Sunday afternoon

Today my wife met a couple friends that she hadn’t seen in a long time.
My oldest daughter had to go to school for a test, and my second daughter went out with one of her friends.

So, it was just me and the “baby” at home together today (alright, she’s twelve years old…but she’s my youngest and therefore the “baby” to me!).

She told me that her friend’s birthday coming up and she wanted to go to the mall to get her a gift.
So, we went to the mall together and had a “father-daughter” day. 🙂
It’s not often that I get to spend quality time with just one of my kids alone…so when the chance arises, I enjoy it!

After she bought her friend’s birthday present we went to the game center (arcade) and played the “UFO Catcher ” (crane game) a few times. One machine had a “Play Station Portable” that we tried to get and another had tickets to 東京ディズニーランド (Tokyo Disneyland) that we tried four times to get…we didn’t manage to get either! Oh well.

Do they have “crane games” in arcades in your country? What types of prizes do they have?
Japan has all kinds of crane games. Most offer small toys or candy…but there are also machines with Ipods®, watches, radios, Nintendo DS®, amusement park tickets, ice cream (in refrigerated crane games)…and I’ve even seen one with live lobsters!

Here’s one with ice cream:

And another had パン (bread):

I guess only shopping malls in Japan have 着物屋 (kimono stores).

This kimono costs ¥98,000 (about US$970):

Winter’s almost here. The weather’s getting colder, and on the way to the mall we saw a 焼きいも (Grilled potato) truck (a sure sign of winter in Japan 🙂 )…and many stores have their x-mas decorations up—and the 文具店 (stationery stores) have the 年賀状 (Japanese New Years postcards) on sale.

We had a good time together. We got home at about 5:00 and my wife and two oldest daughters got home at about 5:30.

Then the four of them made an excellent burrito dinner for my birthday! 🙂 [明日は俺の誕生日 (Tomorrow is my birthday)…]

日本語を勉強

Do you study 日本語 (Japanese)?
Can you understand the following passage? Is it too easy? Too difficult?

(It was taken from the book A Course In Modern Japanese, vol.2).
I transcribed the first lesson of the book here (as always, I added ふりがな to the 漢字 (Japanese Kanji characters)…but only the first time each one appears.

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「落し物」

ルイン：　山田さん、ちょっと教えて下さい。
山田：　ああ、ルインさん。何ですか。
ルイン：　あのう、財布を落としたんですが、どこに連絡すればいいでしょうか。
山田：　えっ、どこで。
ルイン：　それはよく分からないんです。地下鉄に乗る前に駅で電話したときはあったんですけど。
山田：　じゃあ、たぶん駅か地下鉄の中ですね。
ルイン：　ええ。
山田：　じゃ、駅に連絡すればいいと思います。
ルイン：　ああ、駅ですか。
山田：　ええ。だれかが拾って届けてるかもしれませんから。
ルイン：　あ、そうですね。
山田：　私が電話しましょうか。
ルイン：　あ、いいです。私がしますから。
山田：　そうですか。
ルイン：　はい。ありがとうございました。