was a tough hike, but we made it out no problem!

On the way back to the car, we saw some groundhogs, a mother and some babies, at a house near the entrance to the trail! They were so cute!

And of course we went to a couple more restaurants. One was a family restaurant chain called Friendly’s. The food was fine, but I wanted to finish it off with a nice, easy dessert…

It was so tasty, but it looked much smaller on the menu…

But that’s about it for my trip! It was a really amazing experience, and I was happy to see many of you in our regular classes while I was there!

A big thanks to my friend who took a lot of these pictures, and hosted me for a whole month! I hope I can see you again soon! :D

July has been a busy month for me so far. This year, I’ll be hosting a tent at the regatta. Do you remember from last year? I posted a blog about it here!

I’ll post about it in the fist week of August, with some pictures, I hope! After that, it might be back to my regular, quiet life. It will be nice to get back to a routine, though!

Thanks for reading! See you all next time! :D

My American vacation: Relaxing~

So the next few days, we spent relaxing and taking it easy! We went to a few restaurants:

The inside was a nice atmosphere, although the seats were a bit uncomfortable…

The breakfast was fantastic! Scrambled eggs, sausages, and cornbread, a heavy, sweet bread.
I had bacon and English muffins, and my friend had hash browns (small cubes of fried potatoes!)

And since I’m in America, I guess I need to show respect to their colours, haha!

This is Chipotle, a very famous Mexican-style chain, where you customize your own burrito with rice, meat, beans, and any vegetables you like!

This is Cold Stone Creamery, a famous ice cream chain where you can fill ice cream flavours with any items like like, like nuts, chocolate chips, etc.

And, of course, pizza! This was at Pembroke House of Pizza, and it’s a very basic pizza, but I have to say, it was my absolute favourite! The cheese, the sauce, the crust, everything is perfect! I’m looking forward to going again, because I want to try it with pepperoni next!

We also went to a bird sanctuary, a special area that has no development so that nature can continue the way it wants. It was a very easy walk, but it was so pleasant, and soooo many birds were around!

Some wild turkeys!

Some Canada geese! A mom, a dad, and a baby (called a “gosling”). The dad was hissing at us, and he was a little scary, but we gave him lots of space, and he walked past us slowly.

At the same time, we also saw a deer!

Even though it was very hot, I had to wear long pants and long sleeves, because the area has many bugs called “ticks”.

They crawl on to you and suck your blood, but they can carry diseases, so it’s dangerous to get one. (We didn’t! Lucky!)

We even saw a turtle!

The sanctuary was very peaceful. It’s been too hot recently to go hiking or climb a mountain, but it was nice to get out in nature and have an easy walk!

I should have one or two more blog posts before I leave, but I only have 1 week left as I write this. It will probably mostly be relaxing and trying other new restuarants, but I’ll make sure to get any good pictures I can! :D

My American vacation: Salem!

The next day, we went to Salem! It’s a bit far away, but it was pretty easy to catch a few trains there!

Salem is famous for the witch trials, a period in American (and European!) history when communities targeted people they felt were strange or crazy, and accused them of being witches. Many people were brought to a court room, and some were executed. There was no real evidence, all that was needed was for someone to accuse you of it! That’s where the idiom “witch hunt” comes from, which refers to an effort by a group of people to harm someone just because they’re unpopular, not because they did anything illegal. (Donald Trump often calls the many criminal cases against him a “witch hunt”!)

Nowadays, Salem is mostly a tourist spot, with many stores themed around witches and witch culture. I might say there are 3 types of witches:

- cartoon witches, like you see in movies or for Halloween

- historical witches, like the unfortunate people who were executed in the 1700s

- modern witches, who follow a spirtual belief called “Wicca”

Any time you see a witch with a broom, it’s definitely the cartoon-style one! Wiccans don’t care about brooms, and of course historical witches didn’t really fly!

A symbol of Wicca is the Pentagram, which is basically a star, and it’s often associated with the colour black. It’s more of a style, and many people who dress in all black are often called “goth”, so there’s a lot of overlap between those two cultures!

Besides the many witch stores, there are some historical landmarks as well. Nothing so spectacular like New York or Plymouth, but still interesting.

This is the tiniest lighthouse I’ve ever seen! It’s maybe 4 meters high! Why is it so small??

Hmm, why is a Boo, from Mario, with Frankenstein’s monster?

We had a really delicious pizza for lunch! The garlic bread was pretty bad, the pizza was some of the best I’ve had here!

Because Salem is famous for witches, many shows and movies are filmed here, or at least, the story happens in Salem. One famous movie, Hocus Pocus, was filmed at this house. I saw the movie a very long time ago, so I didn’t remember it. Did any of you watch it?

Hmmm, Pikachu, are you okay…? You look a little… strange!

We wandered around the small town a bit more, and then we headed back to the train station for the long ride back.

We got Cinnabon! A famous cinnamon bun chain in America (I had it my first time when I was in Osaka!)

The train was actually delayed quite a long time, and when it finally arrived, and we started to go, it go delayed again! Overall, we were about 2 hours late, so we were pretty exhausted by the time we got home. Salem wasn’t super amazing, but it was really interesting to be in a historical place like that, so now when I see a TV show that takes place in Salem, I can say “I’ve been there!”

After Salem, we did some smaller activities over the next few days, again to save money. We were both pretty tired from constantly exploring and traveling, so the next couple of blogs maybe won’t be so exciting, but I’m still looking forward to showing you all the photos I’ve taken! :D

My American vacation: Boston Pride parade!

So as most of you know, I’m gay; I’m married to a wonderful guy named Nick. I don’t make that information public very quickly, but if the topic comes up, I don’t mind sharing that personal bit of my life. In my hometown, there isn’t a lot of big events with thousands of people, so when I found out Boston had their gay pride parade while I was there, I was excited to get the chance to go!

It was a bit annoying finding out where we should go to view the parade, there weren’t good signs or any indication where was the best place, but we found a spot that seemed to have a good view of the parade.

I’m sure you know, but the symbol of gay pride is a rainbow, and there are many different versions that indicate different groups and support.

Some people might ask “Why do you need to have a gay pride parade?” Well, historically, gay people (and other LGBTQ+ people) have been discriminated against, even killed, for who they are. And especially in America nowadays, it’s really important, because the Trump administration is very much against this community.

That’s why this pride parade also functioned as a “No kings!” parade. There were so many people with signs against Trump. My friend was nervous that it would become violent, but luckily, there were no problems, just many angry signs. (WARNING: There are some bad words coming up… if you want to know what they mean, feel free to ask me!")

I’m very supportive of Ukraine’s struggle, so I was happy to see people supporting them!

There were SO MANY signs that said “Fuck Trump”, haha!

There are also many signs agains ICE, which is the American office for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. This department has been very aggressive under Trump, arresting immigrants all across the country, it’s very crazy, similar to Nazi Germany.

This sign is interesting, because if you remember the Pilgrims from the last blog, they were Europeans who came to America… the first Americans were immigrants! They stole the land from the native people, but now white American leaders are saying “This is our land, get out!” It’s very un-American!

Here is a baby-Trump! He looks convincing, doesn’t he? I wonder if the baby cries like Trump does…

This sign is a clever joke;
“Faux” is a French word that means “false”, so the sign literally says “No false king!”
But “faux” is pronounced like “low”, so if you say “No Faux King Way!” very quickling, it sounds like “No Fucking Way!”, which is a very harsh way to say “Absolutely not!”

So one evet had two meanings that mixed into one. I think the two groups are natural allies, so it makes sense, but I wish it were more separated. I think the messages for each group would have been stronger. What do you think?

My next blog, I’ll talk about Salem, a place famous for witches! See you then!

My American vacation: Plymouth!

After Acadia, my friend and I were pretty worn out. We spent a few days relaxing, and then we went to a famous American place, Plymouth.

This is famous because it’s the place where the Pilgrims landed and established one of the first English colonies in America. They met the Native American people, the Wampanoag, who helped them survive the first difficult years of their settling.

First was a small section showcasing how Native American people lived.

This is an example of a dugout canoe, simply a large tree log with the middle carved out.

A traditional stew using local ingredients.

A Wampanoag hut.

The next section was themed around the European settlers, the Pilgrims and their companions (not everyone was a member of the Pilgrims).

These canons were placed on top of a small tower that gives a good view of the area, great for defense!

The view from the tower. You can see the recreated houses, and inside most of them were actors wearing traditional clothing, speaking in old style English, and pretending they were actual people from 400 years ago.

There were intersting tools and items inside each house.

Most houses also had a small garden out back so everyone would grow vegetables together.

And there were even livestock, like goats!

Next, we went to a water mill, a reconstruction of where grains like corn and wheat were turned into flour.

And here I am using a mortar and pestle to grind some dry corn. Exciting!

And then we went to the next place!

And on the way, we found a Japanese maple tree, dedicated to the mayor of Shichigahama in Japan. Do any of you know where that is? Do you know Hitoshi Abe?

This is Plymouth Rock. It’s VERY famous in America, and it’s very popular when talking about early American history. However, it’s very small, maybe 1 meter long. It’s not even a special rock that the Pilgrims stepped on, it’s more like a symbol of the landing, it’s kind of strange. There was a soldier guarding it, and it was very high security for such a boring landmark, haha!

But what wasn’t boring was the replica boat, Mayflower II! It was a recreation of the original ship the Pilgrims used to sail across the Atlantic Ocean! We could go on board and see how things would have been at the time.

After we finished on the Mayflower, we got some fish and chips! They were alright, but not my favourite.

Maybe I was a little hungry, huh?

And then we walked along a rocky wall in the harbour, called a “jetty”.

And that was mostly it! Plymouth was an interesting day, but it was tiring, so we were happy to get home!

The next day, we headed to Boston to attend the Pride parade! It was a colourful event, but that’ll be for the next blog! See you all then! :)

My American vacation: Acadia!

After we had our energy (and wallets) drained by New York, we went back to my friend’s house near Boston to rest for a day or so. Then, on June 6th, we went to Maine, north of his house, to spend time in a national park called Acadia!

This was another long drive, and it was just the two of us. My friend was nervous driving because he hadn’t driven such a long route himself before. It was 5 hours long, plus breaks and a few detours to check things out, so we actually ended up driving closer to 10 hours! And the weather got really rainy at the end, so it was a bit spooky, but we made it no problem!

One of the many rest stops along the way, though this one was more like an information center than a place to get refreshments!

I had Popeye’s for my first time! It’s a famous fried chicken chain in America, and it was pretty good, especially the biscuits!

And our last stop before the hotel, of course McDonald’s! For a long time, I used to get a Double Quarter-pounder burger, which had beef that was thicker than usual. But when I moved to Japan, that wasn’t available, so I switched to the smaller double cheeseburger, and I found it was actually much nicer because I wouldn’t feel SO full. So nowadays I usually get just the double cheeseburger. But this time, I accidentally ordered the double quarter-pounder, and it was soooo much more than I’m used to! Tasty, but I’ll be careful from now on…

Just some photos of interesting bridges and landscapes we drove past!

This is part of a nation-wide movement called the “No Kings” protest, an anti-Trump initiative that is against all of his pretty crazy actions! You can see the Canadian flag because Canada has been one of America’s closest partners in history, and Trump is pushing them away. The Ukrainian flag is there as well because many people feel that Trump is betraying them as well. You’ll see more photos of them in a future blog post…

This is the hotel we stayed at, in a town called Bar Harbor. Technically, this is a “motel”, which is a smaller version of a hotel.

This is the eastern section of Acadia, where we spent most of our time. At the top, you can see Bar Harbor, and a red road that loops around most of the park. There are attractions on the coast and inland. The first day was a bit tough because it was grey and rainy out, but we tried to go to a place to get a nice view, called “Overlook” on the east side of the map.

The free “breakfast” was just some coffee and a pastry. It wasn’t bad, but it definitely wasn’t fancy. We wanted a cheap motel, and that’s what we got! :P

You can see my Pikachu hat and I have the same energy at this hour of day!

Here’s the view from the Overlook. The fog and drizzly weather made it not so special, but it the mountains were actually very beautiful in the pictures you see above!

It’s difficult to see here, but there’s a cave that the ocean flows into on these cliffs, so it was interesting to get close!

As we walked on top of the cave, we saw a hole that must have lead down to it! It was fenced off to stop people from falling in, but I reaaaally wanted to sneak in…

One of the most interesting parts of the walk was this deer we saw! He wasn’t afraid of us at all, which is very unusual for deer in North America! He was just eating and he even walked towards us once!

After the long walk, we went to a (VERY EXPENSIVE!) restaurant in Bar Harbor, where they served these big pretzels! It looked delicious… but I didn’t like it very much… it was too dry!

But since this was a somewhat fancy restaurant, I had to eat in a fancy restaurant!

The next day had much nicer weather, so we planned to go for a hike up a small mountain! I’m always grumpy in the morning, but the cereal I was eating in this picture was falling all over the place!

This wall was also shocked at the mess my cereal made…

So we went to Cadillac Mountain, an easy 465m climb. It was a sunny day, but not too hot, so it was kind of perfect! Here are a bunch of pictures:

At the top, we stopped to relax with a coffee from the store there…

…and this loud squirrel was chattering at us! He was very cute!

After we climbed back down, we went to another restaurant in Bar Harbor. It had a strange ordering system, we could only order from the website, not from a waiter. But the pizza was quite good! It had a retro look to it!

That was it for that day. The next day, we needed to relax after the long hike, so we didn’t have any long walks planned. We got up early to go have breakfast at a cute-looking local restaurant called 2 Cats.

I had pecan, marshmallow, chocolate chip pancakes. They were delicious, but soooo unhealthy!

We went sightseeing at a few cliffs along the coast, and then we went to a beach.

Is he okay…?

I tried to go swimming in the ocean, but it was WAY too cold! I tried to get used to the freezing water, but it was no good. My friend took this funny photo of me; it made me look very sad and depressed, but I wasn’t! It reminds me of this photo he took of me last year in Canada:

Why do I always look so sad on beaches??

After this day, we headed back to my friend’s house. It was another long road trip, but there was no bad weather this time, so it was much easier!

I hope you all enjoyed my Acadia pictures! The next couple of days we relaxed, because New York and this national park were very tiring and expensive! But I’ll be back soon with some more pictures!

My American vacation: New York!

After my time in Boston, the next day we set off to New York! We decided to go by car, and we invited another friend of ours to come along, so the 3 of us set off on a road trip!

It was a pretty long drive, about 4 hours plus breaks, but we enjoyed each other’s company and good music! After a long time, I could see the New York skyscrapers in the distance.

We stayed in New Jersey, but most of our activities were in Manhattan, a famous section of New York City.

Our first step was to see the #1 tourist attraction: The Statue of Liberty!

The ferry left from the southern tip of Manhattan, and went around the island with the statue on it.

Manhattan looks impressive from a distance. I would say it looks even better far away than it does close up!

And there she is, in the distance!

After we went around the statue’s island, we continued to Ellis Island, which is a famous landing area for immigrants who came to the US 100 or more years ago.

There’s a museum and gift shop on the island. I wasn’t so interested in the immigration museum, but I found some interesting documents for my Japanese students!

And of course, the gift shop had some cute figures! Do any of you recognize this character? ;)

And to finish off the day, we went to Times Square. It’s famous of course, so I was happy to get a chance to get there… but there wasn’t many specific things that interested me. Also, it smelled very heavily of marijuana smoke (it’s legal in certain parts of America, and all of Canada!), and I hate it, so we didn’t stay long…

The next day would be our only full day in New York. We woke up early to go to the USS Intrepid, and American aircraft carrier from World War II.

I have an interest in military history, so this was an exciting chance to see some unique pieces of equipment!

These ships are HUGE! It’s like a floating city, with hundreds of men doing different jobs, not just military jobs! Of course, now it’s just a museum, but it was interesting to think about how it was in the 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s!

We could also talk to some veterans, people who served in the military and have retired. These gentlemen served on this ship, or other ships, when they were active!

And of course, because this was an aircraft carrier, there were many military airplanes and helicopters!

And another interesting craft; the Enterprise! The prototype (original design) of the famous Space Shuttles! I couldn’t touch it, or go inside, but it was very cool to get so close!

After we finished on the Intrepid, we went to the Guggenheim, a modern art museum. My friends enjoyed the art, but it wasn’t my interest (I had my chance with the Intrepid!), but we went through Central Park, which was quite beautiful!

But, after the Guggenheim museum, and we were all pretty tired, we needed somewhere to eat, and I was shocked to find this Japanese restaurant in New York!!!

Ichiran Ramen! My favourite ramen chain in Japan! I never thought I could find one in New York, but I knew I had to get it as soon as I saw it! And inside, was almost 100% authentic! We ordered at a tablet, customized the spice, garlic, and noodle firmness, and then we were served our bowls through holes in the booths we sat in!

You could order extra noodles, and they give you a small tray to place on a sensor to summon the staff to deliver more to you!

And the taste we perfect! It was exactly how I remembered, and the spice (level 8!) was enough to make my nose runny and my throat burn! It was a great way to finish day 2!

That was mostly it for our New York trip! On the 3rd day, we drove back, so we had to leave a bit early, and we didn’t have time to see anything else. But my friend was so kind and bought me the perfect New York souvenir!

After we rested for a day at my friend’s house, he and I headed up north to a national park called Acadia, so that will be the topic of my next blog! Stay tuned! :D

My American vacation: Boston!

Hello everyone! Here I am in America for the month of June! It’s been a great two weeks so far, and I finally have some time to create a post! I don’t have all my photos together, but I should be able to slowly post updates over the next few weeks!

So, to start off, I’ll show you the area I’m staying. First, I flew from my hometown to Montreal, in Canada, and then I flew down to Boston.

My friend lives near the Boston area, so for this month, I’ll be staying in this area. We spent our first full day together in Boston seeing some places he recommended.

The train we took to Boston city was created in Japan, actually! It looks a bit different from the trains I know in that country, but it was nice to see a reminder of the place I lived! In my area in Canada, there are no trains, so it was an uncommon experience for me!

And when we got to Boston itself, the high buildings downtown again reminded me of Osaka and Tokyo.

We found the local Chinatown, but really it was more of an “Asia-town”, because there were many Korean and Japanese restaurants too!

We decided to eat at this restaurant, because we both lived in Japan before, and wanted some nostalgic taste!

The inside had a lot of Japanese-themed things, but it didn’t feel like a Japanese restaurant at all. It was definitely an American company trying to tell customers “Hey! Look! It’s Japan!”

We had some karaage (Japanese-style fried chicken). It was tasty, but it didn’t have a nice crunch like real karaage.

I ordered curry rice with karaage. It was tasty, and it was definitely Japanese-style curry, but it wasn’t as good as, for example, Sukiya or Coco Ichiban restaurants.

My friend ordered unagidon (eel with rice). He enjoyed it, but I never had eel when I was in Japan, so I don’t know how it compares!

After we ate, we walked around Boston some more.

I saw a few of these interesting tour boats going around Boston. They’re “Amphibious”, which means they can drive on the street and go in the water! The door goes around the city on streets and water, so I hope I get a chance to ride on one while I’m here!

Here are some statues of the famous figures from the story “The Tortoise and the Hare”. It’s a tale from Aesop, a famous Greek story-teller. It teaches the lesson that if you’re talented, but lazy, you’ll lose to people who are less-talented, but determined. Do you have a similar story in your country?

Then we checked out a pair of parks in the city. They were quite beautiful, and even though the streets in the city were a bit dirty, the parks were quite pleasant. It reminded me of hanami (cherry blossom viewing) in Japan!

And to finish this entry, let me show you some other interesting buildings I saw!

My next entry will be posted in a few days, it’ll be about our trip to New York, so stay tuned! :D

Trail maintenance at Stiles’ Cove

Trail maintenance has started for this year! I didn’t get to go many times last year, because of my ankle, but I’m looking forward to doing it this year!

I was with a volunteer group of about 18 people, and it was a cool, foggy day, which was perfect for hard work! Cutting all the branches and carrying things around kept me hot enough, so I was thankful for the grey weather.

Unlike last year, I was allowed to use electric pruners this time! It was much easier on my arms and shoulders, and I could work very quickly! I hope I can use them next time, haha!

We were out there for 6 hours or so, and it was tough work, so I didn’t get so many pictures of the details, but it was satisfying work!

The next time I’ll be able to go on a maintenance trip will be in July… it’ll probably be really hot, so I’m not looking forward to that, haha!

See you all soon!

Hiking season is open!

Finally! I’d been watching the weather with anticipation, and I had a small window of mild weather with only a little bit of rain to go on another hike! So I headed out on this hike on May 3rd!

As you all may remember, the last time I went on a long hike, last year, I busted up my ankle really badly. So I wanted to tackle the same path again to prove to myself that I could do it without any disasters.

Since it’s the same path as last time, I don’t have so many pictures. The landscape is fairly brown and muddy, too, so it’s not the most gorgeous at this time of year. But it’s a kind of rugged beauty that I enjoy, regardless!

And of course, I needed food. I made my own hard bread this time. It was very tough on the outside, but a little chewy on the inside. They’re like thick crackers, very bland, but something to fill my belly as I walk!

And one of my students from NOVA, Hayato, sent me many Japanese sweets a few weeks ago. I’ve already eaten them all… but I wanted to save his favourite for the hiking trip! They were sweet gummy candies that gave me a great boost of energy. Thanks Hayato!!

And I stopped one more time a little bit close to my campsite. This is the highest hill on the hike, and it was the one I stopped at last year right before I sprained both ankles. The first picture below is from last year, the next one is from this year.

This time, I got down the hill with no problems! I got to my camp site with no pain (other than my back with a heavy pack) and settled in. I ate a sub sandwich as I relaxed and listened to the ocean waves.

Some of you might remember that on last year’s hike, because of the ankle problems, I ran out of water on the way out the next day, and I had to squeeze water out of my towel! So this time, I made sure I had a way to get more water. There’s a stream near the campsite where I could get fresh water, which was good because I needed to clean my filthy legs and feet, haha! Using warm water on my legs in the cold weather was quite soothing!

I also wanted to test a water filter straw that I had bought last year, so I could actually drink the water. I could have boiled the water to make it safe, but that would have been too annoying. But this time, I had no problems with drinking water, thankfully!

After a mostly comfortable, but quite cold, night, I started out the next morning. I was very tired the next day, so I didn’t take many pictures on the rocky road out to meet my husband. But I got out after 5 hours, and was happy to finally finish this hike properly, instead of the mess I was in last time!

I’ll be posting another blog next week about some more trail maintenance that I did a few days ago, so come on back and check it out! :D

Happy Easter!

A short blog this week! April 20th was Easter Sunday, and as you all probably know, it’s a common day for families to get together and share dinner together! For my family, it was mostly the usual process; go to my sister’s house, my mom makes food, and I get to see my siblings and their family, as well as both of my parents.

Here you can see my brother at the stove getting his food, and to the right of him is my mother, in red. In the grey shirt on the right side is my mother’s boyfriend, and the arm on the left is my brother’s girlfriend!
On the counter in the middle is turkey, ham, and cranberry sauce, staples for any big, traditional family dinner in North America!

And here are the other important parts; carrots, mashed turnip, mashed potatoes, and gravy!

Those are the only pictures I took. The only thing different about this year was my grandma wasn’t there. She’s now living in an old age home, so it’s difficult for her to get out. It’s a little sad, but I’m happy she’s getting taken care of, rather than home alone and potentially in danger!

That’s it from me this week! Hopefully something exciting can happen soon, otherwise, I’m just working away like normal, haha!

The first hike of 2025!

Finally! I was able to go out on the trail! My husband surprised me with an offer to go hiking, and I happily accepted! It was the perfect weather, and we picked one of the easiest trails, Tinker’s Point. It’s 5 kilometers, and we had to go in and then back the same way, so that’s a 10-km hike!

I actually didn’t take so many pictures, because I’d been there before. If you remember the blog post I made last year about doing maintenance on the trail, it’s the same place! You can check out that blog post here!

But here are the photos my husband and I took during our walk!

It was the perfect temperature, not too hot, not too cold! I even had to take off my sweater because I was working up such a sweat!

But the highlight of the hike was definitely these; we saw seals! I’ve never seen one in person before, so it was really special! It’s a bit hard to see them, but I was surprised there were so many! They were all basking in the sun and relaxing. It seems like a nice way to spend a Sunday…

I’m really happy that my ankle actually was okay as well. It was worried it would hurt or I would twist it again, but it was actually fine. It was a nice, easy hike to start off the 2025 season with, so I hope to hit the trail again soon! My first goal is to redo the path that I injured myself on last year… I hope I don’t have any accidents this time!

Sunday was Easter Sunday as well. I have a few picture from that, but I’ll save it for a short blug next week! Until then, I look forward to seeing you all in class! :)

A busy March

Wait… it’s April already?? Oh no!

I’ve been very busy creating more and more lessons recently. I’ll be going on vacation in June, so I want to make sure that I have extra lessons completed before then, so I won’t have to spend time creating lessons during that month! I’ll still be teaching lessons as normal, so don’t worry, I’ll see all of you, and have some great new pictures, I hope!

What’s new for me? Let’s see… well, my sister’s daughters (my neices) are selling cookies for their youth group. In North America, we have “Girl Guides”. Maybe you know about “Boy Scouts” that are in many countries. This is the girl version!

So I wanted to support them, and I bought 4 boxes (too many!). They were expensive, but still pretty tasty! They’re perfect with milk~

Some of you might know that Canada has a new Prime Minister, Mark Carney. I don’t know much about him (nobody really does!), but he called a new election for April 28th. I’m not usually passionate about politics, but with the recent difficulties with Donald Trump in America, I want to make sure we don’t have a leader like that…

So I submitted my ballot yesterday! It was my first time doing it by mail, and it seemed quite secure! Do you have a mailing voting system like this?

I almost forgot! At the beginning of March, my husband and our friend went on a road trip to a small rural town - where our friend grew up - so here are some pictures from that trip!

Every road trip needs donuts!

My favourites! Honey crullers, boston cream, and sour cream glazed! <3

A tiny church, probably more like a chapel!

My friend’s hometown! You can see the icy lake still frozen.

And here is an ocean view.

I’m sorry I skipped March! I had a lot on my plate, but hopefully in April I can get some pictures of the local trails!

See you all next time! :D

A difficult weight loss journey!

Wow, February came and went very fast! It was very strange… Another small snow storm last week, and yesterday it was pouring rain! It’s very strange weather for this time of year…

Otherwise, I’ve been trying, as always, to lose weight. One exercise recommended to my by one of my students, Masami, was to do planks. I’d never tried them before, but they’re surprisingly intense!

I think I’m doing it right…?

I also tried baking tofu for the first time! I don’t like the texture of tofu, so I wanted to make it crispy. Here’s the first batch:

They’re tossed in soy sauce, and a little bit of garlic.

They were okay, but a bit too soft in the middle, so the next batch I chopped into cubes instead:

The second batch was a great texture; crispy on the outside, and a good chew on the inside, it was very much like meat!

But it’s so expensive here compared to Japan… I’m not sure if I’ll continue doing it…

And finally, I received a lovely Valentine’s day gift from Reiko, with some great towels for hiking, and some verrry delicious chocolates… I liked them so much, that I didn’t have time to take a picture of the chocolates themselves, sorry about that! ^^;

That’s it for February! I hope you all had a lovely month, and I’m looking forward to seeing you all in March! :D

Winter is (slowly) coming…

Hello everyone! How has winter been treating you all? For me, it’s been a surprisingly gentle January. There hasn’t been a lot of snowfall. I used my snowblower once to take care of a small amount of snow, and it worked great! But then the second time I started it…

The cable you can see is supposed to fit in that plastic hole. But it popped out, and I can’t get it back in, no matter what I do! So now I need to wait for people to come and repair it…

I was feeling pretty down, but then yesterday, I received a package from one of my long-time students! It was intended for Christmas, but Canada had a post office strike for most of December, and then there was an error with the address, so it was like a second Christmas for me!

These socks are so warm and comfy! I love them! (It’s also funny that they were inside a larger sock, the stocking!)

I’m sure most of my students know this, but these are a type of Japanese rice cracker called senbei. This selection is a great combination of sweet and savory, and the flavour for each is gentle.

Thanks to Chiharu, my spirits for February are starting high! If I just had the snowblower problems, I would have been very depressed, haha!

Here’s to a delicious February, everyone!

A Canadian New Year with a Japanese taste!

Hello everyone! A bit of a belated Happy New Year! I’m sure most of you saw my Facebook video message, but if not, here it is!

I also received a wonderful package from one of my long-time students, Masae! Many of you might know this Japanese tradition, but I’ll try my best to explain it!

Along with some wonderful chocolates and sweets, she sent me these items. At first I wasn’t sure what they were, or what to do with them, but she kindly explained each to me!

This top part is called a mizihiki, a type of good-luck charm.

This is a hane, which is kind of like the shuttlecock from badminton. It’s part of a game called hanetsuki, played with paddles.

This is a shishi, a kind of lion guardian, with a koma, a spinning top.

The shishi is part of the shishimai dance, a Japanese New Years tradition done to drive away evil spirits. I put the koma there because I thought it might look good as an umrella or parasol for him! What do you think?

I want to thank Masae again for such a thoughful gift! Now I can have a reminder of Japan on top of my desk at all times! Of course my focus is on English, but I never want to forget the time I had in Japan, and the wonderful students I met there! :)

Happy 2025, everyone! I’m looking forward to our lessons together!!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone! You’ve seen my small Christmas display, but I thought I’d show you all some other local Christmas lights! I never set any up outside (maybe next year?), but it’s a tradition with many houses!

I don’t have many things to say about each of them, but you can see each house has its own style! In some families, it’s a tradition to drive around town and look at the different lights all together. I remember when I was younger, there was a particular house (in a different part of town) that went REALLY crazy with their lighting! It was a large lawn, and so many different displays and lights… it was maybe annoying for the neighbours because it was so bright, haha!

But that’s it for me. :) We had family gatheringsm but they were pretty quiet this year, so I don’t have any pictures. But they were nice, with (too much) food. So now I’m relaxing at home and “digesting”.

Take care everyone! Once again, Merry Christmas! <3

One year later!

Hello everyone! Well, I’ve officially been teaching my own lessons for just over 1 year now! I started in December 2023, and 12 months later, I’m still going strong! Making lessons, teaching lessons, seeing my students’ wonderful smiles - it really is my dream job, and I couldn’t do it without each of you!

November was a VERY rainy month, the rainiest November in my hometown in over 130 years! We don’t have a “rainy season” here… every month is pretty wet and rainy! But November was very unusual in that regard.

But one thing I did do in November is set up my Christmas tree! It’s nothing special - it’s a cheap tree that’s over 15 years old, and I’m not good at decorating - but it gives me a sense of warmth and nostalgia!

Beneath are some presents for my friends and family. This year, I also practiced my present-wrapping skills. I’ve wrapped presents for years, so I was pretty used to it, but I never bothered to make it look super pretty. But this present that I wrapped was pretty embarrassing…

So I looked on YouTube for a tutorial, and I’m pretty pleased with how much better my wrapping looks now!

Still not perfect, but much neater!

As for other news, I’ll be volunteering at an English cafe at my local church to help immigrants improve their English! There will be many Ukrainians there, but probably other nationalities too! I’m looking forward to meeting new people, and a different style of teaching… and if they want to come to Rainbow English too, that would be even better! 😇

We’ve already had some snow, but nothing that has stuck around. For now, I haven’t had a chance to use my new snow blower. It was very expensive, but I’m excited to not shovel so much snow this year. I hope I can get a video of it in action!

For my next blog post, I’ll try to get some pictures of local Christmas lights! Several houses are already decorated, so I hope I’ll get some beautiful shots! Until then, see you all next time!

Here’s to another year! Let’s go 2025!!

Happy Halloween!

Hello again everyone! Another quick post here to show you all what Halloween looks like in my neighbourhood! Many houses get very excited about the season, and put a lot of effort into their decorations. Here are some from my neighbourhood:

Unfortunately ,we didn’t have the time or energy to decorate our house, but we got some candy to give out to the trick-or-treaters who are coming around tonight!

These are tiny version of the full-size bars.  Do you recognize any? ;)

I hope you all had a spooky time! Even though for many of you it’s November 1st now.  Maybe you can get discount Halloween candy in many stores now!

Hail to November!

Hello everyone! How are you all feeling?
My October was a bit low energy. My ankle is still feeling sore, so my motivation is pretty low. That’s the reason (or at least my excuse!) for not posting much content here this month.

The website has changed a little bit, if you haven’t seen it already:

• The scheduling page has changed. The company that does it decided to change things suddenly, with no warning! So I’m sorry if it’s been annoying for anyone. I’ve posted some videos about how to use the new page here!

• I added hidden pages that are only accessible to my students! I have 50 lessons for each level posted on the website, so check your email, you should have links to each level!

Otherwise, not much news! It’s pretty cold recently, of course… and we’ve already had snow!

Actually, this is hail.  Hail is small balls of ice.  They can hurt a little bit if you’re outside, and it makes a little bit of noise in the house!

“Hail” is an interesting word because it also means “hello!” in older English.  So the title of this blog, “Hail to November!” means “Hello, November!”  It’s a kind of English pun. :)

I hope you all enjoy yourselves wherever you are!  Try to stay warm as winter comes closer and closer!