Kaoru's Posts (11)

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A Hedgehog’s Letter

This is my first short story...

A Hedgehog’s Letter
 
One Sunday morning, a hedgehog went for walking. In the west of a forest, are there a lot of apple trees. It is the hedgehog's favorite place. When the hedgehog came close to the oldest tree in the forest, he noticed that something was different than usual. The moment he is about to ask "What's going on?" voices come from behind him.
 
"Is it true that the honeybees are leaving our forest?" a young apple tree asks its mother. "Yes. Next Sunday." the mother sighed. "Then, what are we going to do? We can bloom flowers, but without their help, can't we have many delicious apples on the branches in fall, can we? The hedgehog's heart starts beating rapidly. "What are they talking about? Did they say the honeybees were leaving this forest?"
 
There is a nice honeybee with whom the hedgehog likes talking. The honeybee knows much about the outside world of the forest. The hedgehog was excited by the honeybee's story about a waterfall and a lake which he has never seen before. "The waterfall looks like a river rushing down vertically from the top of a cliff? Great! I wish I could see the shining surface of the lake reflecting the orange light of the sun which is setting on the edge of a mountain!!" The honeybee has told a lot of amazing stories to the hedgehog. He is the best friend for the hedgehog.
 
"There seem to be another forest in the south. I guess the honeybees are going to make their new home there. We'll miss them." the old apple tree said in his deep voice. The hedgehog thought gazing at the vast horizon: If the honeybees have decided to do that, it must be the best way for them. I'll miss my best friend, but if he can get a better life in the new forest, I feel happy about it as much as he does. Behave as usual in front of apple trees and the honeybee.
 
The next day, the hedgehog headed to his favorite place. "Hi, how are you doing?" he said to the old apple tree smiling. I'm okay, the hedgehog said to himself in his mind. However, it took only five minutes before he realized that he was completely wrong. The hedgehog saw the honeybee flying between apple trees. His best friend is talking and laughing with them without noticing him. The hedgehog stands still looking at his friends back. He doesn't know what to say to the honeybee.
 
"How far is the new forest from here? What's it like? What kinds of animals live there?" He wonders if he should ask those kinds of questions as he has done many times. A moment later, the hedgehog asks himself, "For what? That doesn't make any difference. He's leaving soon and I will never see him again." The hedgehog turns around and goes back to his house.
The hedgehog has been staying at home since Tuesday because he doesn't know which is true: As his friend, am I happy about the honeybee starting his new life? Or I'm just so scared about losing my best friend? He has been thinking about this question again and again and again, but he hasn't found out the answer yet. He looks up the moon in the dark sky through a window and says in his little voice. “Should I go to see him leaving this forest tomorrow morning?  I will not be able to say anything when I see him face to face. Even making a smile would be difficult. What should I do?”
 
The hedgehog walks up to his old wooden desk. He takes a pen and a piece of letter paper from the drawer. He is not sure what he is going to write. The only thing that he knows is there is something he hasn’t told the honeybee yet.
 
Honeybee
 
Do you remember last year’s Halloween party? Your costume was the grandma from Little Red Riding-Hood. I wore my first hand-made costume and went for the party, but actually I was so scared about responses that I would get from others. When I went through the door, I couldn’t stop my legs trembling under the costume. I was sitting on a chair by myself away from others when you noticed me and said, “You’re awesome! Did you make it?” Do you know how much that made me happy? It’s like enormous big hands take me from the bottom of a deep hole and then put me into a warm peaceful light.
Thank you so much.
 
 
The hedgehog put his pen on the desk and then closed his eyes slowly. The sun has just started rising from the eastern sky.

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Today's Lunch

I went to a convenient store and bought cup "yakisoba".

 

It's regular price was 198 yen ($2.5), but I bought discounted one.

I got it for 138 yen. About 30% off! Yay!

 

How to make cup "yakisoba"

1 Pull back the lid to one-third of the total.

2 Take out some small packets from inside.


DO NOT EAT

This is just a seal of anime characters.

Normal cup "yakisoba" doesn't have this kind of things! 
However, this product is a made of collaboration with anime, "K-ON!!".
So, it might be a good bonus for "K-ON!!" fans lol

 

The Other packets

This is a packet of liquid-sauce.

This is a packet of ground seaweed.

 

 

3 Pour hot water

 

 

4 Put the lid back on and wait for three minutes.

(Note) This is another common way to use a dictionary.

 

 

5 Rip off the corner of the lid so that you can discard hot water.

 

 

6 After discarding hot water, pull back the lid to the end.

 

 

7 Add liquid-sauce and mix well.

 

 

8 Sprinkle ground seaweed. It's done!

 

 

P.S.

This cup "yakisoba" was 618kcal D:

 

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Girls Day in Japan

March 3 is Girls Day in Japan.When I was a kid ( it was about 30 years ago =p) families bought expensive and beautiful desplays of dolls to celebrate having daughters. But these days it's popular to buy more less expensive ones, for example, only two main dolls or dolls made by cheep materials haha ^^ I think that's okay.


Because gorgeous ones ( they have seven steps and many kinds of dolls)  are seriously expensive. There are even some types of displayshas which costs more than 1,000,000 yen( about 12,000 dollars) Moreover, some families can't have enouth space to put the large displays in thier house.


It is said that we have to put them away as soon as after Girls Day, or the girl may miss a proper time of marriage. As for me, my parents bought me a plastic bullet train instead of displays of dolls when I was a kid. They said, "We were going to buy dolls, but you said you wanted that bullet train!"

 

This is a gorgeous displays of dolls.

 

 

This one has only two main dolls.



 

Maybe this one is cheap, I think =)

 

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What do we call February?

In Japan, we call February Kisaragi that is the name of the second month of lunar calendar. Actually, the second month of lunar calendar is supposed to be about March of solar calendar. So it may be wrong we call this month Kisaragi... Anyway, what does the word "Kisaragi" mean?

There are some different theories, but my favorite one is this:

 

Ki-sara-gi 

 

Ki - comes from the word "kiru" that means to wear something.

sara - comes from of the word "sarani" that means in addition or again. 

gi - in this case, gi and Ki (the first part) are the same, the pronunciation is different though.

 

At the end of the day, it means to wear something over what you are wearing so that you stay warm. I like this old style naming because it has the meaning based on the seasons. 

 

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The Mysterious Bridge

Taushubetsu Bridge got elected to be a "Hokkaido Heritage" in 2001. That's because this bridge is really rare! This bridge was made as a railroad bridge in 1987 1939, but it sank under the surface of the water because of Lake Nukabira which is man-made lake in 1955. So a new railroad was made and Taushubetsu Bridge has been left in the lake. The water level of Lake Nukabira is very different depending on the season. The bridge is going down under the water at the beginning of June, and it disappears completely in late autumn. The arch bridge seems like glasses when you can see its reflection in the water on a sunny calm day!

It shows up again around January.

Isn't it mysterious that the bridge appears and disappears depending on the season?

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An Old Friend

Hey, it's been a long time since I last saw you!How have you been?It looks like a person, isn't it?When I saw "her" for the first time, I somehow felt like "she" was my friend!Actually, "she" is an old telephone!I don't know how old it is, but I think this kind of thelephone was used about 100 years ago. Can you see a handlebar which is on the right hand side of its face? When you made a phone call, you had to turn it at that time. Of course you don't have to do it now. Just put some coins in, and push buttons.But it hadn't been used for a long time.She might have been waiting for someone.She seems to be very surprised and happy, doesn't she?She said to me, "Hey, Kaoru, it's been a long time since I last saw you. How have you been?..."I think she is very old, but we are still good friends. ^_^Do you have something old?Have you ever seen something very old?What do you think of it?
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