Living Apart From My Family

I have to live apart from my family for a while because of my job. Our company will open a new restaurant in Izumo whicg is 45 kilometers away from my home and I will work for the restaurant as a manager. I think I will have to work there in six months. I won't commute there because it takes a long time to go there. I will live in an apartment which my company rents. A new restaurant makes me feel excited but I will miss my family for a while. I don't know if I will be all right but I cannot do anything about it. The only thing I can do is come back home every week.

The Second Day of a Family Camping

It was fine on the second day of our family camping this summer.
My two sons got up early to find beetles in the woods but they did not find a lot of them.
My wife and I made breakfast; bacon, fried eggs, salad, miso soup and rice. I think having meals outdoors is the most delightful thing with camping. I love doing that very much.
After breakfast, my sons went swimming and played in the river which was across from the campsite. I fell asleep and I took a nap for a while.
Then we checked out of the campsite and had lunch at a restaurant in Kakeya and then we went to Yakumo Wind Cave where a very cool wind blew up from underground. We went down into the cave. The temperature was over thirty degrees Celsius outside that day but in the cave it was ten degrees celsius. I was almost frozen! The cave used to be used as a natural refrigerator for storing some agricultural crops in the summer for neighbors.
After that we went to a hot spa and bathed there then had dinner.
We enjoyed the two days of camping. I hope we will go camping in the winter next time. I think the idea of camping in the snow is really great.

The First Day of a Family Camping

Our family has just returned from camping. We went camping at Ogidani Campsite.
We went there for five years in a row.
It was the first time that we used a rented log bungalow; we used to use our own tent before. That was more comfortable using a log bungalow than I expected. The interior was wide and cool and my two sons loved the loft-style bed.
The weather was fine through the days we were camping and the air was cool.
I enjoyed playing tennis and volleyball with my older son there and I lost a tennis match 4-2 with him because he had learned to play tennis two years ago.
My younger son swam in the river which was across from the campsite. The water of the river was clear and crisp. He caught six rainbow trout in the river when the children's fish catching event was held there and we ate the fish at a barbecue. He even caught some dragonflies, beetles and cicadas. He looked very happy.
Before we had our barbecue, we took a bath in a Rotenburo, a Japanese style outdoor public hot spa. I think it is a luxury to take a bath outdoors when it is light.
We took a walk under a starry sky at night and we could see the Wain very clearly and big in the north. Then we played Uno, a kind of card game, until we went to sleep.

Thank you!

Family Camping

My family, my wife, two sons and I, go camping every summer. Before my sons were born, my wife and I went camping alone together.
We are going to go camping in Ogidani Camp Site, Hiroshima Prefecture next week and we are all looking forward to doing that very much.
Ogidani is our favorite camp site because it has a river, a mountain, woods and open fields. We can swim and catch fish in the river, we can hike in the mountain and the view from the top is amazing. We can find beetles in the woods and we can play baseball or other ballgames in the fields.
My older son would be eager to play volleyball because he began to play that this April. My younger son is studying where he can find beetles in the woods. My wife is looking forward to having a barbecue. I will be happy when they feel joyful in the camp.
The camp will be only two days because of my job but I wish we could go camping for at least one week.
The whether forecast said it will be fine there on the days we are there so it is quite certain that we will have a good time at the camp.

  ←Click here, thank you!

A Birth of a Swallowtail Butterfly

My younger son keeps many kinds of insects. He even keeps caterpillars and one of them changed to a swallowtail butterfly this morning. The butterfly was beautiful in yellow and black. My son looked forward to watching the birth of a butterfly from a pupa but he missed out on the chance to watch that because the birth happened so early in the morning. He despaired at that and I felt for him. When a caterpillar becomes a pupa next time, he will get up early.

Click here and I would be happy!

Milk

One of my sons, a freshman at a junior high school, belongs to a volleyball team in his school. He practices volleyball for six days in a week and he enjoys it a lot. I am very happy to see his joy.

I don't know much about volleyball but one thing is obvious; tall players are more advantageous for the sport. Unfortunately, he is not very tall now.

Recently, someone told him that the more people drink milk, the taller they will be and he drinks milk as much as he can; at breakfast, lunch and before sleep at night. I think he will be taller soon and I hope he won't get any stomach troubles due to drinking too much milk.

Ladybirds

My eight- year- old son is very interested in insects. He likes many kinds of insects; ants,butterflies, crickets, dragonflies and so on. I think he likes praying mantises the best because they are strong.

Now finding ladybirds turns him on because he is taking part in a survey which is conducted by Shimane Prefectural Museum. When he find any ladybird, he notes the date, the place, the size and the pattern. He will send all of the data to the museum in September and he will get some special goods for help doing the survey.

A few days ago he found twenty-five ladybirds. How many ladybirds will he be able to find at the end?

Fireflies

Fireflies have come to a small river which is in my neighborhood again this year. The number of fireflies is not large so few people know they can be seen there. Only my two sons and I were watching them tonight. We were fascinated by the pale glows for a long time and we had a rich time alone together tonight.

Many Japanese are looking forward to watching the glow of fireflies as their annual event even if they have to go far away to watch them. In contrast, we are quite a lucky family because we have the spot for doing that in our neighborhood. I hope we can watch the beautiful glows here forever.