On Saturday I gave a speech in Kyoto. The speech was in Japanese so I was very stressed. The speech was outside in the sun. Everyone enjoyed the speech.
Saturday night we had a nice dinner to celebrate.
Sunday we went shopping. I got new socks. They are made from very nice cotton. They have a chestnut design on them.
Chestnuts are very popular in Japan during Fall.
Do you have a favorite store in Kyoto?
Yesterday a typhoon passed through our area. We had a lot of rain and strong wind, but little damage.
We moved to a new house less than a week earlier. When the wind was blowing, I noticed that one of the doors is loose. It rattles when the wind blows.
Tomorrow I have a day off work, so I will get some thin foam rubber pads to fix the door.
I really like peace and quiet; especially when I am studying. It is much easier to relax and concentrate when it is not noisy. Also, my work place is noisy, so when I come home I want to refresh in a peaceful place.
Does anything rattle at your home? Will you fix it or just accept it as it is?
Last weekend we had a typhoon. It was very big and very slow. It rained on us for four days. There was some flooding.
Since the typhoon passed, the weather has been much cooler. Also, the humidity is much lower. Some friends complain about the heat, but I think it is a wonderful temperature now.
Fall weather is very good: still sunny and warm. It’s not bitterly cold like Winter. It’s not hot and sticky like summer. It’s just right.
Because the good weather started early in September, I think we will have a long Fall season. I am happy.
Do you like the Fall weather?
A typhoon is approaching. It won’t come directly here, so we should be safe. Even though it won’t come here, we will still have lots of rain.
Already we have strong winds. We expect the wind to get stronger and stronger. Tomorrow morning might be a little dangerous.
Today we will send the children home from school early. I want to go home early as well, but I have to work.
Have you ever seen a typhoon? Were you scared?
We drove to Niigata and back home this week. It takes about 8 hours each direction on the expressways. Also the tolls are more than ten thousand yen.
Three of us took turns driving, so it went very smoothly. Each person drove for an hour or two before trading places.
We were impressed by one tunnel that was more than 8km long! When I was a child, we would hold our breath in tunnels. That would be impossible in this tunnel.
We drove through the mountains and saw both rain and sunshine.
Have you ever taken a road trip? Where did you go?
Here in Mie, we expect hot and humid weather every summer. Usually we expect it to get hotter and hotter from June until August. After August we expect it to slowly cool off again. In October the weather should be comfortable.
This year, it was very hot in June. Many people complained that it would be a hot summer. In July it cooled off, which surprised us. Of course it was still hot, but not as hot as normal. In August it got very hot again.
Now it is near the end of August and the weather has cooled off a lot. It is very comfortable outside. I am very happy with this weather.
Why is the weather so strange this year? Is your weather good this summer?
When I was young, we remembered a rhyme: April showers, bring May flowers.
It was easy to remember because we often got rain showers in April and many beautiful flowers bloomed in May. Sometimes we also got a lot of rain in May, but there were always beautiful flower in May.
We always thought that early Spring was the rainy season, but different places have different rainy seasons.
We also got a lot of rain in the late Fall. It always kept the air very clean and we had a lot of natural drinking water.
Do you have a rainy season?
America chose its flag on June 14th, 1777. We call that day Flag Day. It is a holiday, but most people have to work on that day.
Unfortunately, many Americans don’t know about this day.
When I was a child, I always appreciated this day. We would hang a flag from the front of our house.
Of course, if it was raining, we would not hang the flag.
Do you have a flag from your country? When do you hang it?
There is a rainy season in Japan. During rainy season there can be many rainy days. Yesterday was very rainy. The day before yesterday was also very rainy.
There can also be sunny days during rainy season. Today is a sunny day.
I played with young children on the playground after lunch. We played tag. It was very fun.
I hope we have some more beautiful days to play outside.
Sunday morning I was in a bike race at the Suzuka F-1 Circuit. We use the same course as the F-1 racing cars and the motorcycles. It is really fun to see thousands of bicycles on the racetrack.
All morning it was raining very hard because a typhoon was coming. If you get wet while riding it is easy to get too cold, so I wore a jacket. Sometimes when I race, I overheat. That was not a problem on Sunday.
The race course is 6.6 kilometers for one lap. My team rode 21 laps in 4 hours. That means we traveled 138.6 kilometers at an average speed of 34.6 kilometers per hour.
It felt great to get some exercise. Have you ever been in a bike race? Did you enjoy it?
君の為に 