Michael Lyon's Journal

Halloween & Thanksgiving

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 06:12:40 GMT

Been a while since I updated my blogs. I’ve been busy, tired, and lazy. Hope everyone had a good Halloween and Thanksgiving.

For Halloween, we got a few pumpkins from base and had the children carve Jack o’ lanterns. They loved it. It was a big success.

For Thanksgiving, we went and ate our Turkey dinner at Sam’s Cafe just outside the gate at Camp Foster. They have a real live Turkey on display outside the cafe and serve authentic Thanksgiving dinner there. It is good because they don’t sell Turkey in Japanese supermarkets normally, and even if they did, they don’t have Japanese ovens big enough to cook one. It has kind of become a tradition of ours to go and eat there every year now. We have eaten there for Thanksgiving the last three years in a row now.

I am really looking forward to being home for the first time in five years. Can’t wait to be back in Eugene, Oregon. It has been so long. It is also the first time my wife and I will be there, so that is very exciting too. Hope to meet up with lot’s of old friends if they’re around for the holidays.

Happy Halloween!

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 02:18:17 GMT

Happy Halloween!!!

Hope everyone is having a fun and safe Halloween.

In Okinawa it was really humid and a bit rainy. On friday, the last day of classes at my kindergarten where I teach, I made Jack o' lanterns with the children with real pumpkins. It was the first time for the children and most of my Japanese co-workers as well. It was a really big hit, everyone loved it. I also had them practice saying "Trick or Treat!" and then gave them all a bag of candy and Halloween stickers as a present. They were so excited. It was a lot of work to prepare but I am glad that I did it, because the kids were so happy. I hope that I will be able to do it again next year on Halloween.

ハッピーハロウィン！！

みんなさんは安全と楽しいハロウィンは過ごせますように〜

沖縄では蒸し暑くて雨が降りました。金曜日にハロウィン直前の最後のクラスで本物のアメリカのカボチャのカボチャのちょうちんを作る体験させました。子供達や日本人の同僚達の初めての体験の方はほんとんどでした。大成功でした。「Trick or Treat!」も言う練習をしてハロウィンのキャンディーやシールも配りました。こどもたちはすごくわくわくした。準備はすごく大変でしたがやってよかったと思います。来年のハロウィンもできましたらやりたいと思います。

Silver Week

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 08:09:45 GMT

みんなさんは楽しいシルバーウィークを過ごせましたか？
僕は満喫したシルバーウィークを過ごしました。

１９日の夕方、久しぶりにタコスを作って食べました。
２０日の昼はタコスの材料が残っていたので、タコライスを作って食べた。そして、南風原ジャスコで坂口憲二を見に行ってきました。かっこう良かった。
２１日は新都心のメインプレスに行って、Marino'sで夕食を食べて、そして、X-Men Origins: Wolverineを見に行きました。
２２日にちゅらとくのプランを使って、残波岬ロイヤルホテルに行って、１泊２日にしました。
２３日に残波岬ロイヤルホテルをチェックアウトして、青海Galaに行って、塩アイスを食べてから帰りました。そして、夕方にYuka Takara Broadway in Okinawa 2009に行きました。Broadwayは最高でした！！めっちゃめっちゃ感動しました！！！しかも、奥さんの友達は今日のお昼のニュースを見て、Broadwayに行ったでしょう。移っていたって言ってました。夕方のニュースにももしかしたら、移っているかもしれない。RBCニュースを見れる方、見て、移るかもしれないから♪

How was everyone's silver week that was living in Japan?
I enjoyed mine.

On the evening of the 19th, I made tacos for the first time in a long time. They were really delicious!
Next, on the 20th, in the afternoon after I got up, there was left overs from the tacos, so my wife and I made taco rice. Then we went to Haebaru Jusco to see the Japanese actor Kenji Sakaguchi. He was really cool.
Then on the 21st, we went to main place in Naha's shintoshin where we ate dinner at Marino's, they have great Italian food there, and then we watched X-Men Origins: Wolverine. It was pretty good.
The following day, the 22nd, we headed to the Okinawa Zanpa-misaki Royal Hotel to stay for the night using the Churatoku plan giving us a great discount deal. It was nice to relax at a resort for a night, always very refreshing.
On the last day of silver week, we checked out from the hotel, and headed over to Aoi Umi Gala in Yomitan, where we ate shio ice cream (salt flavored ice cream). After that we headed home to get ready for the evening. In the evening we went to see "Yuka Takara's Broadway in Okinawa 2009." It was really excellent!! I had such a wonderful time!!!

Then today, my wife's friend sent her an e-mail saying "you went to see the broadway musical in Okinawa, didn't you. I just saw you on the afternoon local news." So my wife asked me to record the evening news, since she won't get home until late tonight due to her Ikebana lesson.

２００９沖縄伝統空手道世界大会

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 00:48:15 GMT

この前の１３日〜１６日までに４日間、ボランティア通訳スタッフとして、働きました。いろいろなことがあって、対応することと対応できなかったことも多数もあったが、新しい友達の出会い、新しい翻訳の仕事の依頼などにつながることもでき、すごく嬉しかったです。もう、毎日１２時間給料をもらわない状態で、外国の選手達のために困る事があまりないように一所懸命やりました。本島にいい経験でした。また、何かの機会で、新しい友達と遊んだり、働いたり、飲んだり、することができたらいいと思います。

http://www-edu.pref.okinawa.jp/karate2009/index.html

Movie Weekend

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 12:06:24 GMT

I am either going to see Transformers 2, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, or アルマフィ this weekend. Still debating on which one to see. Transformers is probably not going to play much longer, but Harry Potter just came out and I am dying to see it. We'll see what ends up happening.

Tanabata (七夕)

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 08:04:48 GMT

Today is Tanabata. Happy Tanabata. If you don't know what Tanabata is, here is some information about it from Wikipedia.

"Tanabata (七夕 tanabata?, meaning "Evening of the seventh") is a Japanese star festival, derived from the Chinese star festival, Qi Xi (七夕 "The Night of Sevens")．
It celebrates the meeting of Orihime (Vega) and Hikoboshi (Altair). The Milky Way, a river made from stars that crosses the sky, separates these lovers, and they are allowed to meet only once a year on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month of the lunisolar calendar. Since the stars come out at night, the celebration is held at night."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanabata

Michael Jackson

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 07:03:43 GMT

Michael Jacksonは亡くなったのはまだショックで信じられない。R.I.P. Michael.

http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/hiphopmediatraining/120653/rip-michael-jackson-the-greatest-of-all-time/

http://omg.yahoo.com/photos/remembering-michael/2238?nc

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/26/arts/music/26jackson.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10273277-93.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10273229-1.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Music/06/25/jackson/index.html

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-jackson-obit26-2009jun26,0,1970798.story

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8119993.stm

http://www.chugoku-np.co.jp/News/Sp200906260126.html

http://www.asahi.com/culture/update/0626/TKY200906260005.html

http://www.asahi.com/culture/update/0626/TKY200906260004.html

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20090626-00000241-yom-ent

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20090626-00000502-sanspo-ent

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/entertainment/news/20090626-OYT1T00241.htm

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/national/obit/news/20090626-OYT1T00647.htm

http://www.hokkaido-np.co.jp/news/entertainment/173829.html

Transformers

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 07:36:39 GMT

It is one of my favorite things from my childhood the Transformers.
They were originally made by a toy company called Hasbro. The Hasbro toy company in the 1980's made an animated cartoon of the toys in oder to sell them to children. I grew up watching the Transformers. I loved them a lot. After the first 2 seasons, they made an animated movie of the Transformers in 1986 or 1987 I forget which year it was. In the movie, in the first 20 minutes they kill most of the original main characters in order to sell a new generation of transformer toys. To me as a 6 year old watching my heroes die in the movie theater was very traumatic. Now, 20 something years later, they have remade transformers into a live action film. I love the new transformers too, but I prefer the original Transformers from the animated cartoon of the '80s.

The new Transformers movie, Revenge of the fallen, basically involves the Decepticons, the bad guy transformers getting revenge on the good guy transformers, the autobots, for what they did in the first film.

I am looking forward to seeing the 2nd Transformers movie this month!

ほめられるサイト

Thu, 07 May 2009 11:09:24 GMT

http://kakula.jp/homeSalon/

これはおもしろかった！

Rain

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 07:07:04 GMT

Rainy Day Tuesday.

iPod Touch

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 01:46:20 GMT

I've been enjoying my iPod Touch very much that I got for my birthday. Only downside is, lack of Wi-Fi in Okinawa to use the Internet functions of it.

Okinawa International Movie Festival

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 04:51:58 GMT

http://www.oimf.jp/en/

End of the Rainbow

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 11:42:01 GMT

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/02/13/photographer-captures-the-end-of-the-rainbow-on-his-iphone-amazing-picture-115875-21119134/

Happy Valentine's Day

Sat, 14 Feb 2009 02:45:27 GMT

Happy Valentine's Day!

FFXI

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 14:52:24 GMT

今日の裏のデュナミスサンドリアで赤の足装備ゲット！デュエルブーツ！！！やった！またこれからみんなで裏を頑張って行こう！デュナミスサンドリアとジュノはクリアした。後はバスとウィンだなぁ〜

Groundhog Day

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 03:25:44 GMT

Happy Groundhog Day!

発表会

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 01:32:52 GMT

Today is the 発表会. I hope all the hard work the children have done and that I have done to get them ready for today will pay off and I hope it goes well without any problems.

Happy New Year!!!

Sat, 03 Jan 2009 09:01:42 GMT

新年明けましておめでとうございます！
今年も宜しくお願いします！
２００９年が良い年になりますように〜♪

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year!

ElfYourself 2008

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 10:49:45 GMT

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Autumn in Kyoto

Sat, 06 Dec 2008 01:10:24 GMT

Here's a link to a few photos on my Flickr I took in my trip to Kyoto this fall for a few days.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mlyon/

Random

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 13:41:41 GMT

プリプリ (adv,n,vs) (1) (on-mim) angrily; in a huff; in anger; (2) high on marijuana; (3) tender (to chew); ED

From WWWJDIC: Text/word translation display

(2) high on marijuana

That was random and made me laugh.

安里屋ユンタ

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 11:07:32 GMT

今日から２３日までに再び三線で引けるように練習を復活します！できる自信はあまりないけれど、頑張るしかない。（汗）
工工四（クンクンシ）を読みながらなら引けるけれど、歌いながら引く事は無理です。三線の先生助けて！毎日仕事終わる次第練習します！

11/11

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:09:01 GMT

Today, it was raining cats and dogs. The traffic was worse today than I have ever experienced in my 4 years on the main island of Okinawa. It took me over an hour to commute to work today, when it usually takes me only 30-40 minutes. I was growing concerned in the traffic that I wouldn't make it to work in time, but I managed to get there 5 minutes before. My co-worker stuck in the same traffic showed just as work was beginning. There was the usual few traffic accidents here and there as there are every single day it rains. I haven't not seen a traffic accident on a rainy day that I have lived here. There was also some incident at the McDonald's on the 330 near Tsubogawa. There were 5 police cars, and about 10 police or so, half of them taking a man into custody, and the other half inside of the McDonald's. I don't know specifically what happened but there was definitely something going on there. I am at home resting now.

Waiting for the Polls

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 12:56:02 GMT

I'm just waiting to hear the results of the Presidential election of the United States. Hopefully the next presidency will bring good changes to America and the rest of the world.

Halloween in Japan

Sat, 01 Nov 2008 02:04:24 GMT