A map to the bagel shop

Here is a map to the bagel shop, and to a great vegetable shop that I'll tell you about next blog post.

Yummy bagels

Something that is very important to me is supporting small, local businesses. Most small businesses have better products and they really care about their customers. We can ask their advice how to use something and even tell them our ideas.

Near my house is a specialist bagel cafe that opened almost 2 years ago. I've been going there all that time, and the quality is still very good. The owners are a lovely young couple who are really friendly and try to make lots of new flavors.

My favorite bagels to eat plain are the cinnamon and raisin ones. Try cutting them in half horizontally and putting them in an oven toaster :)



For sandwiches, the cafe will prepare salmon and cream cheese with salad. Yum!

At home, my most delicious sandwich so far was a bagel with dried figs. Inside I put freshly cooked sasami chicken and Camembert cheese.....

Or how about a hot ham steak and a ring of pineapple (both cooked in a non-stick fry pan) sandwiched in a wholemeal bagel? :)

To get there, going south on Nishi-odori, at the Anderson Bakery corner turn right. (Between Tsukuba Bank and the condominium.) Go west. Pass Couronne Bakery on the left. Pass Family Mart on the right. On the left you can find Matsushiro Dental Clinic, then a ramen shop (Kimura?). Then you can find a small hot dog cafe. The car park for the hot dog cafe is the same for the bagel cafe. It is across from Katsuragi Animal Clinic. And if you get to Seven Eleven, you went too far.

The cafe opens at 11am and closes when all the bagels are sold, or at 6pm. Thursdays are holidays.

If you want to give bagels as a gift, they have boxes to pack them in :)

Sesame seed and cheese bagel made
into a sandwich with smoked salmon
and cream cheese.

Double choc bagel with cream cheese

Mist or fog?

If you were up bright and early this morning, you will know that it was an unusual morning :)

Today was the first warm morning of the season, and the air contained a lot of moisture.

On my way to work, I was thinking, "Hmm, is this called fog or is it mist?" In my first lesson, my student also asked the same question. We checked the dictionary, and maybe this morning's weather should be called fog. The main reason is that it was quite thick and visibility was poor. Usually I can easily see the Mitsui Building but as you can see in the second photo, the central buildings are not visible at all!

By about 8:30am, the sun was higher and all the fog was burned off. Now it is sunny :)

During the afternoon, while teaching a class....

.... I found two mistakes using "while" and "during" ;)

Very basically, "during" is used with a noun phrase. That noun phrase shows a period of time. There is only one verb.

   Please make notes during the class.

   During the meeting, Mr. Tanaka fell asleep.

   I study English during TV commercial breaks.



"while" is used when you have two actions, so two verbs.

   I study English while watching TV.

   While I was talking to my sister on the phone, I cleaned up my    room.

   Please watch out for cars while riding your bike.


* Both "while" and "during" show an action over a period of time, not just at one moment.

* "while" mostly uses "V + ing" but not in all cases.

* Native speakers don't use "while" and "during" for every case. If the feeling of over a period of time is not important, we can change it to more simple grammar:

   Please make notes in class.

   Mr. Tanaka fell asleep at the meeting.

   I study English in TV commercial breaks. 

   I study English when I watch TV.

   When I was talking to my sister on the phone, I cleaned up my room.

   Please watch out for cars when riding your bike. 

Sakura season has started!

As you may know, I LOVE sakura flavored things!

Last Wednesday was the start of the cherry blossom seasonal flavor at Starbucks. Here is my Sakura Latte and Sakura macaroon.

Sorry the picture is not so good (I was using my mobile phone), but I think you can tell the milk is pink :)

The macaroon was okay, but I won't buy another one - it just tasted sweet, not like sakura.

Keeping your hands warm

This is my portable hand warmer :)

Actually, it is just an aluminium bottle (Boss Coffee) that I fill with hot water every morning before I leave my house. When I stop at each traffic light, I hold it in my hands to stay warm. Then when I get to work, I can hold it between my ankles to warm up my feet!

I like working in the early mornings, but in winter it is truly freezing here. If I don't use my hand warmer, by the time I get to work my fingers are numb from the cold. (I don't like to turn on my car 10 minutes early to heat it up, so inside the car is always under zero degrees.)

You can also use two cans if you go walking - they keep your hands warm and also act as mini-weights! Or you can put them into your bed before you sleep at night to warm up the sheets.

Another idea is to keep it inside your lunch bag to keep you boxed lunch hot.

After the water becomes cold, I give it to the indoor plants :)

WARNING: Please use gloves or a cotton cover on the bottle because the surface is HOT. And a coffee bottle is better than one containing green tea, because the neck is wider to pour in the hot water.

AED/CPR course

I spent my whole weekend in Tokyo. On Saturday I had a business English class in central Tokyo, then on Sunday I was a beginner learner :)

What did I learn? Well, I went to Shibuya Fire Station and in the morning I did a course on using an AED machine and doing CPR. Then in the afternoon, first aid for children. There were about 40 international residents from Tokyo and nearby.

AED = automated external defibrillator
自動体外式除細動器


CPR = Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation
心肺蘇生法

It was really interesting to learn CPR and I was surprised how much power we needed to practice on the adult dummy, and how fast we need to do it. There was also a child sized dummy and a baby one.

The course was taught by Japanese staff and/or in English by an American guy named Dave. (He translated the Japanese to English.) I highly recommend taking such a course and I hope to ask Dave to come to Tsukuba in the near future.

Here are some pictures I took. (After asking permission if it was okay!)

Free-range eggs

Do you eat free-range eggs? "What are they?", you might ask.

First, think about the meanings of "free". I guess you could be thinking "free = no money". But usually, that meaning of "free" wouldn't become a two part adjective.

These eggs are 100yen, but those ones are free.
The free eggs were laid today, but they are too small to sell.
I got some eggs for free.

Another meaning is "free = not". That patter is noun + free. It means that thing is not there.

fat free yogurt = yogurt with no fat in it
stress free = having no stress

But for my eggs, you should think about the meaning "free = independent/wild/not in a cage".
"range" means "walk around a large area"

In Japanese? 　放し飼いの鶏の卵

These eggs taste wonderful. I get them from the small farmer's shop near my house. From memory, I think they are 210yen for six. They taste so good that I can't eat any other eggs nowadays. Anyway, I think keeping chickens in tiny cages is horrible and cruel, so I refuse to eat regular eggs.


The picture of the chickens is from another place that sells eggs. Those ones are also nice but more expensive and the shop is a little far.

By the way, the verb for mother creatures -
birds, reptiles (snakes, lizards, turtles), frogs, insects, etc  -
giving "birth" to eggs is "lay".

lay --> laid

The butterfly laid her eggs on the leaf.
My chickens lay about 20 eggs every day.