ChanomiTalk

前向きな気持ちになって、目標をもつと、不思議と気持ちがすっきりしました。 抱えていたトラブルも前向きな話し合いで解決しましたo(^-^)o やはりコミュニケーションと相手に伝えようとする姿勢は大事ですね。 あと自分を客観的に分析して解決策を探ることも。それにはやはり、部屋に閉じこもらず、誰かと話すことが大事だと気付きました。 今人生で一番前向きな気がします！昨日より自分が好きです。 みなさんありがとう！

Today I was up at our land looking at the beautiful gardens and Michael and Brandon  got together to try to solve the issue with the trees not having  enough water. It was good to see Michael and Brandon getting along. They were working out a new sprinkler system to help the plants through the harsh Hawaiian summer where there  is such little rain. There are such a nice variety of trees on the land that are slowly growing up. There are mango, papaya, banana, cherry, lime, lemon and oranges as well as exotic fruits too. It is a truly lovely garden with lots of flowers as well. I really love this land and the garden we worked hard to put together. I am very grateful to have this land to build  my new house on.

英語の勉強を再開することにしました。 仕事を始めて四年目。いっぱいいっぱいで、休みの日は寝てしまう…。友達の誘いにも応じることができない…。いつのまにか目標も、打ち込めることもなく、ネガティブな人間になってしまいました。
最近私生活でショックなことがあり、なかなか立ち直れません。 何か今の生活を変えたいという思い、たくさんの人とコミュニケーションを楽しみたい、私のやりたいことはなんだっけ？と見つめ直したら、やはり英語にたどり着きました。
まずは部屋を片付けて気持ちを明るくし、良いことがたくさんあるように。
そしてとうとうインターネットをつなぎます！
自分のことを好きになれ、他人の喜びも喜べるように。そんな私になりたいです。

左は、神戸の呉服屋、丸太やさんのお店の男らしい袴姿です。
右は、ナコスのチェイさんとベンさん。のびのびしすぎです。

どちらも素敵！！

It is important to stay fit for good health. Today, we all recognize the difficulty of controlling an expanding waistline. My father warned me that he started gaining weight between 20 and 30 years old once he started working. The reason was because he became busy and stopped being active. Consequently, I have tried to avoid making the same mistake by working out regularly and enjoying activities like swimming.

Soon my parents are planning on moving. They’re going to sell the house I grew up in and which they lived in for 18 years, quit their jobs and take off for West Virginia.

I admire them for being able to make such a radical change in their lives. I say this even though I’ve made perhaps even greater changes in my life. One could say I have a track record of bumping around the world, getting into different careers and marrying girls I find along the way. It would be a slight exaggeration of course, but it serves to frame my unexpected admiration of my parents. They are going to do something I’m not sure I could – become mountain hermits. They’ll be living away from cities, shopping malls, theaters, people, and all the noise and bustle that those things generally entail. Sounds nice at first thought, but I think someone like me might go crazy.

What it says is that my parents are content with nothing but each other and the house they’ve built together, and that’s something to be proud of.

In Hawaii we usually have 2 seasons of mango.  One in the summer and one in the winter.  Each has it’s own taste.  Summer season is hot and drier so the mango is sweeter and more flavorful but winter is usually more rainy and less sunshine so the fruit is more tart and watery.

My favorite past time is to go mango hunting during the season.  Mango hunting is looking for the ripened fruit  that has just fallen on the ground.  While driving to and from where  ever you’re going, it’s always good to keep a sharp eye out for those mango trees, especially for the  ones near the roadside.  It’s good to go walking around the neighborhood too,  looking for mangos. But be sure to bring a plastic bag so you can pick up the fruit.  Picking up more than 3 mangos can make the bag awfully heavy if you have a long walk, so I prefer to drive.

The mangos in the stores just don’t have that delicious tree ripened flavor. Also the many different varieties and flavors are the best when doing mango hunting.  Many people like white puree or hayden mangos.  Other types are called,  common,  chinese, cigar, Shibata, chestnut, Makalepa, and etc. Some are smooth meat, some stringy and some are honey tasting in the middle and some taste like apricots. This is what makes mango hunting enjoyable, cause there are so many different flavors.  Sometimes even the same variety will taste different from one person’s yard to another’s.

There are great competitions for mango hunting.  If you’re too late, you might see a person on a bike with a bag full of mangos passing by or a lady already picking up the mangos off the grass at your favorite spot ahead of you.  But your biggest preditor are the birds, ants, and other animals.  The birds will peck holes into the mangos, and just seem to know where the sweetest part is.  This is a sure way to tell if the mangos are  very sweet and delicious.

This morning I spotted 2 mangos lying on the side of the curb.  And a bird was already sizing it up, trying to decide which side of the mango was the sweetest to peck into. I quickly pulled my car onto the grassy sidewalk and ran across the street, right to the mango and quickly picked it up before the bird had a chance to eat it.  He looked at me with his 2 big eyes, as I walked away with his meal. He tilted his head,as if  saying, ” Hey! that’s mine, bring it back!”

Then I continued to the next trees looking for more on the ground but I was just 5 minutes too late for a big fat lady had already gathered up about 8 mangos in her plastic bag and was searching for more in the grass. It’s a common courtesy, to practice first come first serve, so I just passed by without stopping. It’s kind of like an Easter egg hunt cause you’ll never know where they might roll to when they fall, under a bush or a car, on the side of a fence or a wall.  Once I found one at a street corner and when I looked around for a tree, it was 2 houses away for it had rolled down the hill.  Sometimes owners will gather up the fallen mangos and just lay it in front of their house for passer-byers to help themselves, rather than just dump them into the trash. Cutting  off the bad side makes the rest of the mango edible. It takes me about an hour to cut up just 10-15 mangos. Now that the Mangos season is in full swing and the fruits are getting real ripe and they seem to be constantly dropping to the ground.  This is when it’s good to freeze the already cut up fruit, cause it’s much too much to eat all by yourself.  When the season is over, boy you can really enjoy the frozen fruit much like a sorbet or frozen drink.  If you don’t mind the work, the rewards are delicious!

There are five things that I really like about Hawaii. The first is of course the great weather. The second is the good food. Third, related to the good weather and nice location, are the many activities that are available. Fourth, is the magnificent ocean. Last but not least, are my good friends at NACOS!