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English Teacher John Show 73

listen/download (mp3) | duration: 15:30 | file size: 10.64mb | podcast page

On English Teacher John Show number 73:

  • A walk in the snow, and cherry blossoms … in mid-April!
  • Celebration of Earth Day (April 22nd)
  • music by Martin Chenhall
  • additional music by Dano
  • full transcript (below)
== FULL TRANSCRIPT FOR ENGLISH TEACHER JOHN SHOW 73 ==
Oh it’s a beautiful day here in mid-April in Japan. Cherry blossom season, the beautiful pink and white blossoms are out and … Wait a minute! Let me look out of the window here. Oh my god! There’s snow everywhere! Oh my god! Snow in mid-April, during the cherry blossom season. It must be time for the English Teacher John Show number 73.

[intro music]

Good morning everyone. John Koons here. Your host and correspondent and main opinion-giver of the English Teacher John Show. What a beautiful morning here. I’m going to walk you through my little neighborhood here in Matsumoto, Japan. We’re in central Japan, as many of you know. And that’s where we produce and host the English Teacher John Show. I’m looking off to the east here. It’s early in the morning—relatively early—and we had a very freak, surprise middle of April snow last night. And, I am looking at a beautiful scene to the east, with the sun coming up over the hill and little patches of fog kind of brushing along the forest that are clinging to the hillside. It’s just a beautiful site. The clouds and fog, the low clouds are starting to lift, and the sun is strong and I am looking at a beautiful … it looks to be a winter wonderland, but it’s in the middle of April here. It’s in the beginning of spring and I’ve just noticed a few ducks floating in our stream here and I’m just going to crunch through the snow here, try to get a little closer. They’re pretty small. I don’t see mom around, or dad for that matter. Let’s just get a little closer.

[sounds of footsteps in the snow]

Yeah, they’re scurrying away now, making a beautiful little wake across the one of the wider parts of the stream here; “crick” or “creek” I think we might call it back where I’m from.

Alright, well, I’ve just found what I’m looking for here. This is an unusual stop for me during a morning walk, but my hands are cold, mostly from using the camera and holding this voice recorder. So, I’ve walked up to a vending machine and it’s a special 100-yen vending machine. Usually, drinks are 110 or 120 yen, 130 something like that. I guess it could be up to 150 yen in a vending machine. But, this vending machine has a 100-yen sticker on it; everything 100-yen. And, here in Japan, the vending machines have both warm and cool drinks, cold drinks and hot drinks.

[sounds of footsteps in the snow]
[sounds of water/snow/ice falling]

I think it almost sounds like rain. I’ve just entered the beginnings of the forest here, and I’m getting attacked from above. Small and large pieces of snow, wet snow are dropping down and smacking the ground and smacking me. And, it’s quite a nice feeling. It’s breaking up the silence and some of the other sounds. Also, I hear birds and I am getting splattered here.

[sounds of footsteps in the snow]

Well, now I’m on a trail and I see my first cherry blossoms in the snowfall here. The sky is clearing, some low clouds around, but the sky is clearing. It’s not snowing other than the pieces falling from the trees and the blossoms, the branches are just kind of drooping down from the weight of the snow. It’s a heavy, wet snow that fell last night. And, what a sight: blue sky, pink and white cherry blossoms and a big blanket of snow underneath, with lots of little clumps of snow on the branches of the cherry blossoms. What a sight it is! This is an unusual sight for me, and I think for many people in Matsumoto. Mid-April cherry blossoms and snow and sorry to repeat myself. Oh yeah! This is something!

[sounds of footsteps in the snow]

I’ve made it to the main destination, Tamizo-ike. “Ike” means pond so we have Tamizo pond. (It’s) kind of in a little flat area below the crest of a hill. And, it’s a place I like to walk to. My wife walks up here a lot. I used to come up here a lot more on bike and this hill used to be a pretty good challenge for me when I was first starting out climbing hills on the bicycle. I used to bring my old bike up here. Recently, I haven’t been up here much. I don’t know. It feels kind of nice sometimes to stay way from a place for a while, whether intentionally or unintentionally, then return to it. It has a really nice feeling, a little bit different than when I was coming up here regularly.

[sounds of footsteps in the snow]

I’ve now come to one of my favorite parts of this walk. So I took you through the rice fields behind my house, or next to my house, kind of the running track, up the road, into the hills and the forest, and Tamizo-ike, or Tamizo lake. Now, I’ve just taken the road above that, and there’s a little trail that cuts off into the woods. It’s kind of steep here so you can listen to hear if I fall on my butt. This trail my wife and I are regulars on it, especially my wife. We call it the “Amu-san trail.” Amu-san is our good friend. Both she and her daughter are our good friends. And, she’s the one who told us about this little trail that starts above Tamizo pond and goes through a nice little stretch of woods. And, it’s just really scenic. I’ve done it on my bicycle as well. It’s a little tricky in the beginning here. It’s nice on the bike but it’s especially nice walking. Mostly I do it walking. So, this is going to be my little morning meditation, as much as walking around in the woods with a voice recorder and a camera can be “in the moment now” meditation. But, I’m going to give it my best try and that’s all I can do. It’s a narrow trail and unfortunately someone has put up this green plastic kind of line or rope substitute. It’s really nasty. It frays and it’s just ugly. It’s “gomi.” It’s trash. And the goal here, to the right side I guess there are many good “oishii” delicious mushrooms in season, which I think is the fall. And, there’s all these paper handwritten signs and this really shredded up line. It’s some kind of plastic. It’s just really nasty. Unfortunately, on this beautiful, nice little walk, it is tarnished a bit with someone who feels that he or she needs to warn us every 50 feet that, “don’t go there, it’s a mushroom area”, “private, not allowed”, “prohibited.” It spoils it a bit, but it’s still a beautiful walk here and I will try to stay in the moment as part of my morning walking meditation.

(10:00)

I’m getting pelted, hit with various snow, what feels like snow, rain, ice, falling on me. Some larger snow falls coming off the big branches. It’s actually a relatively clear day with some low clouds in a few places. The sun is peeking through here. Nothing is falling from the sky. It’s all falling from the branches and trees above me, which has it’s own nice feel to it.

[sounds of footsteps in the snow]

I’ve decided I’m going finish this little morning walk—walk in the snow. I’m going to finish it off with a return to the vending machine spot, where I got the milk tea just, I don’t know, maybe an hour ago. And, right next to it, there is an O-Yaki shop. O-yaki is a popular and famous dish, kind of food from this area. It’s like a bread, a roll with stuffing in the middle. So, it’s breading on the outside. Some of it—and all the styles are different—some of it is really, the breading on the outside is real bread-like, could be thick or thin. The shop I go to is more noodle-like. It’s more of a noodle texture and taste. And, that’s the outside. And the inside, they put, often they put “nozawana,” which is a green vegetable from this area, or “nasu”, which is eggplant I like very much. Or “anko” which is the sweet beans, sweet bean paste. You can also find it with “tamanagi” which is normal onions. Usually they mix that with miso. So tamanagi-miso. Pumpkin which is “kabotcha” here, and “kiriboshi” which is—what is it?—sliced daikon radish, I think that’s what it is. “Kiriboshi,” I like that one a lot. That’s funny. I think it’s radish, like daikon, big radish. Many different kinds. So, I’m going to pick up a few o-yaki at our local o-yaki shop and return to my wife not empty-handed, not with just voice recorder and camera and plenty of snow and wet all over me, but with a bag of o-yaki, nice and warm. I hope. Let’s see how that goes. Sayonara.

(13:24)

[gong]

SEGMENT: SIGNOFF
Well everybody, thanks for listening to today’s show. We’ll mark this as the “Earth day show.” Earth Day, April 22nd. And, I have to say a big thank you to Mother Earth and all those large forces moving around us, acting around us, bringing us this lovely April snow and cherry blossoms. So, this is my appreciation of Earth Day. Hope you enjoyed it.

You can check out everything. I will put up a transcript and a couple photos from this walk (at) englishteacherjohn.com. Our email address is: p o d c a s t -AT- english teacher john dot com. Thanks to our music man, Martin Chenhall. Okay, everybody, see you next time. Mata ne!

[outro music]

Additional music is from Dano at danosongs.com. Thanks, Dano.

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