雪予報 forecasting snow amounts

There's something that we've learned here.

Evey year, around this time of the year,
people of Takayama will start discussing
whether there will be little snow or tons of snow
the coming winter.

Guess how they predict it?

People say that the year they observe a lot of stink bugs
it will snow tons.

Has anyone heard of such thing?
It was totally new to me!!
I know there's no scientific proof for it
but it's fun anyway.

It simply means that it is always a "big topic"
whether it will snow heaps or not for the people here.

Let's see how it goes this year!!

こちらに来て初めて聞いたこと。

毎年、この時期になると
高山の人々の間で
「今年の雪は多い・少ない」と
予想が始まります。

さて、どのように予想するのでしょうか。

なんとカメムシの量で予想するのです。

しかも、カメムシのことを
みんな「ヘクサムシ」って呼んでいる～。
なんとストレートな名前、
と思ったら、地方によって様々な
ストレートな名前が出てきました。
今までそんなにカメムシに注目したことがなかったので
知らなかっただけですね。

調べると、はずれることも多いようで
科学的根拠はないみたい。

でも、とにもかくにも
ここで暮らす人々にとって
「大雪か否か」はビッグトピックなわけです。

さて、今年のヘクサムシ予報は当たるのでしょうか。

あきしまささげ striped string beans

I had never seen such beans before I came to Takayama.

The beans are called "Akishima Sasage" (striped string beans).

To be honest, they don't look good,

I mean, they look dirty, ha-ha.

This striped string bean is a local vegetable 

that cannot be found in other regions.

It is right now the season for it

and I see it every where!!

And guess what?

The purple stripes disappear when I boil them

and they become bright green!!

After I found this out,

I became a big fan of the beans

and I buy them as often as possible

mostly at the morning market.

高山に来て初めて見たんです。
あきしまささげ

正直、あまりおいしそうに見えなくて
だって、汚れているみたい、、、
（ごめんなさい～～）

あきしまささげは
他ではあまり見られない
飛騨の野菜です。

現在、シーズン真っ只中
スーパーでも朝市でも
道の駅でも、そこら中で売られています。

そしてそして、
汚れ？？？のような
紫の縞は、茹でると消えて
鮮やかな緑色になるんです。

縞模様が消えた頃が食べごろなんです。
これを知った途端に
あきしまささげの大ファンになった私、ハハハ、単純。
今は、見つける度に買ってしまうのでした。

暖房 heater

The lowest temperature goes down
as low as 12 degrees Celsius starting last week in Takayama.

I'm hearing many of my friends saying
they have started using their heaters
in the mornings and at nights.

I'm sure there are lots of places in Japan
that still needs air cons during the day
but not anymore in Takayama.

Summer surely is short here.

先週辺りから、最低気温が
12℃だとか13℃という日が出てきました。

友人が何人も
「ストーブつけた」と話しています。

日本のあちこちでは、
まだエアコンを付けたくなるような
暑い日があるのではないでしょうか。

高山の夏ってこんなに短かったかな。

海鮮ナイト seafood night

This time we got a huge yellow tail for grilling
plus a tiny one for sashimi.

Oh,
for those who's accessing this blog for the first time,
there is a fish market that we visit almost every weekend
to get fresh seafood from the Sea of Japan (and other places as well).
When you think of Takayama, you may only imagine mountains
and that is very true, BUT we can travel quite easily to the ocean
these days because of the express ways and so forth.

This time we tried one of the flatfish "hirame (sole)."
I was checking "hirame" on the web to see what it's called in English.
I'm not sure what names you are familiar with
but flounder has eyes on the right side and sole has them on the left.

Anyways, the "hirame" that we got at the market
was super delicious.
Believe me, our son and daughter just loved it
and they began to order "hirame" at sushi restaurants, oh no...
(Hirame is rather an expensive fish to eat at restaurants.)

今回は焼き用に大きなハマチを一匹と刺身用に小さめのフクラギを一匹
そして、

そうそう、
初めてブログを訪れてくれる方へ
ご近所に小さいけれど、日本海より新鮮魚貝を
販売している「魚屋」ができたんです。
高山って意外と日本海に近く、「山」のイメージしかないと思いますが、
上手に探せば、おいしい魚貝類が手に入るのです。

今回は、ヒラメに初チャレンジ！
おいしかった～。

しかし、、、
感激した子供たち、その後お寿司屋さんで
ヒラメを頼み始めてしまったのです。
う～～ん、困った困った。

びっくり、大きなハマチ（切り身）この量で1,000円！！

the yellow tail for grilling was 1,000 yen for this huge amount, yay

ヒラメ～♪　sole sashimi 

運動会 Sports Festival 2017

For our daughter, it was her last "sports festival" during
her elementary school, since she will be graduating next spring.

Don't ask how many times we cried that day.

We just love being at the sports festival.
And we're so thankful that we were able to
enjoy the day under a beautiful weather this year, too.

Besides the actual running and dancing that they did,
there were several big things that occurred that day
that we cried about.

My daughter was elected the leader of the "sports day operating committee"
and she had several duties to do.
Her first duty was to run the last part of the torch relay.
Her second big duty was to make a speech in front of the whole school
at the opening ceremony.

We were so proud to see her standing in front of everyone.
Believe us, we were more nervous than she was.

Also, our son was selected the team member of the "big relay"
and we obviously screamed (louder than cheering)
when it was his turn, ha-ha.

We have moved to this beautiful city 3 years ago
and we are so, so proud that our son and daughter
are both having big parts to take in such wonderful event.

６年生の娘にとって、今年は小学校最後の運動会でした。

さて私たち、一体何度涙を流したでしょうか　笑。

運動会って感動がたくさんで、毎年わくわくが止まりません。
今年も、青空の下、みんなで元気に運動会に参加できたこと、
感謝しかありません。

運動会競技の他にも、涙のわけがあったんです。

長女は今年、「運動会実行委員長」を務めました。
炬火リレーで、アンカー（最後に点火する大役）をし、
全校生徒の前で挨拶もしなければなりませんでした。

もちろん、娘より私たちの方が緊張しましたよ。

息子は、各学年の代表で構成された「選手リレー」に
参加させていただきました。

高山に引っ越して、約３年、
娘も息子も、しっかりと自分たちの居場所と役割を見つけて
活躍する姿に感動した運動会でした。

ところ変われば in a different prefecture

This summer, we visited a prefecture called Niigata.

Niigata is a prefecture located along the Sea of Japan,
north of Toyama.

Prefectures along the Pacific side are much
more familiar to us, but since we live closer to
the Sea of Japan now, we decided to visit Niigata this time.

There are a lot to talk about Niigata, of course,
but out of all the things, I want to point out
their neat houses!!

Niigata has a harsh winter with lots of snow.
Just like here in Takayama.
It is ideal to have a garage so that they won't have
to dig out their cars on snowy days.

It is very common to have roofs over parking places in Takayama,
and here, garages stand on their own.
However, the houses in Niigata were different.
I wouldn't say majority of the houses were like the ones I found
but, I found many houses looking like the ones on the
photo below.

Houses were three stories high,
the sizes were quite huge,
and the bottom floor was their garages.

Can you tell from the photos?

I was wondering,
would that kind of houses work here in Takayama?
Perhaps, it would be harder to shovel snow off the
roofs since the height of the houses will become taller.
But wouldn't that be the same in Niigata?

Anyways,
I love watching and observing the houses in new places!!

It is interesting to find out how houses in different
places are adjusted to fit their very own environment!!

今のうちに、日本海側を攻めておかなくては！
ということで、この夏は新潟まで足をのばしてきました。

語ることは、たくさん！
しかし、おもしろい発見が新潟で見つけた家たち。

ご存知の通り、新潟は雪国！
高山よりずっと過酷な降雪地帯です。

もちろん、豪雪の中、毎朝車を掘り起こすのは大変なので
車庫が必要なわけです。

高山も車庫、もしくは最低でも駐車場の上には屋根を
つけたいものです。（うちにはありませんが、、、汗）

↓の写真でわかるでしょうか。
ほとんど、とは言いませんが、
こんな感じの家を、とにかくたくさんの発見！！

大きな三階建ての家です！
一階部分が車庫、そして二階、三階が居住スペースなのです。
なるほどなるほど。

でも、そこでふと思ったのが、
高山には、どうしてこういう家がないのかな？
雪おろしが大変になるからかな？
でも、それは新潟も同じよね。

今は、緑が美しいけど、
数か月後には真っ白になる新潟の過酷な冬を
想像しながら、ところ変われば、変化する住宅たちを
眺めながら、家族でわいわいと盛り上がりました。