Ｊａｍｅｓ　Ｅｎｇｌｉｓｈ　Ｈｏｕｓｅ

About four or five years ago my neighbor got a female goat (named Yuzu). Although I'm not a person who particularly likes goats, she was kind of cute and it was great because she spent a lot of time eating the weeds around my house so I didn't have to work so hard cutting grass. But as she got older she got uglier as goats tend to do.


My neighbor liked her goat so much that a year later she got a male goat (named Lemon) and built it a pen to keep both of them in. Of course, when you put a male goat and a female goat together "the birds and the bees" happen and kid goats start coming out.


The first kids they had three years were twins and they were adorable. With the pure white fur and their playfulness it was fun to watch them bound around and enjoy their life. Taking care of four grown goats is hard work so my neighbor ended up giving away these two babies.


Lemon and Yuzu mated again last year and had only one male kid. It had something wrong with one of its front legs so it hobbled around and mostly kept along the bushes and walls. He was quite popular because many people would come to feed and pet him. My neighbor gave him to a women who my wife knows through work.


Early this Spring two more kid goats came along and these two are quite the characters. They are pretty fearless and roam around a lot causing mischief. They keep coming over to my house to eat my wife's flower pot and they did it so often that I had to put the pot in the house entrance way one day last week.




The also have started jumping on the small veranda attached to my house to look around and peer into my living room like they want to come inside and visit me. My neighbor told me they are always trying to get inside her house too.




Lately, the have been very noisy together. They start bleating and crying and never stop it. Yesterday they cried for about 15 minutes without stopping so I went out to see what they wanted. They stopped bleating, stared at me for a minute and then starting eating grass again. They'd chew the grass up, cry, and go back to eating grass and bleat after finishing a blade. Who knows what they wanted.



I'm won't be sad when my neighbor gives these two kids away. Not because they cause so much trouble, just because they'll grow up to be big goats who look at me strange when I get out of my car. I want them to always be the cute playful beings they are now. That'll happen if I never see them again.


My wife has blogged about all the goats around my house for a long time if you want to see more:
http://akemikarko.exblog.jp/

  

I really love this time of the year. It's really easy for me to relax in this mild weather. I wear a t-shirt and shorts everyday and really enjoy how you can spend time outdoors without having to deal with the heat. Plus, it's not rainy season so although it is cloudy most days it doesn't rain much yet.



This mildness really brings out a lot of flowers. It seems there is something warm and bright blooming everywhere you go. I went to Cafe Bar Jihan and found these flowers on the outdoor table. In Japanese they are called "Shingiku," the literal translation is "spring chrysanthemum," and in English they are called "garland chrysanthemums." Their bright pastel color really captures the way I feel during this weather.





As I went around to the front door of Jihan, I noticed something bright blooming through a fence down the road. I'm not sure what they are, but they seemed to me to be spring roses and I just sighed when I saw them. I was like my heart was being reflected in a mirror before me.


Ah, Spring! Maybe I'll go write a poem today!  

Now that the weather is warmed up I will be wearing t-shirts every day and I will be wearing some, like the picture above, with the name "Jack Karkoski" on it. I always get asked about the name.


The first question always is, "Who is Jack Karkoski?" And my answers is, "My uncle who died about 20 years ago." The next question is, "Was he a basketball player?" Which is a little harder for me to answer because I have to talk about the differences between high schools in Japan and the United States.


In Japan, junior high school is 3 years (grades 7, 8 & 9) and at the end of the third year all the students take high school entrance tests based on educational ability, so kids travel from their local areas to attend high schools. This is possible because Japan is a small country.


America is much bigger so it is impossible for this system and there is no high school entrance test. Kids go to the high school in their home area just like they do for elementary and junior high school in Japan. There is no travel for high school kids in America.


This means high school sports is more important to towns in America than they are in Japan. People in the town are interested in them because high school teams are made up of hometown kids.


This is where my Uncle Jack comes in. He always supported the local high school sports teams. He played sports for the local high school team, as did his kids and his grandkids. Even when he didn't have family connections to the teams he still went and cheered at the games. So when he died they started a basketball tournament in his name that raised money for students.


If you played in the tournament you got a t-shirt and my Dad would send me a t-shirt every year. The tournament went on for 15 years so I have a lot of these shirts in many different colors and designs. All my cousins in the US have many of these t-shirts as well. I remember and honor my Uncle (and my home town) when I wear one, so I wear them a lot!  

Last night was my first skate of the year.

About three years ago one of my students starting talking about in-line skating with his daughter which sounded fun. I had spent a lot of time when I was young on ice skates so I wanted to try it out.

The next week my student brought his skates and after class he let me try them out on the streets around my school.I loved it and the first chance I got I went to Shizuoka to get my own pair.

That started me into doing a lot of night skating on the streets and alleys around my school. Then I found a nice smooth parking lot where I could practice learning some tricks which made it more enjoyable. I was skating almost every night, even in the dead of winter I would lace up my skates and go to the streets.

Going through my Dad's death last was pretty hard on me and I hadn't been skating since last September, but the weather was mild last night and I was in the mood to go skating. I'm in the mood today too so I will be out there tonight.

So if you see someone whoosing around the streets of Honmachi after 9:30 pm you'll know who that cool guy is! (^q^)  

My vacation has ended, I'm back to work today.

It really was a quiet time off for me. The earthquake and the rain made us change our plans about going to Tokyo, so I was home for every day last week.

The biggest thing I did was ride my bicycle a lot. One day I rode the west bank of the Seto River from Fujieda all the way down to where it goes into the sea at Yaizu. I had been thinking about doing this ride for a long time.

Then I got lost when I decided to ride through Yaizu City on the way back. I had no idea where I was heading until I ran into the Shinkansen tracks which I followed until I knew where I was.

I'm not much of a movie watcher, but last year's popular hit 'The King's Speech' has always looked interesting so I rented it. I was a little disappointed because I didn't think it was that good. I also got some old Sherlock Holmes TV shows which I enjoyed.

All in all, it was a slow vacation, and I enjoyed it, all though thinking back on it makes me feel kind of old because only old people enjoy slow vacations. Oh well, maybe I'll plan for more excitement on my next vacation in August.